Solved: DMA2100 & DMA2200 remote control freezes repeatedly after 3-5 minutes

[MABParkes]

I own 4 Windows Media Center DMA2100 and suddenly a few weeks ago all the remote controls on all the boxes started freezing after 3-5 minutes of use.  If a TV program or music track was playing at this continued to play but the remote control was frozen and no longer functioned in any way (even power off).  It took me a while to figure out that this was due to the DMA2100 doing a ‘check for updates’ (which now appears to be broken at Ciscos’s end) and resulted in the remote controls freezing.  This can be fixed by preventing the DMA2100 ‘checking for updates’ by preventing it from accessing the internet (say by blocking it with your router or putting in a fake DNS address so it can’t look up any names - say 192.168.200.254 as the primary and secondary DNS).  If you do this then the DMA2100 then functions again as normal and the issue is resolved.

Hopefully, Linksys will fix this as some point at their end.  Regardless, this is a work around to allow you to keep on using your DMA2100 and DMA220 in the meantime.

[welshgeoff]

I'm so grateful for your help with this post.  I thought my DMA2100 was on it's last legs!!  Kept freezing (even when not connected to network by cable) - I can only assume it was still  trying to get updates via wireless?   However I tried your suggestion and it has worked - also excluded it on the router by MAC address. Many thanks once again.

[MABParkes]

My pleasure - I was thinking the same and was totally pissed off when I thought all my 4 DMA 2100 were now useless.  I really like this product and would be happy to buy more but it looks like its end-of-life now.  Even as a software developer it took me quite a while to figure it out.  Basically, it looks like the developed used the same thread to access the internet and support the remote control.  Not parcicularly good design as far as I can see - but there you go.  Works now so I am happy - glad to have been of service to others as well.

Mike

[Glassdome]

Hi there.  Mine too does this I was literally about to sell it on Ebay as spares.  I am so relieved there is a solution. I am not massively technical and don't want to damage any settings. Can you give me some instructions as to where and how I change this setting?  

Sincere thanks in advance. 

[ylime1984]

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Glassdome wrote:

Hi there.  Mine too does this I was literally about to sell it on Ebay as spares.  I am so relieved there is a solution. I am not massively technical and don't want to damage any settings. Can you give me some instructions as to where and how I change this setting?  

Sincere thanks in advance. 

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May I know the model no. of the router?

[MABParkes]

You can make this change as follows:

On the main start page select 'Settings'.

Then across the top there are a number of options select 'Network'.

Detour: at this point you can select 'View Current Settings' and you will see 'Primary DNS' and 'Secondary DNS'. This is what you are trying to change.

Anyway, back to the 'Network' page.

Now select 'Setup Network'.

In my case I am using a wired network so on the next page I selected 'Wired Network' - you may choose something different here.

Now select 'Manual' to manually configure your network.

Finally change the 'Primary DNS' and 'Secondary DNS' to something that does not exist. I used '192.168.200.254'. Nothing special needed here just something that doesn’t work. What we are doing here is stopping the DMA2100 from communicating with the internet. We are doing this by breaking the DNS setting so it can't look up any names.

You can check this later using the 'View Current Settings' I mentioned above.

Personally, I have done the same by blocking my DMA2100 in my router.

Hope this helps,

Mike