VPN for Two TiVOs

[JeffreyF]

I have a TiVO Premier Elite and a TiVO Series3 that are in two separate locations, however, belong to a network that is connected through a VPN.

Although both TiVO's are on the DMZ part of the network, they do not see each other as one TiVO is on the domain of 192.168.1.X while the other TiVO is on the domain of 192.168.5.X. Both domains are linked to each other through the VPN and can see other other.

I would like the Series3 to be able to download programs already recorded from the TiVO Premier Elite.

How can I do this through the existing VPN?

Thank you in advance for your help.

JeffreyF

[puffdaddy]

In short, some of the protocols involved (Apple's Rendezvous for discovery) only work within a single subnet (e.g. 192.168.1.x) and can't be routed between different subnets (as I believe you're trying to do).

It's possible to set up a bridged VPN so that broadcast traffic is forwarded, meaning that protocols like SMB/CIFS and Rendezvous will work across the VPN. An OpenVPN bridged configuration using tap not tun is one way to do this, but it's not trivial. See here for more a prior discussion of this: link.

[ADent]

Here is somebody that got it to work over a VPN. http://www.linksysinfo.org/index.php...h-a-vpn.29916/

You have to have the same subnet on both sides which complicates things.

[kdmorse]

In case there's any doubt, yes - it works just fine over a bridged VPN. And if both sides are FIOS, it does HD MRS just fine over a bridged VPN - almost indistinguishable from local.

(We put a lot of work into trying to make it work over a routed vpn. Helper forwarders, a little tivo protocol aware repeater on each router, and got it kinda working, but it was never reliable. So we went with a fully bridged tagged vlan, and it's been rock solid...)

[puffdaddy]

Out of curiosity, what was the FIOS upstream speed that allowed HD MRS (am I correct to assume that the transferred HD video was one recorded from FIOS TV--which I believe is a slightly lower bit-rate than OTA HD)?

[kdmorse]

Originally Posted by puffdaddy

Out of curiosity, what was the FIOS upstream speed that allowed HD MRS (am I correct to assume that the transferred HD video was one recorded from FIOS TV--which I believe is a slightly lower bit-rate than OTA HD)?

The only datapoints I have are:

20x5 - Insufficient. MRV works (pins the line), but MRS is a no go.
20x20 - Sufficient. MRV works at about 2x real speed. MRS work beautifully

My memory is that we noted MRS was using about 12Mbps up, but don't quote me on that. This was HBOHD, which in theory would be one of their higher bitrate channels.

[aaronwt]

Originally Posted by ADent

Here is somebody that got it to work over a VPN. http://www.linksysinfo.org/index.php...h-a-vpn.29916/

You have to have the same subnet on both sides which complicates things.

Thanks. I'm hoping if I can ever convince my girlfriend to get FIOS that I can setup something llike this. With my 150/65 tier I should not have any upload speed issues.

[ADent]

Originally Posted by kdmorse

The only datapoints I have are:

20x5 - Insufficient. MRV works (pins the line), but MRS is a no go.
20x20 - Sufficient. MRV works at about 2x real speed. MRS work beautifully

Thanx for the useful data.

[JeffreyF]

Thank you for sharing the VPN solution. Glad to see that it has been done and proven!

Originally Posted by ADent

Here is somebody that got it to work over a VPN. http://www.linksysinfo.org/index.php...h-a-vpn.29916/

You have to have the same subnet on both sides which complicates things.