# Bolt not recognizing Ethernet



## HailGoldPants (Jan 7, 2016)

A few nights ago, I was watching a football game on my Mini and I lost the signal. I thought it was a one off thing, but it happened again the next night. I started investigating by checking my Bolt to see what could be causing the interruptions to the Mini.

Everything thing looked good connection wise, so I made sure there were no loose connectors and even swapped out my ethernet cable. I also moved to a static IP address and put the ethernet cable in a new port, but I was still getting signal dropouts.

When playing around with it again today, I noticed that in the Network Settings menu, that it shows my default connection is Wi-Fi. I've checked the ethernet port and the cable is fully plugged in, and the port shows the green connection light. When going to the Change Network Settings menu, it says the Ethernet is "On", but still defaults to Wi-Fi. I've gone into my router settings, but see no reason why it would block the ethernet connection. I've power cycled the Bolt, restarted, etc. but cannot get it to default to Ethernet.

Does anyone have any suggestions as to what could be happening? I am on Verizon Fios, using a G1100 modem/router combo. I'm guessing/hoping that there is an obvious solution that I'm just missing because of fatigue. If anyone can help, I would be more than grateful.

Thanks.


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## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

If a TiVo (I have Roamio & Premiere boxes) loses Ethernet it will switch to WiFi. If you plug in an Ethernet cable it will switch to Ethernet in a second or two. On the change network settings screen you can watch this in real time also. It's possible your Bolt has a bad port. When the host is in WiFi mode, a Mini will not work very well, if at all. Only "guess" I have is to use CAT-5 to slow the Ethernet down to 100Mbps.


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## HailGoldPants (Jan 7, 2016)

JoeKustra said:


> If a TiVo (I have Roamio & Premiere boxes) loses Ethernet it will switch to WiFi. If you plug in an Ethernet cable it will switch to Ethernet in a second or two. On the change network settings screen you can watch this in real time also. It's possible your Bolt has a bad port. When the host is in WiFi mode, a Mini will not work very well, if at all. Only "guess" I have is to use CAT-5 to slow the Ethernet down to 100Mbps.


Thanks for your response Joe. Yeah, the more I dig, the more I believe it to be a bad port. When I unplug and replug the ethernet cable, the Network Settings screen doesn't update in real time like it used to. The odd thing is that I tested the Mini for an hour last night with no interruptions. It seems that there may be some sort of signal going through the ethernet cable, but it is just not showing as active on the Network Settings screen.

I was looking to upgrade my Bolt and maybe this will expedite it.

Anyway, thanks for your help.

Steve


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## Time_Lord (Jun 4, 2012)

JoeKustra said:


> Only "guess" I have is to use CAT-5 to slow the Ethernet down to 100Mbps.


Sorry that won't change the speed from 1GB to 100Mb/s. Technically only Cat 5e or higher is certified for 1Gb/s however the difference between 5 and 5e is so minor that unless your cable runs are at the maximum and are in a noisy environment Cat 5 will work just fine at 1Gb/s.

You have 3 different points of failure with your ethernet run
1) Switch
2) TiVO
3) Ethernet cable

I would try the following -
1) try moving your connection to a different port on your switch, it is possible you have a bad switch port
2) try replacing your ethernet cable - be mindful of the bend radius (typically 4x the cable diameter) and make sure the cable isn't kinked or the jacket isn't damaged
3) replace your TiVO.

I suspect it is your ethernet cable.

-TL


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## fcfc2 (Feb 19, 2015)

Time_Lord said:


> Sorry that won't change the speed from 1GB to 100Mb/s. Technically only Cat 5e or higher is certified for 1Gb/s however the difference between 5 and 5e is so minor that unless your cable runs are at the maximum and are in a noisy environment Cat 5 will work just fine at 1Gb/s.
> 
> You have 3 different points of failure with your ethernet run
> 1) Switch
> ...


When the cat5e spec was announced a lot of manufactures started producing cat5 cables at the new spec although they was still labeled straight cat5. There are lots of both types of "cat5" still out there but a true "cat5" spec cable will actually prevent the Ethernet port from going beyond 100Mbps, if yours goes up to 1000Mbps, it was built to the newer spec. 
This issue was more common when cat5e cables were starting to be produced and there was still a bunch of standard cat5 cables in use. Since that was a long time ago, and older cat5 cables are slowly being "lost" the issue has also become "lost" from awareness.


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## Time_Lord (Jun 4, 2012)

fcfc2 said:


> When the cat5e spec was announced a lot of manufactures started producing cat5 cables at the new spec although they was still labeled straight cat5. There are lots of both types of "cat5" still out there but a true "cat5" spec cable will actually prevent the Ethernet port from going beyond 100Mbps, if yours goes up to 1000Mbps, it was built to the newer spec.
> This issue was more common when cat5e cables were starting to be produced and there was still a bunch of standard cat5 cables in use. Since that was a long time ago, and older cat5 cables are slowly being "lost" the issue has also become "lost" from awareness.


Not sure where you are getting your information regarding cat 5 vs 5e but I suggest you re-read the differences, the difference is immunity to crosstalk.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk


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## T-Shee (Sep 22, 2006)

FWIW, when my bolt+ was being setup, I noticed it was not connecting to the Gigabit switch at 1000Mbps but at 100Mbps. Restarting the bolt did not fix it. I swapped cable ends, reversing it. Nada. I tried different ports on the switch. No change. Still 100Mbps. (LEDs on the switch indicate the connection speed.) 

After completing the guided setup and rebooting several times it began to connect to the switch at 1000Mbps. (all ethernet cables are new CAT6, including CAT6 patch cords, and no run is longer than 30 feet.)

Then yesterday, I put the Bolt into standby = exiting standby it connected again only at 100Mbps. So I unplugged the CAT6 at the back of the Bolt and reinserted it - instantly back to 1000Mbps. 

While this could be the switch, my instincts tell me that it's a finicky ethernet port on the Bolt+. I intended to bypass the switch and connect it's ethernet cable directly to the router, but realized my router doesn't indicate ethernet connection speeds, just the connection itself, which won't help diagnosis at all, since there is no way that I know of to accurately measure the Bolt's actual connection speed.


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## m.s (Mar 8, 2007)

Try new cables all the way along the path. 1G requires that all 4 pair be good, 100M only needs 2 pair.


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## V7Goose (May 28, 2005)

Time_Lord said:


> Sorry that won't change the speed from 1GB to 100Mb/s. Technically only Cat 5e or higher is certified for 1Gb/s however the difference between 5 and 5e is so minor that unless your cable runs are at the maximum and are in a noisy environment Cat 5 will work just fine at 1Gb/s.


I believe this is bad information. I have personal experience with a Bolt connected with a factory Cat5 cable (about 36") that would not connect at 1G until I replaced that cable with a 5e cable. It is irresponsible to tell people that a 5e or 6 cable is not needed for 1G Ethernet.


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## Time_Lord (Jun 4, 2012)

V7Goose said:


> I believe this is bad information. I have personal experience with a Bolt connected with a factory Cat5 cable (about 36") that would not connect at 1G until I replaced that cable with a 5e cable. It is irresponsible to tell people that a 5e or 6 cable is not needed for 1G Ethernet.


Before you state information that is incorrect, please check the spec for CAT 5 vs 5e, you will see that the difference between the two is an improved immunity to cross talk, nothing else, the improvement is by simply increasing the rate of twist in the wire, and as I said earlier unless you are putting a CAT 5 run in a noisy (electrically noisy) and/or running it at or near the limits of the spec, CAT 5 will handle Gig just fine.

Stating that a "CAT 5" cable that you received with a piece of hardware didn't work at gig speeds doesn't mean that it was due to it being CAT 5, it was due to having a defective cable. Remember 10 or 100 meg only need 2 pairs (Orange and green), 1G requires all 4 pairs.

What many people don't realize is there is a minimum bend radius on cables, If you don't know what the minimum radius for your specific cable is you can usually use the rule of thumb of 4x the cable diameter, this is true for Ethernet, CoAX, Fiber, etc. Another thing to consider is many of the cheap ethernet cables probably don't meet their rated spec, I'm going to go out on a limb and say it is probably due to the terminator not the wire itself, unless you get cheap and use CCA (Copper Clad Aluminum) wire, CCA IMHO should never be used.

-TL


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## V7Goose (May 28, 2005)

Well, I am not going to continue polluting this thread by arguing with you, so this will be my last post on the subject. Here is the simple FACT: 1000BASE-T is NOT supported on Cat5 cabling; it is only supported on CAT5e, CAT6 and CAT7 cabling. That does not mean you cannot make it work, but it DOES mean that if you choose to try it, you may run into all sorts of problems that simply are not worth the effort to troubleshoot. 

So when you tell people that they should not care if they are using CAT5 cables for Gigabit Ethernet, you are just flat wrong. You are simply telling them to do things that may cause them unknown future problems for which they are not equipped to troubleshoot or understand. The fact that you choose to do so and think it works fine is totally immaterial.


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## shwru980r (Jun 22, 2008)

Ports can be damaged when the back of the Tivo is pushed against a wall and pressure is put on the cables that bend them. This pressure is applied to the port as well and can cause the port to fail.


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## m.s (Mar 8, 2007)

V7Goose said:


> Here is the simple FACT: 1000BASE-T is NOT supported on Cat5 cabling; it is only supported on CAT5e, CAT6 and CAT7 cabling.


IEEE 802.3-2015 (Ethernet, current), clause 40.7.1 (1000BASE-T):


> The cabling system components (cables, cords, and connectors) used to provide the link segment shall consist of Category 5 components as specified in ANSI/TIA/EIA-568-A:1995 and ISO/IEC 11801:1995.


The Cat 5 cable spec was superseded by the Cat 5e spec in 2001, but 1000BASE-T, which was defined years before 5e even existed, only requires Cat 5. The only reference to "Category 5e" in 802.3-2015 is in clause 33 (PoE):


> These requirements are also met by Category 5e or better cable and components as specified in ANSI/TIA-568-C.2; or Category 5 cable and components as specified in ANSI/TIA/EIA-568-A.


Funny how authoritative, normative specifications get in the way of your claimed "FACTS."


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## MighTiVo (Oct 26, 2000)

The difference between CAT5 and CAT5e is in the minimal electrical performance specifications. The performance requirements were raised slightly in the enhanced standard to assure requirements for 1Gbps were met. CAT5 and CAT5e cables can be nearly identical and a CAT5 cable is likely to meet performance standards to carry 1Gbps unless it is a poor quality CAT5 cable. To meet the enhanced standard, you will probably find that a Cat5e cable is twisted more tightly than those in a Cat5 cable. 

Specifically, CAT5e has stricter specifications for Power Sum Equal-Level Far-End Crosstalk (PS-ELFEXT), Near-End Crosstalk (NEXT), Attenuation, and Return Loss (RL) than those for CAT5. However, both CAT5 and CAT5e are 100-MHz standards.


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## dbpaddler (Sep 25, 2004)

sounds like you guys want to have a ***** war instead of address the problem. Can you get a room?

I'm having the same issue. Out of nowhere, my ethernet on my Bolt seems to be dead. It says ethernet is connected, but it doesn't connect. I'm using an Asus Cellspot in Media Bridge mode, and it's worked like a champ since day one, until today. I've swapped cables, cellspots. Reconfigured the media bridge again. Nada. Take the same cable, pop it in my laptop, and I'm typing this post.The tivo hasn't moved. The cable isn't pressed against a wall. There is no pressure against the connector. It's all open in the back. It simply just stopped working. 

Switch the bolt over to wifi, and I'm back in business. But of course wifi isn't always reliable, and if I want to use it as a host for the Mini, it surely will be wonky.


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## kpeters59 (Jun 19, 2007)

dbpaddler said:


> sounds like you guys want to have a ***** war instead of address the problem. Can you get a room?
> 
> I'm having the same issue. Out of nowhere, my ethernet on my Bolt seems to be dead. It says ethernet is connected, but it doesn't connect. I'm using an Asus Cellspot in Media Bridge mode, and it's worked like a champ since day one, until today. I've swapped cables, cellspots. Reconfigured the media bridge again. Nada. Take the same cable, pop it in my laptop, and I'm typing this post.The tivo hasn't moved. The cable isn't pressed against a wall. There is no pressure against the connector. It's all open in the back. It simply just stopped working.
> 
> Switch the bolt over to wifi, and I'm back in business. But of course wifi isn't always reliable, and if I want to use it as a host for the Mini, it surely will be wonky.


Is it still in warranty?

-KP


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## m.s (Mar 8, 2007)

dbpaddler said:


> ...


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## dbpaddler (Sep 25, 2004)

kpeters59 said:


> Is it still in warranty?
> 
> -KP


Haven't gotten that far yet. Was trying to relax and catch up on a bunch of shows, then started troubleshooting. Got it going over wifi and got back to watching. First instinct was to search here. New day, now I'll call tivo. And it's close I believe. Its one year, right? If so, I should be good.

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk


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## dbpaddler (Sep 25, 2004)

m.s said:


>


That would be funny if last month was like more than two weeks ago, or even three or four. Unless we gauge online time like high school relationships.

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## m.s (Mar 8, 2007)

dbpaddler said:


> That would be funny if last month was like more than two weeks ago, or even three or four. Unless we gauge online time like high school relationships.


December 9 minus November 1 = more than two, three, or even four weeks ago. Grade school math. QED.


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## dbpaddler (Sep 25, 2004)

m.s said:


> December 9 minus November 1 = more than two, three, or even four weeks ago. Grade school math. QED.


Well now you're adding qualifiers. You didn't specify time in days. You said month, and considering this is December and last month was November, a normal person would equatethe term month with the actual month and not a time of roughly 30 days. But I suppose welcome to 30 days (ish) ago would have been even less funny, if that's possible. 

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk


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## m.s (Mar 8, 2007)

dbpaddler said:


> Well now you're adding qualifiers. You didn't specify time in days. You said month, and considering this is December and last month was November, a normal person would equatethe term month with the actual month and not a time of roughly 30 days. But I suppose welcome to 30 days (ish) ago would have been even less funny, if that's possible.


On December 9, November 1 is last month by any way it's measured. A normal person understands that. Are you seriously trying to argue that it isn't, and why are you digging up an old thread?


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## dbpaddler (Sep 25, 2004)

m.s said:


> On December 9, November 1 is last month by any way it's measured. A normal person understands that. Are you seriously trying to argue that it isn't, and why are you digging up an old thread?


I'm just having some fun as I work through my weekend. Kinda think it's funny a guy asks a question and everyone just ignores it as they get into a debate about the difference in cat 5 and 5e cables. And that "digging up" a thread from last month is really considered old. I could understand if it was from the beginning of the year, or even a Roamio. Other forums would be happy to continue a "recent" thread instead of starting a new one.

On topic, I got the Bolt in March so I reached out to Tivo. Odd their chat isn't working even though it's within the hours. Guess I'll call. Thankfully I don't do a lot of recording on it so no real loss if I get it switched out. Not a bad track record considering I've had double digit tivos since my Toshiba DVD combo and I've had an HD's hdmi go, a loud fan on my original bolt and now the ethernet on its replacement. Guess that's not a glowing statement for the bolt though.

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk


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## MighTiVo (Oct 26, 2000)

When I got my Bolt I did WiFi first for quick setup and then connected to Ethernet. This caused similar network issues I understand you are dealing with. I didn't investigate in detail to understand what TiVo was doing on the network, which interface was sending/receiving traffic, if the mac was the same, if TiVo requested 2 dhcp addresses, etc. but to recover I had to unplug the Ethernet in order to access to WiFi setup and disable it, then connect the Ethernet. Previous to the Bolt leaving WiFi configured didn't cause a problem as connecting Ethernet switched the connection from WiFi to Ethernet to the but I found the Bolt had issues.


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## dbpaddler (Sep 25, 2004)

I'll play with it tonight. Hard to imagine it would just go in 8 months getting very little use as it's in my theater room which gets used once or twice a week, usually on the weekend or for weekday football. 

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## UncleJeff (Dec 4, 2016)

Have same problem and found this thread. My brute-force work-around was to get into router admin and turn off *its* wifi radios for a while. *Restarted* TiVo Bolt and it had no choice but to use its ethernet despite strong preference for using its wifi. When I turned the router's wifi back on, Bolt was still using ethernet... but its wifi was pinging.

I'm now searching how to disable Bolt's wifi altogether. If there's no setting for that, then I'll unplug ethernet and try to get into Bolt's wifi settings to erase everything it knows about SSID, password etc (hamstring it as much as possible until it turns OFF).

I hate it when devices don't do what I tell them, and I hate it when a device doesn't have an explicit setting for what I want to tell it, and I especially hate it when they misbehave, refusing to act according to documention.

EDIT: Found it! There *is* such an OFF setting, but it's buried inside the WiFi settings screen, and guess what? You can't get to it unless the Ethernet cable is pulled out!

So if you've plugged in Ethernet and see both it and WiFi on, backup a step (pull out the Ethernet cable), dig down into TiVo's network settings -> WiFi (where you would choose an SSID etc) where you can turn WiFi OFF. *After* WiFi is off, *then* plug in the Ethernet cable, and voila! Ethernet without WiFi


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