USB to Ethernet Network Adapter

[jtm913]

Hello, I have a rookie question. My wife and I have an 80 hour TiVo (it's so nice...) and we sometimes want to watch something in another room on one of our computers. We have it set up on a wireless network now, but wanted to see if it was worth it to hook it up to the wired network. Here's all the details I can think of...

TiVo 80 hour is hooked up in the entertainment center with our router.
USB to Ethernet Network Adapter from Weaknees (will buy if it's worth it).
Current wireless speeds = @180kbps
Software version 7.2

I've heard that the drivers for TiVo are still USB 1.1. Any way I can get updated drivers for this?

If you need more details, let me know... I just want to find out if it would be worth the trouble to go through all the work. Thank you in advance!

Jason

[azitnay]

Wired typically offers a substantial performance increase, so if speed is important to you, go wired.

As of TiVo software 7.x, USB 2.0 is enabled. Of course, you have to have a USB 2.0 adapter.

Drew

[ZeoTiVo]

TiVo version 7.2 does use USB 2.0 drivers already - get a USB 2.0 adapter of whatever type.

now USB drivers for wireless adpaters are only available to TiVo from open source. The vendors of the hardware do not make the LINUX drivers. They are not very mature. Wireless adapters just do not offer peak performance even in the cramped world of USB and low power processor of a TiVo.

I always reccomend going with wired adapters to get better speed.
I have used both the Linksys USB200M and the Netgear FA120 wired adapters on TiVo with great success performance wise. I now prefer the Netgear FA120 becasue it has a much better connector for the etehrnet wire.

for MRV between two TiVos there will be a very noticeable pickup in speed.


now in your case it will be TiVoToGo to a PC. You will still notice a better speed with wired USB 2.0 but there is that cramped space of the low power processor in the TiVo. TTG has to do things with the audio of the recorded show so it will work better on a PC. with TTG and a medium quality recording I get slightly betetr than real time transfer of a show. With High Quality I get slightly worse than real time. A 60 minute show takes about 75 minutes to transfer. So you will need to plan ahead to transfer those shows a bit ahead of when you want to watch them. You can watch them while they transfer but that will slow the transfer down even more.

[jtm913]

I love this forum, you guys rock. Thank you for the quick reply.

[Stainless Steele]

I have the D-Link DUB-E100 I have found that finding the linksys version 1's are getting much harder. It works very well

[zleep]

Originally Posted by ZeoTiVo

...
now USB drivers for wireless adpaters are only available to TiVo from open source. The vendors of the hardware do not make the LINUX drivers.

In point of fact: the TiVo wireless-g drivers are closed source and appear to be supplied by the chip hardware vendor.

The CNXTSPDriver.o module used on the 7.x TiVo's to support 802.11g devices is closed source. Some relevant strings it contains:

description=Conexant Spinnaker/Cohiba Device Driver
author=Conexant
(c)opyright 2003 Intersil

Intersil originally developed the Prism wireless lan chips, then sold the division to Conexant.

Another wireless-g driver, isl38sm_usb.o, also is proprietary, and was authored by AbsoluteValue Systems.

None of this changes the upshot of the conversation: wired is significantly faster than wireless on the TiVo, for now. There's some hope this might eventually change when TiVo releases a TiVo branded wireless-G device. 7.2.1 appears to include support for this device, as evidenced by these lines in /etc/hotplug/usb.map:

device usb-cdc
    ...
    product 150a 1010 TiVo Wireless G
    product 150a 1011 TiVo Wireless G

[juanian]

Originally Posted by azitnay

Wired typically offers a substantial performance increase, so if speed is important to you, go wired.

As of TiVo software 7.x, USB 2.0 is enabled. Of course, you have to have a USB 2.0 adapter.

Drew

How old is your TiVo (what are the first three digits of your TiVo service number)? If they are 140, your hardware only supports USB 1.1, if they are 240 or higher, your hardware supports USB 2.0.

EDIT - I agree -- wired is faster and not susceptable to interference from 2.4 GHz devices like cordless phones and baby monitors from your home (or from your neighbors!).

[jtm913]

My TiVo # starts with a 540... it's less than a year old.

So if the bottleneck is coming out of the TiVo, then hooking it up to the router with a CAT5 cable will increase the speed that is sent to the laptop upstairs on a wireless connection? I usually get phenominal speeds between the laptop and router.

[azitnay]

Yes, you should see a significant speed increase by wiring the TiVo, even though the laptop is still wireless.

Drew

[ZeoTiVo]

Originally Posted by zleep

In point of fact: the TiVo wireless-g drivers are closed source and appear to be supplied by the chip hardware vendor.

cool thanks for the info my new thing learned for the day

[VinceS]

Originally Posted by ZeoTiVo

I always reccomend going with wired adapters to get better speed.
I have used both the Linksys USB200M and the Netgear FA120 wired adapters on TiVo with great success performance wise. I now prefer the Netgear FA120 becasue it has a much better connector for the etehrnet wire..

I would like to "upgrade" from my current 1.0 adapter to 2.0 to gain some tranfer speed. I am finding many refurbished Netgear FA120's on the internet. Anybody have experience with these refurbs?

[azitnay]

I've had great success with FA101 refurbs in the past, so that might speak well for FA120 refurbs as well.

Drew