PS3 fails to see DLNA without ReadyNAS reboot

As this thread was extremely helpful for me to solve (or at least get rid of) the problem - thanks to everybody - I would like to tell you about my case, hoping this to be of some help for others.

I run a quite complex network within my house, with quite a number of PC's & notebooks (Win7 and Vista), streaming clients (Philips Streamium NP 1100, PlayStation 3, Nintendo Wii, 2 HD TV receivers of different make, Samsung TV and a multi media harddisk with NAS function - which is not used) and a ReadyNAS Duo. The network is established by Netgear Powerline equipment (a mixture of 80, 200 and 500 Mbit adapters), a WLAN router which is also connected via Powerline and an internet modem router with integrated 4-port switch, and a couple of Ethernet-switches. The Powerline stuff is used because the clients and NAS are spread over 3 floors and the basement with concrete ceilings inbetween, thus no access with WLAN to every piece of equipment.

Until recently it worked without any problem, whenever I started any of the streaming clients the ReadyNAS was recognized immediately.

Then all of a sudden I had the problem - similar to the one described by the others here - that after a restart of the PS3 there was no connection to the ReadyNAS and even a manual search for media servers on the PS3 did not bring any success. Of course not knowing about the 900 seconds issue I was impatient and restarted the the NAS (later on I just disabled and again enabled the ReadyDLNA service) after which the connection was established automatically, after a new reboot of the PS3 was lost again.

After reading through the first pages of this particular thread, I observed the sequence of 15 minutes (900 seconds) intervals after which the ReadyNAS got automatically connected to the PS3, but again after reboot of PS3 I had to wait for the alive signal of te ReadyNAS.

The problem only appeared with the PS3, all the other streaming clients, like the NP 1100 had no problem in finding the ReadyNAS.

Not wanting to fiddle around with the config of the NAS or the ReadyDLNA (in order to reduce the interval of the alive signal sent by the ReadyNAS) I followed Skywalkers conclusion of the combination of PS3 and network equipment beeing the cause of the problem (obstruction to the SSDP search packets sent by the PS3).

To finally make you understand the reason for the problem and the "solution" I have to add the following quite excessive story, sorry:

The PS3 (together with the wii, the TV and one of the HD receivers) is connected to the network via a Netgear Powerline XAV5004 which is a 500 Mbit Powerlan adapter with integrated 4-port switch. Previously the PS3 was linked via the predecessor model, the XAV1004 which is pretty the same (also with integrated 4-port switch) but at 200 Mbit standard. I had decided to replace the equipment recently because I had tested HD video streaming with a single port 500 Mbit adapter (XAV5501) and I was able to stream higher qualitity videos than with the XAV1004 and therefore ordered the XAV5004. But I had made the test with the single port adapter from a (power) wall socket which is 1 meter beside the one to which the XAV 1004 was connected (because the "original" wall socket is de facto inaccessible, but the XAV 5004 is using the same cable as the XAV 1004 therefore it was an option). After I received the new XAV 5004 I plugged it in instead of the XAV 1004 and realised that the performance was - disappointingly - not increased compared to the old XAV 1004. I plugged the new XAV 5004 to the other wall socket (from which I made the test) and the performance was improved. The conclusion can only be that either the wall socket which I have to use for the connector gives less performance or the power cable of the old and the new appliance are not compatible. As there was no option to use the better performance wall socket or replace the cable (I would have had to remove half of the living room furniture to get access to that stuff), I accepted the fact that there would be no improvement and put the XAV 5004 back to the original wall socket. The old XAV 1004 was used with the power cable of the new XAV 5004 in another room of the building, replacing an old 80 Mbit adapter with integrated 4-port switch.

Now I realised that this above mentioned replacement of the 4-port adapter was the only change I had made to my system within the last weeks (apart from a firmware update of the PS 3). I tried the following several times, consisering all possible combinations to be really sure:

I changed the network connection to the single port adapter plugged into the other wall socket, rebooted the PS3, ReadyNAS was recognized immediately. When I connected back to the 4-port adapter plugged into the original wall socket, I again had to wait for the 15 minute cycle to elapse before the ReadyNAS was beeing recognized (again no success by using the "search for media server" function).

This is a clear proof that Skywalkers theory of something within the network (probably the swich) is preventing the search packets sent by the PS3 from being received by the ReadyNAS! - at least in my case.

Then I took the power cable from the old XAV 1004 plugged it into the other wall socket and connected it to the XAV 5004 and surprisingly it also worked! Conclusion: The cause is not the switch (i.e. the XAV 5004), it is the wall socket?!

But it had worked before, when the 200 Mbit adapter-switch was installed and connected to the same wall socket! Therefore I tried the old XAV 1004 - and BINGO - since then it works again. Whenever I turn on the PS3 the ReadyNAS is found immediately, in any constallation I tried so far (and believe me I tried a lot).

I connected the XAV 5004 in the other room, where it is used by the Philips NP1000 (which is a network audio streaming device and internet radio, which also needs the ReadyDLNA Service). And here it works well, the NP1100 als findy the ReadyNAS immediately.

Final conclusion: The cause can be a switch or router, but it also can be - as it was in my case - a more complex combination of circumstances like type of switch and wall socket! I.e. a very tricky thing which can get very complex, don't give up trying out all possibilites you have. But it definitely does not seem to be the fault of the ReadyNAS or the ReadyDLNA Service.

Good luck.