New 8.1 WMC Build - 360 Extenders Won't Connect

Troubleshoot and discuss the XBOX 360, XBOX One, Linksys, and other extenders.
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SomeGuy

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New 8.1 WMC Build - 360 Extenders Won't Connect

#1

Post by SomeGuy » Fri Nov 30, 2018 5:00 am

Been using WMC for.. well forever, and it's always worked pretty well. A month or two ago I figured that if I was ever going to refresh the hardware that now was the time, and got myself some new gear, installed 8.1, activated Media Center (hooray, it still works!), and got my storage drives configured. After reconfiguring EPG123 and the HDHomeruns everything seemed fine.. till I tried to connect the two 360 Extenders I've got.

The issue is the same on both:
Connection Failure
The Xbox 360 could not connect to the windows Media Center PC. Make sure that the PC is turned on and connected to the network, and then try to reconnect.

I tried uninstalling the Extender on both the WMC side and the Extender, and tried again, and no good. I tried disabling the firewall on Windows and it seemed to fail even harder, but after some searching around it looks like you MUST enable the Windows firewall or it won't connect. Weird, but whatever.

I started digging through the logs, and everything seems ok..
-Media center extender setup starts
-Media center determines the Windows firewall is enabled on this profile
-Finds the extender
-Media center extender software is sent to the extender (version 0x20656804)
-Media center is discovered at the IP address (weird this happens after finding it, but ok)
-Creates a user account for the extender (which is reflected in the Users folder)
-Notes that the PC and extender supports WOL, and notes the ethernet adapter on the PC
-Media center sends the extender software again)
-Sends it again about 90s later
-Notes the extender was setup succesfully, but failed to connect after a 180000ms (3min) timeout

After that it repeatedly tries to send the Extender software, as the 360 restarts over and over with the same error.

I've tried deleting the certificate (which does regenerate properly) and restarting the list service. The 360's are both up to date on the latest Xbox software. The network is good, (there's a couple of edge switches, but even with everything directly on the main switch it still fails).

For funsies I powered up the old HTPC, and on attempting to add the 360 Extender to it, IT WORKS! So I guess that means that the 360 is good, but I'm not really sure where to go from here. I don't have anything installed on it besides the drivers for the board, so there's no funky antivirus gumming up the works (besides Defender).

Here's what I'm working with:
Asus H270M-Plus
i5 6500T
2x4gb DDR4-2133
180gb SSD
3x2tb RAID 5 (storage)
Gigabit to switch, where 360 is; other 360 is on another switch daisy-chained

dab2kab

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#2

Post by dab2kab » Sat Dec 01, 2018 6:00 am

If you havent tried it i would suggest 1) updating the drivers for your Ethernet card/device and seeing if it will connect. 2) If suggestion 1 doesn't help, try removing the switch and directly connecting the 360 to the pc and seeing if it connects. This may not solve your issue if you want to use the switch, but it can tell you if the switch is part of the problem.

SomeGuy

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#3

Post by SomeGuy » Mon Dec 03, 2018 5:17 am

Good call on the driver, but I'm already at the latest'n'greatest for that adapter.

I fail to see how directly connecting them would work.. at all. Even with a crossover cable (which would be needed to connect two devices like this), there's nothing to facilitate DHCP (so either device gets an IP) or DNS.

adam1991

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#4

Post by adam1991 » Mon Dec 03, 2018 10:17 am

All NICs nowadays autosense the cable; you certainly can use a crossover, but you can also use a straight cable.

So set fixed IP addresses on each piece for the purposes of testing. I do this all the time. It's easy. Set one to 192.168.1.2 and the other to 192.168.1.3, for example. Net mask is 255.255.255.0, and it doesn't matter what your gateway is. Leave it empty. DNS servers as well. When you're finished testing, set it all back to DHCP.

dab2kab

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#5

Post by dab2kab » Wed Dec 05, 2018 7:27 am

I can assure that connecting an extender directly to the PC can result in a successful connection. I've done it myself many times when router problems have caused connection failures.

SomeGuy

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#6

Post by SomeGuy » Sun Dec 09, 2018 9:28 pm

Well color me surprised, the HTPC and 360 got at eachother when connected directly.. but still no bueno, it's no different than being on the network.

It's weird, it's almost like the HTPC is configuring it and it's all good to go, but then when the HTPC reaches out to actually connect it can't make the RDP session happen.

tardyturtle

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#7

Post by tardyturtle » Mon Dec 10, 2018 2:32 am

I have been dealing with this same issue for quite some time now. You can see my trials and tribulations at the following thread:viewtopic.php?f=8&t=10083&start=20

I tried adding a switch to see if that would fix it (it did not) and this weekend I got an all-new router which also did not seem to fix it. The only thing that fixes it for me (temporarily) is a restart of my HTPC, but then within a few hours it is back to not connecting. Does a restart allow yours to work transiently?

I would occasionally get some errors logged, but more recently I just see in Event Viewer that the software is sent to the extender but nothing more after that.

Case of beer to whomever can figure this out :D . It has been driving me nuts!

SomeGuy

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#8

Post by SomeGuy » Mon Dec 10, 2018 4:46 am

Yeah, I've read through it.. more than a few times! I tried restarting like you did, and even moments after it doesn't work.

I don't think it's anything in the network infrastructure in my case, since my old HTPC still does accept new Extender clients. I'm wondering if it has something to do with the domain I've got set up at home (it's to goof around with stuff to understand things a little better at my day job), but the old HTPC was on it too, so that's out. My next steps are to try a different NIC (I've got a USB NIC on standby for kicks), and double check security settings on the old HTPC.. short of that I'll try reimaging the new gear but I'm running as short on ideas as I am people who use WMC :/

SomeGuy

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#9

Post by SomeGuy » Mon Dec 10, 2018 8:09 pm

Ok, tried out a USB NIC instead of the onboard, and it's the same.

At this point my best bet that it's either a bad update somewhere that's gumming up the works, or a firewall/policy rule that's getting in the way. The logs suggest they're contacting eachother (also evident by the 360 attempting to hit the HTPC to pull down the config), but it's just not making it.. guess all I've got left is a reimage.

SomeGuy

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#10

Post by SomeGuy » Sat Dec 15, 2018 8:53 pm

Welp, I fixed it. I guess.

The afternoon was clear of recordings so I figured I'd end up reimaging, but before that I removed the HTPC from my domain, and tried to re-add the extenders, and everything was peachy-keen. I removed them, re-added the HTPC to the domain, and it works there too, so all I can assume is there's something in my domain policy that's blocking the connection, but by connecting them FIRST it opens up whatever it is. I'm still going to keep the old hardware on standby for a little while, but it seems to have fixed it.

TardyTurtle, I don't remember from your post, but did you ever try switching workgroups? It seems like that's fixed some things. Also making sure that the extender accounts make their way into the allow logon to terminal services:
https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/colinc ... ontroller/

It seems unlikely that would happen on a non-domain PC, but who knows.

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