BBC Iplayer et al

Recently moved to FTTC , Plusnet 40/2 and have been having problems with BBC Iplayer and whatever the ITV version is. They work OK on my PC and laptop but the LAN attached Panasonic TV, Humax box and Now TV box all refuse to play. Other apps work e.g. YouTube and 4 on Demand. Thought it might be because I changed the DNS from my ISP default to OpenDNS but no joy. I just get a black screen with circulating icon.

Just wanted to check if anyone else has this issue or if someone can suggest a solution. It used to work OK when I had ADSL but could it be due to the apps on the boxes not being updated.

Works OK here.

We're on 80/20, and our LAN-attached boxes (Panasonic TV, Humax PVR, Humax Youview, NowTV, Amazon Fire TV) all work just fine.

Our router (Billion 8800NL) is set to use Google's DNS server.

Thanks for letting me know...

Did you change anything on the DGND4000 apart from the DNS settings? (Which shouldn't affect anything).

Are you using your own router by any chance? Heard of some issues where users are using their own routers on BT which is to all intents and purposes the same service as Plusnet.

What is your MTU set to?

Edited by ukhardy07 (Fri 26-Aug-16 18:54:32)

I have found the online parental controls on BT can stop some IPTV services working. Maybe similar with plusnet

Well probably.

Originally it was setup to connect with ADSL when we only used standard copper broadband. After the fibre upgrade I had the Plusnet Hub one. I admit I didn't check access to the iplayer then. After a couple of days I switched that into modem only mode and the DGND4000 in router only mode.

Then I decided I would like to be able to setup opendns which the plusnet box didn't allow, so I purchased the Netgear DM200 VDSL modem/router. To get this all working I factory reset both units, checked S/w upgrade, switched the DM200 into modem only mode and connected to the WAN port of the DGND4000. I then set about fixing the port forwarding as required.

Generally everything is now working OK apart from the Iplayer on the TV or via the Humax freesat box (both LAN connected) or the NOWtv box (wireless connected)

I am not aware of any particular setting that would enable/disable the BBC Iplayer especially seeing that the Youtube , netflix and other apps work fine.

I will check by restoring the Plusnet Hub one for a while.

Thanks for any suggestions.

I think you may find the three non-working ones have a static local network IP address, which is not valid on the Netgear. Perhaps your ADSL router uses a different subnet.

Have you tried resetting the three devices' LAN connections? Try just one of the first, no point in doing three until you know one works. Netgears are probably using 192.168.0.nn and you may previously have been using 192.168.1.nn

Your PC and laptop will be on dynamic so work fine.

Edited by RobertoS (Fri 26-Aug-16 19:50:28)

Thanks for your responses guys.

Mtu is set to 1488 on the router and all attached devices have always (ADSL and now VDSL) been allocated a specific IP address by the same router (DGND4000) using the address reservation page.

Checking the Network settings ( IP, DNS and DHCP ) on each device shows that it has been correctly picked up. However I will try not assigning one of them as a test. I have powered off all three non working devices and re established the network settings.

Note the DGND4000 was used on the old ADSL setup as a modem/router where iPlayer worked and is now used on the VDSL setup with a VDSL modem . It has always been on the 192.168.0.xx subnet except for a short time when the Plusnet Hub one was used.

All the online TV players use a host of tracking third party links, it may be that some of the privacy protecting options in your OpenDNS are preventing access. I have a Panasonic smart TV in it's own VLAN using a public DNS (NOT Google!) whilst everything else uses a local DNS with appropriate blackholed domains. The TV will not connect to iPlayer, ITV Catch up or Demand 5 unless it has unrestricted access to the internet, curiously, 4OD is fine in a walled garden... the connections are all via built in 'apps' in the TV

Set the MTU to 1450. A few users on BT who are using their own router have had issues with Now TV etc and said 1450 solved it.

1488 is the correct MTU but give 1450 a go, if it doesn't make a difference, set it back to 1488.

Edited by ukhardy07 (Sat 27-Aug-16 01:24:04)

I've seen you say this a few times. What makes you say Plusnet's network is to all intents the same as BT's? As far as I'm concerned it is nothing like.

Have edited my post to remove that to avoid confusion.

Similar in the sense of:

1) Same equipment - HH5A & Plusnet One Router basically the same
2) Plusnet is not an LLU operator so uses BT wholesale

Just poor wording on my end really. My gut is that as this same issue exists on the BT forums with people using own equipment & MTU change fixed it for a few users perhaps it'll work here too

Unbelievable but setting the MTU to 1450 fixed the issue.

Set it back to 1488 and it fails.

Cannot believe that a major organisation writes code that is so dependant on the MTU size!!!

Many thanks to all for your comments and suggestions and nice find ukhardy07

Working for all the devices now then?

Yes Robert, working on all devices now......

Very common issue for BT customers who switch to their own router from the homehub.

The thing that made me make a link, is the plusnet one hub is just a BT homehub 5A branded as plusnet...

The reason is works is really unclear at this stage as the HomeHub has a MTU of 1488, not 1450 but works?!

For the record this has been cropping up around two years now on BT.

Glad it's going for you now. It also affects Google Chromecast on some services such as Spotify and PS4.

Yup. Same supply source for some routers, and both use BTW. But that's it. In fact, until recently, they both used different products from BTW - with Plusnet using shared WBMC, and BT Retail using dedicated WBMC. And, of course, the ISP's own hardware sits at the far side of the WBMC host links.

Plusnet is moving to a dedicated WBMC network too - but that means they get their own dedicated connectivity ... likely with their own set of congestion issues.
http://forum.kitz.co.uk/index.php?topic=16711.0

So, the only real commonality is the router. And, having read lower, this looks to be the case.

Bizarre. A side-effect of monitoring iPlayer for licence infringement?

My Billion 8800NL is configured with 1492.