Tired of re-booting everything. Is the new BB-DECA the answer?

I think the problem lies with your network router.  Replacing the WHDVR DECA "bridge" won't likely solve this problem.  

Well, this is the second router I've had this issue with.  Previously I had a 2-yr old wireless-G router, which behaved this way.  And now I've got a brand-new (high-end) Netgear router and it does the same thing.

If I had a second (cascaded) router attached to the first, and the DECA attached to the 2nd router, a reboot of the first router wouldn't disturb the DHCP status of the second router (or the devices attached to it). 

I just want to understand if a) BB-DECA brings somethng new to the table or b) if others have this issue as well.

...BTW all of the Direct TV boxes are in the "Default" network mode.  I've not made any adjustments in the advanced settings.

The DECA BB is just a white DECA in a different package, so unless there's a defect in the DECA you have, the DECA BB will not make any difference. I think the ultimate solution is finding out why you have to reboot your router at all...

If you must reboot your router, I would try rebooting my modem as well.  You might also try rebooting your router from within it's setup page rather that by powering down.  The trick is to get the router to send a fresh DHCP query to the network.

Thanks for the replies...

There is nothing wrong with my router.  I sometimes make a configuration change which requires a reboot of the router.  I don't like how doing this disturbs the whole-house set-up.

I'm wondering if the issue is DECA (MoCA) in general.  I have a friend who has a very large whole-house set-up (8 receivers) but is using unsupported ethernet.  He reboots his router at least weekly and it doesn't impact his whole-house set-up at all.

I'm going to try using static IP assignment in the Advanced Network settings page to see if that helps.

I'm guessing that the router reboot causes the IP addresses to get shuffled around some, which confuses the DECA network; so static IPs may well be the solution.

If not get yourself a 1 in 2 out Network switch to go inbetween the modem and the router. Connect the DECA to one port and the router to the other port. Simply eliminating the need for the router to assign. So when you reconfig your network WHDVR will be undisturbed.

Hmmmm, I don't know about this one.  Isolating a portion of the network while you reconfigure the other is a recipe for a conflicting IP address.  A properly configured network should go through a router reset with no problem at all, including the Directv boxes.

Static IP assignment on the Receivers did the trick!  I can reboot other parts of my network ad nauseum and there is no impact to my whole-house DVR.

I've long suspected DHCP compatibility issues with the Direct TV equipment.  This post on DBS Talk confirmed my suspicions:  http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=185688

Just make sure that the static IPs you assign to each receiver are OUTSIDE of the IP address range that your router hands out to other devices.  (To confirm and/or change the DHCP range your router is using, access your router's administrative pages.)

So in my case, my router is configured to hand out IPs in the range of 192.168.1.2 - 192.168.1.199.  So I assigned static IPs to my receivers starting at 192.168.1.201

Typically you cannot connect a switch or hub directly to the cable modem without a router.  Most ISPs only allow the cable modem to assign a single IP address.  So if you connect a switch or hub to the modem, only one device connected to that switch or hub will work.  However you could attach two routers in series to accomplish this.  Each router acts as an independent DHCP server and assigns IP within it's own address range.  So you could reboot one router without impacting the other.  This will require some customizations to one router set-up using the router's administrative pages.  I was prepared to go in this direction, but it's no longer necessary since the static IP assignment is working for me.

I've had many issues, and have been in contact with DTV Engineering. When I was having problems with receivers (2xHR-24) dropping communications and interrupting streams, one of the product engineers suggested setting static IPs or static DHCP leases, because refreshing the DHCP lease daily was causing the DVRs to fail. After having problems ranging from unplayable files, one DVR seeing both playlists and the other DVR seeing only its own, streams interrupted mid-play, etc, I did a full reset similar to the above steps, set static leases for 7 days, and haven't had problems since.

I thought DHCP refresh had been a Solved Problem for a couple of decades, but obviously not on these devices -- it's a known workaround for such problems, after all.

Glad that you're having sucess now, but setting a Static IP on the receivers and setting an address reservation on the router are two completely different things.

1.  When you set a reservered adress on the router, some people refer to it as a "static ip" but it's anything but.  It's just telling the DHCP server within the router to always give out the same ip address to that device.  But from the device's point-of-view it's still using DHCP and it's still getting a dynamic IP address assignment.  From the device's point-of-view the fact that it keeps getting the same IP address is merely a coincidence, but it still has the ask for (and renew) the lease on a regular basis.

2.  When you set a static ip on the device, you are taking DHCP completely out of the equation.  The router is no longer responsible for any address assignment and the device is effetively telling the router what IP address it's using.

I have heard of people having success with both of these options, but ultimately if DHCP is the issue then #2 is the solution you should look towards.  In my case I'm using #2 and still have had zero issues.  Just to test things out I powered-down my router and observed that the whole-house DVR still was solid, and the only thing that I'd lost was Internet connectivity.  Then when I powered-up my router again things were still great and Internet connectivity was fully restored (without me having to do anything on the receivers).

Oh, I'm fully aware that a week-long lease is different from a static IP -- I have my own reasons for wanting centralized control, and not wanting to fiddle with IP assignments from a remote control. Router reboots also don't cause me any heartburn in the current setup.

Of course, I don't have to set a static IP or long-term lease to get any other device on my network to work -- and working from home, I have a LOT of network devices. The fact that we're talking about this at all in 2010 is pretty fsck'ing sad.

I agree with you.  I also have many devices on my network (laptops, printers, game consoles, hand-held devices, etc.) and the fact that the ONLY ones having trouble are DirecTV equipment is disappointing.  At least there are work-arounds.  Too bad you need to be computer/network savvy to do it.

I've pretty much stayed out of your situation, but I must tell you that straight DHCP works reliably in a properly configured and arranged system.  You're concluding that becasue you had difficulty, that the entire system has the same "fault" and that is not the fact.  I post this so that others won't assume that they must assigne IP addresses as you did.

I have no idea what in your setup would cause the problem, but I'd gamble that somewhere is a faulty component, possibly a tender DECA module in one of the IRD's. 

I'm concluding that because DirecTV product Engineering and the Case Mgmt specialist investigating WHV told me this was a required step, that it was a required step. When I expressed both incredulity and the fact that I have no other DHCP issues with my very common router, I was told this is one remediation step that is known to work, and sometimes renewing the DHCP lease can interrupt a stream in progress.

If you're going to announce to me what I'm concluding, at least be correct, please; I used the words "have been in contact with DTV Engineering" above, after all.