UPC Horizon Set Top Box trial

2kreative · 10-05-2013 12:25AM

Broadband via the horizon box is a bit of a nightmare - no bridging, no port forwarding (settings don't work). But the worst is if you enter in your public IP address into your browser you get access directly to the modem settings! Just enter in the default username and password and you can screw around with other peoples network settings!

I'm waiting for a call back to have my old modem re-enabled.

irish_stu · 10-05-2013 12:43AM

coylemj wrote: »

I'm not a network expert but I've found that setting a new box to the old SSID name very seldom works, there are (hidden) network parameters that come into play and your mobile devices just won't work unless you tell them to 'forget' the gateway device in which case you have to manually enter the password anyway so you might as well use the new SSID.

Renamed ssid to horizon123 so I could identify it ,as I have a secondary asus router,but after a factory reset with original ssid intact still no joy

DylanII · 10-05-2013 01:02AM

So far my problems are:

1. The internet doesnt work on the xbox.
2. Sometimes I have to switch the box off and on again to get the sound working.
3. Sometimes the picture breaks up - not the signal, but the whole connection to the box. I have to completely power down to fix it, sometimes a few times.
4. The space button on the remote doesnt work.
5. Content streamed from my laptop cant be paused.

Del2005 · 10-05-2013 02:24AM

fat bloke wrote: »

Got my install done today.

Everything seems to work ok, I'm just trying to get used to it. There are a couple of small things - simple stuff like changing channel:

One question that arose immediately was - is it possible to remove unsubscribed channels from the various menus/channel listings. I haven't got the sky channels with my subscription but I still have to scroll past them (slowly) in order to get to the channels to which I am subscribed. A small thing, but immediately annoying.

You can create a favourites list and remove the channels you aren't subscribed to.

fat bloke wrote: »

Also - the page down button from the old remote and box seems to be gone. On each menu you have to scroll channel by channel, so lets say I want to flick 5 or 15 channels up or down from where I am it's quite a slow process. On the old box I could go left or right and it would flick on fairly quickly, or I could go to the guide and page up or down. Either that's not possible on the new box, or I just haven't been told how to do it.

Yeah noticed this myself. Makes it hard to flick through the channels.

Is there anyway to skip the days in the guide? I actually remembered to keep a list of my set recordings and when I was trying to enter then I had to scan through the days.

KenH · 10-05-2013 02:38AM

You can see how to set favourites in this video at 13:50.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTqhPD0yjPI

rwald7 · 10-05-2013 07:48AM

I'm due an engineer install on Tuesday afternoon. After following this thread, I'm having serious doubts about getting involved in the trial at this stage. Can anyone who's up and running with Horizon and are happy with it, let me know the positives? Is it worth the hassle! Cheers.

wowzer · 10-05-2013 08:11AM

rwald7 wrote: »

I'm due an engineer install on Tuesday afternoon. After following this thread, I'm having serious doubts about getting involved in the trial at this stage. Can anyone who's up and running with Horizon and are happy with it, let me know the positives? Is it worth the hassle! Cheers.

Just go for it. I'm one of the unlucky ones that can't get the phone or broadband to work but I'm sure it will be rectified soon enough. That is the whole point of this trial, they need to figure out the problems and that is why we are being compensated..

irish_stu · 10-05-2013 08:18AM

wowzer wrote: »

Just go for it. I'm one of the unlucky ones that can't get the phone or broadband to work but I'm sure it will be rectified soon enough. That is the whole point of this trial, they need to figure out the problems and that is why we are being compensated..

Are you ringing today about it,I myself won't get chance to do so until I'm home this evening,will you post your resolution if ya can please

Paulw · 10-05-2013 08:37AM

coylemj wrote: »

I'm not a network expert but I've found that setting a new box to the old SSID name very seldom works, there are (hidden) network parameters that come into play and your mobile devices just won't work unless you tell them to 'forget' the gateway device in which case you have to manually enter the password anyway so you might as well use the new SSID.

It worked perfecty fine for me. I set my new box to use the old IP range I used previously, and also the SSID. Saved me having to reconfigure all my devices.

Worked without a single issue.

rwald7 · 10-05-2013 09:30AM

I suppose what I'm trying to get a handle on is whether or not the new functionality is worth it? I currently have a HD box and 50mb broadband that is reliable and works fine.

garlad · 10-05-2013 09:41AM

Did the self install last night, with some dude from some marketing company.
Installed fine, took about 10 minutes.

Set up the remote to work with tv. Took about 5 attempts (Sony Bravia)

My box connects to AV Receiver via HDMI.

Changed IP address, SSID etc to match old setup. Had to forget network on iPhone, then reconnect. Other devices seemed to work fine by just reinputting password.

Plugged in phone. Worked fine.

Hooked up Synology NAS. Could view photos, listen to music, watch movies. Only issue (a biggun!) was that I could not get audio from MKV files. Not sure if its a setting on Horizon, NAS or whether its something to do with the AV Receiver. Will tinker around with it tonight.

Added port forward settings, but these did not work. SO I cannot connect to my NAS externally. Might have to plug the old router back in.

Overall pretty good. Will take a while to get used to remote and menus. If they can solve the port forwarding that would be great.

DutchDude · 10-05-2013 10:33AM

garlad wrote: »

Added port forward settings, but these did not work. SO I cannot connect to my NAS externally. Might have to plug the old router back in.

I am following this thread out of interest as you are one of the first ones to evaluate the new Horizon (video) software, which we in the Netherlands don't have yet.

Aside from this, I see a number of you having problems with getting port forwarding to work. On the Dutch forums the most commonly identified 'mistake' is that people try to set up port forwarding to an internal private IP address which is part of the routers DHCP pool.

Port forwarding is only allowed to static private internal addresses which are outside the routers DHCP pool. So you might have to reduce your DHCP pool size and allocate your NAS an IP address outside of the pool.

Again, not 100% sure if this is the problem you all are encountering, but I thought it was worth sharing. In NL we are on the same network software version (68) like you guys btw, so I don't expect this to behave very different, unless this is a setting UPC dynamically influences per country.

Let me know if this was helpfully for you.

-Dugg!e- · 10-05-2013 11:05AM

I also did the self install everything connected except my sons xbox 360.

The box (and I know we are trialing it) seems to pause some website requests then all of a sudden everything opens, happens on all devices.
The signal from the box to the Television sometimes turns to pink, never happened before.
As other posters have pointed out the tv station prowser tends to freeze then jump forward and you can miss some stations, I would like the old left right scroll through the stations added or an option to add it

The twonky app is a great addition no more back and forward with usb sticks and the media box is now redundant

Remote works the TV another plus, no more searching for remotes.

On the Xbox problem it will not connect to the box at all, I have used the proper gateway, subnet mask and tried different ip addresses, I also used the standard DNS server and also a primary and secondary DNS server that I was given from Tech support no joy. Has anyone any ideas the xbox is a 360 with wifi built in.

My Broadband speed has not increased?
This is from UPCs speedtest
Last Result:
Download Speed: 46934 kbps (5866.8 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 6255 kbps (781.9 KB/sec transfer rate)
Latency: 48 ms
5/10/2013 10:48:47 AM

I can live with the little problems for now but not the xbox one, might have to go back to old system

Good start by UPC but a few glitches to iron out.

Technoprisoner · 10-05-2013 11:11AM

my first night of having the horizon last night and im happy enough. its a pitty they dont have a down button so you can skip through the menu faster by page rather than channel. oh and be able to skip days in the epg. Another thing i noticed and i will have to keep an eye on is every now and again its as though the box turns off...the screen goes black and when it comes back on there would be vision but no sound for a few seconds.

gar · 10-05-2013 11:15AM

Installed, no issues really so far.
Had to show the lads how to pair the remote to the tv from the link i got here!!

Dont think my bb speed has gone up yet but tv and phone working.
Ill tinker later.

Changed the ssid and password to what i had before and no issues with devices connecting

Gar

bob11 · 10-05-2013 11:18AM

-Dugg!e- wrote: »

I also did the self install everything connected except my sons xbox 360.

The box (and I know we are trialing it) seems to pause some website requests then all of a sudden everything opens, happens on all devices.
The signal from the box to the Television sometimes turns to pink, never happened before.
As other posters have pointed out the tv station prowser tends to freeze then jump forward and you can miss some stations, I would like the old left right scroll through the stations added or an option to add it

The twonky app is a great addition no more back and forward with usb sticks and the media box is now redundant

Remote works the TV another plus, no more searching for remotes.

On the Xbox problem it will not connect to the box at all, I have used the proper gateway, subnet mask and tried different ip addresses, I also used the standard DNS server and also a primary and secondary DNS server that I was given from Tech support no joy. Has anyone any ideas the xbox is a 360 with wifi built in.

My Broadband speed has not increased?
This is from UPCs speedtest
Last Result:
Download Speed: 46934 kbps (5866.8 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 6255 kbps (781.9 KB/sec transfer rate)
Latency: 48 ms
5/10/2013 10:48:47 AM

I can live with the little problems for now but not the xbox one, might have to go back to old system

Good start by UPC but a few glitches to iron out.

A few possible xbox solutions here :

http://community.upc-cablecom.ch/posts/dad6bd6154

garlad · 10-05-2013 11:27AM

DutchDude wrote: »

I am following this thread out of interest as you are one of the first ones to evaluate the new Horizon (video) software, which we in the Netherlands don't have yet.

Aside from this, I see a number of you having problems with getting port forwarding to work. On the Dutch forums the most commonly identified 'mistake' is that people try to set up port forwarding to an internal private IP address which is part of the routers DHCP pool.

Port forwarding is only allowed to static private internal addresses which are outside the routers DHCP pool. So you might have to reduce your DHCP pool size and allocate your NAS an IP address outside of the pool.

Again, not 100% sure if this is the problem you all are encountering, but I thought it was worth sharing. In NL we are on the same network software version (68) like you guys btw, so I don't expect this to behave very different, unless this is a setting UPC dynamically influences per country.

Let me know if this was helpfully for you.

Thanks DutchDude. I'll check the size of my pool size. My NAS has an IP ending in 130 though, so probably is outside the pool size.

-Dugg!e- · 10-05-2013 11:41AM

bob11 wrote: »

A few possible xbox solutions here :

http://community.upc-cablecom.ch/posts/dad6bd6154

Thanks a lot bob11

set to wpa no mix

now all I have to do is open port 3074 and solve nat problem LOL ARGHHH

unklerosco · 10-05-2013 11:46AM

I haven't yet had a chance to read through the past 84 pages... Could someone tell me how you got to take part in the trial, is it luck of the draw, bribes, blackmail?

-Dugg!e- · 10-05-2013 11:47AM

unklerosco wrote: »

I haven't yet had a chance to read through the past 84 pages... Could someone tell me how you got to take part in the trial, is it luck of the draw, bribes, blackmail?

Signed up a couple of months ago on Facebook

Star Lord · 10-05-2013 11:48AM

Getting my box delivered today to my work, only got the mail to order from and ordered it yesterday, so was surprised to be getting it so quickly!

unklerosco · 10-05-2013 11:48AM

Nuts, I knew I should never have turned my back on Facebook!

Star Lord · 10-05-2013 11:50AM

I actually got an email from UPC about it, and pre-registered my interest from that.

unklerosco · 10-05-2013 11:55AM

DamoElDiablo wrote: »

I actually got an email from UPC about it, and pre-registered my interest from that.

I just sent them off an email there to see if they'd stick our details down for the trial... sure will see what happens, wouldn't mind getting to play with one.. I was going to ring in to get new points and HD boxes installed but it'd be nice to get an horizon box instead

Cushie Butterfield · 10-05-2013 12:05PM

Mr.S wrote: »

Just got a text from the courier saying my box will be delivered today.

No text from them or UPC about having to pick up the old stuff, think ill be allowed keep it? (router and old STD)

I'd imagine he'd rather not pick that up :eek:

Star Lord · 10-05-2013 12:12PM

unklerosco wrote: »

I just sent them off an email there to see if they'd stick our details down for the trial... sure will see what happens, wouldn't mind getting to play with one.. I was going to ring in to get new points and HD boxes installed but it'd be nice to get an horizon box instead

You could always try this: http://www.upc.ie/horizonoffer/

pc7 · 10-05-2013 12:14PM

Oh no I wish I had of seen this thread before I ordered it today!

pelluci · 10-05-2013 12:19PM

Got it installed this morning, installer spent over an hour checking all the cables, took old router (said I could keep it and not have broadband activated on the horizon box, but once it worked upstairs, I didn't care). Only gripe so far is the lack of a "UPC" button to go straight back to the TV from On Demand or Recordings, rather that the "back" button going 1 step back each time. Then again, I haven't been using it long, so there might be something there.

I was getting 60Mb from 100Mb wireless on the old router, now around 76Mb (was 60 from 60 before upgrade, but you can't have everything!).

Overall, I like it, or I will, once I get used to it.

goose06 · 10-05-2013 12:27PM

pelluci wrote: »

Only gripe so far is the lack of a "UPC" button to go straight back to the TV from On Demand or Recordings, rather that the "back" button going 1 step back each time. Then again, I haven't been using it long, so there might be something there.
QUOTE]

There is a button that says TV on it near the end of the remote that does that

garlad · 10-05-2013 12:34PM

Just tried to connect to my Synology externally again. And I can connect !!! Couldn't last night or this morning.
Made no changes.
Unless the box updated or something in the last couple of hours?
Anyway, great news for port forwarding

UPC Horizon Set Top Box trial

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