If you have the new generation GenieGO 2 there’s one trick you probably didn’t know it would do. You can put the GenieGO 2 in place of your DECA Broadband or Cinema Connection Kit and it will supply internet to all your connected devices. That’s just one less thing you need to have in the chain. Of course, the HR44 Genie will also do this and you can even connect via wi-fi, but not everyone is lucky enough to have DIRECTV’s latest receiver.
DIRECTV says this capability is unsupported, so do it at your own risk, but after testing it in the lab for a month, I can say that it does work. It also runs cooler than my old DECA Broadband, and of course, gives me all that GenieGO goodness such as the ability to stream your recorded content over the internet or download it to your mobile device so you can save that data plan.
How do you do it? Simply connect an ethernet cable to your router and the GenieGO2 to your coax line, in place of your Cinema Connection Kit. Don’t do this if you’re using the HR44 Genie to provide internet to your devices unless you turn off that capability by selecting {MENU}, Settings&Help, Settings, Network, Reset Network Settings. You don’t want to have two devices providing internet to your coax network at the same time.
Why wouldn’t DIRECTV advertise this capability? It’s hard to know, but the simple fact is they don’t want regular folks doing this. Of course, they don’t want regular folks installing their own dishes either, and we all know our Solid Signal fan community does that all the time. It’s just a matter of making sure that “Joe Average” has the most stable and reliable system ever, because tech support costs tend to be pretty high when people have really confusing systems.
So, do this at your own risk, but I’ll tell you right now, it worked for me and I’m going to continue to use it this way until it stops working.
