Help needed for Tivo/Broadband recent problem

SteveMcC · 04-21-2010, 08:45 AM

I'm after some advice on what to check next for a problem that's just started with my Broadband and Tivo.

I've normally got my Tivo connected to a very slow (256K) broadband link (we live in the middle of no-where!). Everything has been fine with the Tivo for years, and I've had no problems with Daily Calls for ages either.

However, on Friday, we had a power failure for about 2 hours and that seems to have wiped out my ADSL router (being replaced by Sky, but that could all take some time).

So, I want to be able to connect my Tivo to my alternative Broadband, which is 4MB Satelite link (Astra). I haven't connected the Tivo to this link before as there are strict usage limits, so use the slow Sky link for things such as daily calls.

I've now got Tivo on the Satellite Broadband part of my home network. It's IP address is in the correct range for that network, and I can access Tivoweb from within that home network without any problems at all.

The problem is that, when I do a Test Call or Daily Call (via the Turbonet card), I get "Dialing : Done", then "Connecting - Failed. Number unavailable" (after a few minutes of just sitting there). The last successful Daily Call was late afternoon on the Friday of the power failure.

I initially thought that my turbonet card might have been zapped by the power problem as the Sky Router went. But, as I can access Tivoweb absolutely fine, I don't think I've got a hardware problem?

I've turned off all access controls and restrictions in the satellite broadband router.

I've also seen a post from Mikerr saying to make sure this:

puts $conn "Content-Length: 0"
and
puts $conn "IDB_TIMESTAMP: $now"

is in /tvlib/tcl/tv/Ident.itcl (transparent proxy problem). I got all excited when I saw that post, but then found that I already had both lines in my file anyway!

Have also tried reboots of everything too.

As I can get to Tivoweb OK, I'm pretty sure it's a problem with getting through my ISP, but not sure what to try next.

There's nothing in my Kernel logfile for around the times of the test calls.

Hope someone can help. I'm sure I'm missing something obvious but the Tivo has been so well behaved for so long, I've forgotten most of what I did know about setting it up! Cheers, Steve

mike0151 · 04-21-2010, 09:24 AM

Is the IP of the current router the same as that of the old one? If not, you will have to telnet into the TiVo and reset it on that. I'd give you better details but I have just discovered that there seems to be no telnet command on my laptop running Windows 7 Home Premium.

SteveMcC · 04-21-2010, 10:06 AM

Yep, Both routers had same IP address. I've gone into nic_config_tivo and checked that the Gateway address plus Tivo IP addresses are correct. Not sure what log file I was looking in earlier when I said that the Kernel log didn't show anything, but have just re-run a test call and have the following in the Kernel log for the time of the test:
Apr 21 14:51:43 (none) kernel: turbonet: call log: connect succeeded (port 80)...
Apr 21 14:51:43 (none) kernel: turbonet: call log: POST /...
Apr 21 14:51:47 (none) kernel: turbonet: call log: HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Apr 21 14:51:47 (none) kernel: turbonet: call log: attempting to connect (port 80)...
Apr 21 14:51:47 (none) kernel: turbonet: call log: connect succeeded (port 80)...
Apr 21 14:51:47 (none) kernel: turbonet: call log: POST /tivo-service/HServer.cgi HTTP/1.0
Apr 21 14:51:47 (none) kernel: turbonet: call log: POST /tivo-service/HServer.cgi HTTP/1.0
Apr 21 14:51:49 (none) kernel: turbonet: call log: HTTP/1.1 504 Gateway Time-out
Apr 21 14:52:14 (none) kernel: tcp_keepalive: call keepopen(0x808ba340)

Can Ping the gateway OK from the Tivo too.

Wondering if I should go into nic_config again and set the daily call to Dialup temporarily so that I can at least get a data download. I don't remember there being any major problems associated with changing from BB to dialup and back again at a later date.

SteveMcC · 04-22-2010, 05:21 AM

Still can't get the daily call to work (still has Gateway timeout), but I have now set up my Satellite router to allow a connection (via DYNDNS) to my Tivo, and I can access Tivoweb via DNS from my work internet. I guess it must be something to do with my ISP. Under IE Tools, Internet Options, Connections, I do not have anything to do with Proxy servers set (I have Autimatically Detect Settings set), so does this mean my ISP DOES NOT use Proxy? If Tivo does need something special set via the ISP, can someone advise what I should ask them for?! Cheers

AMc · 04-22-2010, 07:26 AM

A little while back there were people trying to get their Tivo's to connect over 3G wireless broadband connections - they also experienced problems because the providers were effectively blocking the traffic. IIRC they were using transparent proxies that didn't like the outgoing request from Tivo and prevented it from getting through - might be worth a search on that.

The fact that you have nothing visible in IE doesn't surprise me, the proxy part takes place beyond your LAN gateway (beyond the satellite router) and should be 'transparent' to your network.

If you have got a phone line available I'd use that until your Sky ADSL is back up as I can see this being a long frustrating route but you may want to persevere. Good luck!

johala_reewi · 04-22-2010, 08:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SteveMcC

I've gone into nic_config_tivo and checked that the Gateway address plus Tivo IP addresses are correct.

You can't check the gateway setting with nic_config_tivo.
You can only set it.

To find out what your default gateway is currently set to, type route.tivo -n at the bash prompt and look for the line beginning 0.0.0.0

This should be directed to the IP address of your router.

If there is no line beginning 0.0.0.0, then there is no default gateway and Tivo has no way of talking to the internet, only the local home network.

See also...
http://archive2.tivocommunity.com/ti...&&#post2897965

I seem to remember some Tivo owners having problems with proxy servers (was it Tiscali ISP)? Might be worth a search in the archives.

SteveMcC · 04-23-2010, 02:27 AM

AMC, thanks for the info on Proxy. The only Proxy I knowlingly deal with normally is the one at work; that's setup within IE.

johala_reewi, I ran the route.tivo as you suggested. I do have the line starting 0.0.0.0 and it does show I have the correct gateway address.

My ISP spotted that my satellite modem was using 192.168.1.1 on its side of my router and I was using 192.168.1 on my side of teh router too, which apparently is not good. Changed everything on my side (inc. gateway value and IP address on Tivo) to 192.168.2, and interestingly now get "service unavailable" rather than "number unavailable", but still no successful call.

Will also try a call over the dialup, but goodness knows when I last used the Tivo that way, so will have to find the correct cable first. Also, BT are now investigating my phoneline as the new Sky router didn't fix the roiginal problem, so now my phone line may be suspect, so a dialup call could fail too, I guess.

Frustrating! I will persevere for a while more, though; it would be good to have a backup route to getting scheduling data in case I have more problems with the broadband line in the future

SteveMcC · 04-24-2010, 01:33 PM

Success at last. I went back to Dialup to get schedule data, but that failed with the same error. So, after much mucking around, eventually decided to see what happened if I removed the "puts $conn "Content-Length: 0"" line from "/tvlib/tcl/tv/Ident.itcl". That got both Dialup and Network daily calls working again.

So, it seems Sky broadband needs the line in but my Astra satellite broadband needs to have it removed.