I have solved a problem.....
I was having problems with my 2x Sky Stream Pucks and connection to content through a 5G router. It was particularly perplexing because all my other devices (Macs, iPads, iPhones, Apple TV, Security Cameras (hikvision and blink), web browsing etc etc) worked fine. It was just Sky Stream. And the problem got worse over time. The network settings page was showing inconsistent connections and even when it was connected when I tried to watch a programme or stream a movie I would get a 'there is a technical problem with this channel, try again later'. Or just a blue screen. I was also confused by the fact that one puck seemed to work when the other one didn't. Although eventually that started to have problems as well.
I contacted Sky Technical support and they told me they could see a latency problem, and also that I probably didn't have enough bandwidth to support 2 pucks. I get a between 40 - 60 mbps up and down over 5g over a Zyxel NR7101 5g router so I didn't think that was a problem. Especially as I can monitor my 4 high def security cameras remotely.
I have enough technically knowledge to be a danger to my networks (system resets are common after I bodge something) so I started troubleshooting by changing ethernet cables (I wire my pucks as I prefer ethernet over wireless - if and where I can install it - for more stable contections) and network switches. That didn't help. So I wondered if I had an IP conflict. My Zyxel came configured for a IP passthrough (bridge) and I have changed it to act as the router. So I went to the Zyxel configuration page to create a static IP for the Sky Stream pucks but it occured to me that since the Sky Stream Pucks seemed to work as designed up until I requested a programme, then maybe the problem was a network / web addressing problem. Maybe the Sky Stream puck didn't know where to send the request for the programme / stream. So I had a look at the DNS page (Domain Name System) to see if any Domain Name System Servers where specified. (DNS Servers translate your request to visit www.google.com to a digital (number) address that can be found on the internet. (Or at least that is how I understand it)). There was none specified. This shouldn't normally be a problem as the system would default to a standard DNS server like Google at 8.8.8.8. But just in case I specified two servers: Cloudflare at 1.1.1.1 and Google at 8.8.8.8. And applied the settings...
And.....
Sky Stream now works perfectly. So far I have had 3 days of no glitches. Fast downloads and programme retrieval. (I have to admit that everything else appears to be working that bit smoother).
So if you are getting glitchy network connections, Programmes not loading. Blue screens. And everything else apart form your Stream puck is working. Try looking at your routers DNS setting and setting something like Cloudflare.
Good watching comrades!
