Rio Receiver not getting an IP Address

Hello all. I am hoping someone has seen this problem before... although I can't find a post here about it.

I have a small home network of about 10 machines on a autosensing 10/100 switch. My linux firewall is using dhcpd to issue IP addresses of 192.168.0.x to all of my internal machines. I installed the Rio software v1.03 onto my Windows NT Server 4.0 SP6a box (hopefully to use srvany in the future :-). I have turned off the "Autoconfiguration" feature to allow my DHCP server to allocate the IP addresses.

When I turn on my new Rio Receiver, it hangs out for a minute or so with "Please wait. Searching for music server" and finally times out coming back locked in a display with an auto-IP address of 169.254.225.x. During the search, I see that the switch port it is connected to has selected 10mb and see some occassional traffic via the blinking light on the switch. The link and activity lights on the back of the Rio are solid the entire time. The cable is a standard patch cable.
I see no requests in the dhcpd logs on my DHCP server. The Audio Receiver software nevers sees a receiver and the note stays red.

I try shutting down the dhcpd daemon and enabling the Autoconfiguration feature. No change.

So, to make sure it isn't the NT server, I shutdown the software and install it on the Windows XP workstation. Same results.

So, I shutdown the software on the XP, and install it on a W2K Pro laptop with two NICs. I connect the Rio directly to the laptop with a standard crossover cable and when I turn it on, the tray icon for the network connection tells me 10.0 mbs. After the Rio hangs for a bit, it shows the 169.254.123.x address again but the Rio software shows a gray "New Audio Receiver". Properties of the Receiver shows a good IP issued by the software (but doesn't match the receiver display).

I checked and the DisableDHCPMediaSense regkey is already set to 1 but the network tray icon still reports "Cable is unplugged" when disconnected from the Rio.

So I thought, "bad unit". Exchanged it for a different one at the store with the same results.

I am an experienced network admin but I can't get the thing to work so I am a little frustrated. Any ideas?

Thanks for any help you can give.

Wow, you've gone through a lot of good diagnostics there. Most of my first questions are already addressed.

Couple of other things to check:

- Have you tried forcing half duplex on the switch port that the Receiver is plugged into?

- Have you tried a different cable? I know you did that with the laptop, but I mean with the switch.

- Have you tried turning Autoconfig back on for the server software?

- Are the other PCs on your network in the lower range of addresses (i.e., x.x.x.1-128)? If you turn Auto on for the Receiver server, I think it assigns high numbers in the range.

- Are any of the PCs running any kind of firewall software (black ice, zonealarm, the personal firewall built into XP)?

Something to keep in mind through all of this: The receiver has no software of its own. Until it can talk to that server, it won't do squat other than look for a server on the network to grab its software from.

Something else worth trying: There's a linux port and a java port of the server software available (linked from the FAQ section of this BBS), playing with those might give more insight into the cause of the problem.



__________
Tony Fabris

I had problems like this with a couple of 100Mb hubs, plugged the unit in to a 10Mb hub and it worked fine. Can you force the port on your switch to 10Mb?

Vince

Vince, UK (DDAR x 3)

This was it. Plugged both the server and the Rio into a 10mb hub and they talked. Worked beautifully. Since the switch is not managable, I guess I will need to put a hub in between the Rio(s) and the switch. (With Rio's running $149 at Fry's, I should pick up a couple more :-)

But what's up with the autosensing? My switch has worked fine with all my other devices (as I moved them from 10 to 100) but the Rio had a problem with it... oh well, it works now.

Vince and Tony, thanks very much for your help.

Bizarre. My receiver works fine as the only 10Mb device in an Intel 10/100 switch. What brand is your switch?

Peter

I would have suggested that except for this statement in your initial report:

"During the search, I see that the switch port it is connected to has selected 10mb"

Strange that it would detect and report 10mbps, but not work that way.

__________
Tony Fabris

It is bizarre since the switch shows that whatever is connected to that port is operating at 10mb via the light indictor (and it would blink occassionally to show it was trying to do something). It is a generic small 8 port switch I got from Frys. I would never use such a little piece of crap in a production environment but I thought I could get away with it at home. Who'd thunk it would bite me inthe butt.

When I move into my new house next month, I will be revamping the network and searching Ebay for a managed switch to use for network communications. I will try the suggestion of forcing the port to 10mb on that new switch when the time comes. I guess until then, I'll use the hub to connect the Rio(s) and then connect the hub to the switch.

Thanks again for the help.

I'm going to make sure this information is in the FAQ entry on ethernet at riocar.org. I know there's no big FAQ for the Receiver at the moment, but I think this will apply equally to the car player.

__________
Tony Fabris

With Rio's running $149 at Fry's, I should pick up a couple more

And still impossible to get over here (Sweden) :-(

Any one US-based willing to purchase and ship one across the 'lantic on my behalf?

/Michael

Michael,

Try the link below as Insight should ship to Sweden.

http://www.insight.com/cgi-bin/bp/1050800088/uk/result.html?t=A&a=s&f=p&d=Rio+Receiver

Vince, UK (DDAR x 3)

From their International Policy

"Insight (UK) only ships to UK and Ireland, shipments to Germany, Canada or the US must originate from those countries"

So, doesn't look that way...

/Michael