22/2100 ?? Why am I not getting a key from Device

[smee323]

OK, After reading just about everything, and trying everything but a total system reload I am at wits end.

As I have hardware which will only work on XP, I created a dual boot system (this should not affect anything at all) I am running vista home premium in the new partion.

I bought both a 2200 and 2100 and have hardwired them into my system through a billion 7404 firewall router. (Firewall is turned off on router).

I have followed the instructions for setup as per the book (even slowed my gigabyte link down to 100mb so they would cope as advised by linksys) and nothing.

I removed my internet security and relied on Vista totally, again nothing.

Neither will give me the key as they show in the setup instructions.

Have even tried most of the M/S instructions and cabled up the 2100 directly to my PC, and it is not recognised at all. no PnP acknowledgement, nothing.

Am I missing something so simple, or do I have a bigger problem.

I'm all ears for solutions, as the WAF has hit rockbottom and is still digging.

[bucket23]

The DMA will only work if vista is booted.
Check your router to see if it has given the dma an ip address.

[smee323]

Hey Bucket.

I have rebooted Vista a number of times, and still nothing.
Left it alone for a couple of hours hoping the devices would show up, and nothing.

I am using the same line I had my Media Gate connected to under XP, so the router should be seeing it.

The bit I am worried about, is that even when connecting the 2100 directly to the machine via a short ethernet cable in place of the router still did not make it visible.

[bucket23]

was the cable you connected directly to the pc a crossover cable. If it was a normal cable it will not work. Basically a crossover cable has the transmit and receive pairs swapped. A switch will do this automatically (or should) so a crossover cable is not needed.
Did you check on the dma that it received an ip address and that ip address is in the same range as your pc, i.e. 192.168.1.x
Are you able to do a firmware update on the dma. This will prove that you have connection to the internet.

[smee323]

OK, understand why it is not being seen when pluged in directly.

DMA keeps getting the message that it cannot find a network to connect to and Vista is not seeing either of my extenders when you do a network check.
The only way I can see an IP address is if I select connect wirelessly which I do not want to do. Address is within range, and set at 100.

All ports are working on my router, as I have swapped them round a number of times, done the reboot and it all shows ok. Using a secondary pc to connect to the internet.

Even resorted to doing a full reinstall of everything to#night and we have a skerik of hope.
Noticed that everytime I went into Network to look at anything explorer would fail. did a search on microsoft support and found a conflict problem. Seems when one of my hardware items was loaded, it corrupted a driver and was causing problems. Not that I thought it would affect anything.

So, Install # 3.
Defaulted everything to Microsoft setup (left auto updates on) and worked from there.
DMA was getting a signal from the system, but still not picking up (progress).
Got a bit further in the setup and decided to assign a permanent address.

Bingo !! up comes the KEY for the 2100. Followed all the details from the CD and also Media Centre and it now works in a way. Added where all my files are stored and it picked up a few things, so I suppose now the setup of media is the next task. Media Centre keeps stating a codec is missing so will not play certain file types. Tried them on Media Player and I can see them ok.

Needless to say not much sleep last night. Just finished filling the hole that was being dug. Now to add TV card and go from there.

Thanks for input Bucket. made me look at a few other options.