I am seeing reports on Twitter (from @edbott and others) that the two Linksys Windows Media Center Extenders modals have stopped working today. It looks like the device will not startup and go in the Media Center mode, while I am sure three an not that many DMA2100 and DMA2200 users out there but ones that do use their Linksys Extenders must be pretty frustrated.

According to Barb Bowman on Twitter there is a solution which requires going in to the network setting on the extender and setting the DNS setting to a false address so that the Extender can’t get out to the internet. It looks like the Extender is trying to call home and failing to find the IP address at Cisco (who now own Linksys), while I can understand them not supporting the extenders anymore they could at least keep the IP address available so that the devices continue to work.

So the solution for now is to hack the DNS and lets hope Cisco get their act together

UPDATE: Ed Bott has more details on his blog

UPDATE:

There is a fix on TGB

  1. I setup a static IP address for the device in my network router
  2. I unplugged the network cable from the device
  3. I started the device
  4. I now get menus…  I went into the network menu
  5. At this point you have to plug the cable back in to start setting up the network
  6. choose wired, manual setup, and setup the static IP information
  7. Now for the important part…  I put in a bad DNS IP address

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0 thoughts on “Linksys Extenders die but there is a solution”
  1. Mine are all ok (but I gather European users aren’t as affected.)

    Pretty shoddy treatment, all told. I guess this is indeed the Media Center communities Kin moment…

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