well, is it wired or wireless?

[radioron]

We've been using the Bluecurve equipment for a few weeks now.  I'm converting from a WiFi connection to a cabled connection between the gateway and the TV box.  It works ok, but I wanted to confirm that it is indeed using the cable now.  So far, the only way I could think of to do this was to use the Shaw BlueCurve Home website to look at what devices are active and their details.  The trouble is that I now see two devices both with the same name, that of my tv box.  One says it is using a Wifi connection and the other is using an ethernet connection.  This doesn't help me confirm that my programming is coming over ethernet.  I tried to have the system "forget" the device that uses Wifi but when I did that (by removing power from the TV box) it re-established this wifi connection automatically after plugging the tv box back in. 

Is there any other way to confirm that the tv box is using the ethernet only, short of wrapping the darn thing in tin foil?

[srglassw]

As near as I can tell, the BlueCurve Gateway treats the WiFi and Ethernet connections to a BlueCurve TV Player as two separate devices. Using the Shaw My Home app I initially saw one WiFi device for each of my Players. After connecting one Player by Ethernet the app shows two devices for that Player, one a WiFi connection and one an Ethernet connection.

The BlueCurve Player device settings still showed the connection as the 5G WiFi SSID but the dialogue states that it defaults to Ethernet if there is an Ethernet connection. I have no way to confirm whether or not this is what actually happens. I tried to test this but am confused by the results.

I thought of testing the connection speeds before and after connecting the Ethernet cable in the Netflix app settings/get help/connection speed function. On WiFi before connecting the Ethernet cable I get speeds of around 205 Mbps and as high as 266 Mbps reported. The confusing part is that after connecting the Ethernet cable I got significantly lower speeds. I know this makes little sense. I of course disconnected the Ethernet cable and continue to use the default WiFi connection.

[radioron]

Looks like you are as puzzled as I am.  I wasn't aware of a speedtest on Netflix.  I don't use Netflix so I can't repeat the experiment.  I wonder if there are any other apps with speed test?  I considered disabling the wifi antenna in the tv box, but wrapping with tinfoil would compromise heat dissipation and internal surgery is out of the question as its not my equipment.  Could it be that your ethernet connection is slowed down by an intermediary switch that is only 10/100 speed capable?  I had to upgrade to Gigabit switches for this install.  One thing I haven't tried yet is to reset everything and see if the Modem re-establishes both wifi and cabled connections afterwards. 

[srglassw]

The BlueCurve TV Player that I tested on is situated only two feet from the Gateway and the Ethernet cable (CAT 6) went directly from the Gateway to the Player -- no switches. The Netflix speed test is the only one I know of on the Player but there could be others I'm not aware of. Definitely confused but my WiFi connection is pretty good so I'm not fussed about not using Ethernet.

[rickatk]

---

@radioron wrote:

We've been using the Bluecurve equipment for a few weeks now.  I'm converting from a WiFi connection to a cabled connection between the gateway and the TV box.  It works ok, but I wanted to confirm that it is indeed using the cable now.  So far, the only way I could think of to do this was to use the Shaw BlueCurve Home website to look at what devices are active and their details.  The trouble is that I now see two devices both with the same name, that of my tv box.  One says it is using a Wifi connection and the other is using an ethernet connection.  This doesn't help me confirm that my programming is coming over ethernet.  I tried to have the system "forget" the device that uses Wifi but when I did that (by removing power from the TV box) it re-established this wifi connection automatically after plugging the tv box back in. 

Is there any other way to confirm that the tv box is using the ethernet only, short of wrapping the darn thing in tin foil?

---

Using ethernet connections will automatically precede a wifi connection. To confirm this go into your BlueCurve app and have a look at the BlueCurve devices. You should be able to see their connection method. You can also go into the individual box settings. The wifi signal should not be displayed.

[radioron]

To confirm, I looked at my Bluecurve Home dashboard.  In fact there is two devices with the same name as my tv box, one is an ethernet connection and one is a wifi connection.  Why is the wifi connection maintained and is any traffic passing over that connection?   How do I check the speed of my connection?

[rickatk]

---

@radioron wrote:

To confirm, I looked at my Bluecurve Home dashboard.  In fact there is two devices with the same name as my tv box, one is an ethernet connection and one is a wifi connection. 

Can you select the wifi version and disable it from the dash board.

Why is the wifi connection maintained and is any traffic passing over that connection?   How do I check the speed of my connection?

---

Netflix will give you an accurate speed test: Go to the support section. I think it says network test.

[mdk]

> Is there any other way to confirm that the tv box is using the ethernet only

Reconfigure the TV's WiFi settings to use the *WRONG* password for your WiFi network, and then power-off/power-on your TV.

Now that it cannot successfully connect to your WiFi, it must use the Ethernet adapter. QED 🙂

[rickatk]

---

@radioron wrote:

Is there any other way to confirm that the tv box is using the ethernet only, short of wrapping the darn thing in tin foil?

---

Another thought: Contact Shaw Support - Activations. Get them to have a look at your account. They should be able to re - provision your gear and drop the old wifi settings.