OK, you guys are all so much smarter than me and I know that you all can figure this one out, but having read through every post, all I have is IPs DHCPs and BOOTPs dancing in my head...

Here's the set up:
refurb'd rioreceiver (bestbuy $75)
desktop running XP
Laptop P4 running XP
Cable modem
Tiny little wireless network running through d-link router, with my desktop wired directly and my notebook attached through a wireless PCMCIA card. no problems.

3 year old house, wired with all good standard cat-5 cables. phone outlet by my computer works. phone outlet by my home theater works (single line #).

INstalled HPNA adapter PCI card, no problem. Computer sees it as the HomeFree Phoneline 10Mb PCI Adapter.

The receiver is installed and plugged in -- remote wont work.. my first sign of trouble? maybe old batteries?

Installed SW and imported music for database. Audio Rec Manager (ARM) shows me a new Audio Receiver. I see a red note. I click on properties for the new audio receiver and find two choices: my d-link Ethernet card or my HomeFree Phoneline Adapter. I make the obvious choice of highlighting the HomeFree option, but it doesnt stick. Everytime I go back it is stuck on the D-link one.

I check my device managers -- no conflicts. each network adapter is doing fine. my computer recongizes two distinct networks.

I set the HomeFree network to a specific IP address with a subnet mask as advised in the board somewhere. no help. I unplugged, plugged, uninstalled, reinstalled, unplugged and plugged somemore and i cant get the goddamn thing to work.

Then I created a bridge between the Ethernet and the HPNA and I got that as my only choice for the IP Configuration of the new audio receiver in ARM. Still doesnt work.

My Rio just mocks me by searching for a music server then just gives me some IP address.

Oh yeah, I also disabled DHCP in my router, but to no avail.

Do i need to add IP addresses? Does that help figure this thing out?

I really am a simple man and I have no where near your collective experience or intelligence. I just want my rio to work. Can someone just take a little time and walk me through the troubleshooting process. and spare no details if possible. dont underestimate my stupidity.. like if you say, oh just reset the DHCP by terminating subnet mask packet sniffing.. that wont help at all. Thank you all in advance, and I if it works, I am sure you can post it in a Newbie section.

Oh and god bless all of you guys that contribute to this board. God knows sonic|blue has no intention of assisting in any way.

What a great start to the New Year for you !

All I can suggest is you uninstall the Receiver software, and reboot.

Then make sure theh HPNA adapter looks like its working, and reinstall the Receiver software. Follow that with another reboot.

Looks like you have already worked out that the Receiver software acts as a DHCP server, and then supplies music over the adapter that you choose.

If you have bridged your adapters and are running DHCP server on the Ethernet adapter that you probably DONT need the Receiver software to do DHCP server.

Any chance you could test this just using Ethernet ?

I click on properties for the new audio receiver and find two choices: my d-link Ethernet card or my HomeFree Phoneline Adapter.

No you didn't. Those options aren't available on the properties for the particular receiver. They are available under Tools|IP Configuration.

I make the obvious choice of highlighting the HomeFree option, but it doesnt stick.

It's not supposed to. That dialog lists all of your network adapters and allows you to configure them individually. Just go to the HomeFree network adapter and check that 'Enable Autoconfiguration' is checked. The defaults should be OK. Make sure that 'Make music available on this adapter' is checked.

The settings for the other adapter shouldn't matter, so leave them alone.

The other problem that you might have with Windows XP is that if the network interface is not correctly configured when the ARM starts (i.e. hasn't had an address assigned yet), then you'll need to restart ARM. The manager software was written before IP addresses could change under it.

My Rio just mocks me by searching for a music server then just gives me some IP address.

It would be useful if you could actually give us the complete contents of the Rio Receiver screen.

Try running through the trouble-shooting steps listed here.

God knows sonic|blue has no intention of assisting in any way.

In an official capacity, that's probably true. However, I work for SBLU, and I'm trying to help, no? OTOH, I've got a vested interest in you getting this to work -- I wrote the ARM software.

Thanks Roger.. No offense intended. I got the thing working, but I still dont know how i did it. I have to run jreceiver, but I would rather go through ARM

> ... but I would rather go through ARM

Obviously, you haven't tried it ;-)