Samsung forum: Samsung Internet@TV and FIOS Internet Are Not Compatible

I spoke to Daniel, samsung level 2 support. He stated that Internet@tv is not compatible with fios Internet, no fix is available, and none is yet scheduled. He could provide no timeline for a fix. I consider that a definitive response from samsung given that it is impossible to get beyond level 2 at samsung. If Daniel is not correct, I'd invite samsung, who I know monitors this board, to respond. Fortunately I am within my 30 day return period with best buy.

HDTech -

You've steered clear of the multiple posts on FIOS incompatibility. Can you please respond? Is what I've heard from Level 2 support correct, and if so, is a fix anywhere in sight?

Just curious. I've got the exact same problem with LN46C670 and Verizon FIOS, and the Samsung "tech" support people have been utterly useless. In order to even try to establish a port forwarding rule to allow the Internet@TV service to pipe out, I would need a port and a destination IP address, both of which Samsung "tech" support was unable to provide me for their own product. Pathetic.

When you sell an internet-enabled television, it's a pretty big problem if your "tech" support people have to tell a customor, post-purchase, that their product is "incompatible" with one of the United States' largest and fastest ISPs. Passing the buck and blaming Verizon is pretty weak too. I don't recall many laptop manufacturers successfully arguing that their product "just isn't compatible" with an ISP and coming out with their brand name untarnished.

I would really appreciate a reply about the status of this issue. I bought this TV specifically for its internet connectivity. If that cannot be fixed, then this product is defective.

Who knew? I spent time and Samsung spent money to replace the PC board and it still didn't work. I returned my unit as inop. The same holds true for the Samsung BD players.

After HOURS and HOURS spent on the phone with both Verizon Fios and Samsung Tech Support, plus another hour or so with the Actiontec (router) tech guy, I have officially given up on getting anything to work. The beautiful Samsung LN46C670 LCD TV, RETURNED to Best Buy. The Samsung Blu-ray player, all boxed up and ready for RETURN the next time I go to Costco. So disappointing. When I last called Samsung (5/31/10), Samsung did admit that they were aware of this problem and were getting plenty of calls about it. That was from a Level One support person even. They claimed to be working on the issue with Verizon, but stated that they (Samsung) required ALL ports be open and that Verizon wouldn't open them. However, there was no timetable as to when the issue would be resolved. Just for kicks, I decided to call Verizon and after much of the same drills I had previously been through, my persistence finally got me transferred to the Actiontec router mfr tech support (I'm using model M1424-WR, issued when my Verizon Fios was installed last month). I had previously noted that someone (can't remember where I got this...a forum thread probably) had advised opening ports 80, 443 & 8080. I had the Actiontec guy open them as this was previously quite beyond my technical expertise. For the record, he opened all three for TCP and UDP, whatever those are (sorry!) NO GO on getting the TV to connect, but at least I tried. I called Verizon one more time and ended up talking to a guy that seemed to know exactly what I was talking about and seemed quite knowledgeable about the issue. That, in and of itself, was quite refreshing! Basically, he said that the Samsung advice about needing ports open is nonsense and they know it. The only ports Verizon claims to block are ports 25 (for email) and 80 (something about incoming, web pages), which I'm told is absolutely standard. The Verizon guy said that Samsung is trying to force the community to accept standards that are nowhere near stable and nowhere near approved. The last glimmer of hope I was given was he said to call Samsung again and ask them if they had IP Version 6 active on the connectivity. He said Verizon is still using Version 4 and that Version 6 probably won't be useable for several years, although it has been actively used in other countries (he mentioned Japan as an example) for a few years. He said I might be able to download and install Version 4 and maybe that would solve the problem. Well, I tried good 'ol Samsung Level Two Tech Support and they had NO IDEA what I was talking about when I asked which IP Version they were using. I have officially given up. If someone else wants to try asking this question again, maybe you will have better luck, but I am just DONE at this point. Samsung, are you listening? Is there a fix? I tried to love your product, but it has been returned. Too bad I can't get back all the time I wasted trying to make your product do something it apparently can't. Unless you can provide a solution to your consumers, we will spend our dollars elsewhere and encourage others to do so also. Oh, and also for the record, we had the Geek Squad at Best Buy hook up our TV when we returned it just to make sure we didn't get a bad one, and it worked just fine there. Guess they aren't using Fios.... If anyone ever solves this puzzle, please post - thanks!

HDTech,

Is Samsung looking into this? If so, what are they doing to try to correct it. It seems to be "Verizon FIOS" specific, not the Actiontec router, not ports, etc.

I've reset everything to factory defaults more than once. I've put my BD-C6500 in the DMZ, my PC in the DMZ, and I have the same issues others report.
1. The Internet@TV portion of the product never connects and drops back to the main menu.
2. From any PC here at home, I cannot download any manuals, firmware updates, or the PC Share software from the Samsung site. The site itself works fine, but the "org.downloadcenter.quantum.com" site is dead to me, as is the "ars..." site.

I have a support ticket in with Samsung, entered two days ago and I'm still awaiting a callback from 2nd Level Support. TWO DAYS!

This is really a shame, as my Samsung LCD TV's, my Samsung French-door refridgerator/freezer, and other Samsung products work fine. This one issue is really tarnishing your reputation with many here in the forums (Cnet & Verizon), as neither of you appear to be doing anything to correct it. The way we see it, you just dont care about the "customer experience", which will cripple any Service organization. You are directly effecting the sales of Samsung product.

I seriously hope you seek to correct this problem and continue to pound those people internally to correct this. I have about another week before I cannot return the BD-C6500 to Dell for a refund. Please do your best and I'll be watching the threads.

I was waiting to hear about the DMZ. At least I can scratch that off my list.

At least we know the cause (some want to debate that) but until the juggernauts offer some adjustments or make it "just work" my friends and I know what's up. This however does not mean there is is fix. That fix will come from either company when they decide to make it happen.

It is that simple.
Bob

The widgets work, Internet@TV does not.

You asked:
"When you say you couldn't get to the org.download center, do you mean that you're unable to download firmware updates from the website using a PC using the FIOS connection?"

I live in Riverside County, CA, and my father lives in Orange County, CA, about 50 miles apart from one another, but we both have Verizon Fios coming into our homes. We both can get to the Samsung support site, all the way into the Support pages where we can select a download (icon of a doc or zip file). Hovering over the icon shows a link at the bottom of the web page, such as:
http://downloadcenter.samsung.com/content/UM/201002/20100204080023984/BD-C5500-XAC-0118.pdf

Normall you'd click on the link and a PDF file is displayed, but instead the link simply times-out. I can use Windows Remote Desktop into a lab system at my work (not using Verizon) and the same selections work just fine.

I've worked in Customer Service of a major storage company for a decade now and I'm absolutely shocked that neither Samsung nor Verizon will choose to do anything about this. Nothing. The largest irritation is that I've happily invested in Samusung products in my home, all the way down to Hard Disks in my systems, and luckily have never once had to call Technical Support. But now that I have, I'm crushed to think that a company such as yours is NOT willing to pass this issue forward.

In the PC industry we have a medium called "TSANet", which allows technical corporations to work with one another behind the scenes. You must have something similar, or at least have a way of simply looking into this further with the help of Verizon.

To "know" of the problem for over two months and do nothing is utterly irresponsible. I believed in your company and your product up to now, to the extent that I kept the BD-C6500 because I felt in my heart that you would do the right thing. Was I wrong? I'm now out of my 30 day return window and Dell wont take it back.

Please tell us that you're doing something or that we can get around this problem by doing something other than switching my ISP.

- A loyal customer

Please report to the BBB! I got a call from the Samsung executive offices asking to speak with me about my complaint. This works and they will be forced to take actions.

The BBB that will handle your complaint is:
BBB of New Jersey
(Trenton, NJ)
1700 Whitehorse Hamilton Sq. Rd St D-5
Trenton, NJ 08690-3596
Phone: (609)588-0808
Fax: (609)588-0546
Email: info@trenton.bbb.org
Web: http://www.trenton.bbb.org

sabst79-1,

So far, the affected people are having some issues with Samsung Apps, which is not part of the 2009 models.

At least, that's what I'm seeing.

--HDTech

Online Brand Ambassador

- Click here to visit the Samsung forum
- Click here to visit the Samsung store on CNET

The folks I spoke to in my 4 week attempt to get Internet@tv and fios to work together (unsuccessfully) were all very nice but horribly untrained. You cannot run a technical call center with people you pull in off the street. Level 2 (there was no level 3) were marginally better. The support site is even worse. The execs need to understand that when you starting selling software, you need to support like software, not dishwashers.

The shocking thing is they are selling this stuff to unsuspecting people when they KNOW it does not work.

I had the same issue with my 6500 TV, after changing the DNS servers from Verizons to Googles free DNS servers everything worked fine. It appears to be a DNS issue on Verizons side in my case.