Hi

Please excuse a stupid question.

But just taken delivery of a new chromecast.

Started iplayer on my phone - casts to the tv not a problem............for all of about 20 seconds and then disconnects every time.

Is this because the phones going into sleep mode - ie display goes off.

Am I just being really daft ??

Dave

Not being daft.

How are you casting it?

1) do you click on the little cast icon in Iplayer?

2) are you casting from te chromecast app i,e what you see on phone is same as on TV?

If you use the former. then you can even switch off phone.

If you use the latter, it will stop if phone goes to sleep.

I am starting iplayer app (not chromecast app) starting what I want to watch and then hitting the cast button - programme starts for around 20-30 seconds then goes off with the "ready to cast" screen coming up - phone display goes black as usual when nothing pressed.

Got latest iplayer version - latest version of chromecast app - phone used LG G3.

Dave

Okay.......NETFLIX casts fine............

Looks like the problem is BBC Iplayer - get "session error" every single time - sometime after 20 seconds - sometime after 2 minutes.

Stops casting and the bbc iplayer ready to cast screen comes back up.

I use uno telly and have blocked google dns servers - am I missing something here ?

Dave

Try a different Smart DNS service, say Getflix which has a two week free trial and works great with the iPlayer.

If that doesn't work, tell us which of Google's DNS ranges you are blocking.

8888 and 8844.

I also contacted unotelly to see if any problems.


Its one of the new chromecasts - whilst nothing is casting and the splashscreen is on - the one with the google images - the chromecast number and the pin - it keeps saying setting up - connecting then splash screen comes back on.

I have it powered by mains power NOT by a tv usb port.

Is that normal ?

Dave

Yeah this can be a problem. I assume you are trying to access US Netflix with unotelly from UK. When you do this, the UK services don't always work.

I get round round this by connecting a second router to my main router (LAN port to LAN port vie ethernet). The main router just uses the ISP DNS settings and the second router the smart DNS settings.

The only hassle here is that you have to keep swapping Chromecast to connect to wifi on one router to the other, but that is easier than changing router settings. Of course you could use two Chromecasts, or buy a Now TV box as that has all the main UK catch up services.

^^ That is indeed unusual.

Definitely try a different Smart DNS service then, perhaps Getflix as this works great with Netflix and the BBC iPlayer. I never have issues with the BBC using Getflix. They have a two week free trial and you don't even need to use your credit card.

If you still have the problem, then we'll look at plan b

Okay that sounds like the problem..........think I'll return it and get a now tv box.

Sounds like too much hassle and not wife/kid friendly.

Thank You so much for your time.

Dave

The Now TV box is excellent, and you won't be disappointed for the FTA UK channels. (As long as you can put your Smart DNS in your router, but it sounds like you can).

Only catch to keep in mind is that the Now TV box doesn't allow Netflix. For that you would need the more expensive Roku box.

Quick question - does the fire tv stick do all uk catch up as well as netflix and amazon ?

Dave

Not yet.

The stick has the BBC iPlayer, Demand 5, Amazon Prime and Netflix, but misses ITV Player and All 4.

ITV Player will arrive any day now (it is on the box already), but it is an older version without live streams - though that will arrive before Xmas.

No idea when All 4 will arrive on it.

One thing you can do though, is mix US apps with the UK ones. So you can also have Sling TV, HBO Now, Hulu, PBS etc if these interest you. (requires a simple trick to do this)

Imo unotelly have gone downhill a lot try a different smart dns provider such as Getflix or Unblock-us, i had no end of issues with unotelly once i switched provider the problems stopped.

Hi

I have found an old asus rtn56 router that was in a cupboard from when i upgraded to the asus ac68.

Do I just plug the second router into the first ?

What settings do I need to change in the second router ?

Can I leave the ac68 as the "smart dns" router and have the second one as the "normal uk" router or does the normal one have to be connected first?

I am on virgin media with their superhub in modem mode.

Dave

With regards to adding the second router so that I have both a "smart dns" router and also a normal uk router - does the normal uk router have to go first in line ?

I am not terribly technical.

But my "smart dns" router is attatched to my virgin superhub (which is in modem mode) - and this router is a wireless ac router - would I lose the "ac" speed if I place a normal router first and then the ac68 router at the end of the chain - ie superhub - rtn56 - ac68 ?

Does that make sense ?

No your speed would be fine. I only have one router connected to my bt home hub 5 i use a tp link wdr3600 and both the hub and router are always hitting 37mbs no speed loss at all.
Your ac speed should be fine.

It is quite simple really. You do not need to make any changes to main router. Jut leave it as it is.

Second router needs to be given a LAN ip address on same subnet as main router.

If main router IP address is say 192.168.0.1

then second router is given a number 192.168.0.2 (third number must be same).

You also disable dhcp on second router.

It does not matter which router is the smart dns router, and which is the non smart router.

I would set dns for non smart router to 8.8.8.8 (primary) and 8.8.4.4 (secondary) as these are the generic 'google' settings as they just work.

You connect two routers LAN port to LAN port via an ethernet cable (do not connect via WAN/adsl port) . There are usually 4 lan ports and 1 wan port so fairly obvious.

Ok thank you for that - I will have a play about tomorrow.

I will feedback tomorrow night.

Dave