km r5e50

km box was working well in a wired ethernet network.
network has a freesco router, offering dhcp.
other machines (windows, linux) in the same network have NO problems (!!)

suddenly i notice the following problem:
on starting the km box it is unable to find the network (nothing in the cables/hardware/router has been changed)

the log in the startop procedure says:
> dhcpoffer for 192.168.0.30 (this is the router)
> mythtv dhclient dhcpdiscover on eth0 to 255.255.255.255 port @@
that line is given a number of times, with different port numbers.
it ends with:
> no dhcp offers received.

there appears to be no netwerk connection (pinging from and to the km box not possible).

strange is '255.255.255.255' in the line above, as my netmask (on the router and on the other machines is '255.255.255.0'.....
on the km machine it HAS BEEN that too, but seems to have been changed 'automagically'...

how can i set km so it seeks vor '255.255.255.0' again (found nothing in the 'setup' menu)

help much appreciated!

thanks tjc !

it appears the command must be:


when i do that (as a root) i get a menu-screen, asking:
use DHCP broadcast
two choices: 'yes' and 'no'
when i click 'yes' the log says:
'sending DHCP broadcast from device eth0'
after some seconds: 'operation failed' and a new line 'failed'.
'hit return to exit'...

Have you checked that your cable is good? Do you have link lights on at both ends?

just tried with another (known good) cable:
the lights on both nic and hub (where the cable goes to) are on,
starting the km-box gives the same problem:

tests for different port numbers and gives a 'failed' further on below.

maybe the nic has died?

knopprob,

I almost the exact same problem after my Switch got killed in a storm the other night. I have a static IP address on my Myth box and found that the lights were on at both ends and I found that I could periodicly ping the Myth box. No matter how hard I tried I could not connect.

I had to disable the onboard NIC and install another NIC, I am now waiting for my family to give me some time to replace the Mainboard.

So to sum up I suspect it does sound like the NIC is goooooonnnnnnnneeeee.

_________________
Girkers

just tried with a live-cd PclinuxOS (for me this is a 'swiss knife' to make things work).
pclinux says it finds the nic, it does as if i can configure it, but dhcp-settings give a non-working connection, manual settings give a ping-able km box, but the other stuff in the network can not be pinged, so there seems to be no network connection.

guess with my predecessor with the demanding family: poor niccy has gone to heaven (or hell)
will bury her in the garden

follow up and BIG MYSTERY NOW!!

first of all: i cured the problem!

things that were done:
about a week ago i found a section of the thin ethernet cable (bnc) was damaged.
it was the section between router and one of the hubs (the hub where the mythbox connects to, as well as a daily used (linux) internetbox.

i removed the damaged section (for repair) and put in at that location another piece of bnc-cable which was in the network too, but in a part (between another hub and seldom used network computers) which i could miss.
(i terminated correctly at the end of the part i took away!)

that 'spare' section i put where the damaged cable was before.
after starting the network i noticed a machine in the net, always assigned an ip ####.11 by the dhcp router now got ####.14 (on each startup), but as the network (internet) worked i thought 'strange!' but didn't pay further attention on it.
since this 'change of wire' i did not use the km-box till the moment i found the problem i started this thread on.

now on the last posting before this one:
as i was unable to cure the fault in any way: other router, other hub, restarts, trying to reconfigure the netcard in the km box (which did not work at all !!): all had no effect!!
note: the internetting on the computers in the network behaved as normal...

as i had repaired the defect bnc cable (damaged piece cut out, new connector mounted) and mounted the repaired cable in the 'not frequently used part of the network (see above)', the whole network was complete again, but the km-box kept the problem described.....

as a last resort this morning i decided to make the setup 'as original' again, and i mounted the REPAIRED CABLE at the location it was originally (at the time before i noticed the cable damage and internet/km-box were working as they should).

and BIG SURPRISE!!
after connecting everything and starting up the router, i started the km-box and PRESTO: IT FOUND THE NETWORK AGAIN (now while writing this i listen to a network stream coming from the km-box)...

now my big question: DOES A (LINUX) SETUP RECOGNISE SOME CHARACTERISTICS OF A BNC CABLE AND MAKES SETTINGS DEPENDANT ON THIS??
(never thought a bloody cable could influence this sort of things)

BNC? As in co-ax? People are still using that kind of cable for networking? It was always a horror show. Termination problems, length constraints (lengths had to be certain exact intervals, ...) bad connections, ... with 10baseT, then 100baseT, and and now GigE, twisted pair has been _the_ way to go for more than 15 years now.

as i am paying taxes, i have been recognised as a human!

apparently i didn't see that show: as long as you don't pull on the cables and dog/cat/rabbit doesn't do chewing exercises with them, they work fine for me.
the thin coax cable and the connectors are still available in electronics shops here.
(btw: nice connectors: no problems with rj45 latches not locking the plug)

i am not an 'early adopter', that's too true...
no need to change winning horses...

btw: when you are seeking a good home (for free) for your A-Ford?! please pm. me...
you don't have to polish her before driving her in the shipping container

Well you were asking about BNC specific problems, and oddities, and there are quite a few of them. (Not to put too fine a point on it, very like the strange one you just experienced.) The last time I had a cabling problem with twisted pair it was about 5 years ago with a new homemade cable where I'd mis-crimped one of the connectors. With thick or thin BNC cables I don't remember going 5 months without some kind of issue, and 5 weeks or even 5 days was more typical. Every time you'd move a machine, even a few inches, there was a significant risk of failure. If you tripped over a cable or even kicked it under a table there was about an 80-90% chance you'd damaged it. Twisted pair is generally far more robust and immune to abuse.