Issues with Actiontec Router & Panasonic Viera Connect or Viera Cast

So my wireless connection between the two was working fine; when on or about 5/21, I could connect to router, but not to Viera Cast. I ran the test and it would stop at "Acquire IP address from Router." It could not get beyond that. I have no idea why this thing worked flawlessly for almost a year.

After going through the forums, I found a solution:

Go to Network Settings on TV:

IP: 192.168.1.25 (or any number did is within the range, or doesn't conflict with any other devices plugged into your router)
Sub Net: 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway: 192.168.1.1
Primary DNS: 192.168.1.1
Sec DNS: (leave blank)

It worked perfectly and so far so good. I'm fairly new at messing with router things, but this didn't require that I reset anything with my router, just the TV.

Hope this helps someone because I was going nuts trying to figure this thing out.

Accepted answers

tns

First you probably could try and go back to DHCP having the Actiontec assign the address. Note for my Samsung's, they sometime become hung up trying to use a previously assigned address after the lease has expired. I break them of it by assigning an address, and then going back to automatic address assignment.

To change to WPA2 or WPA(highly recommended) see

http://www22.verizon.com/Support/Residential/Internet/fiosinternet/networking/setup/security/125521.htm

WPA2 is by far the preferred security. WPA/WPA2 is next preferred. WPA with tkip is breakable with some effort. WEP is down right broken security.

To change to a static address such as 192.168.1.200,

1) login to your router from a browser specifying using URL address http://192.168.1.1 The default id and password if you didn't change them should be id "admin" and password the serial number of your router. If reset the password is "password" and asks you to select a new admin id and password. In the past the installers used to set the password to "password1", but should be setting to the serial number. Note id and password are case sensitive.

2) Click network

3) click network connections

4) click network home/office

5) click settings

6) down towards the bottom of the page is start IP 192.168.1.2 and end IP 192.168.1.254. Change the end IP to 192.168.1.199. That makes 192.168.1.200 to 192.168.1.254 address available for you to assign statically. APPLY.

All comments

tns

What you did is a little dangerous as you assigned a fixed IP that the router could in theory give out. Normally you should go into the router and change the range of addresses it would assign, and pick an address outside that range.

Of course of you don't have many devices it is unlikely that it will get as high as 25 and try to assign it to a device.

drbellard

Oh no! Would you kindly explain that solution more gently so that a novice can understand? I'm already concerned about WEP security; but I think I understand what you're recommending. I'm just not sure what steps I'd need to follow.

Thank you.

tns

To change to WPA2 or WPA(highly recommended) see

http://www22.verizon.com/Support/Residential/Internet/fiosinternet/networking/setup/security/125521.htm

WPA2 is by far the preferred security. WPA/WPA2 is next preferred. WPA with tkip is breakable with some effort. WEP is down right broken security.

To change to a static address such as 192.168.1.200,

2) Click network

3) click network connections

4) click network home/office

5) click settings

drbellard

Wow, thanks for that easy fix, man. I had no idea that it was that easy. I was also terrified of making any changes. I now have a much better, more secure network! Thank you.

WjG1

Thanks drbellard!!! - Bought a Panasonic Smart Viera last week. Could not link it to my Verizon Fios Wireless Internet for a week. Tried everything - (automatic, manual input of IP address, WPS) - all without any luck. Kept getting "Home network is available. IP address is not acquired." Your solution worked perfectly. Thanks again.