Mini loses connection repeatedly

Have you locked the IP address for each device using the MAC address with your Router? For example My Tivo Roamio is always 10.0.0.200, and my 2 Mini's are 10.0.0.205 and 10.0.0.210 and my Tivo Stream is 10.0.0.215. They never change!!! You might be on 192.168.0.* or 192.168.1.*, but same thing. Most of my hardware plugged in I have locked to a IP address that it will always use and never change. You get a more reliable network this way. If you do any port forwarding and you hardware changes IP address, the port may be forwarded to the wrong device. UPnP is flaky.

My Tivo Roamio OTA is in my Family room. It's plugged into the wall which ends up at my 24 port Managed Switch. I needed Managed so that I could bond 2 ports together for my ReadyNAS 516 which as 2 Ethernet ports on it. I have a Tivo Mini in one bedroom, plugged into a wall that also goes to that 24 port switch, and in my bedroom, I have to many devices, and so the 4 ports in my room were not enough, so I have the Tivo Mini plugged into a 5 port unmanaged switch that is then plugged into the wall which is connected to the 24 port switch. I'm problem free. It stream great. I never have any issues. I very rarely have to touch anything on my network or Reboot anything. It just works reliably. When I got my house I ran Cat6 all over. I did it all myself.

So if you haven't done this, that's what I would try first. a MAC address will look something like 43:34:54:E2:34:34. No 2 devices are the same. Even Wifi has a MAC address and that will be different from the WIRED connection!!! If you want you could have your Smartphone use the same IP address every time it connects to your Network. I normally don't worry about things like that.

You can find the MAC address in the Network settings on your TIVO. My ASUS router will show the MAC address of everything connected. If you have a lot of devices like I do, that may not help. On my iphone I can go in general, About and it show's Wi-fi Address and then a 6 digit number similar to above.

Sometimes it's shown next to the Ethernet port. It all depends on the device.

So for me and my ASUS Router, I would go to Advance Settings/LAN, then click on DHCP Server. This is where the router would normally auto assign IP numbers, so for me it starts at 10.0.0.2, because the Router is at 10.0.0.1, The ending IP address pool is 10.0.0.256. So the router will start at 10.0.0.2, and then 10.0.0.3, and 10.0.0.4 and so on and so on. Now say you turn on your PC, it gets 10.0.0.2, then you Xbox, so it gets 10.0.0.3, then your iPad connects and gets 10.0.0.4. When you're done, you power down. The next day, you start using the Xbox first, so it connects to the network and now it gets 10.0.0.2 and then your PC turns on and it's 10.0.0.3. So it's switched around from what it was the day before. If you port forward something for your PC, something some programs require to work correctly, it's now trying to forward traffic on that port to the wrong device.

Anyway, Down below on my ASUS Router, you can Manually assign IP addresses. So the first spot is MAC address, I can manually enter it, or scroll though the drop down menu listing of all that are connected. Enter the MAC either way. Then the next spot you want to pick a IP address. So it needs to be something in your own range. So for me it's anything in between 10.0.0.2 and 10.0.0.256. So basically I have 255 options. On the 3rd row, you click ADD, it will then add it to the list and on the bottom of it all, there's Apply. You want to make sure you hit Apply or anything you did won't be saved. Then the Router will reboot. It really is pretty simple. You can do this with ANY router. It'll vary depending on the Router you have.

Give it a try! In general you should have a more reliable Network! Your TIVO and Mini's will always know where it needs to go as it never changes. It won't hurt anything. That's my suggestion.

The other thing you can do is plug something into that Ethernet port your Tivo is using that you can run a speedtest on. I generally go to Speedtest.net by Ookla - The Global Broadband Speed Test. So you should be seeing similar speeds at all the ports on your Network. If it's bogged down really slow on that port your Tivo or Tivo mini is using, there's something wrong with your Network. Then you'll have to figure out what's going on. I've had switches go bad, they would kind of work but not very good. Install a new one and all would be good once again. With your issues, it may be something like this. You could try running a long Ethernet cable from the Tivo mini and plug directly into your router, same with the Tivo and see if that clear things up. That's one way to get around a switch you may be using someplace failing. So these are all things you can easily try and do yourself. Narrow down the list of things it might be. As a last resort, you can then call TIVO and when they start asking if you did this and that,you can tell them you already tried that.

 

Hi,
If the problem was a failure to connect especially after not being used for some time, the router / IP address might be the issue. However, the problem description is really an intermittent drop/re-establish only the Tivo mini and only when viewing live TV or a recording. Although using fixed/static/reserved IP's for the Tivos on the router is often a good recommendation.
The question I have is are you using only one mini? If you had a second mini, I would simply try switching the location to see if the problem follows the mini or remains at the location.
If that step is not an option, and you have a few spare Ethernet cables, I would try swapping them at both the mini and Roamio location and if using a switch try using different ports for the Tivo devices.
Have you noticed any issues watching recordings on the Roamio?

 

Me too! Having the exact same problem. I will be watching something on my mini and the connection would suddenly drop for no reason. Backing out and restarting the recording brings it back. As the OP said, this suddenly started happening. For me it was a few weeks ago. I haven't made any changes to anything in my house, Tivo or router configuration.

 

unfortunately I am having the same problems. I've been using mini's for a few years without any problems, the last week or so it keeps going out and giving me that connection error.

I wonder if this is a problem on Tivo's end as that error does sometimes come up when it the mini can't connect to the tivo authorization service.

 

This happens to me on one of my minis. Hitting Live TV fixes the problem immediately, but it's super annoying. It happens a few times an hour, sometimes more.

It's not the internet connection, which is 150mb Ethernet, and reliable for every other device. When I ping the Mini, I often see it drop packets which doesn't happen with any other devices connected to the same switch.

 

Having similar v87 issue's with both Minis on my network. After spending a lot of time troubleshooting I think it may be the tplink switch I am using. Tomorrow, I am going to bypass the switch to see if that fixes the problem. I will follow up with the results.
Update:
I bypassed the tplink switch but continue to get intermittent v87 lost connection errors on both minis. At this point, I am not sure what the cause is.
Update 2:
I finally found and solved the problem. When the fios ONT was changed from coax to Ethernet, the coax cable was left connected. This was causing interference on the MOCA network. Disconnected it and everything works fine.

 

Sorry I'm late to the conversation, but thought I would respond in case this may help someone else. I use minis on ethernet and it ended up being a bad patch cable between my router and the switch that hosts all the minis on my network. My point is that it may not be the obvious network cable, but one within the network!

Here is a link to a previous post:
Mini on ethernet and develop a stuttering problem? Try this

 

I'm wondering if this is my issue. Made a patch cable (I think that's the right term, the cable with keystone jacks at the ends). I do not have a punch down tool so I used the cheap punch down that came with the keystone jack. I couldn't get a connection. None of the wires were punctured when I pulled it apart. I used a different keystone jack and punchdown tool . I got a connection but it does lose connection here and there.
Unplugging the power to the router gets it working again .. or unplugging the power to TiVo mini gets it working again also.

What does that sound like to you guys?

The cable I u sed for the patch cable is UTP Cat6 23 AWG . It was $12 for 150 ft.
Maybe it's a cheap cable

 

I think I'll run a long cat6 cable to the TiVo mini directly and test that for a bit.

 

Good call, if it's an option -- assuming you've tested the cable to ensure it's working properly.

 

yea it works.
I'm hoping it's my fault in the cable I made. I bought a punch down tool anyway incase it is so I can do it properly.

 

Good luck...!

 

Well.. so far it is working with no hiccups.
So how can a patch cable sometimes work and sometimes not? Of course it could also be the Ethernet cable coming from wall outlet to mini as well.
Ahhh joys of troubleshooting

 

So the issue is still happening. So at this point it's either the router or the mini?
Any ideas?

 

I'm seeing the same thing. It's been working fine for over a year and all of the sudden a couple of weeks ago this started happening. Wondering if there was a recent software update that could be causing this?

 

Hello: My Tivo Minis worked perfectly for the last 2 years. However, during the last two weeks, they will go "offline" every hour or so...This feels like a "Tivo issue" to me...

 

I've been having connection issues since I bought my mini in September, but for the last 2 weeks it's been rock solid FWIW. I haven't changed a thing. I assumed it was server issues at TiVo causing the problem which they've resolved...who knows. I hope the rock solidness continues.

 

I believe I figured it out: I removed a new device from the network switch that the Tivo Mini was connected to and the Tivo Mini disconnect problem has stopped for now (perhaps it was packet collision?)