[Fraser+Dief]

Hi folks. I've previously posted about my network troubles, and had a thought today about an alternate setup. I'd like to make sure it's possible before I proceed or buy parts, potential problems, etc. I searched, but didn't find anyone with this particular question.

Ok, my current setup is this: Cable modem and Netgear wireless router in the office, main computer and tivo in the living room. Both the computer and the tivo have wireless adapters and connect to the router in the office with dhcp, etc. Tivo is running 7.2.1, and updates through the wireless. I do not have a landline.

As I posted before, my guide updates and everything are fine, but I can't seem to complete a transfer with Tivo Desktop.
http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=277860

So, my thought is that since the computer has a wired network card in it that is not being used, and I had to buy a wired adapter with the tivo to do initial setup and it's currently unused, then why don't I connect the tivo to the computer with a wire that will presumably be more stable, while the computer still uses wireless.

So, is this possible? I believe I'll need a crossover cable to connect the tivo to the pc, is there more I'm going to have to do? Will it be able to get an address through dhcp as it always does, do I need to go static ip, are there routing problems, will it still be able to update the guide info, or just transfer to the pc, etc?

 

[petew]

What you suggest should work, you will need a crossover cable. Also your PC's wired adapter and the Tivo would need to be on a different subnet from the wireless network, using Static IP is probably easiest. I think you will also need to turn on IP forwarding in the Windows network setup (you did with NT, XP has Internet connection sharing so it's probably different).

An alternative but more expensive option is to buy a wireless bridge that supports more than one wired connection. Then both PC and Tivo can be connected wired to the Bridge which then connects wireless to the router. Any traffic between Tivo and PC goes direct over the wires, only boradband traffic is sent wireless. It has the advantage that Tivo can connect even if the PC is off.

The Netgear WGPS606 appears to be a suitable Netgear product but most forum members that have done something similar have used Linksys. For more details search for wireless bridge. Personally I installed Cat5 cable under the house.

 

[Fraser+Dief]

Thanks for the help, Pete.

What you suggest should work, you will need a crossover cable. Also your PC's wired adapter and the Tivo would need to be on a different subnet from the wireless network, using Static IP is probably easiest. I think you will also need to turn on IP forwarding in the Windows network setup (you did with NT, XP has Internet connection sharing so it's probably different).

Hmm. I don't use ICS on XP, the router itself does NAT and all the wonders needed to make everything work automatically. Gonna have to investigate that more.

An alternative but more expensive option is to buy a wireless bridge that supports more than one wired connection. Then both PC and Tivo can be connected wired to the Bridge which then connects wireless to the router. Any traffic between Tivo and PC goes direct over the wires, only boradband traffic is sent wireless. It has the advantage that Tivo can connect even if the PC is off.

I'm looking for cheap, so that route is out. I need to use what I have on hand.

Personally I installed Cat5 cable under the house.

Not an option in a condo.

 

[petew]

Hmm. I don't use ICS on XP, the router itself does NAT and all the wonders needed to make everything work automatically. Gonna have to investigate that more.

How about an analogy:

Southwest flys into Chicago Midway, American into O'Hare. You can fly American or Southwest to get to Chicago. But if you want to fly in with Southwest and out with American you need to get a Taxi between airports.

Your proposed setup is sort of like that. You need to run a program to move data from the wireless network port to and from the ethernet port. To turn this feature on take a look at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315236/en-us , the downside is that your PC needs to be on and there will be an overhead if it's forwarding a lot of traffic.

Your PC will have two IP addresses so you'll also have to make sure your PC knows which one to use for the internet and on the Tivo you'll need to give the IP address of the PC's ethernet adapter as the default gateway. So for example:

PC Wireless IP Address: 192.168.0.5
PC Wired IP Address: 192.168.1.1
PC Subnet mask: 255.255.255.0
PC Default Gateway: 192.168.0.x <- IP Address of router.

Tivo IP Address: 192.168.1.2
Tivo Default Gateway: 192.168.1.1

 

[Stormspace]

Not an option in a condo.

We had a similar issue with a different product, but what we did was run the cable under a rug that was in the room. You can also if you are very careful, pull the carpet from the edge of the wall and run the cable along the baseboard. FWIW though you might want to check your signal strength on the tivo and perhaps add a longer usb cable to your adapter to get it higher in the air. Buy one at the Wal and if it doesn't work take it back. Another option is high gain antenna for the router if you can find them, or perhaps a repeater to help the signal.

The cheapest of these options is the wire along the baseboard or the usb cable. Both are comparable in price. Also, since I assume you have a TV in the room with the tivo, why not move the router and cable modem into that room?

 

[Fraser+Dief]

Excellent info Pete.

FWIW though you might want to check your signal strength on the tivo and perhaps add a longer usb cable to your adapter to get it higher in the air. Buy one at the Wal and if it doesn't work take it back.

I think I'll try that first.

Also, since I assume you have a TV in the room with the tivo, why not move the router and cable modem into that room?

There's a couple of wired computers in the office already, the more important ones that are on 24/7. I'm hesitant to switch them to wireless. As well, I'd have to split the cable signal extra times with everything in the same room, and I'm worried about signal degradation.

I'm trying the simple stuff first.

 

[rgura]

I do this with my setup all the time. Basically I have a wireless network downstairs and wired up. When recording larger files (movies) I take the laptop downstairs and connect it directly to my TiVo with a cross over cable.

I did this recently after the 7 days of 007 on SpikeTV over Christmas.

Basically get a cross over cable. Connect one end to your laptop and the other to your wired TiVo USD adapter. Next set the IP address to a static address, such as 192.168.1.1 (subnet 255.255.255.0) on your laptop and your TiVo tp static as well, using an address in the same range, like 192.168.1.2 (subnet 255.255.255.0).

Also set the gateway address on the TiVo to the PC's address (192.168.1.1).

At this point you should be able to pint the TiVo from your laptop, access it through TiVo desktop or direct download from the now playing list on TiVo's built in webserver.

 

[bigcat]

This is all very interesting as an excersize in complex networking, but it seems to me you'd be better off fixing the original problem. The set up you had to start with should work!!

I have two TiVo's (one wireless, one hardwired) on my network, 2 Win XP PC's (one wireless and one hard wired) a Win2000 server and OS X mac. Both TiVo's update over the network and both can access applications and file downloads from wired and wireless PC's the server and the MAC. The transfer speed isn't any faster on the wired network than it is on the 54Mb wireless.

Sometimes the TiVo box can be take a while to 'see' the TiVo desktop applications after you first install or change IP address. My wired TiVo will take up to 24hrs before the PC's app's come online, maybe two days for the MAC. For the wireless TiVo you can double that, but once it makes the connection it's very reliable as long as you don't change the IP at either end ..... did you leave it long enough.

Try rebooting everything, PC's first then the TiVo's, then walk away and don't touch anything for 24 to 48 Hrs.