Alright everyone! The time has come, Product Managers @RogersJose, @Rogers_D, and @Rogers_Red5 are here for the next 3 days to answer all your questions about Ignite TV, Ignite WiFi Hub, your Ignite Internet Modem and any other questions you may have.
They will do their best to answer your questions on a first come - first serve basis. But we all know some questions are easier than others, so please allow time for them to get the best answer for you. We promise, no question will go unanswered, no one will be left out.
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Ask an Expert Guidelines
Here are some guidelines to keep the event running smoothly. As always, our Community Guidelines and Terms of Use apply.
1. If you have a question to ask, simply post in the Ask an Expert: Ignite TV Pt. II thread. The Experts will reply as soon as they have your answer.
2. @RogersJose, @Rogers_D, and @Rogers_Red5 will be available to answer questions throughout the entire 3 days, but please patient and allow time for a response.
3. @RogersJose, @Rogers_D, and @Rogers_Red5 will not be able to comment on products or services that haven't been announced so please keep the conversation on topic for the event and the Community.
Ok, so the question was:
Can we PLEASE get the ability to COMPLETELY disable Wi-Fi on the XB6 modem/gateway? Even with "bridge mode" enabled, the XB6 still has several hidden networks active and there is no way to disable those or to disable the radios on the XB6. When using an external Wi-Fi mesh network, Wi-Fi on the XB6 serves no purpose and just pollutes the local Wi-Fi environment with unnecessary interference. (Personally, I would rather have the option of using my own network gear with a Technicolor TC4400 modem.)
The response to the question was:
"At this time, we’re currently offering our customers the option to control their Connected Home experience through the Ignite WiFi Hub, where all their devices ride on the Wi-Fi that the XB6 modem and Ignite WiFi pods deliver."
So, not trying to be peeved about the response, but, basically I am. That's like someone asking "what colour is the sky", to which the answer is " the cheese is really good". Really, that's the answer?
If you look around the forum, specifically at the Ignite TV performance issues, where the Xi6 connects via wifi, as does Bell's system, and maybe Start, Teksavvy, Cogeco, etc, etc, part of the solution is to cut down on the number of wifi networks that are running, instead of plowing ahead and running as many wifi networks as you possibly can out of one modem. Multiply that by tens of modems nearby and you have nothing but chaos. Consider the big picture here and also consider that users, in many but not all cases, have their own routers and access points which are far superior to anything that Rogers offers or will ever offer. Same goes for any other ISP. Simply saying that we're going along with Intel and Comcast's plan to rule the world with mediocre equipment is not an adequate answer.
So, lets try this again, when is Rogers going to provide the ability to COMPLETELY disable Wi-Fi on the XB6 modem/gateway?
@schmoggles wrote:
On the networking side, I'm looking to hard wire the boxes, but also place them on a Vlan within my L3 network. I assume DHCP will work, are there any address restrictions? Can I set a static address?
As well, are they looking to connect to a multicast address range? I would have the ignite modem in bridged mode supplying WAN to my Router / L3 swtich arrangement, but can enable multicast routing if needed. Also, curious if they need to be in the same broadcast subnet (if they are communicating in anyway over SSDP or whatever). As well, any firewall / NAT info would be wonderful!
Any advanced networking information / deeper settings information would be greatly appreciated!
You won't get an official response from Rogers to these questions because such a configuration would be completely unsupportable from their perspective.
By default, the XB6 assigns internal IPv4 addresses in the 10.0.0.0/24 range but the Xi6 set-top boxes don't have any addressing restrictions that I know of. Ignite TV uses IPv6 so you will need to ensure that this is working absolutely PERFECTLY on your hardware. Streams are unicast, so there are no complex firewall rules or any need to get IGMP working. I have all of my set-top boxes in the same broadcast domain. I don't think that this is an absolute requirement but any (even moderately) complex L3 topology will push the limits beyond what I suspect has ever been tested.
I'd suggest using something like 192.168.10.0/24 for your internal LAN's IPv4 address space. You can still log into the XB6 by going to http://10.0.0.1 , even when the unit is in bridge mode. (It will do the routing for such a connection internally.) Obtain external addresses with DHCP and DHCPv6. The advantage to this setup is that it allows you to put the the XB6 back into gateway mode (with minimal disruption) in the event that the Rogers Tech Support team needs to do troubleshooting.
My fallback configuration (when dealing with tech support) is to put the XB6 into gateway mode and connect the Xi6 set-top boxes (wired) to a simple switch that is uplinked directly to the XB6.
@Square : Please be aware that some channels send what I call "improperly encoded" DD5.1. These channels include CBC, CBCNN, PBS, etc when the original programme is not available in DD5.1. I'm not sure if all of your recordings are sending improperly encoded DD5.1, however, it's something for you to be aware of. Please see the following FAQ on the topic, Note 1.:
https://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/30-57s-home-theatre-faqs/17870-faq-whats-available-dd5-1-a.html
@schmoggles wrote:
Gotcha - thanks!
No problem! If you have any further questions, feel free to post in a separate thread.
One other thing: I noticed that you wanted to go with a fully wired configuration. That should work but I discovered a REALLY weird quirk in my testing. I normally have my Xi6's connected wirelessly. The Arris Xi6's also worked fine when I connected them wired... but they still maintained an active wireless connection, even though they don't transmit data any over that link.
What's even stranger is that I had my Xi6's connected wired and then switched out my wireless mesh with a (not entirely stable) access point... and the Xi6's were NOT happy. They missed processing video segments from time to time and that resulted in a glitchy picture. I made a configuration change to the access point and everything went back to normal again. No data was ever sent on the wireless link but the Xi6's were unhappy with the unstable wireless network.
Another time, I powered my wireless mesh off and (again) the Xi6's were not happy. What's weirder is that they then established another wireless connection... but I have no idea to what. A default fallback SSID? With my XB6... that's in bridge mode? With my neighbour's XB6?
If you can, try to get a Technicolor XB6; they have a Broadcom chipset. Also try to get the newer Xi6-T (Technicolor) set-top boxes.
@schmoggles wrote:
Very interesting indeed... and I'm just finding out via this board about the fact the Radios can't be disabled on the XB6! - wow, this really is of great concern for the same reasons already outlined by other users earlier. I have my own AP's and don't need to add more noise in this spectrum.
The good news is that you can still work around this to a certain extent. Perform a wireless survey and find 2.4 and 5GHz channels that will cause the least amount of disruption to you and to your neighbours, ideally channels that are neither "good" nor "bad". Configure those channels manually in the XB6, save them, then disable WiFi. You'll still see a bunch of hidden (WPA2 Personal and WPA/WPA2 Enterprise) SSIDs active but your channel assignments will stick... and if you've done things right, it should keep any potential disruption to a minimum, even if neighbouring gear selects its Wi-Fi channels automatically.
This is still a custom install, requiring a tech to install the service. The question is, will this ever migrate to a self install? Reading thru some of the posts regarding Ignite TV, it would appear that Rogers has a lot of work to do on their backend systems before this ever becomes a self install service, if ever.
@Datalink wrote:
This is still a custom install, requiring a tech to install the service. The question is, will this ever migrate to a self install? Reading thru some of the posts regarding Ignite TV, it would appear that Rogers has a lot of work to do on their backend systems before this ever becomes a self install service, if ever.
Actually, go to https://www.rogers.com/web/consumer/ignite-bundles/get-iptv
... and click on "See Full Details" at the bottom of the page. The first line reads:
> Taxes extra. One-time installation fee of $149.99 applies (waived for self-install).
I suspect that this might be contractual boilerplate that got pasted in error but I would still be interested to hear what the Ignite TV Product Managers have to say. For Internet and TV? Maybe. For Home Phone? I dunno. I just can't see (most) end-customers disconnecting the incoming wires from their old Bell service and patching the XB6 into their home phone wiring. The (subcontracted) Install techs seem to have a hard enough time getting this right... unless Rogers has uploaded an amazing DIY video to their YouTube channel.
Yup, the phone service will remain a problem going forward.
Speaking of that, ok, Ask the Expert, expert. Whats the Ring Equivalency Number for both the Arris and Technicolor XB6. I've asked this previously and I've never had a response. For the responding expert, here's a Wikipedia reference:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ringer_equivalence_number
So, the REN number in Canada if I remember this correctly is 5 which translates to a number of telephones in the house, whose total REN does not exceed 5. If the modem's REN is too low, it won't ring the connected telephones, or, the ring won't be noticeable. These problems have been reported by new users, so, whats the REN for both XB6 models?
@Datalink wrote:So, the REN number in Canada if I remember this correctly is 5 which translates to a number of telephones in the house, whose total REN does not exceed 5. If the modem's REN is too low, it won't ring the connected telephones, or, the ring won't be noticeable. These problems have been reported by new users, so, whats the REN for both XB6 models?
I remember seeing a REN of 3 (or was it 3 REN per port?) in a draft of the Arris XB6 telephony specs but I can't find an active link to that document.
@Square wrote:
Thank you. Yes, I should have mentioned ALL my recordings do not play proper DD 5.1. Either the Cloud PVR is not doing some thing right, or the Cloud Recordings do not work properly with Optical connection. The technician is coming tomorrow, but I have my doubt he can fix it.
Please explain to us how you are connected in full detail. Ignite doesn't have an optical connection. If you're going "through" your TV via optical, it may be affecting the audio signal. Re-read the FAQ in my previous post because you need to have the TV's audio menu set up properly for DD5.1 to get through. I don't understand how you can have DD5.1 live and not on recorded programming because it comes down the identical pipe to the box. Also, if your AVR is showing a DD5.1 but it's improperly encoded that was covered in my previous post and again, I don't understand how you say you're not getting DD5.1 when your AVR shows incoming DD5.1. Something is amiss in your setup.
It would also help if you advised us which channel(s) you're recording and which programming is not coming in as DD5.1. Also, please clarify if you're actually seeing a 5.1 signal but improperly encoded, or if you're seeing a DD2.0 signal. These are two totally different matters. Also, which audio mode are you now on in your audio settings of your Ignite Box.
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