[Praxidice]

I need advice regarding use of Kodi with HDHomeRun Dual tuner(s). There are numerous reports regarding the extremely flaky DHCP capabilities of HomeRun devices, to the point where the only remotely reliable network connections possible are direct links between PC and HDHomeRun device. This renders the things virtually useless with Windows, however given the superior networking capabilities of Unix / Linux, I'm wondering if it is feasible to allow the HDHomeRun devices to have their way with their 169.254 address obsessions and rely on Kodi to deal with other LAN / WAN connections.

What I have in mind is a mini-LAN just for the HDHomeRun tuner(s) and another for the proper LAN. From the perspective of Kodi, will this arrangement allow streaming video to be shared over the LAN ? and Kodi to be configured remotely ?

[nickr]

Never had a problem with DHCP on an hdhomerun.

[Praxidice]

Never had a problem with DHCP on an hdhomerun.

With all due respects, the fact that you haven't had a problem doesn't mean that others haven't. I've googled this problem and found countless reports about issues people have had with Homerun devices and DHCP. Sure some of the complaints might be phrased differently to mine, but on perusal it is clear that they involve flaky DHCP behaviour. What is relevant in this case is that I have two brand new / just out of the box devices that will not accept a DHCP address from a router that is in widespread use in Australia and NZ, that has no recorded history of silly games and that offers IP addresses that the Homerun can't / won't / doesn't know how to accept.

Can you enlighten me with your opinion as to whether or not my suggested remedy involving a mini-LAN and a 'proper' LAN is likely to yield the desired result of connecting the device to the internet ? I doubt that Windows will play ball but just maybe a Kodi / linux installation might. If that fails, then how about a known Homerun-friendly router with internet connection one side and Homerun-friendly 168.254 addressing on the other side ?.

I fully realize we are in funnyfarm territory here, but when conventional arrangements have proved unworkable, I'm quite happy to delve into the realm of witchcraft if it might provide a solution that works.

[bry]

Do you see the hdhr at all on the router ARP table? If so just set it as a static IP address. That is how I configured mine .

[Praxidice]

Do you see the hdhr at all on the router ARP table? If so just set it as a static IP address. That is how I configured mine .

Actually no it isn't in ARP although the DHCP table shows that it is assigned an address so go figure

Someone suggested that linking the MAC with a reserved IP would solve the problem but it didn't in this case

I can honestly say that in over 50 years of IT, I have never encountered a device that gave me anywhere near the aggro that these units have

They appear far too stupid to accept the DHCP address offered, whether they don't know how to accept / can't accept or are just bloody-minded is the question.

In the absence of any enlightenment from experts, I'm planning on trying a few tricks like a new network with the 169.254 addresses that appear to be a Homerun obsession.

[nickr]

Connecting them to a backend via a second ethernet card is common practice for mythtv, but this is done in order to keep the traffic off the lan rather than to alleviate any inherent IP problems. I think they will then work via a link-local address, although I have also seen it recommended to run a DHCP server on the second ethernet port to give the HDHR a proper address.

Personally I hate the DHCP server on my router and run a raspberry pi with DNSmasq, and turn off the router DHCP server. That gives me local DNS abilities, which my router doesn't.

[bry]

Do you see the hdhr at all on the router ARP table? If so just set it as a static IP address. That is how I configured mine .

Actually no it isn't in ARP although the DHCP table shows that it is assigned an address so go figure

Someone suggested that linking the MAC with a reserved IP would solve the problem but it didn't in this case

I can honestly say that in over 50 years of IT, I have never encountered a device that gave me anywhere near the aggro that these units have

They appear far too stupid to accept the DHCP address offered, whether they don't know how to accept / can't accept or are just bloody-minded is the question.

In the absence of any enlightenment from experts, I'm planning on trying a few tricks like a new network with the 169.254 addresses that appear to be a Homerun obsession.

What os's have you tried to hit the hdhomerun fromm? what happens when you go to my.hdhomerun.com? are you on the latest firmware? https://www.silicondust.com/support/irc-channels/ is their public IRC channel. I would make sure to submit a trouble ticket: https://www.silicondust.com/support/trouble-ticket/

[Praxidice]

A few people in the Homerun forum certainly do their best to help although they are probably better suited to assistance with other Homerun models; To date most of the testing has been in Windows 10 but I'll be trying Kodi / ubuntu when I get a bit of free time. I use FreeBSD for webservers / mailservers but those are its forte' and my experience has been that its not as practical with audiovisual applications. Most of my time is spent in an advocacy capacity for victims of abuse by Australian officialdom (Australia is unquestionably the most corrupt country on planet earth, legislature, executive and judicial arms are equally culpable)

Firmware is the latest available (20161117) but I didn't think about Silicon Dust. Will attend to that shortly. Thanks for the pointer.

Dunno what you are getting about with homerun.com, please explain

I haven't used IRC for several lifetimes but if thats worth a try then I'll look into it. That said, I get the impression that many forum dwellers have not personally encountered the Homerun DHCP issues that have plagued others, consequently they are at a loss to know how to deal with something out of their comfort zone. That isn't intended to reflect negatively on those who are attempting to assist, there is no doubt this is an unusual problem. I've been around IT for over 50 years and I've never seen anything like it myself.

Looking around for a router that will run the 169.254 network, can't see one in my collection here although I might have one in a place I'm visiting tomorrow, That said, it appears I can get a new Edimax BR-6314K V2 for $8.99 which is trivial if it doesn't do the job.

Do you see the hdhr at all on the router ARP table? If so just set it as a static IP address. That is how I configured mine .

Actually no it isn't in ARP although the DHCP table shows that it is assigned an address so go figure

Someone suggested that linking the MAC with a reserved IP would solve the problem but it didn't in this case

I can honestly say that in over 50 years of IT, I have never encountered a device that gave me anywhere near the aggro that these units have

They appear far too stupid to accept the DHCP address offered, whether they don't know how to accept / can't accept or are just bloody-minded is the question.

In the absence of any enlightenment from experts, I'm planning on trying a few tricks like a new network with the 169.254 addresses that appear to be a Homerun obsession.

What os's have you tried to hit the hdhomerun fromm? what happens when you go to my.hdhomerun.com? are you on the latest firmware? https://www.silicondust.com/support/irc-channels/ is their public IRC channel. I would make sure to submit a trouble ticket: https://www.silicondust.com/support/trouble-ticket/

[bry]

Being involved in the it industry for xx years does nothing but cloud your judgement. Submit an official ticket via the links I provided. Have you tried the CLI configuration utility?

[Praxidice]

Being involved in the it industry for xx years does nothing but cloud your judgement.

Point taken

Submit an official ticket via the links I provided.

Will do

Have you tried the CLI configuration utility?

Yes I have, its fine for interrogating the device but unfortunately it doesn't work as far as configuring a static IP. Seems it does with certain other Homerun versions but not the Dual which I have.
Do you have an insight into use of the CLI utility to force the device to accept a static IP regardless of supposedly official advice that this isn't available on my model ?

[bry]

That's not supported as far as I remember. That will have to be done on the router. Do you have a Windows machine on the network to run the setup utility? You mentioned freebsd for webservers when I asked what is you have tried from.

[nickr]

HDHR<---------->Computer<------------->Router<------->Other LAN computers
..............link local....................normal IP

If you put another ethernet card in your computer, you should be able to run the HDHR via a link local network off that card, and your normal network over the other card. However the link local traffic will not be routed to the normal IP LAN.

This is fine if Computer is your PVR backend, but not if you want a direct link from "Other LAN computers" to HDHR.

[nickr]

Although I have used 2 HDHR's for years, I have never seen this problem personally. However google shows you to be right, for example https://forum.silicondust.com/forum/view...hp?t=63510

The OP in that forum rpcameron also frequents this forum. I'll point him to this thread.

[rpcameron]

I'm chiming in here after the head's up from nickr. My troubles with HDHR tuners and DHCP aren't really relevant to the OP's concern (the Dual's lack GbE, and the DHCP issues seem to be tied to a gigabit connection), however I have learned a few things that might help.

For many months I successfully ran a situation similar to what the OP is acking about: HDHR devices with self-assigned APIPA addresses (169.254.0.0/16). If the computer you are using has 2 NICs, you can set one to have a static IP of 169.254.1.1/16 (actually, anything in the 169.254.0.0/16 subnet should work). Then connect this NIC to a switch that is shared with your HDHR devices. When the HDHR devices cannot contact a DHCP server, they will self-assign themselves APIPA addresses in the 169.254.0.0/16 subnet, allowing you to discover and interact with them on the NIC that you gave the static IP to.

Then, keep the other NIC (ethernet or wifi, doesn't particularly matter) to get its connection for your main network, however that may be.

There are a few caveats with this situation, though. Firstly, if your devices cannot talk to the internet (which will be the case in this situation) you cannot rely upon SiliconDust's servers to give you guide data. The reason for this is that part of the boot process for HDHR tuners is to talk to SD's servers to obtain a "DeviceAuth" token. SD's software (HDHomeRun View, including the Kodi video addon version) using this token to authenticate whether a device/request for guide data is authorized; no token, no data, and therefore no guide. (I believe the pvr.hdhomerun addon, which integrates the HDHR devices into Kodi's native PVR interface, also uses this token and method to obtain guide data.) Short answer, if you run your HDHRs without access to the internet, you cannot use SiliconDust's guide data.

If you use a third-party PVR this is not a problem. I have successfully done this with both Tvheadend and MythTV. Since you are running Windows you would probably have to look at NextPVR or MediaPortal. I don't run Windows on any of my machines, so I can't really help you with that part.

The second part of your question may be a problem. Because of the way APIPA works, devices with self-assigned addresses cannot communicate outside of their subnet. Streaming from HDHR devices is generally a 3-step process: first tune the HDHR to the desired channel or frequency/program; second, the receiving device (such as your computer) opens a port and starts listening for a connection from the HDHR; and finally, the HDHR starts streaming its feed to the address and port requested in the previous step. Since the HDHR cannot see outside its subnet with a self-assigned APIPA address, it cannot stream to computers on your regular LAN.

If you are interested in maintaining your HDHR mini-network in this way, go for it. Just know that you are going to need some software on the computer that interfaces with the HDHRs to handle the streaming to the rest of your network. From my personal experience, MythTV and Tvheadend have worked great with this. With Windows, your mileage may vary.

Hope this helps some.

[Praxidice]

That's not supported as far as I remember. That will have to be done on the router. Do you have a Windows machine on the network to run the setup utility? You mentioned freebsd for webservers when I asked what is you have tried from.

I have several Windows machines, I've been running the config utility on a windows 10n laptop

I could try config on a FreeBSD machine but why would that give different results than Windows ? Are you suggesting there might be some Windows weirdness ? That doesn't appear likely since the Homerun devices won't accept an IP address even when the Windows 10 machines are turned off.