Keep losing network connection

[catfan64]

Someone please help. I am at my wits end. I have searched and searched, but cant find any posts on here, to help me.

I am fairly computer literate, but am clueless when it comes to networking, and routers, and so forth. That is why I bought the Tivo wireless G adapters, because I thought it might make setting my Tivo's up simpler, which the setup was a snap. But now after a day or 2, both Tivo's lose connection.

I have a motorola cable modem, that is hooked into a Lynksys wireless G router (WRT54G). I just switched from DSL, to cable, and bought 2 series 2 Tivo's.
The setup was a piece of cake. All was simple, using the instructions with the Tivo, and with the Tivo adapters. But every day or 2, both Tivo's lose their network connection. I can unplug the adapters, and plug them back in, and they work fine for a day or two. They download program info, and on the now playing screen, I can see the other Tivo, and its programs. Then a day or so later, both Tivos cannot see each other, and cant connect to the Tivo site. If I go into setup, and phone network connections, it shows my network, and shows a signal strength that fluctuates between 90 and 96%, and it also shows the MAC address, and IP address. If it can see my network, then why is it not connected?

If any has the same setup, with the Tivo adapters, and a linksys WRT54G router, could you please help walk me through the steps to get my Tivo's to stay connected. I have Tivo desktop installed , but am not really interested in using TIVo to go, or being able to view pictures or listen to music, form my PC, on my Tivos, I just want them to be able to use my internet connection to get programming info, and to occasionally transfer a program form one Tivo to the other.

[Applehead]

Look for my post below signed Applehead. I am having a similar problem but use a Mac, not a PC for TiVo desktop.

[catfan64]

I havent had any problems with my Tivo restarting, only losing the network connection.

[catfan64]

Nobody has any helpfull info for me? Over the past fews years, I have been amazed at how helpfull you guys heve been with anyones problems, be they Tivo related, health issues, shopping questions. Are all the computer whizzes an vacation at the same time?

[Dan203]

Do you have any other wirless devices? Like a laptop or media server? Do they ever randomly lose their connection? Even if just for a few seconds? I had a couple of TiVo network adapters for a few months and the one thing I discovered is that they don't recover well from a dropped connection. I was using them with a Belkin wireless G router which was a total POS. It was constantly dropping the connection not only to the TiVo, but also to my girlfriend's laptop. The laptop would usually recover OK, but the TiVo adapters always had to be unplugged to get them working again. I finally got fed up with it and swapped it out with an old Microsoft wireless B router and everything worked perfectly after that. I ended up selling the TiVo wireless adapters and switching back to wired, but the old wireless router is still working perfectly for my girlfriend's laptop.

Anyway the point of this story is that if you notice dropped connections on any other devices then the culprit is probably your router. You could look to see if maybe an updated firmware fixes the problem, but if not you may have to consider getting a different brand of router. (stay away from Belkin)

Dan

[Stu_Bee]

What's the firmware version on your WRT54g? (make sure you look at the v of your model #)
Check to see if there are any updates on the linksys page....and upgrade if necessary. Then see if it reoccurs.

Are you using statically assigned IP addresses on your Tivo? (if not, I would recommend trying that as well..make sure the IP number you give your tivo is not in the dhcp leasing range of your router)

[bluetex]

I've a VERY similar issue with a new TiVo, using Wired Linksys USB200. Where eventually (sometimes hours, sometimes days) my Linksys USB adapter freaks out and takes down my entire wired network.

Wireless still works from wireless to wireless devices, but the wired side of things goes bonkers. The only remedy is to unplug the LinksysUSB adapter. Then I can plug it in and it'll work again for the next interval (hours/days).

The Tivo's running 7.2.2, the Wireless Hub is a WRT54G with the latest firmware *unless there's a new one this week*.

IPs are all static and there's NO DHCP on my lan at all.

Ideas?

Jeff

[catfan64]

Are you using statically assigned IP addresses on your Tivo? (if not, I would recommend trying that as well..make sure the IP number you give your tivo is not in the dhcp leasing range of your router)

Im sorry, all i heard was blah blah blah, blah blah blah. Seriously, I am pretty competent on working my computer, but anything to do with routers and networks for some reason, I cant comprehend.

When setting the Tivo's up, I did not go through any step that said anything about setting up IP addresses, so I guess the Tivo set them automativcally, or my router did.

The other day, while both my Tivo's were working fine, I wrote down the IP addresses both showed when I went into the "phone and network settings".

Right now, both Tivos have lost connection again, (even though when I go into the phone and network screen on Tivo, it shows my network name, and a good signal strength) and the IP addresses are different than they were the other day while they were working. Well, I unplugged the adapters, and plugged them back in, and now, while it is working, it shows the IP addresses the same as they were the other day, while they were working.

Also, in case this helps, anytime that they are NOT working and I go into the phone and network screen and try "test my connection," I get the message "No DHCP Server"

a few questions....

1) where did the IP addresses that the Tivo's were showing, while they wouldn't connect, come from?

2) it seems like everytime I unplug the adapters and plug them back in, they go back to the same IP address, so is there something I can do on the Tivo's, that make them always keep this address? If so, could you tell me how to do it, as I have looked in the manual, and it all looks like gibberish to me.

[catfan64]

Do you have any other wirless devices? Like a laptop or media server? Do they ever randomly lose their connection? Even if just for a few seconds? I had a couple of TiVo network adapters for a few months and the one thing I discovered is that they don't recover well from a dropped connection. I was using them with a Belkin wireless G router which was a total POS. It was constantly dropping the connection not only to the TiVo, but also to my girlfriend's laptop. The laptop would usually recover OK, but the TiVo adapters always had to be unplugged to get them working again. I finally got fed up with it and swapped it out with an old Microsoft wireless B router and everything worked perfectly after that. I ended up selling the TiVo wireless adapters and switching back to wired, but the old wireless router is still working perfectly for my girlfriend's laptop.

Anyway the point of this story is that if you notice dropped connections on any other devices then the culprit is probably your router. You could look to see if maybe an updated firmware fixes the problem, but if not you may have to consider getting a different brand of router. (stay away from Belkin)

Dan

Dan, I have a laptop, and a Dell Axim Pocket PC. I use them both with my wireless connection, and dont ever recall losing connection. Granted, I have never used ether one on them for over an hour at a time.

[catfan64]

What's the firmware version on your WRT54g? (make sure you look at the v of your model #)
Check to see if there are any updates on the linksys page....and upgrade if necessary. Then see if it reoccurs.


Stu, the firmware on my router is V2.02.7 Feb 27 2004.

I'm sure there is a more recent version, but I really would rather not try to update it, if there is something else I can do, be cause it is working fine with my laptop and PDA, and I am afraid I will get it screwed up, and not be able to get it setup again, if I try to update the firmware. I have never done that before. When I first went wireless, I had trouble getting it working, and had to have tech support walk me through setting it up, and I really dont want to have to do that again.

[catfan64]

For what it's worth, I did some surfing and found out about updating the firmware for my router, and it seemed pretty safe to do, so I went ahead up updated the the latest version, and all went well.

I guess I'll see if that make a difference with my Tivo's connection in the next few days.

[Joeg180]

a few questions....

1) where did the IP addresses that the Tivo's were showing, while they wouldn't connect, come from?

2) it seems like everytime I unplug the adapters and plug them back in, they go back to the same IP address, so is there something I can do on the Tivo's, that make them always keep this address? If so, could you tell me how to do it, as I have looked in the manual, and it all looks like gibberish to me.

The IP adresses are assigned by your router either a static (never changes) or Dynamic ([DHCP] Can change based on needs of the network, but, may not)

These are functions of your router.

The changes you need to make to keep the IP address teh same are done on your router, you can connect to the router from your web browser. type in the URL http://192.168.1.1, you should then see a screen prompting you for a username password, the Linksys default is admin and password.

You can select the various settings on the router.

To set a static IP you need the MAC address from the TiVo units and set an IP address from your available pool. You can set the IP as the one your TiVo's currently have.

Hope this helps.

[catfan64]

The IP adresses are assigned by your router either a static (never changes) or Dynamic ([DHCP] Can change based on needs of the network, but, may not)

These are functions of your router.

The changes you need to make to keep the IP address teh same are done on your router, you can connect to the router from your web browser. type in the URL http://192.168.1.1, you should then see a screen prompting you for a username password, the Linksys default is admin and password.

You can select the various settings on the router.

To set a static IP you need the MAC address from the TiVo units and set an IP address from your available pool. You can set the IP as the one your TiVo's currently have.

Hope this helps.

I know how to get into my router setup, but I've looked through every screen, and dont see anywhere that it will let me put in a static IP and mac address. Anyone with a linksys router, that can trell me exactly where this is, and how to do it?

[Joeg180]

Took this from the Linksys Support knowledgebase:
This document assumes that the LAN IP address of the router is 192.168.1.1. If not, then please adjust accordingly.

Windows 2000/XP

Click on the Start menu, and then click on the Run option.
When the “Run” window appears, input control ncpa.cpl into the “Open” field.
After the “Network and Dial up Connections” or “Network Connections” window opens, right click on the Local Area Connection or Wireless Network Connection which controls the connection to the router.
After the “Local Area Connection Properties” or the “Windows Network Connection Properties” window appears, click on Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) then click on the Properties button.
Once the “Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) Properties” window opens, change the option from “Obtain an IP address automatically” to Use the following IP address. Set the options under “Use the following IP address” and “Use the following DNS server addresses” to the following:
IP: 192.168.1.20 (If there are multiple computers being setup with static IP's, then the next computer would be .25, and next would be .30, etc)
Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway: 192.168.1.1
Preferred DNS server: 192.168.1.1
Click OK then OK or Close.
==

Hope this helps

[bluetex]

I'll tell ya what seems to have helped my setup.

If you see my post above, my wired network was going dead when there was activity with the TiVo using a Wired LinksysUSB200 adapter.

I reconfigured both tivos to use a "REAL" DNS Server rather than pointing the DNS address (as seen in the previous post) to the LinksysWRT54G's IP. This has seemed to fix my issue.

I'll chime in if it doesn't.

How to get info about a "real" dns server.

Look on the Status window of the Linksys Router's admin web pages, for Primary DNS. It'll read something that's not on the 192.168.x.x network.

[catfan64]

Originally Posted by Joeg180
The IP adresses are assigned by your router either a static (never changes) or Dynamic ([DHCP] Can change based on needs of the network, but, may not)

These are functions of your router.

The changes you need to make to keep the IP address teh same are done on your router, you can connect to the router from your web browser. type in the URL http://192.168.1.1, you should then see a screen prompting you for a username password, the Linksys default is admin and password.

You can select the various settings on the router.

To set a static IP you need the MAC address from the TiVo units and set an IP address from your available pool. You can set the IP as the one your TiVo's currently have.



Took this from the Linksys Support knowledgebase:
This document assumes that the LAN IP address of the router is 192.168.1.1. If not, then please adjust accordingly.

Windows 2000/XP

Click on the Start menu, and then click on the Run option.
When the “Run” window appears, input control ncpa.cpl into the “Open” field.
After the “Network and Dial up Connections” or “Network Connections” window opens, right click on the Local Area Connection or Wireless Network Connection which controls the connection to the router.
After the “Local Area Connection Properties” or the “Windows Network Connection Properties” window appears, click on Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) then click on the Properties button.
Once the “Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) Properties” window opens, change the option from “Obtain an IP address automatically” to Use the following IP address. Set the options under “Use the following IP address” and “Use the following DNS server addresses” to the following:
IP: 192.168.1.20 (If there are multiple computers being setup with static IP's, then the next computer would be .25, and next would be .30, etc)
Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway: 192.168.1.1
Preferred DNS server: 192.168.1.1
Click OK then OK or Close.
==

Hope this helps

I know you are trying to be helpful, and I apprecaite it, so don't take this wrong, but this is just getting me more confused. First you said that to set the static IP's, it was a function of my router, and I had to go into my router setup, through my web browser, to make the changes, and I would need to know the MAC Addresses of the tivos, and I could use the IP addresses that they show, while they are working correctly. Now you are saying I need to make these changes through WINDOWS, by going into "network connections". And nowhere is there anything mentioned about the MAC addresses or IP's of the Tivo's.

I did update the firmware in my router, to the latest version, and am crossing my fingers that somehow that has fixed the problem, as they are still working now, but it has only been 24 hours.

[bluetex]

I did update the firmware in my router, to the latest version, and am crossing my fingers that somehow that has fixed the problem, as they are still working now, but it has only been 24 hours.

Cat, I'd hold tight until something else goes wrong. If the whole thing breaks again, I'd do the following

1. from a Windows PC go to a command prompt (start > run > command)
2. type ipconfig -all (or /all if it's windows98 or ME)
you'll see an output like this


Ethernet adapter MiniPCI Wireless:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : hippie.net
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Toshiba Wireless LAN Mini PCI Card
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-02-2D-B8-D6-61
Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.16
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1
DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1 (use this below)
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 24.93.41.125 (use this below)
24.93.41.126
Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : Sunday, April 30, 2006 9:24:28 AM
Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : Sunday, May 07, 2006 8:03:28 AM

From this info go to your TiVo's config.

Use the setting "I'll specify an IP address".

Pick an IP in the range from 1-254.. I like to go right in the middle
192.168.1.128

subnet = 255.255.255.0
Gateway = (same as what you see in "Default Gateway") y.y.y.y
DNS Server = (same as you see above on yours) x.x.x.x

then save it.

Use this only if it breaks again.. if anyone else is seeing this issue, Mine ONLY cropped up when I added the second tivo to my network.

[Rose4uKY]

I have had problems ever since I got my laptop.. I lose my connection every so often and have to disconnect and reconnect.. I have a Toshiba laptop and had an older model that didn't do this.. I have a Lynk Sys Router and a Lynk Sys wirless adapter in my BR.. I upgaded my Living Room Tivo with a wireless adapter also and all Best Buy had was this Net Gear 54G one. My others are 80211b.. I went round and round with Toshiba and Lynk Sys doing all kinds of things.. I don't lose my connection outide my house like in a coffee shop or hotel.. I gave up!! It nay have started when I bought this other Net Gear adapter no sure.. Don't remember if my old laptop broke before or after I got the Net Gear. I finally was told to updat my firmware it helped some and I don't lose my connection as much as before but I still lose it every so often.. Lynk Sys mentioned it being my router and sending me a new one.. I've had this one for a few years.. But it only does it every so often now I just deal with it.. I turn off the network button and turn it back on and it connects back.. But a couple of times my Tivo didn't recognize my other Tivo and I had to unplug the wirless adapter and plug it back in and it worked.. Just wondering what a new router would do?

[Joeg180]

Catfan,
no offense taken. Did you go to the linksys site?

my last post would set a static IP for your PC. Once set go back into your router and look at the routing information once you had an example you should be able to enter similar info for the TiVo unit.

[Capn Jack]

It may not be network related since as I say over here:
http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=280599

I something to add but not a fix.

I've been using TTG for ages with complete success. I pull shows to my PC and pull them back to my TiVo.

Recently I've been pulling a LOT of mgeg2 shows to my Series2. Since I got my Series3 all I really use my S2 for is TTG especially for other content... i.e. files I've transcoded from other formats (AVI, MOV etc) to mpeg2 but also shows I like save and rewatch (Mythbusters, Lost etc).

*Here's the new info*: I occasionally lose the connection to my PC which shows at the bottom of the "Now Playing on TiVo" menu. BUT I can still connect to Photos and Music on the same PC.

The only way I've found I can restore is to go to "Messages and Setup" "Restart or Reset System"

This isn't a 'fix' since I can't stop it from happening and it's not a lot of info because I don't know what causes the loss of connection. BUT it's more info and info is good.

Any more ideas folks?

[Rose4uKY]

My problem has been solved for a longtime now. Igot a new router a Net Gear G and my old Lynk Sys was a B and it wasn't strong enough they said to hold the connection on my new laptop. I also upgraded both of my wireless adapters to the Tivo ones and shows transfer from one Tivo to the other so fast now. I had called Toshiba and Lynk Sys several times and went to there site. But now all is good..

Rose

[Capn Jack]

Good stuff! I'm glad you got your problem resolved. It sounds like a different problem to mine since neither a PC reboot nor a release/renew bring it back up and once again I don't really lose connection. I simply lose the device in the "Now Playing" menu.

I can't wait for it to happen again so i can methodically trouble shoot. ;)

[Rose4uKY]

I just got a new computer with Vista and a 19 inch flat panel. Tivo said Tivo2Go would not work and it does. It stopped working on my old desktop when my windows media updated for some reason but it's nice that it works on my new pc. I like to watch my shows while I am on the computer instead of turning my head to the TV. This way I can pay attention!! It's great on the 19 inch flat panel. Hope you get your problem resolved. Rose