Dish Anywhere, connection lost.

[JeffN9]

I replaced my two Joey's with 4k Fire Sticks a month or so ago. Dish Anywhere was working just fine without any major issues until this past weekend. Now when I try to watch anything (from the guide or DVR) it gives me the attached error message after several seconds. This is occurring on both devices. The only thing that fixes the problem is a router re-start. This however only gets it working for about 24hrs. then I get the same error message again the next day.

This all started after I took one of the sticks on a trip. As soon as I got back and re-connected it to the tv I started getting the message on both tv's. The only other recent changes were the cancellation of the two Joeys and dropping to the Flex pack. I haven't made any router changes. Any ideas? I really don't want to re-boot my router everyday

 

[joewhite57]

41 views and no response so I’ll throw this out there. Have you tried disconnecting the fire stick that went on vacation and leaving the one that stayed home active to see if the problem went away? Strictly WiFi on all devices or some cabled?

 

[JeffN9]

No I haven't tried to disconnect the one to see if the problem goes away but will try that.

Both sticks are connected via wifi. It would be very difficult to run ethernet to the locations. The Hopper which is near the router is connected via ethernet.

 

[joewhite57]

No I haven't tried to disconnect the one to see if the problem goes away but will try that.

Both sticks are connected via wifi. It would be very difficult to run ethernet to the locations. The Hopper which is near the router is connected via ethernet.

Just trying to go with what has changed and that would be physical location of one fire stick. I’m currently using one to binge GOT, I haven’t had a connection problem in some time. I did move the firestick dome our guest room to living room and didn’t affect connectivity.

 

[dweber]

Just guessing but would reserving the IP address for your Firestick and your Hopper in your router fix this? It sounds like it is trying to connect to an address that is not on your home network. Reserving the IP address would assure that it always connects to the correct IP address.


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[JeffN9]

Just trying to go with what has changed and that would be physical location of one fire stick. I’m currently using one to binge GOT, I haven’t had a connection problem in some time. I did move the firestick dome our guest room to living room and didn’t affect connectivity.

I tried using the stick in a cabin we were staying in just to play around with it. The internet was terrible there so I didn't use it much. In the process I had to activate it on the new network but never de-activated(de-authorize) it before we left. Not sure if that can cause any problems or not?? Once I got home it had to be re-activated on my network.

It's like something is locking up overnight and a router re-boot is needed. Before getting the sticks I was having connection problems trying to watch DA on my PC. Turned out that media prioritization and downstream bandwidth settings on the router had to be changed to get it to work. I've tried playing around with those settings again but without success.

 

[JeffN9]

Just guessing but would reserving the IP address for your Firestick and your Hopper in your router fix this? It sounds like it is trying to connect to an address that is not on your home network. Reserving the IP address would assure that it always connects to the correct IP address.

I did read where you had suggested doing this in another thread to address a similar issue. I will try it as soon as I figure out how I've been all through my router and saw a lot of settings that I didn't understand including that one. I'm definitely not a router whiz but learning quickly.

 

[ncted]

I did read where you had suggested doing this in another thread to address a similar issue. I will try it as soon as I figure out how I've been all through my router and saw a lot of settings that I didn't understand including that one. I'm definitely not a router whiz but learning quickly.

It might be called a DHCP reservation.

 

[JeffN9]

It might be called a DHCP reservation.

I figured out how to do it by simply clicking on the device in the network map. One of the 3 options that comes up is DHCP reservation. I reserved the address of both sticks and the Hopper. I also unplugged(from tv and pwr.) the stick that was used in the cabin. Sadly none of this seemed to do anything. It was only after I re-started the router that I could get DA to work on the sticks again.

 

[geodi58]

I have three firesticks that use Dish Anywhere and have not encountered your issue. All are connected to the 5GHz network of my router. Sometimes when I mess up settings in my Kodi app, I have to reinitialize the sticks to get them working again. That might get rid of your problem ;-)

 

[ncted]

I figured out how to do it by simply clicking on the device in the network map. One of the 3 options that comes up is DHCP reservation. I reserved the address of both sticks and the Hopper. I also unplugged(from tv and pwr.) the stick that was used in the cabin. Sadly none of this seemed to do anything. It was only after I re-started the router that I could get DA to work on the sticks again.

Hmm...I realize this might not be your specialty, but does your router do any Intrusion Prevention? If so, it might not like something in the packets the Firesticks and/or Hopper are sending and block that traffic, until you reboot the router and reset the IPS table. Just a theory, but the behavior is similar enough to other IPS issues I've encountered I thought it was worth mentioning. See if there is anywhere to whitelist traffic to/from your Firesticks and Hopper.

 

[JeffN9]

I have three firesticks that use Dish Anywhere and have not encountered your issue. All are connected to the 5GHz network of my router. Sometimes when I mess up settings in my Kodi app, I have to reinitialize the sticks to get them working again. That might get rid of your problem ;-)

When you say reinitialize do you mean de-authorizing or re-starting? I have re-started the sticks multiple times. And both have been de-authorized and then re-activated again with no help. I'm only having problems with DA. Other app's seem to work just fine.

 

[JeffN9]

Hmm...I realize this might not be your specialty, but does your router do any Intrusion Prevention? If so, it might not like something in the packets the Firesticks and/or Hopper are sending and block that traffic, until you reboot the router and reset the IPS table. Just a theory, but the behavior is similar enough to other IPS issues I've encountered I thought it was worth mentioning. See if there is anywhere to whitelist traffic to/from your Firesticks and Hopper.

Here's a picture of the security settings on my router. I turned off filter anonymous internet requests before taking the picture thinking that might be what you were referring to. I didn't see anything related to "whitelisting". For reference I have a Linksys EA-7400.

 

[ncted]

Here's a picture of the security settings on my router. I turned off filter anonymous internet requests before taking the picture thinking that might be what you were referring to. I didn't see anything related to "whitelisting". For reference I have a Linksys EA-7400.View attachment 139018

Two things:

1. In the troubleshooting screen, see if there is anything in the logs referring to the Firesticks or Hopper or their IP addresses.
2. I'd be interested in seeing what is under the Apps and Gaming tab.

 

[JeffN9]

I had logs turned off but when I turned it on there were several listings for the sticks. What should I be looking for there? Since I re-booted the router this morning all is working so the log may not have error listings for the sticks right now.

Under app's and gaming DDNS was disabled. All three port settings had no values.

It's odd that this problem would just come out of the blue after DA was working fine for a month or so.

 

[ncted]

I had logs turned off but when I turned it on there were several listings for the sticks. What should I be looking for there? Since I re-booted the router this morning all is working so the log may not have error listings for the sticks right now.

Under app's and gaming DDNS was disabled. All three port settings had no values.

It's odd that this problem would just come out of the blue after DA was working fine for a month or so.

Maybe this model gets automatic firmware updates?

 

[JeffN9]

Maybe this model gets automatic firmware updates?

Yes I do have the auto update box checked.

 

[ncted]

Yes I do have the auto update box checked.

Well, my guess would be that they pushed out an update that has some functionality which detects the DA traffic between the Firesticks and the Hopper as undesirable and blacklists it. I'd contact Linksys support and tell them what the problem is, and see if they have a workaround. The documentation is pretty thin on this model, so I am not entirely sure what options exist for whitelisting the traffic between the devices involved in DA.

 

[JeffN9]

That could certainly explain why this started suddenly like it did. I'm going to try resetting the router to it's default values to see if that does anything. That fixed a problem I was having a few months back where the router was locking up about once a week. Then we had no internet until I re-booted the router. The problem is different now because everything is working except DA. After that I'll try calling Linksys as a last resort. I don't know how much they will help me though with a router that's way out of warranty like mine.

This morning I turned on one of the tv's to a blank orange screen. I unplugged the stick for about a minute then plugged it back in but still had just an orange screen. After unplugging it for 20 minutes or so it finally booted up. DA still did not work though.

Hopefully I can get these issues resolved soon because I have a 3rd stick on the way. That one will not need to use DA though because it will be on the same tv that the Hopper is connected to.

 

[ncted]

That could certainly explain why this started suddenly like it did. I'm going to try resetting the router to it's default values to see if that does anything. That fixed a problem I was having a few months back where the router was locking up about once a week. Then we had no internet until I re-booted the router. The problem is different now because everything is working except DA. After that I'll try calling Linksys as a last resort. I don't know how much they will help me though with a router that's way out of warranty like mine.

This morning I turned on one of the tv's to a blank orange screen. I unplugged the stick for about a minute then plugged it back in but still had just an orange screen. After unplugging it for 20 minutes or so it finally booted up. DA still did not work though.

Hopefully I can get these issues resolved soon because I have a 3rd stick on the way. That one will not need to use DA though because it will be on the same tv that the Hopper is connected to.

Even if the router is out of warranty, they should support the firmware they are pushing to it.