TivoHD + 9.4 = Ethernet no longer works

[slackbits]

Short version:
Tivo updated with 9.4 and tivo does cannot connect to gatway with static IP and cannot connect using DHCP. Other devices using the same cable can.

Long version:
A little backstory... I have a TivoHD and it is connected to the internet as such... router --20' cat 5--> switch --15' cat5-->(15') tivo. Initially when I set it up last november it was giving me trouble. In fact the 15' of cat5 was originally going to connect to another switch but I stopped at the above configuration when it finally worked.

A number of months ago (2-4 months) it stopped being able to connect. Since I ran the cable I immediately blamed myself. If I plugged in the ethernet that was going into a tivo into a laptop it would work, but the tivo would not. So I re-crimped the cables. (Actually I terminated the two ends of the 15' cable into jacks) This seemed to fix the problem until...

July 15... I got home and went to go watch the Tivo. The screen was black and it was not responding to anything. So I did a reboot and waited the 20min it takes to get its crap together. I got a little message saying that I now had 9.4 and I could turn off close captioning etc... Great, yea, another update...

Fast forward to last Sunday and I noticed the clock seemed to be 5min fast. (Which meant the last 5 min of shows were getting cut off) So I checked the network settings to see if it was actually connecting and the last connection was... July 15 12:38pm.

Since Sunday I have been banging my head against the wall. I had an actiontec router (via FIOS) hooked up to the internet. I tried to reset the router, the tivo, everything. I tried a static IP and DHCP, no dice. The actiontec had flaked out on me for wireless recently and 802.11g up two stories of a house is slow. So I went out and got a new shiny Airport Extreme. I hooked it up, got my laptop and office pc up and running, and tried the tivo again. Nothing. So I recrimped the 20' run of cable. Still nothing. I swapped out the switch in between the 15' and 20', nothing. I even just put a patch cable in to make it one long cable, nothing. However... my xbox and laptop had no problems with the different switches and the long cable.

So what to try now? I am reluctant to call customer support since they seem, well, a bit clueless. (Or clue-ful with the wrong clues if you know what I mean) The networking cables seem good since other devices work and there is no packet loss. I would also be very upset to have to send it in because, A) I would lose my recorded programs, and B) I have 2 cable cards that were a b*tch to get working. (about a week of Verizon and Tivo calls)

Are there any USB wired ethernet devices that I could use instead or a USB wireless-n that I could use. (I have searched for wireless-n and am pretty sure none work with the Tivo) Oh and just to get this out of the way, if you use a g device with the Airport it slows down the whole network, so I do not want to add more devices.

Thanks for any help in advance.

[Chimpware]

I am sure you have tried this, but have you rebooted everything including the Apple Router? My experience with the Airport Extreme is that it is temperamental and is not as robust as other routers.

I have both my Tivos connected to switches that are then connected to Airport Expresses and I have not problems, alhtough it is not the fastest setup. I do not ahve 9.4 yet, but will post back once I have it.

[aaronwt]

DO you actually have a link light on the TiVo and router or switch it's connected to? If you do then it sounds like it's connecting and it might be something else. Although any cable that you have to re-crimp is no good and should be thrown away. I would start with replacing the cables. It should only need to be crimped once and no more. Just order some pre-made Cat5e cables from Monoprice. They are inexpensive and work very well.

[DrewTivo]

I wouldn't fool with anything USB until you've exhausted all possibilities. It sounds like you've tried the usual troubleshooting, but I'd go back to basics. Hook up AEx to cable modem. Verify it's working with your computer/laptop. Then run a single cable to the tivo with no switches. Try to acquire an address using DHCP from the router. If that's not working, try a different cable (and yes get one that's factory terminated). Try resetting router if that's not working. Try it again. If none of that works, perhaps something is funky with the tivo ethernet card. If it does work, then start adding in switches and such.

[Frederick H.]

Short version:
Tivo updated with 9.4 and tivo does cannot connect to gatway with static IP and cannot connect using DHCP. Other devices using the same cable can.
Thanks for any help in advance.

Keep it basic and build on success: If you can, temporary setup a cable direct from your switch to the Tivo. Set your static IP in the Tivo to something like 192.168.1.10. Keep your computer connected to your switch. Check to see that your computer is connecting to the I-net so we know a connection via your switch is working. Re-power the switch. Check again for I-net connection on your computer. Invoke a DOS prompt on your computer and ping 192.168.1.10 [C:\ping 192.168.1.10] or whatever you gave the TIvo. If it cannot be reached re-power or reset the Tivo and ping again.
This will test just the ability for the switch and tivo to communicate. If it fails you have it as a basis for Tivo tech support to start with since you have pretty much narrowed it down to just the switch and the Tivo ethernet port. I never could get it to work consistently without assigning the IP at the Tivo, even though everything else on my network allowed dynamic assignment. Your switch will see Tivo as "preferring" the static IP address you give it.

If it DOES work then try it using your preferred cabling.

If you can't go direct from the switch to Tivo, setup your computer (glad you have a laptop!) at the Tivo location to use the cabling you exepect the Tivo to use so that you know your computer's ethernet port will work via the cabling. This will help eliminate or confirm the cabling as the problem.

I have Verizon FIOS and a Series 3 and TVHD via wireless, but first I had to verify it was possible w/o the wireless complicating things.

Let us know the results of your testing.

Best of luck

[slackbits]

So I went out and got a nice long ethernet cable just to see if it was the wiring. (Which is was not since other devices worked without packet loss) I set it to a static IP and still nothing. No ping no connect. It did have link and was showing activity. (Probably some broadcast packets from something)

I called up Tivo. I have to say the guy on the phone was nice and professional. He was just as boggled as me about this one. He said that maybe the reboot after 9.4 that hanged the tivo caused the ethernet port to be fried. (Although he also agreed that showing the link light and network activity was a bit odd if it were fried.) The computers were down to find the last access and he said to call back later.

I asked about what if the ethernet were bad. He said it was under warrenty, but, it would be $50 for labor and I have to pay the cost to ship it. So I thought about it and went out and got the wireless adapter. I figure it is probably around $20 to ship it, and $50 for labor = $70. That is about the cost of a new wireless adapter. Add in the fact that it took about a week and many phone calls to get the cable cards to work, which I would have to do again if it were repaired. So I got the wireless adapter.

Everything seems to be ok now, the wireless was setup quickly and I got a new download of the guide. (It would have run out on the 27th)

This does bring up an interesting point, since when did under warrenty mean paying for repairs. I semi understand the shipping, although apple does not charge for IPods, but they are smaller and lighter. But $50 for labor while under warrenty is insane. More so since it broke during a software update, or maybe because of the update. I don't see this as a great way to keep customers, more so when cable companies replace the boxes for free. No cost to repair, $10/m for renting the box vs. 12.95 for tivo service + $6/m for the cable cards.

Anyway that is over for now, or until the next update.

BTW, I tried the youtube and they REALLY, REALLY need to speed up that interface. I mean let me type in a phrase to search then do the search, not 2 charaters and then search, 2 characters and then search... Once I got to a video the video quality was ok, the sound was pretty good. It seems interesting but mainly just a gimick since everyone is adding youtube to thier device. Oh, and when it got done playing the video it went back to live tv so I had to attempt the search all over again.

[ZXTT95]

I don't know what the TiVo warranty is, but sometimes the warranty periods for parts and labor are different.

When things aren't working on the network, what you really need is to able to hook up Wireshark and capture a trace. Wireshark is free and can be installed on a laptop so you can plug into any jack and watch, but the problem is getting to see the traffic. Some switches will allow traffic to be mirrored from some ports to another port for sniffing. I don't see how to do that on the Actiontec I have here and I don't know about your Airport. If you know how, you could set up a PC with a DHCP server and Wireshark and see if the TiVo can connect to that and get an IP address.

If you suspect the TiVo is doing nothing on the network, you could set a fixed IP on your laptop, connect a cable between it and the TiVo and watch for any traffic from the TiVo. If you don't know what you're seeing, then post the trace and I'm sure you'll get help.

[aaronwt]

If you upgraded the drive you technically void the warrnaty so maybe that is why they were going to charge you. this is what I was told last Summer. The account is flagged when the storage space increases from the default and they know it has been modified. So they can decide not to honor their full warranty but can charge you for repair/replacement. Although they don't charge too much.

[MANOWAR©]

I had a situation where I switched out my router and the new one assigned an IP to a computer the TiVo was previously using. The TiVo didn't seem to want to take a different IP address even though DHCP was the setting. I took the other computer off and the TiVo worked again. I make the computer take a static IP and it's all good now.