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TiVo Roamio/Bolt owners--I'd recommend a GOOD wireless router.

9K views 39 replies 24 participants last post by  c133roamioerrors 
#1 ·
By the way, if you own a TiVo Roamio (or soon) Bolt with built-in WiFi antenna, I highly recommend you do one thing: get a better wireless router.

I used to use a Netgear N600 (WNDR3700v3) router, and frankly, according to my Roamio Pro's WiFi quality reading, I was getting a terrible 49-52% quality rating--and that's at the longer range 2.4 GHz! :down: (On my now-retired TiVo HDXL, I was getting around 85%, thanks to the external WiFi antenna.) Switching to an Asus RT-AC68U made a gigantic difference, with 75% quality rating at 5 GHz and 85% rating at 2.4 GHz. I think the external antennas and beamforming on the RT-AC68U made a huge difference connecting wireless with my Roamio Pro to my new router. :up:
 
#27 ·
#28 ·
That's not necessarily the norm. All depends.

CAT3 is still used for voice. CAT5 certainly works by separating the pairs, but it isn't always used.

Still, there are a number of homes where it isn't too difficult to run a basic CAT5E cable here or there. There were a few holes drilled in the floor for our coax already, so I ran an Ethernet cable from my router/firewall in the basement upstairs, so I could hardwire my Tivo, HTPC, and Nintendo Wii. My wireless access point is also connected at this spot.
At the time the low voltage tech also suggested running a second cat5 run to each outlet and also one coax for further future proofing. I balked at the second cat5 but did do the coax which has come in handy for moca which I don't think existed or at least wasn't very common back then.
 
#30 ·
The subject of this thread should be 'Tivo Bolt/Roamio owners - I recommend using MoCA'.

Wireless is ALWAYS a crapshoot, as is powerline. Doesn't matter what router or powerline adapters you use, and even with a good setup you can have daily interference.
I ran for over 3 years with an electrical ethernet connection, which worked fine even though TIVO frowns on that...:rolleyes:. They never really knew much about networking and always try to blame our local networks...:D. Anyway, when I recently got a Mini, I did have a moca adapter lying around and then really did need to hook it up (Roamio Pro in living room) AND IT WORKED GREAT. Amazing way to network. Amazing how the Mini runs thru it too.
 
#31 ·
I ran for over 3 years with an electrical ethernet connection, which worked fine even though TIVO frowns on that...:rolleyes:. They never really knew much about networking and always try to blame our local networks...:D. Anyway, when I recently got a Mini, I did have a moca adapter lying around and then really did need to hook it up (Roamio Pro in living room) AND IT WORKED GREAT. Amazing way to network. Amazing how the Mini runs thru it too.
So it seems TiVO knew a little about networking, then... ;)
 
#32 ·
Wired is always better than wireless. Always --and I say this as someone who has worked 20 years in IT.
And as someone who has worked 20 yrs in it you should know not to use the term always (or never) if you have a wired Ethernet card with a max speed of 100Mb (as the roamio has) and a max WiFi speed of 300Mb (as the roamio seems to) the only reasons to use wired over wireless are if the wireless is capped (as in the roamio) or due to a forced position of the access point. I'd opt for wired over wireless at up to a 25% speed difference after that I'd use wireless (ac router if you please) with the access point close, but that wasn't an option on the roamio so mines hard wired as the good folks at TiVo have apparently capped WiFi to 100Mb speeds
 
#33 ·
And as someone who has worked 20 yrs in it you should know not to use the term always (or never) if you have a wired Ethernet card with a max speed of 100Mb (as the roamio has) and a max WiFi speed of 300Mb (as the roamio seems to) the only reasons to use wired over wireless are if the wireless is capped (as in the roamio) or due to a forced position of the access point. I'd opt for wired over wireless at up to a 25% speed difference after that I'd use wireless (ac router if you please) with the access point close, but that wasn't an option on the roamio so mines hard wired as the good folks at TiVo have apparently capped WiFi to 100Mb speeds
It's not that it's capped, but the WiFi interface must run through the Ethernet interface which is limited to 100mbps. Which would explain why my wired and wireless speeds are identical on my Roamio Basic boxes.
 
#34 ·
And as someone who has worked 20 yrs in it you should know not to use the term always (or never) if you have a wired Ethernet card with a max speed of 100Mb (as the roamio has) and a max WiFi speed of 300Mb (as the roamio seems to) the only reasons to use wired over wireless are if the wireless is capped (as in the roamio) or due to a forced position of the access point. I'd opt for wired over wireless at up to a 25% speed difference after that I'd use wireless (ac router if you please) with the access point close, but that wasn't an option on the roamio so mines hard wired as the good folks at TiVo have apparently capped WiFi to 100Mb speeds
I'm going to go with wired is ALWAYS better than wireless for fixed objects like a Tivo. My definition of better is that it will ALWAYS work and I won't be EVENTUALLY crying all over the Internet one day that my AC router isn't working quite right for some X, Y, or Z unknown reason. Even the worst, cheapest ethernet switch will nail pretty dang close to 100Mbps or 1Gbps 24x7 for years and years. That your setup happens to be able to do 300Mbps with specially constructed walls and a Faraday cage around your house is useless to the average user with average network equipment.
 
#35 ·
We upgraded our Tivo Series 3 with the Bolt. Moved the Series 3 to a room further away from our router (DLink DIR 815). It connected fine and operated flawlessly, as did our laptops, iphones, etc... The Bolt, however would not connect and would give different error codes (N02, N06, C130, C133).

A call to TiVo customer service was unable to correct the issue - rebooting machine, modem, router, etc... The service rep finally suggested that I hard wire the Bolt to the network via ethernet cable. The location of my router makes that not a feasible solution.

I solved the problem by purchasing a new wireless AC router (Netgear r7000). The set up was relatively easy, and the TiVo Bolt has successfully connected and downloaded programming data. The netgear signal strength is much stronger than the DLink, and all of my devices are up and running - even my printer which was a PIA to connect in the past!

I spent so much time looking for solutions to my connection issue, I thought I would post my results. Hopefully, someone else can save the hours of frustration and waiting on hold, etc...



I'm not allowed to post a link to the router, but here is the info on where I found mine. I'm sure you can find one cheaper if you hunt and have more time. bestbuy.com/site/netgear-nighthawk-dual-band-wireless-ac-router-with-4-port-ethernet-switch-black/1754208.p?id=1219062800202&skuId=1754208
 
#36 · (Edited)
I got a refurb AC68U and really like it. It's a very good router. Asus' router line in general seems to be really gaining quality and performance.
As someone who bought a Asus AC66U in April of 2014 and has already had to replace it, I would disagree. Just wait until you have to deal with Asus tech support. It's a nightmare.

What I really loved was having to pay over $20 to send my router to them and have them then return it without doing a damn thing to it. The intermittent problem I reported didn't happen to occur during the probably less than 5 minutes they had it turned on, so they just sent it back.

And that's not my only complaint about Asus tech support. They are very difficult to deal with.

Not a router, but I recently had to deal with Brother tech support on a printer, and it was night and day.

Edit: I bought an Asus AC network adapter back in April 2014 too, and Asus still doesn't have Windows 10 drivers for it (although the 8 drivers work and it was very problematic under Window 7 using the 7 drivers.)
 
#39 ·
And as someone who has worked 20 yrs in it you should know not to use the term always (or never) if you have a wired Ethernet card with a max speed of 100Mb (as the roamio has) and a max WiFi speed of 300Mb (as the roamio seems to) the only reasons to use wired over wireless are if the wireless is capped (as in the roamio) or due to a forced position of the access point. I'd opt for wired over wireless at up to a 25% speed difference after that I'd use wireless (ac router if you please) with the access point close, but that wasn't an option on the roamio so mines hard wired as the good folks at TiVo have apparently capped WiFi to 100Mb speeds
A Roamio isn't going to do anything that would even stress 100-base-T except possibly a file transfer with the DVR under no load. Switches are also smarter than airwaves.

I'd go out of my way to go with wired or Moca in almost every case just as TiVo recommends unless it's just not worth the expense to run cable to a secondary viewing location.
 
#40 ·
My previous TiVo had the external adapter and worked great. My Roamio had a lot of problems, thus my board id. I bought a netgear range extender and hard wired it to my Tivo and had netgear support assist me on my router options. I haven't had any problems with connectivity since. When Tivo introduced Amazon Prime streaming it didn't work because of frequent buffering issues and I bought a Roku. APS works fine now on my Roamio without any changes on my end.
I also bought an external Tivo adapter which I have never used.
 
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