MAJOR C4 challenges - help requested

[forwardslash]

I have greatly benefited from this site so wanted to thank everyone for contributing.

I am an end user with a fairly decent size installation i think (60+switches, 4 t-stats, 3 HTC's, 2 amplifiers, 1 tuner, 1 MC and 11 MTSs.) been working with a dealer who has either not been very responsive or is not able to solve the problem due to inexperience at this sort of implemenation. btw, we are 7+ months into our installation, we had almost everything working, now its not and i am being told its a network issue.

Some addtl data pts before i describe the issue - The rest of the config is as follows - 1 belkin router, 2 linksys switches, 1 sony dvd player and 1 dvr (dvr they havent been able to configure for some reason yet)

It appears that the C4 devices are rebooting after a few mins and it happens all day long. they thought it was a flash issue and sent it back to c4 supposedly to get tested and reprogrammed but its still not working.

the network seems to work fine as i can access the web, print though having sporadic success with the maxtor network storage device.

my questions are -

1) have any of you experienced any rebooting of C4 MC, amplifiers and tuners? if so what was causing it and how did you solve for it?

2) heard that linksys routers and switches have been an issue? do you think this is the cause or are there any successful implementations with linksys equip. the fact that the network is working fine (web and print access) i am inclined to think that either there is a configuration issue with c4 or compatibility issue? thoughts?

3) we have upgraded to 1.3.2 and installed htc-300s but everytime i open homesite it gives me an error msg that htc was not being recognized properly and the functionality might be limited? any of you exp this from a user end or dealer implementation standpt?

4) has anyone used c4 t-stats to control radiant floors? i would like to do this if possible

5) the remotes v2 are chewing thru batteries like there is no tomorrow. any remedies or suggestions?

thats all for now. very much appreciate any help or advice.

[GoGo Delicious]

It appears that the C4 devices are rebooting after a few mins and it happens all day long. they thought it was a flash issue and sent it back to c4 supposedly to get tested and reprogrammed but its still not working. the network seems to work fine as i can access the web, print though having sporadic success with the maxtor network storage device.

Is your network set up as DHCP or Manual IP addressing? If it's DHCP you should use Manual IP addressing for a more reliable INTERNAL network. If you are using DHCP and the DHCP lease is not long enough then your router can be assisging a new IP to your HTC's and your Maxtor drive.

Is the Belkin router or the Linksys switches web manageable? If so, are the logs showing any collisions on the router or switches.

I would check the network first. Just because you can reach the web does not mean your internal network is fine.

One other thought, if the devices are rebooting every few min as you state, have you checked the power source to the components, namely the HTC? Do you have enough power going to them? Are you running a line conditionare? If so does it have a dispaly that shows how may total amps you are drawing?

Just a few things to check first.

Hope this helps.

GoGo Delicious.

[takitezsdc]

I had the SAME problems and I have about the same system you have. You need to get a 24 port switch 1gig. Net gear has one and works well for me. It solved all my networking problems. TRUST ME..........Your network is the most importat thing in a C4 system to make sure it is all working right!

Takitez

[forwardslash]

Thanks for your suggestions. btw, i have 2 linksys switches - 1 gigabit. the other 10/100 poe. will check the dhcp setting in the am.

[TheOracle]

When my system was being set up, they were having a huge network issue. C4 support told the tech to put it in DHCP mode rather than static IP. I would really like to change everything to static as it is really a more stable environment. If everyone agrees, I can reset everything.

In the line of the DHCP leases, I did change my router from perpetual leases to 12 hour leases and the entire system came crashing down. When I put it back to perpetual everything started working again. Another reason for static IP addressing.

[henniae]

This is my first post to the list. I am very new to C4 but I have been building large IP networks for over 15 years.

forwardslash wrote:

"It appears that the C4 devices are rebooting after a few mins and it happens all day long."

It sounds like you are not sure if the devices are rebooting. Are there logs on the C4 devices that show a reboot (they are after all running some version of UNIX/LINUX). There should be a log of reboots, or you could check the up time of the device.

It sounds unlikely to me that the network would be causing a reboot. I guess there could be some sort of watchdog timer in the C4 devices that cause a reboot if network connectivity is lost, but this does not seem like a good design idea.

I do not see the logic in using DHCP for devices like HTCs, MTs and other C4 devices. I would suggest static addresses. The reason for assigning static addresses to the devices (IMHO) is to allow them to reliably communicate to each other. If the IP address of the HTC is changing how will the other devices on the network know how to find it? I guess I do not really know how all the various C4 devices on the network register with each other, e.g. how does the HTC know what IP addresses are assigned to for example a touch screen. Static addresses would probably be a much better choice.

One thing that you should check is if you excluded the static addresses that you assigned to the C4 devices from the DHCP scope on your router. More small home routers (like Linksys, Belkin, etc.) usually allow you to specify the range of addresses used for DHCP If you are assigning static IP addresses from the range of addresses that DHCP is using you will have duplicate address assignments which is VERY bad for an IP network.

[slemay]

There is no "watchdog" reboot algorithm built into any of the C4 devices. Ditto the need for static IP's.

[lippavisual]

Plus using $50 routers and switches for such a large network is bound for disaster.

[henniae]

slemay

Thanks for the clarification on the "watchdog" timer. I didn't really think that the C4 engineers would build such a feature into C4 hardware. It would just be a bad design to do so. I am totally new to C4 and know very little about the hardware. However, I am learning fast.

lippavisual

Right on with using quality network gear. The amount of $$$ spent on forwardslash's system begs for better network gear. Don't get me wrong, Belkin and Linksys make decent gear and I have used plenty of Linksys gear.

[jbs]

One quick point for me is that I do also get that same message that Composer HR cannot connect to the Composer portion of HTC not being accessible. Not sure what it means, I'll screencap it tonight and upload. Our system has a MC and an HTC-300, so I generally assumed the message was just an indication that the Director instance was on the Media Controller. Completely unsure, though.

[forwardslash]

hi. i had 2 dell switches before but they were very noisy and the same problems existed...so the dealer swapped them out and put in the linksys.

what router do you recommend? thanks.

[lippavisual]

Just use business class gear. Linksys, NetGear and the likes all have business type products, you just can't go and pick them up at BB, CC or any other place. I've been installing the Linksys RVO42, VPN router for all my jobs. I haven't had to deal with any hiccups yet. Plus I also get a connection to the clients home network if there are any issues that arise.