VMS4100 set up problems, drop in replacement for CHS335HDC

[belscrog]

Verizon sent me a VMS4100 to replace a CHS335HDC. My router is a TP-Link AC2600; I have a MoCA bridge and everything has worked fine (TV, guide, on demand, etc.) for several years and several routers.

I plugged everything in the same, and in the router I recoded the MAC address of the new STB to 192.168.1.100, and can confirm that the DHCP server has given it the right IP (shows up as VMS4100P2). I'm forwarding UDP 63145->63145 and TCP 35000->7547. (Although I also saw a post that those may not be necessary?) The old STB had two MAC addresses; this one appears to have just the one.

During the setup, I first get a complaint that I'm not using a Verizon router. Step 2 is "software download." On step 2A, "MRL info and server identifier," during testing, it gets to "downloading MC," hangs, and then I get the message "Multicast MRL failed" followed by a pop-up that says "Error Code 2203-DL22" with no elaboration.

None of these codes or messages seem to be google-able, or on the forum, and the Arris user guide amounts to "don't get it wet." I feel like I'm missing something obvious! Does anyone have any thought of what I can check next? Thanks in advance!

As an aside, if I can plug straight into the ethernet port and ditch the MoCA bridge, I'd be for that.

[clem21]

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@belscrog wrote:

Verizon sent me a VMS4100 to replace a CHS335HDC. My router is a TP-Link AC2600; I have a MoCA bridge and everything has worked fine (TV, guide, on demand, etc.) for several years and several routers.

I plugged everything in the same, and in the router I recoded the MAC address of the new STB to 192.168.1.100, and can confirm that the DHCP server has given it the right IP (shows up as VMS4100P2). I'm forwarding UDP 63145->63145 and TCP 35000->7547. (Although I also saw a post that those may not be necessary?) The old STB had two MAC addresses; this one appears to have just the one.

During the setup, I first get a complaint that I'm not using a Verizon router. Step 2 is "software download." On step 2A, "MRL info and server identifier," during testing, it gets to "downloading MC," hangs, and then I get the message "Multicast MRL failed" followed by a pop-up that says "Error Code 2203-DL22" with no elaboration.

None of these codes or messages seem to be google-able, or on the forum, and the Arris user guide amounts to "don't get it wet." I feel like I'm missing something obvious! Does anyone have any thought of what I can check next? Thanks in advance!

As an aside, if I can plug straight into the ethernet port and ditch the MoCA bridge, I'd be for that.

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You might want to send a PM here: https://forums.verizon.com/t5/notes/composepage/note-to-user-id/310029 He is very good with network issues.

[belscrog · Accepted solution]

Update: I switched the topology of the MoCA bridge. I had had it in with a splitter. Taking the splitter out and putting in series between the ONT and the STB and cold rebooting solved the problem. So presumably I had too weak of a signal through the coax. (I couldn't figure out how to get to the diagnostics menu to confirm.)

I don't remember why I did that in the first place, but since then I've moved the ONT. Between that and the presumably higher bandwidth needs of the new box seems a reasonable explanation for the errors.

[clem21]

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@belscrog wrote:

Update: I switched the topology of the MoCA bridge. I had had it in with a splitter. Taking the splitter out and putting in series between the ONT and the STB and cold rebooting solved the problem. So presumably I had too weak of a signal through the coax. (I couldn't figure out how to get to the diagnostics menu to confirm.)

I don't remember why I did that in the first place, but since then I've moved the ONT. Between that and the presumably higher bandwidth needs of the new box seems a reasonable explanation for the errors.

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One path to the diagnostics menu is here: Main Menu > Settings > System Information. Also look here:

Main Menu > Customer Support > Top Support Tools > Connected Device Status, click on the device and go to advanced diagnostics.

[belscrog]

Thanks. It's moot now, but is there any way to get into before the initialization? On some of the Arris boxes you can, I think.

[clem21]

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@belscrog wrote:

Thanks. It's moot now, but is there any way to get into before the initialization? On some of the Arris boxes you can, I think.

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Not sure if you can before initialization, but there is access through the service menu. Gotta be REALLY careful there you don't brick the box by changing the wrong parameters.