Live box and Orange TV

Hi All

We have had an Orange Livebox with Orange TV for over 5 years which works via an Orange Live plug and cable from the back of the box to the liveplug.
Over the years I tried to connect our TV from the Orange Live plug but it would not work a bit of research told me that the Cat 5 cable from the liveplug does not supply a normal internet connection. So I gave up on that.
The other day a lightning strike nearby took out the liveplug, netgear switch and Devolo internet over mains unit.

I went to the local Orange boutique and was told they no longer sold liveplug and I should go to Darty and get an internet over mains plug.

As I needed a new master unit for the Devolo system I bought one with a DLAN connection for the livetv box. The internet works but I cannot get Orange TV.

Does anyone know if Orange TV over the internet will work via normal Cat5 DLAN cable?

Or as the box is four to five years old has it been updated?

Regards. Nick

Our Orange TV box is connected to the Orange Livebox via standard Cat5e cable.

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Hi. Nigel is that a recent box?

IIRC the Livebox has two formats, either WiFi or Wired.
The DLAN systems often have both WiFi capability and a straight wired RJ45 interface.
Are you certain you are not “mixing and matching”?
It’s some time ago since we used the Orange TV setup but for us, IIRC it worked like this:
An RJ45 (Cat5e) lead from the Livebox to the appropriate DLAN pair in a 3 pin socket close by. The second “slave” DLAN close to the TV with an RJ45 (Cat5e) cable between the DLAN and the LiveTV box. The LiveTV box was then connected to the TV by HDMI.
In more recent times, we used WiFi to connect the Livebox to the TV without using the Liveplugs. Now we just use an RJ45 (Cat5e) link directly to the TV from the 4G Router.

Yes - its only a couple of months old - provided when our fibre was installed.

I wonder if it is our old box that is at fault, I am sure that the output from the Orange liveplug was not normal internet, I brought a notebook computer down and it would not work on the Cat 5 cable, but the Orange TV worked fine.

Going to the new setup I have a Devolo 1200T master with one slave unit down by the TV this is not a WIFI slave. I have set up the four old DLAN WiFi units around the house to the same new Devol 1200 unit and they all work on both WiFi and Cat 5 (two of them are connected to Cat5 dependant devices)

Going back to the Orange TV box it is connected to TV with an HDMI cable and it comes up on the TV with Orange logo and then connection error. If I take the cable and plug it into the Smart TV it has a good internet connection.

So I am fairly convinced that my old Orange TV box needs the Orange live plug connection. I will phone up Orange tomorrow and see if I can get a new box.

Regards

Nick

Maybe the lightening strike zapped the box too… :thinking:
You’re renting it, so it shouldn’t be a problem - just remember to keep hold of the card :wink:

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Our Orange TV decoder was installed in 2015 - it connects to the Livebox via regular Ethernet/RJ45 connectors which have variously been a PowerLine adapter and a straight cable.

As far as I know the TV service uses a separate VLAN tag (or rather 2 - 838 and 840 I think) to separate the TV traffic on the LAN, not sure if that is then just bridged to the VDSL connection (I don’t think you can have the TV package on ADSL and it might be because the presentation needs to be Ethernet to support VLAN taging rather than VPI/VCI).

Anyway I digress and it’s probably gobbledegook to most people - the practical upshot is that it shouldn’t matter how the TV decoder connects to the Livebox (WiFi, Ethernet cable or Powerline system) it should “just work” without special kit.

Seems likely, given that it took everything else out. I’d try a laptop plugged into the Livebox via an Ethernet cable and see if that can get online first, before trying anything else.

Quick additional thoughts. Is it possible that one cat 5e cable in the chain is configured as a null modem (aka crossover cable)? You won’t know without using a continuity checker.

I’m a bit confused by all the technical data but our Orange TV box just has two leads. One to a power point and one into HTMI2.
It’s about a year old.

Xover cables are not so common these days.

Most 100Mbps kit auto-negotiates and GbE doesn’t need crossover cables anyway (it uses all the pairs - and each pair is bidirectional).

That said, hmmmm… wonder if it would kill â€‰GbE - I don’t know if it is smart enough to cope with two pairs out of the 4 being swapped.

You don’t need a continuity checker though - just sharp eyes. Hold the two RJ45’s together and check the same colour coded wire goes to the same pin at each end. The actual plug is normally clear plastic so it is possible to see the colours (might need a magnifying glass).

smart people use a multimeter but with my eyesight, a continuity checker does just fine :wink:
Yes, @anon88169868 is quite right… it’s an old now defunct technology which IIRC was used to simply connect 2 computers together. I’ve got one lying around somewhere - since marked both ends with an X after trying to get it to work in a network :roll_eyes:
Should just have chopped the ends off and remade the RJ45’s.

I know that feeling :slight_smile: :slight_smile:

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Hi Graham

Thanks for that idea, it is possible so I will try various other cables.

Thanks. Nick

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Hi All

Good news I finally got it working. I bit the bullet and called Orange, the technician talked me through it and could not fix it himself, he finally suggested I ordered a new box for forty Euros, which I did.

Then I had an idea, I took the tv box to the live box and connected it directly. It then said it was updating the software and after ten mins or so it worked. I took it back to the TV and it then worked through the Devolo WiFi over power line unit.
So I cancelled the new unit and can now continue enjoy French TV.

Thanks for all the suggestions.

Best Regards

Nick

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That surprises me… when we had an issue with our LiveTV box, it was replaced FOC by Orange (had to collect it though from one of their shops).
Well done for getting it fixed :+1:

Hi Graham

Yes we thought it should be free, the technician said about ten Euros and the lady who finally ordered it said fourth. When we cancelled it, the guy said it was cancelled and when we questioned as to wether they would take the fourth euros he said it was not charged and the previous agent did not know what she was talking about. So perhaps you are right and it should have been free.

Regards

Nick

Forty

Bizarre. Still, it’s sorted now.
IIRC Orange often used to quote (I think 37€) for a visit if your line wasn’t working but would not actually charge if the fault was not your fault as it were. Perhaps this is on the same level and no charge would have been made if you handed the old box in :thinking:

You know you can edit posts?