Mac Address and BT Smart 2 Hub

[Russ1701]

Hi!

I have an Arcam AVR Amplifier which is connected via ethernet cable straight to a port on the BT Smart Hub 2.   The default setting on the amp is for an Automatic DHCP connection which doesn’t work.  The hub doesn’t see it, so I can set it manually which I have done and it works as long as I do a cold start on the amp and not from standby.

The problem I am trying to find an answer to is that the amp reports a MAC Address ending in “B6” and the hub has the same address but ending in “B7”!! 

I can ping the IP address without any problems.  Arcam has a website called Arcamradio and to setup an account you have to enter the MAC Address of the amplifier and it does a search and once it locates the correct MAC Address it allows you to create an account and connect to the amplifier.  It finds the address ending in “B6” but NOT “B7”.

I have tried everything I can think of, searched the net for anything similar without success, even factory reset the hub but makes no difference.  So, I am throwing it out there to see if any BT users have ever come across this before???  

Thanks in advance for any help or suggestions.

Best regards

Russ1701

[rbz5416]

I have the stereo SR250. I'm guessing you have one of AVR390/550/850 as the next gen had WiFi enabled.

This is a quirk (one of many!) with some Arcams. The network card supports WiFi but it isn't enabled, so what you see is one MAC address for the ethernet connection in the router & another for WiFi reported by the amp. There's a suggestion that the reason the amp reports the WiFi MAC is that the vTuner service that lies behind Arcam Radio can only work with a WiFi MAC, even though it's not used. I'm not sure about that as I'm sure many early devices also used vTuner without being WiFi enabled. But that's the story.

DHCP should work but a static address is preferable, especially if using Dirac. I don't have to cold start my amp to use Spotify but I don't use the clunky vTuner.

[Russ1701]

Hi!

I hate to say that it is an old Arcam AVR 400! I'm just using it for audio as it only supports 1080p. 

Thanks for the help!   It's connected at present and working will have to see if it will last. the MAC Address has to be some problem with the Arcam.  The connection to the net does not see B7 MAC address.  Even though I setup a static IP address the Hub only sees it occasionality.  I put it in the DMZ and it connected instantly so I will see tomorrow if it will connect again.  The Ethernet port in the amp switches off when the amp is in standby which is unusual these days.

Anyway thank you again!  I hope you can understand my ramblings as my brain wasn't in gear when I typed this.

Best Regards

Russ