I've had a Humax HD-FOX-T2 Freeview HD box now for the best part of two years, and all of a sudden the TV Portal
feature isn't working anymore. Admittedly, I haven't actually used the TV Portal in a few months, since I've mostly
been using the BBC iPlayer, YouTube and Netflix apps on my XBox360. Watched quite a lot of "Breaking Bad" !

So, I decide to fire up TV Portal the other night, as I've heard there's been a major upgrade, with more apps added,
but it doesn't want to work. I press the TV Portal button on the remote control, the Connecting banner appears for
about 2 seconds, disappears, then nothing happens. At all. Zero. Zilch. Nada. Nowt. Until about 2-3 minutes later
an error message appears ... "An error occurred whilst launching the application" followed by the TV Portal URL.

So, I've tried pretty much everything. Checked for the latest firmware - already got it. Checked network settings -
all good, Pinged to the IP address of the box from my PC, and it pinged right back straightaway. I've even reset
the box to factory settings and re-run the first time installation wizard. After all that ... still no TV Portal.

What gives? I'm all out of ideas. Have I missed anything? Any suggestions?

I have just tried it on my HDR-FOX T2, and it is working OK for me at the moment.

I was also able to access the Portal with no problems.

That's the PVR version with built-in hard drive ... I have the Freeview HD version, that has the PVR feature sort of
tacked on as an afterthought, and is very fussy about the types of USB pen drives you can use to record on to.


It doesn't work for me no matter what I try. I'm looking for solutions, not "But it works for me!" ... that is no help.

So it works for you. That's all very well, but what do I do in the meantime?

Sorry but it is helpful to you; the Portal has been known to stop working from time to time for everybody. The fact that it is working for others suggests the problem is at your end. How is the Humax connected to the router? Are the Gateway and DNS addresses reported by the Humax correct? Has anything changed on your network since it was working?

The box is wired to the router via Powerline Ethernet, same as all the other devices on my network, except my laptop.


Here's what comes under - Settings - System - Internet Setting - Configure LAN:

Configure IP ... Manual
IP Address ... 192.168.1.23
Netmask ... 255.255.255.0
Gateway Address ... 192.168.1.1
DNS Address ... 192.168.1.4

Network shows as connected, and it can connect to my main PC and media center PC for media streaming.

A bit unusual to have the DNS address on the same subnet but different to the Gateway. Is the router at 192.168.1.1? What is at 192.168.1.4 to act as DNS server?

The router is at 192.168.1.1 and at 192.168.1.4 is our actual server. To clarify, my main PC has these settings:
[LIST][*]IP address: 192.168.1.3[*]Subnet mask: 255.255.255.0[*]Default gateway: 192.168.1.1[*]Preferred DNS server: 192.168.1.4[*]Alternative DNS server: 192.168.1.1[/LIST]

I had the exact same problem last night. I just wanted to use iPlayer but the box kept coming up with the same error you have mentioned. I tried doing a restore to factory settings but that didn't help at all.

My box was connected to my network using a powerline adaptor and it reported that the network was connected ok.

Now I don't know whether this is relevant (or why it should be even) but in my case, I didn't have a tv aerial connected although channels had been tuned in and stored previously. It was only after reconnecting the tv aerial and retuning the channels that the portal suddenly started to work again.

Coincidence? I'm not sure but all I can say is the portal now works again. Go figure!

No it is not coincidence. The problem is that without the aerial the box does not know the time and date. It then uses a default date and this renders the certificate that it uses to authenticate itself on the portal invalid. You either need the aerial connected or to install the custom firmware which has a work around fr this problem.

Thanks for that. You learn something new every day!

Working ok here,listening to Country Legends Houston at present

So, I'll unplug the aerial and plug it back in, then retune the channels again. Regardless of the TV Portal, this means I'll
have to manually delete a bunch of channels that are surplus to requirements such as Sky Sports, and Gay Rabbit!


UPDATE @ 14:30
Unplugged the aerial, plugged it back in, retuned the channels ... and . . . TV Portal still ... DOES ... NOT ... WORK.

I've now also got to manually delete the surplus unwanted pointless crap channels ... again!

Sorry to keep asking dumb questions but are you confident that the DNS server on192.168.1.4 is working correctly? Perhaps try the Humax with 192.168.1.1 as the DNS server?

Why did you think my answer suggested that you should do that? Providing there is at least one channel that is working the box will be able to update its time and date. It will also be able to access the Portal after the aerial is unplugged for a while.

That would probably be my fault. I retuned my box since it hadn't been used for around a year.

Still, if that's all the thanks you get from the OP....

If the the DNS server on 192.168.1.4 wasn't working correctly, then kitamuracomputers.net, plus all of it's subdomains
would no longer be accessible over the internet and return "Server not found" errors when anyone tries to visit our site.


Already tried that and makes no difference. Thing is, the TV Portal has worked fine with 192.168.1.4 as the DNS
alongside all the other settings before now, so I'm coming to the conclusion that it's a buggy firmware issue.

If it was a buggy firmware issue then there would be a lot more reports around. What firmware version is the Humax running? Another silly suggestion but I take it you have tried power cycling the Humax?

It's running the latest official firmware v1.02.29, and yes, it has been fully power cycled twice since the problem arose.

Wasn't there a newer version of the firmware (v1.02.32) available, or is that only for the HDR box?

OK I am out of ideas. I can only suggest you head over to the Forum at hummy.tv where there may be more expertise (that was where the work to determine why the portal was not accessible without the aerial was done)..

At the moment 1.02.32 is only available for the HDR but I don't think it has been broadcast OTA which leads me to suspect that Humax are working on a new version. I would expect that at some point the HD and HDR versions will come back in sync.

I think my next option would be to try the custom firmware (mentioned earlier) that has the workaround.

But the work around is for the case with no aerial; not sure how that will help in your case?

I know you're certain there's no problem with your network set up but, in the absence of any other options, have you tried connecting to someone else's just to be absolutely sure?

That could be easier said than done. The only other person near me that I know has broadband is out most of the time.

OK, well a relative maybe? If all else fails, I'm 30 minutes down the road from you near Warrington. You'd be welcome to plug it into mine if you're really stuck.