Strong 8K on MAG and Formuler boxes, start to finish
No app to install, and after setup no details to key in at all. Its MAC address is what the box announces, the portal answers with a channel list, and that makes MAG the least fiddly of these routes.
Have these to hand
- Either a MAG box or a Formuler model switched into MAG-compatible portal mode
- The MAC address printed under the box or shown in its system information
- The Portal URL row from your Strong 8K account page
Find the MAC address
It is printed on the label underneath the box, in the form 00:1A:79 followed by six more characters, and it is also shown on screen under System Settings in the device information page. Formuler models in portal mode show the same value on their network information screen. Copy it exactly, including the colons and the case, because the portal matches the whole string or nothing.
Give that MAC when you order
Choose MAG as the delivery type on the order form and enter the MAC there. A portal line is built against that address, so it cannot be moved to a different box later without support issuing a new one. If the box is a replacement for one that died, say so in the first message and the transfer takes minutes rather than a thread.
Enter the portal address
From the box menu the path is Settings > System Settings > Servers > Portals. Portal 1 takes two values: a label, which can be any word you will recognise later, and the Portal URL exactly as your account prints it. That address is plain http and carries no username and no password inside it, because the MAC you supplied is what authenticates the session - which is also why the address on its own is no use to anybody else.
Save, then restart the portal
Save, then reload from the box menu rather than by pulling the plug. The portal address is read while the box starts up, and a clean reload stops an old session being carried into the new one. No login screen appears at any point, because the MAC has already done that job. An error at this stage is almost always one wrong character, in the MAC or in the address, rather than a fault in the line.
Check the groups and the guide
Open the channel list and confirm the regional groups match what you ordered, then open the programme guide on a channel or two. A portal loads both together, so a list that appears with an empty guide is worth reporting straight away rather than waiting: on this delivery type it usually means the line was built against the wrong group rather than anything on your side.
Worth knowing
- Treat the MAC like a password. On a portal it is the credential, which is why it is the only detail we ask for at checkout for this delivery type.
- Leave Portal 2 empty unless support has given you a second address. A half-remembered spare address in that field is a common cause of a box loading the wrong list.
- If the box has been unplugged for months, check its date and time before anything else. A clock years out of step makes a portal refuse the session for reasons it never explains on screen.
No line yet?
Pick one of the eight terms and pay; the panel reads the confirmation and issues the three values on screen and by email at once.
Get Strong 8K