# Roamio Wifi Setup Problem



## nyctwc (Apr 6, 2010)

Is anyone having problems connecting their Roamio via Wifi? I'm using the current (6th Generation) Apple Airport Extreme router. After a lot of fooling around, the only way I was able to connect via Wifi was to:

1. Turn off MAC filtering (called Timed Access Control in Apple's Airport Utility). I'm certain I typed the MAC address correctly as shown on the Tivo screen, and I have 9 other devices that connect with no problems.

2. Plug in a hardwired Ethernet cable first, before choosing "Connect Using Wireless." It doesn't make any sense to have to do this for a wireless setup. Even after doing this, the "Network Connection" screen doesn't refresh to show a wireless connection. You have to go to the "Network Diagnostics" screen and come back to it.

If I undo either of those two steps and try connecting again via wireless, I get a "Wireless Network Problem" screen, error code (N06). There are some troubleshooting tips on that screen, and then it says "For more info, visit tiro.com/help/N06," which brings you to a web page that says "Internal Server Error."

I called up Tivo Support, and the representative didn't know about this issue and wasn't very helpful.


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## donsullivan (May 31, 2000)

I had similar issues with my base unit with an Apple Time Capsule (Dual Band Version) as my wireless base station.

I ended up taking the TiVo into another room and completed the full setup including software updates on a wired connection. After it was all done, I changed the network connection to WiFi and now it's working fine.

I can't confirm but it seems that the software on the box from the factory has some sort of issue with WPA2 encryption and an update that got pushed down during the initial startup seems to have resolved it. 

I've been streaming content from Hulu, NetFlix and the like without issue since Friday with WiFi connection only.


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## nyctwc (Apr 6, 2010)

I have the latest version of the Tivo software (20.3.6-USA-6-840) and I still have the problem. I would appreciate it if someone else can confirm this same problem on their Roamio.


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## zordude (Sep 23, 2003)

I had an issue with my Roamio (N06) until I changed the channel on my wireless router.


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## nyctwc (Apr 6, 2010)

zordude said:


> I had an issue with my Roamio (N06) until I changed the channel on my wireless router.


Do you have MAC filtering turned on?


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## zordude (Sep 23, 2003)

nyctwc said:


> Do you have MAC filtering turned on?


I do not.


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## Kobe_No_Means_No (Aug 26, 2013)

I also have the new 6th-gen Airport Extreme. I set up my Roamio Plus without a hitch. 

Mac-filtering off, WPA2, 802.11ac dual-band on, guest-network on, airport extreme functions as router (rather than bridge), it is the only router (no extenders/repeaters), latest firmware.


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## nyctwc (Apr 6, 2010)

Kobe_No_Means_No said:


> I also have the new 6th-gen Airport Extreme. I set up my Roamio Plus without a hitch.
> 
> Mac-filtering off, WPA2, 802.11ac dual-band on, guest-network on, airport extreme functions as router (rather than bridge), it is the only router (no extenders/repeaters), latest firmware.


Did you have an Ethernet cable plugged in when you went through guided setup?


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## Kobe_No_Means_No (Aug 26, 2013)

nyctwc said:


> Did you have an Ethernet cable plugged in when you went through guided setup?


No I didn't. It was able to find the wifi SSID and log on. Everything went as it should.


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## mwenn1 (Aug 15, 2007)

I am having trouble with my Roamio pro connection as well. It will connect after multiple attempts, but then drops the connection multiple time throughout the day. I have to reboot the tivo, and try multiple times to get it to connect again. Even when connected it shows the broadcast channel as 0 even though I am broadcasting on channel 11. The XL I have connects with no problem, shows correct channel and everything.


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## nyctwc (Apr 6, 2010)

Kobe_No_Means_No said:


> No I didn't. It was able to find the wifi SSID and log on. Everything went as it should.


Mine won't connect unless the Ethernet cable is plugged in when I log in. Are you using an Apple router?


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## Kolenka (Jan 2, 2013)

nyctwc said:


> Mine won't connect unless the Ethernet cable is plugged in when I log in. Are you using an Apple router?


He's using the latest Apple router, the tall one with 802.11ac and is kinda goofy looking, as am I. I'll see if I have any problems this evening when I hook up my Plus (finally arrived using TiVo's free ground shipping). I can at least test to see if there are problems.

Out of curiosity, how is the network configured when it comes to 2.4Ghz/5Ghz use? I wonder if it might be related to which band it is trying to connect to.

EDIT: Was able to complete setup just fine with an Airport Extreme 'ac' model over Wifi (hated entering my WPA2 passcode though). Had to re-connect after that, but it worked again there.


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## tivogurl (Dec 16, 2004)

I'm getting a different kind of wifi setup problem. TiVo's password input screen only allows alphanumeric characters. I choose better passwords than that, so my wifi WPA2 password has many non-alphanumeric characters. Ergo, I cannot setup wifi on my Roamio.


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## Kolenka (Jan 2, 2013)

tivogurl said:


> I'm getting a different kind of wifi setup problem. TiVo's password input screen only allows alphanumeric characters. I choose better passwords than that, so my wifi WPA2 password has many non-alphanumeric characters. Ergo, I cannot setup wifi on my Roamio.


Try the "SYM" button in the software keyboard. That will bring up the symbol selection screen. My password uses symbols in it as well, and I had no problem setting it up.


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## tivogurl (Dec 16, 2004)

Kolenka said:


> Try the "SYM" button in the software keyboard. That will bring up the symbol selection screen. My password uses symbols in it as well, and I had no problem setting it up.


Thanks! That worked great.


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## oh4real (Jan 8, 2007)

My roamio threw an N02 network error. Part of recommendation was to restart my Netgear router (despite older Tivo and 6 other devices were using just fine), which i righteously declined to do. Tried a couple dozen times.

When I logged into my router to verify password and WPA encryption settings, I saw a "firmware update available button" and, since I'm two floors away, executed it with a reboot I knew it would do.

Then I tried Roamio again and it worked flawlessly.

Don't know if it was the firmware update or the reboot, but I might try the "impractical" reboot first next time.


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## Rkkeller (May 13, 2004)

I had a problem too last night with a basic Xfinity router. I don't know what I did to fix it but after I lowered the firewall on it to low, it worked.


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## nyctwc (Apr 6, 2010)

I spoke to Level 2 Tivo support and was told the problem with MAC filtering is a known issue and is being worked on.

Regarding my second problem (see first post above), I seem to be the only person reporting this problem so far.


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## RSCHOON (Sep 7, 2013)

I was having this same exact issue and was never able to resolve it. I just started using ethernet instead. The issue is that I had to unplug the ethernet from my XBox, so not sure what I am going to do long term. I needed to go ethernet anyway since I am setting my Roamio up as my MoCa bridge to connect my TiVo Mini upstairs.


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## MadPB (Oct 6, 2013)

I've been tinkering around with a DD-WRT firmware on my wifi router, which supports all of the North America 5GHz channels. Mostly, I was testing the signal strength of different channels on the router from my laptop, running a wifi analyzer.

What I found was that the 100-116 range of channels gave me really good signal strength, high signal-noise-ratio (SNR) which was mostly due to low noise, as opposed to really being that much stronger of a signal. Makes sense: I left the transmit power the same, at 40mW on my Netgear R6300.

So, I happily set it to channel 108+110 (40MHz setting, to use 2 different bonded channels). It was working GREAT on my laptop with an Intel wlan card.

However... I then try using my Roku XDS which is dual-band, and that doesn't work. And then I tried connecting with the Tivo Roamio Plus, which is also dual-band, and was working on 5G with my old settings of channel 161, but then it didn't want to connect either.

Weird thing about the Tivo, it could see the SSID of my 5G wifi, but it couldn't connect... that's odd.

Turns out, not all client devices for 5G will support certain channels, specifically the ones that require "dynamic frequency selection". Those are channels 52-64, 100-116, and 132-140. What it really means is that out of all the lovely 5GHz channels that are available, apparently these half-breed "5G" devices can only use channels 36, 40, 44, 48 and then the 149, 153, 157, 161 and maybe 165, although I didn't check the Tivo with 165.

The lower channels in the 5G band are more susceptible to noise, so you're likely to see slightly worse speeds. The higher channels are less noisy, but have a shorter range. If you can get a good signal, the higher channels are probably a good bet.

Plus you have to make sure you use some software like inSSIDer which is a nice little wifi analyzer... it scans for other wifi routers in your area and what channels they're on, so you can pick the best one. If you run it from a system with dual band (2.4 and 5 GHz), you can see both of those ranges.

When I was testing, using channel 149 I was able to actually transfer a large file at 139.5 Mbps. On channel 108 it bumped up to 141.5 Mbps, so it's really not a huge difference, but still pretty nice.

Now I just wish Tivo would let me setup a Moca network as long as I have a really nice 5G connection like that. 2.4GHz is such a noisy band, I guess I don't blame them for not supporting streaming over that, but c'mon, a good 5G network is faster than 100M ethernet at any rate, and Moca 1.1 itself is only rated to 175 Mbps. Right now, my dd-wrt status screen is saying the Tivo is connected to my router at a 300 Mbps signaling rate, so yeah...

Anyway, my point, which I've wandered off from, is that if using 5G channels to hook up your Tivo, be sure and use channels that in those "safe" ranges. If you let your router auto-select the channel, who knows what it'll pick, so you're probably better off manually picking one of the channels in those non-DFS ranges.


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## AAinCal (Dec 21, 2013)

nyctwc said:


> I spoke to Level 2 Tivo support and was told the problem with MAC filtering is a known issue and is being worked on.
> 
> Regarding my second problem (see first post above), I seem to be the only person reporting this problem so far.


I was having exactly the same problem: The only way to setup a wifi connection was to have an active ethernet connection while setting up wifi. Then the wifi would remain active (at least for a while) after the ethernet cable was unplugged.

This was happening with an Asus RT-N56U router. The issue was not 2.4 GHz vs. 5 GHz as someone else was experiencing, because I had the router configured with different SSIDs for each and tried both with the same results. I had no trouble with nearly a dozen other networked devices in the house.

Recently my router started to fail and I replaced it with a Netgear R7000. The TiVo (and every other device) connected on the first attempt at and has remained stable since. I've tried 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz. I've rebooted both the router and the TiVo multiple times, and I've configured and reconfigured wifi on the TiVo at least 5 times. The TiVo connect immediately every time and stays connected.

FYI, I'm using the same SSIDs and WPA2 passwords as on the old router. I didn't have MAC address filtering, firewalled ports or anything even a little exotic on either router. It seems as if there was some incompatibility or out of the box configuration mismatch between the Asus and TiVo that I never figured out. I would have been interested in exploring the issue a little more now that I have a TiVo setup that I know works. However, the Asus is toast, so I guess my particular case is going to remain a mystery to me.


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## ltxi (Feb 14, 2010)

RSCHOON said:


> I was having this same exact issue and was never able to resolve it. I just started using ethernet instead. *The issue is that I had to unplug the ethernet from my XBox, so not sure what I am going to do long term. *I needed to go ethernet anyway since I am setting my Roamio up as my MoCa bridge to connect my TiVo Mini upstairs.


Get an ethernet switch as a PoP, port expander. Good 4-ports available from Netgear for $40 retail.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

AAinCal said:


> I was having exactly the same problem: The only way to setup a wifi connection was to have an active ethernet connection while setting up wifi. Then the wifi would remain active (at least for a while) after the ethernet cable was unplugged.
> 
> This was happening with an Asus RT-N56U router. The issue was not 2.4 GHz vs. 5 GHz as someone else was experiencing, because I had the router configured with different SSIDs for each and tried both with the same results. I had no trouble with nearly a dozen other networked devices in the house.
> 
> ...


I use a couple of RT-N56U routers(one strictly as an AP and one as my main router also as an AP). My Roamios have worked without issue with them. No need for a wired connection for wireless setup. Although I did have a problem when I needed to setup a third Ap and used one of my DLink DAp-1522 APs. The Roamio connected but it would drop off of it with too much traffic. SO I just needed to make sure it only connected to my RT-N56U APs.

I'm thinking about picking up a third RT-N56U to replace the DLink. The DLinks worked great for me for many years but it can only handle so much traffic. And with a dozen IP cameras and other WiFi devices I have a constant barrage of network traffic over WiFi 24/7/365.


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## tivogurl (Dec 16, 2004)

My Roamio works perfectly with my Airport Extreme and I never used a wired connection. The only thing I didn't like is the Roamio's lack of WPS, as it's a pain to enter a long WiFi password on a TiVo.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

tivogurl said:


> My Roamio works perfectly with my Airport Extreme and I never used a wired connection. The only thing I didn't like is the Roamio's lack of WPS, as it's a pain to enter a long WiFi password on a TiVo.


You just need to use a Slide remote with the keyboard. But I also only use 12 to 15 characters for my WiFi passwords. I don't mess with anything longer. And I avoid WPS like the plague. I've always wanted to do all of that manually with my dozens of WiFi devices.


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## tivogurl (Dec 16, 2004)

aaronwt said:


> And I avoid WPS like the plague. I've always wanted to do all of that manually with my dozens of WiFi devices.


I think my wifi password is 64 characters. Since I only enable WPS for just long enough to accept one device, there's no real security risk, but it greatly improves usability.


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## AAinCal (Dec 21, 2013)

aaronwt said:


> I use a couple of RT-N56U routers(one strictly as an AP and one as my main router also as an AP). My Roamios have worked without issue with them. No need for a wired connection for wireless setup. Although I did have a problem when I needed to setup a third Ap and used one of my DLink DAp-1522 APs. The Roamio connected but it would drop off of it with too much traffic. SO I just needed to make sure it only connected to my RT-N56U APs.
> 
> I'm thinking about picking up a third RT-N56U to replace the DLink. The DLinks worked great for me for many years but it can only handle so much traffic. And with a dozen IP cameras and other WiFi devices I have a constant barrage of network traffic over WiFi 24/7/365.


This is interesting. I did update the firmware on the router just days before installing my Roamio. I Wonder if that contributed. Otherwise, I have no idea.


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## Cutie1277 (Jan 2, 2014)

If you hook your Tivo Roamio via Ethernet, on your router you might notice that your tivo is using not 1 but "2" mac address ID's from your tivo and 2 IP Addressses, this may be why there is a complication with setting this up wirelessly because naturally in the router you can only use 1 IP address at a time per device so this is very strange, even stumped Tivo Support.. There are multiple ( total of 3 ) Mac addresses on the back of the Tivo Roamio on mine atleast..


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## rainwater (Sep 21, 2004)

Cutie1277 said:


> If you hook your Tivo Roamio via Ethernet, on your router you might notice that your tivo is using not 1 but "2" mac address ID's from your tivo and 2 IP Addressses, this may be why there is a complication with setting this up wirelessly because naturally in the router you can only use 1 IP address at a time per device so this is very strange, even stumped Tivo Support.. There are multiple ( total of 3 ) Mac addresses on the back of the Tivo Roamio on mine atleast..


The Roamio Pro/Plus keeps 2 active connections (one for stream purposes). So there are MAC addresses for ethernet, wireless, and Stream functionality.


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## Jets (Sep 28, 2010)

FWIW, I have an Asus RT-N56u and also cannot connect to tivo service with my Roamio. My premiere works fine and always has. The roamio will only connect to tivo if I hook it directly into my cable modem bypassing both the Asus and an ATT 3g Microcell.
Still working on it....


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## kirk1701 (Feb 5, 2007)

Jets said:


> FWIW, I have an Asus RT-N56u and also cannot connect to tivo service with my Roamio. My premiere works fine and always has. The roamio will only connect to tivo if I hook it directly into my cable modem bypassing both the Asus and an ATT 3g Microcell.
> Still working on it....


Jets
I've dig my heels in deep on this one and dam determined now its not getting the best of me 

If I have to borrow friends routers and hook them up with mine to test and compare which ones work best with the roamio I will.

Have a look
http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=9966237#post9966237

I'm doing extensive troubleshooting but just going to take time because I'm trying to figure out what makes it disconnect and when it does disconnect why can't it regain an IP address from the routers DHCP server? And the only way to do this is find out what makes it disconnect so once its connected and working, I'm leaving it alone till it disconnects, loses connection before I make changes.

More to follow in my thread above, just subscribe to it :up:

Is it the roamio or the router not working well together or vice verse.


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## kark2014 (Jan 20, 2014)

This week I bought a Roamio Pro and a Roamio (base model) from Best Buy. I have a router from Xfinity and an Apple Airport Extreme. My Roamio Pro will only connect to my Apple Airport and the Roamio will only connect to my Xfinity router. If I try to connect the Pro to the Xfinity router, it can find the network, and after entering the password, even asks how I'd like to get the IP address. It then asks me if a DHCP client ID are required. Xfinity has assured me the answer is no. After selecting no, It thinks and then gives me the N02 error. If I try to connect the Roamio to my Apple, it gives me a N06 error. Both routers are in the same location, and both have about 60% signal strength to the Tivos. Both Tivos can find both routers, but I can't get them to connect on the same network. Therefore, the two cannot "talk" or transfer programs from one to the other. So I called Tivo. A very nice tech seemed confused and had not heard of this problem. He put me on hold and then suggested I call Xfinity and ask them to make the Xfinity router a "Bridge". He said the two routers basically are conflicting with each other, but that if the Xfinity one was a bridge, then they should be able to see each other. Ok. So I hung up with them and then waited on hold for a long time waiting to talk to Xfinity. That service tech took a couple of minutes and said he had turned the router to bridge. Ok. Well then when I called Tivo back, because I still could not get both to connect, I realized that my iphone was not picking up the wireless signal, and the Apple Airport was not getting internet signal. Bear in mind, I have rebooted both several times by this point. I even let the airport stay unplugged for about 5 minutes before plugging it back in. I still did not have any wifi signal. My iphone could find the airport network, but could not connect. So I then called Xfinity back. Several calls later (and a long time on hold), I was connected with probably the best Xfinity tech I have ever talked to. I said I would give up my airport and just use the Xfinity router. He undid the bridge work, and then remotely accessed my router and changed the channel, upped the signal range and even reset my SSID and password to personal settings. He had me reboot my Pro several times, but we still could not get the Pro to connect (still a N02 error). Again, the Roamio connected immediately to the new SSID from Xfinity without problem. Of course, I'm now 2.5 hours into this, and because it is Sunday, Tivo phone support is closed. I plugged back in the airport, and the Pro connects flawlessly to that router. So I'm now back to having two working Roamios, but they still won't talk to each other... Any suggestions? Thanks!


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## jrtroo (Feb 4, 2008)

I cannot even attempt to read this entire wall of text. Willing to help, but its really difficult to get through your request. Perhaps a quick edit to remove some unneeded details and consolidate your resolution steps. Others may not have my comprehension problems, so they may be able to get through this better than I.

That being said, you best bet- go hardwired and avoid the issue.


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## mlsnyc (Dec 3, 2009)

Is there someone who's able to connect their Roamio Pro via WiFi to an Apple Airport Extreme with MAC filtering turned on (aka Timed Access Control)? I get either gateway (C207) or network router (N06) error codes. I tried the recommended solutions on Tivo's support pages but no dice. I checked over and over and I correctly entered the MAC address the error screen said I should be using.

If I turn off MAC filtering I'm able to connect fine. Network diagnostics reports signal strength is excellent when I'm connected. The Roamio's software version is 20.3.8-USA-6-840.

If someone who had this problem solved it and was able to connect with filtering turned on, please share what you did so I can give it a try.

Thanks in advance.


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## kucharsk (Feb 2, 2007)

I have MAC address filtering enabled on my Apple Time Capsule 802.11ac and connect just fine with my Roamio Basic.

Really the hardest part was finding the MAC address in the first place, as you can't get to it during guided setup, and it's not printed on the box, so I had to shut off filtering, let it connect, find out what MAC address just connected and reenable filtering.

Software is 20.3.8-USA-6-846, but that's after multiple software downloads via the Wi-Fi connection.


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## mlsnyc (Dec 3, 2009)

kucharsk said:


> I have MAC address filtering enabled on my Apple Time Capsule 802.11ac and connect just fine with my Roamio Basic.
> 
> Really the hardest part was finding the MAC address in the first place, as you can't get to it during guided setup, and it's not printed on the box, so I had to shut off filtering, let it connect, find out what MAC address just connected and reenable filtering.
> 
> Software is 20.3.8-USA-6-846, but that's after multiple software downloads via the Wi-Fi connection.


Thanks. Probably not a software version update I've missed since I don't think I'm too far behind what you have. Long shot that it's an issue with my Airport Extreme, which is either 1 or 2 generations older than yours and maybe doesn't have a fix that's in your model. But if anything I'd think the Airport is somehow at the root of the problem.

That is, unless other people with different routers also can't get their Tivo to connect with MAC filtering on?


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## tatergator1 (Mar 27, 2008)

I don't use wireless for my Roamio, and haven't messed with MAC filtering, but something important to keep in mind is that a Roamio Plus/Pro has two MAC addresses. One for the DVR in general, and one for the built-in Stream. Are you sure you're entering the general one and not the one for the Stream?


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## mlsnyc (Dec 3, 2009)

tatergator1 said:


> I don't use wireless for my Roamio, and haven't messed with MAC filtering, but something important to keep in mind is that a Roamio Plus/Pro has two MAC addresses. One for the DVR in general, and one for the built-in Stream. Are you sure you're entering the general one and not the one for the Stream?


Yep, I put in the one the error message said I should be using, which is the same as the one shown in one of the network diagnostic screens (the one that lets you see the network status and test the connection). I even tried putting both the one used for wifi and streaming in the router's list. Still no dice.


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## kucharsk (Feb 2, 2007)

I just had this occur with my replacement Roamio, and it appears that once the Roamio self-assigns itself an IP address because of DHCP issues, though it goes through the motions it apparently isn't requesting a new address properly.

I gave up and assigned it a static IP on my network, and I'll retry DHCP at some future date.


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## EdwinE (Apr 30, 2016)

Just bought a Roamio Pro and cannot get it to connect to a Netgear WNDR3700v4 (it's about 4 years old). Tried using the DHCP connection and get error N02, and no new device is shown on the network. Specifying an IP gives a N06 error but the device does show on the network.


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## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

EdwinE said:


> Just bought a Roamio Pro and cannot get it to connect to a Netgear WNDR3700v4 (it's about 4 years old). Tried using the DHCP connection and get error N02, and no new device is shown on the network. Specifying an IP gives a N06 error but the device does show on the network.


Does the Pro find the router's SSID? I always connect with WPA2-PSK. I also do not use a fixed IP address and use DHCP.


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## CCourtney (Mar 28, 2006)

EdwinE said:


> Just bought a Roamio Pro and cannot get it to connect to a Netgear WNDR3700v4 (it's about 4 years old). Tried using the DHCP connection and get error N02, and no new device is shown on the network. Specifying an IP gives a N06 error but the device does show on the network.


Check the router settings. Make sure you have more IP address range available, then allocated (i.e. if it was setup to support 10 IP address over WAN, and they're all consumed, you don't have any more to lease.) Make sure your DHCP is enabled as well.

Might want to go wired until you've got the TiVo up and get the latest FW updated on it. Then go back and setup wireless.


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