Wired Ethernet and the Mac?

[TiVoEvan74]

My Toshiba TiVo DVD RS-TX60 is having worse fits with 9.3. Wireless goes off in the house and it often reboots. The other day it even got into a loop and we had to unplug it. It's failed to record shows several times since the update, reporting that it's unplugged or that power was lost or some such, none of which is true.

I'm thinking of switching it to wired. I know I need a USB to ethernet adapter (Linksys USB200M is touted), but beyond that I'm baffled. I have an Airport express, but that's for wireless.

We have a second TiVo, also currently wireless, a Humax, it's never skipped a beat. It's in the basement where the cable comes into the house, so I suppose I should wire it, too.

Hmm... maybe all that's needed is some sort of cable (cat 5/e or whatever it's called) that gets strung to the small Linksys adpater, yet how do I connect all that? The Tivo manual shows a wired router box (?), I believe it's called. But then I'll need to feed the cable to the cable modem box, the A/V cast, and the TiVos.

What would I get for a Mac? Or, maybe it doesn't matter. I just use the Airport for the laptop, and get a dedicated router box for the TiVos.

Do I park that in the basement where the cable comes in from outside? Then string two cable lines somehow to the adapters that will be dangling off the backsides of the TiVos?

As you can tell, I'm no high-tech, DIY, so this is baffling. Where are the step by step directions, with product IDs of what to buy?

Any help appreciated!:)

[RonDawg]

If you use a router that uses a web browser for setup, it should be compatible with your Mac. Once plugged into each other, you type in the router's specific address in the browser, go through a log-in procedure (instructions should come with the router), and go through set up.

I personally use a NetGear DG834G that is a combination DSL modem, wired router w/4 ethernet ports, and a wireless G access point. However there are others that are just as good if not better. Since you already have an Airport Express, you may want to look for a simple wired router, though these are harder to find and probably just as expensive as a wireless one.

Your TiVo's will need a USB to ethernet adapter unless they are S2DT/S3/THD models, however I do not recommend what TiVo recommends, the LinkSys USB200M. I find the stylized flap/ethernet jack to be too fussy and too fragile. I like the NetGear FA-120, others have had good success with other models.

Consumer-grade routers should all be plug and play by now for wired ethernet, just plug in the wires and the connected components should all start recognizing each other. Note that for initial setup, you will need to have a computer plugged directly into one of the router's ports, but once set up and working properly you can then make that computer wireless if you wish.

As far as setup, the cable goes to the cable modem. Then an ethernet cable runs from the cable modem to the router; right now it probably runs from the cable modem to the Airport Express directly. An ethernet cable from each TiVo, plus the one from the Airport Express, each to go its own ethernet port on the router.

As far as the router's location, if it will be used strictly as a wired router it won't matter. If you will be using it as a wireless router, you should try to locate it as central as possible.

[bedelman]

If all you have is an Airport Express, it only has a single ethernet jack for the connection to the cable modem. If you have more than one Airport Express, you can set up a WDS network and use the other Airport Express units as wireless bridges -- where their ethernet jack will connect to the wireless network.

Apple's Airport Extreme base station has several ethernet jacks (LAN connections) for network devices as well as the wireless support -- but the Airport Express doesn't have the extra LAN connections

I'm interested in addressing the issue you're having with the Toshiba though -- I have one also and I'm not having a problem like that at all. Which wireless adapter are you using with it?

My network is fairly extensive with two Airport Extreme base stations, three Airport Expresses (older 802.11g models), two Airport Expresses (newer 802.11n models), four TiVo boxes on the TiVo wireless adapter, and two on ethernet connections -- not to mention the computers and printers that are on the network. I do plan on retiring some of the older Airport Express units -- but they're online right now.

[TiVoEvan74]

Ron, Bob, appreciate the help! Informative and detailed.

So it would be cable to cable modem to router-- and then running cable from one slot on the router to the Airport Express, from another slot to Tivo #1, and from another slot to Tivo #2. As this shows http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=129583

Actually, in my set up the cable splits first--one side going to the cable modem and the other to the A/V Cast device. That's because we have one TiVo in the basement that feeds to the upstairs bedroom (TiVos are too noisy for us at night).

Bob, you asked about the Toshiba problem. I'm using a Linksys WUSB11, wireless B adapter. We have our Airport Express on a timer--it shuts off the cable modem and the AE overnight. (Silly perhaps but removes at least one source of EM radiation in the house.) Under 9.2, the Toshiba would occasionally reboot a few minutes after the AE went off. We'd know it because we'd miss 8 minutes from shows being recorded. Or, if we were in the family room, we could watch it reboot!

Things seemed fine under 9.3-- for a while. But we've now had two evenings where the TiVo reported "power being lost or the recorder unplugged" (or some such) which wasn't true. As a result, it failed to record shows for several hours--and then, without intervention-- recorded fine. Then, Saturday, the Toshiba went into a reboot cycle, again just a few minutes after the AE shut off. That time required unplugging the unit for real.

We're also getting strange MRV problems in 9.3... transfer speeds are slow, but it will handle the 1st one OK, but try a 2nd one the menus are glitchy and it failed Sunday-- and the Toshiba later failed to record 2 hours worth of shows. The odd thing is that our Humax Series 2 in the basement has had no problems. It also has the same model Linksys wireless adapter, so I swapped them to control for that variable.

I'm hoping that a wired set up would cure both problems (reboot and failure to record). I'm ruling out a hard drive failing because its manifestations shouldn't occur at the same time each evening. Or could they?

[RonDawg]

So it would be cable to cable modem to router-- and then running cable from one slot on the router to the Airport Express, from another slot to Tivo #1, and from another slot to Tivo #2. As this shows http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=129583

That's exactly how it is supposed to be set up. I'm not familiar with the A/V Cast so I'm not quite sure how it integrates into this.

[classicsat]

Avcast doesn't fit into the boradband network at all. It is part of the TV/Video distribution of the home, using the existing cable TV wiring; "stealing" some cable TV channels to put local A/V on it.

[bedelman]

Personally, I've never had good luck when having a separate wireless access point (or in this case, the Airport Express setup to be a wireless access point) connected to a regular router. I've always found it enormously more simple to just have a single router that handles both the wired and wireless connections.

If you want to continue using your Airport Express, you either setup a WDS network which would allow the Airport Express to act as a "remote base station" and use it's ethernet port for a connection from the TiVo.

If you do want to stick with a wireless connection, you might be better off switching to the TiVo Wireless Adapter. They are much faster and the compatibility with TiVo's software updates is virtually guaranteed.

[TiVoEvan74]

My thought on the AE was to dangle it off a wired Ethernet router and use it for the laptops in the house. I read somewhere that one sets it up in "bridge" mode via the Airport Administrator.

The TiVos would be wired directly to the router.

Are there particular Macintosh-friendly Ethernet wired routers that you'd recommend? Or ones that combine wired/wireless given that AE dangling isn't that good?

[bedelman]

You can do that with the Airport Express, but since this is a slightly unusual configuration you might find that it will be more difficult to setup than a more standard setup. For example, you have to be sure to disable the DHCP server in the Airport Express (you don't want it handing out IP addresses -- that's the job of the primary router)

For a while I had a Linksys four-port cable/DSL router to which I connected the original Airport Base Station (the UFO-shaped "graphite" model), but when I upgraded to the 802.11g Airport Extreme (but still the UFO-shaped model) I simply couldn't get things to work quite right. I ended up just removing the Linksys and ran everything through the Airport Extreme (placing a four-port ethernet switch on it to expand the single LAN ethernet connection). I've since moved beyond that -- but I'm still using the Airport base station products.