How to ftp?

[Jules]

Sorry to appear completely ignorant, but I have a completely unmodified Tivo - despite having had it since within a few months of them arriving in the UK, I've never even opened it up!

I'm leaning towards adding a new larger hard drive, and also really like the idea of the softpadding upgrade that's available; however, the instructions for the latter include having to binary ftp files to the Tivo. What I was wondering was, does that mean I need to buy a network card for the Tivo, and hook it up to a network at home; or, can I carry out the modifications directly onto a new hard drive; if I do the latter, is that a bit dangerous, as if something goes wrong I'd need to keep taking the hard drive out of the Tivo, make a change, and put it back again; and finally, can I not use a serial cable for any of that sort of thing?

Hope that all makes sense. Thanks for any help.

Jules

[cwaring]

Hi Jules! You made better sense than my reply might :)

As far as I know, you can actually do it either way. However, the easiest way is to first load the network drivers onto the system, along with TivoWeb. This has to be done with a particular bootable CD and the Tivo drive in another PC. After that, everything else can be done via FTP and/or Telnet. If you see what I mean!

If you aren't that bothered about keeping any existing recordings, and depending on your technical abilities, you might prefer to buy a pre-configured network card and drive from someone on Ebay called "ashmeadboy" - our very own BlindLemon - and he's apparently rather good at it ;)

[iankb]

... the easiest way is to first load the network drivers onto the system, along with TivoWeb.Actually, it's easier to add a network card first; since the drivers don't do a lot without one. :p

[Jules]

Actually, it's easier to add a network card first; since the drivers don't do a lot without one. :p

But can I not do it without the network card at all, i.e. just install TivoWeb on the new hard drive, and then ftp to it using the serial cable? Do I really need the network card at all?

Cheers

Jules

[cwaring]

Yes, I suppose you could put the drive in a PC and install stuff directly. Not tried it myself though.

[Pete77]

You won't be able to talk to Tivoweb to control the machine over your network without a network card though.

You can install a larger hard drive with more capacity just by copying the data over from your current drives using a rather long and detailed process that requires at least some familiarity with formatting computer hard drives, Linux and in general being comfortable with opening up your PC and changing things.

You only need the network card if you want to be able to control Tivo functions from your PC and/or over the internet through your broadband router from a remote PC at work etc.

[tray]

Buy a drive & network card ready to go as recommended by cwaring. I'd recommend the 250mb Samsung. Then you will be ready to go in minutes & won't have to go through the ' oh my god what if my mods haven't worked' stress. The drive will come preloaded with the network drivers & Tivo web & Joe editor.

The drive will be write protected which means you can telnet to it & poke around using directory commands without fear of doing any harm. Then when you are ready ftp (I recommend SmartFTP freeware) over Endpad - it's very good. I'd also recommend a red dot remover.

For the sake of £15 buy a new power supply while you are about it.

It's not going to be cheap but you will have so much more recording space & the drive will be so much quieter than the original(s). & If you ever need to see it you will get a fair return on Ebay

Good luck

[Jimus]

Buy a drive & network card ready to go as recommended by cwaring. I'd recommend the 250mb Samsung. Then you will be ready to go in minutes & won't have to go through the ' oh my god what if my mods haven't worked' stress. The drive will come preloaded with the network drivers & Tivo web & Joe editor.



FWIW, I did this and it went brilliantly and was really easy.

Jimus

[iankb]

If one buys a drive complete with network drivers installed, can you put off getting the network card to later, and automatically switch back to daily updates over the modem? Or does it hang on startup?

It might be worth paying for the driver installation, even if you're not sure you're going to need them.

[Fastdax]

If one buys a drive complete with network drivers installed, can you put off getting the network card to later, and automatically switch back to daily updates over the modem? Or does it hang on startup?

Yes, you can. I recently bought a 250Gb drive pre-formatted with Cachecard drivers and all the usual goodies. I installed it and booted up my Tivo without the cachecard (which I suspect is faulty). Apart from whingeing about driver errors for a few seconds, it booted normally. The guided setup and daily calls used the phone as expected.

Cheers,
Duncan

[TivoTown]

I'm leaning towards adding a new larger hard drive, and also really like the idea of the softpadding upgrade that's available;

Jules

I used this guide to install Endpad via a PC. It worked for me !

http://www.pinedragon.com/tivo/endpad_instructions.html

(watch out that a . is a valid command in those instructions)