# PLUS wireless networking is driving me insane



## estrader (Nov 1, 2013)

Please i need help. i am about to toss this device out the window. I cant get this thing to stay connected to the Tivo service. the wireless keeps losing connections. I am running this DVR with a simple Dlink DIR615 router. all my other wireless devices work flawlessly on this network.

installed dvr and connected. worked beautifully for 2 days. then stopped connection and got N02

first call to tech support: they told me to reboot router and dvr. service connected

second call to tech support the next day: they told me my dvr was DOA and to return to best buy. said the wireless network car inside the dvr was defective.

exchanged device and installed a new unit from best buy. worked for one day.

got No2 again this morning, called it in and they told me my ROUTER WAS DEFECTED. 

this is complete BS. told me to unplug the device. spent hours trying force connected to tivo service.

Basically the most sophisticated solution they could give me was to unplug the device. 

any problem i have unplug the device. i have had this dvr for 7 days now and ive been unplugging it several times a day ever since the day i got it. is this a normal part of the tivo experience?

please help.


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## moyekj (Jan 24, 2006)

I'm shocked TiVo even decided to enable and support built in WiFi. From most accounts and since there is no external antenna in the Roamio and a big box shield around it, the reception is pretty lousy. What are the signal levels reported by TiVo network screens? I would highly recommend you pursue MoCA as an alternative to wireless, especially since your Roamio Plus has built in MoCA. All you would need is a MoCA adapter to connect to your router.


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## estrader (Nov 1, 2013)

moyekj said:


> I'm shocked TiVo even decided to enable and support built in WiFi. From most accounts and since there is no external antenna in the Roamio and a big box shield around it, the reception is pretty lousy. What are the signal levels reported by TiVo network screens? I would highly recommend you pursue MoCA as an alternative to wireless, especially since your Roamio Plus has built in MoCA. All you would need is a MoCA adapter to connect to your router.


im getting from 55-63% signal strength reported by TIVO.

where can i get a MOCA adapter. i have Time warner. is this extra charge for them to come out and install this?

or something i can do on my own?


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## moyekj (Jan 24, 2006)

You can buy your own right from TiVo for $50 (these are the ones I'm currently using):
https://tivo.com/shop/detail/moca


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## estrader (Nov 1, 2013)

how about if i just plug my ethernet cable into it directly?


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## moyekj (Jan 24, 2006)

estrader said:


> how about if i just plug my ethernet cable into it directly?


 Well yes that is a better option. But if that is an option why are using wireless in the 1st place? Wired is always better than wireless.

NOTE: TiVo didn't supply a way to turn wireless off. The only way I've found to effectively disable it once turned on is to go through wireless setup and provide a wrong password such that the wireless connection fails. So if you do go wired you probably need to do something similar to disable wireless.


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## estrader (Nov 1, 2013)

moyekj said:


> Well yes that is a better option. But if that is an option why are using wireless in the 1st place? Wired is always better than wireless.
> 
> NOTE: TiVo didn't supply a way to turn wireless off. The only way I've found to effectively disable it once turned on is to go through wireless setup and provide a wrong password such that the wireless connection fails. So if you do go wired you probably need to do something similar to disable wireless.


i wasnt in the mood to pull the carpet up in the hallway and run cable underneath it. now it looks likei have to .

so when i go go wired, cant i just change network settings to "ethernet" and it will be all good? what are the issues if wireless stays on? it will keep throwing errors even thought connected with wired?


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

When you set the TiVo to Ethernet wifi is turned off automatically, so no worried there.


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## tivogurl (Dec 16, 2004)

moyekj said:


> I'm shocked TiVo even decided to enable and support built in WiFi. From most accounts and since there is no external antenna in the Roamio and a big box shield around it, the reception is pretty lousy.


Is this a case where the Basic is better? It's encased in plastic, not a big box 'o metal.


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## moyekj (Jan 24, 2006)

Dan203 said:


> When you set the TiVo to Ethernet wifi is turned off automatically, so no worried there.


 That's not what I saw when I tried WiFi. It still showed up as a wireless client in my router after connecting ethernet and wouldn't go away until I had to resort to setting up wireless with wrong password. But that was with 20.3.6 software, haven't tried it recently.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

moyekj said:


> That's not what I saw when I tried WiFi. It still showed up as a wireless client in my router after connecting ethernet and wouldn't go away until I had to resort to setting up wireless with wrong password. But that was with 20.3.6 software, haven't tried it recently.


When I was playing with the settings I didn't see any option for Ethernet + Wifi so I just assumed that switching would turn off the Wifi. I've never actually tried wifi on my Roamio.


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## senorgregster (Nov 12, 2005)

I'm interested to hear how this works out for you. I was getting flaky wireless so tried direct wired (very long cable) to test that out. The Roamio didn't like that at all and lost connection every 30 seconds or so. I moved the Roamio nearer the wireless router (wrong TV - was just testing) and it behaved better. So I decided to go the MoCA route. The Roamio still lost connection every 30 seconds or so. My MoCA set up is the FiOS router x2 so I enabled wireless on the 2nd as well (different channel, same SSID and key as the main router). Now I get 100% signal (the router antennae is touching the Roamio - lol) and a really nice whole house wireless set up for all devices but a bit of a hassle to get this working well. Can't stream directly from the other Roamio, I have to transfer and wait a few minutes. Oh well. Good luck!


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

Sounds like you have the same problem as moyekj where wifi is not being turned off even though you select MoCa or Ethernet. Try setting a bad password on wifi and then enabling MoCa and see if that fixes the problem.

FYI you can use multi-room streaming or iPad streaming capabilities if the TiVo is connected via wifi.


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## moyekj (Jan 24, 2006)

Dan203 said:


> FYI you can use multi-room streaming or iPad streaming capabilities if the TiVo is connected via wifi.


 I think you meant:
FYI you *cannot* use multi-room streaming or iPad streaming capabilities if the TiVo is connected via wifi.

Yes, it's pretty stupid there is no "off" setting for WiFi. Having it enabled along with ethernet or MoCA may be causing packet collisions and leading to problems but I'm not exactly sure how TiVo has configured things so it may be OK. Personally I want to make sure it doesn't use WiFi for anything though if I'm wired.


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## ThAbtO (Apr 6, 2000)

What I do is set the Gateway and DNS to my router's IP address.


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## senorgregster (Nov 12, 2005)

I'll give that a go. Thanks.


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## Diacritical (Jan 10, 2003)

moyekj said:


> I think you meant:
> FYI you *cannot* use multi-room streaming or iPad streaming capabilities if the TiVo is connected via wifi.


I don't know about the multiroom streaming, but streaming to my iPad, even remote, works fine with the Roamio connected via WiFi. And I am getting a 100% WiFi signal.


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## pautler (Oct 10, 2013)

Wired connections are always better (faster, more reliable, etc) than wireless connections. The only reasons to use wireless is if you are using a mobile device that can't be tethered, or it is just simply not possible to run a wire to your device (due to building construction, cost, etc).

With regards to wireless, it is 'best practice' to enable some security settings on your home WiFi network, such as:
- turn off SSID broadcast (requires clients to know the SSID)
- enable WPA or WEP (requires clients to have a key)
- mac address filtering (only pre-registered clients can connect)

If you use some/any/all of those then you don't have to worry about your TiVo (or any other devices, including your neighbor's, LOL!) automatically appearing as clients on your wireless network.

-Joe


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## DeltaOne (Sep 29, 2013)

pautler said:


> Wired connections are always better (faster, more reliable, etc) than wireless connections. The only reasons to use wireless is if you are using a mobile device that can't be tethered, or it is just simply not possible to run a wire to your device (due to building construction, cost, etc).
> 
> With regards to wireless, it is 'best practice' to enable some security settings on your home WiFi network, such as:
> - turn off SSID broadcast (requires clients to know the SSID)
> ...


I'll agree that wired connections are always preferable to wireless -- only use WiFi when there's no way to use wired. I often suggest that folks that can't or don't want to run an Ethernet drop hire an electrician to do so -- it's not that expensive.

On the other comments:

1) turning off SSID does not increase security at all.
2) never use WEP (it's easy to crack). Always use WPA.
3) using MAC address filtering does not increase security at all.

WPA, plus a strong password, is all one needs to practice good WiFi security.


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## ggieseke (May 30, 2008)

tivogurl said:


> Is this a case where the Basic is better? It's encased in plastic, not a big box 'o metal.


The network antenna wires on my Pro run through holes in the metal chassis and end up behind the front plastic cover. I haven't actually tried it since it's already on ethernet but I wouldn't expect any signal problems.


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## Joe Siegler (May 10, 2000)

moyekj said:


> I'm shocked TiVo even decided to enable and support built in WiFi. From most accounts and since there is no external antenna in the Roamio and a big box shield around it, the reception is pretty lousy. What are the signal levels reported by TiVo network screens? I would highly recommend you pursue MoCA as an alternative to wireless, especially since your Roamio Plus has built in MoCA. All you would need is a MoCA adapter to connect to your router.


Strange. I have two roamios, one is hardwired, as it lives about 4 feet from the router. The other is wireless on the other side of the house, and I get anywhere between 80-95% signal strength. It's not a design fault, otherwise I wouldn't get that strong a signal.

I do, however, keep the roamio on TOP of the armoire in the bedroom, as opposed to inside it.



Dan203 said:


> When I was playing with the settings I didn't see any option for Ethernet + Wifi so I just assumed that switching would turn off the Wifi. I've never actually tried wifi on my Roamio.


TiVo told me that it's not turned off, it still lives in the background as being "on", but not used if you had it set up then go to Ethernet. The suggestion about giving it a bad password is probably the only way to really turn it off, and even that's a hack, you're not really turning it off.


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## senorgregster (Nov 12, 2005)

That has appeared to fix it. Thanks again. I have a few other quirks that ill save for another thread(s).


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## MadPB (Oct 6, 2013)

DeltaOne said:


> I often suggest that folks that can't or don't want to run an Ethernet drop hire an electrician to do so -- it's not that expensive.


LOL... well, it can be pretty expensive in some cases. Imagine a TV room where the walls are plaster or brick, or maybe it's a wall of windows. Where would you run the ethernet? It's a fair bet some folks have their cable coming into such a room from outside...

I guess the ethernet could be run the same way (outside the house), but if that's not eye-pleasing, or maybe the cable was run prior to some renovations and is already nicely tucked away behind an expensive wall treatment, then your options get more limited unless you can afford to tear through floors or ceilings or have new plaster work done or whatever.

Or I guess you can go ugly and run some on-wall conduit, maybe even paint it so it's not sticking out too bad.

Or, do wireless.  A pair of nice 802.11n (or 802.11ac) routers bridged will give you local ethernet ports to plug into, beam ones and zeroes through the air to the other bridged one, and the Tivo is none the wiser, as long as those bridged APs have a good connection to each other.

As for the Tivo Roamio's built in wifi... my Plus does a decent job at either 2.4 or 5 GHz... it's not terribly far away from my 802.11ac router, but it does go through my entertainment center cabinet and 4 sheets of drywall, maybe 50 feet. I get 90% signal or so on 2.4 GHz and 80-85% in the 5G bands.

I stick with the 5G signal just because it's less prone to the microwave or cordless phones in the area, plus less overall congestion from the neighbors and their wifi. I'm the only 5G broadcaster on my block, which is nice for now.

Too bad you can't bridge to MoCA that way though, even though I do get a really good 802.11n connection from the Roamio. Sigh... MoCA kit is in the mail...


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## ltxi (Feb 14, 2010)

moyekj said:


> I'm shocked TiVo even decided to enable and support built in WiFi. From most accounts and since there is no external antenna in the Roamio and a big box shield around it, the reception is pretty lousy. What are the signal levels reported by TiVo network screens? I would highly recommend you pursue MoCA as an alternative to wireless, especially since your Roamio Plus has built in MoCA. All you would need is a MoCA adapter to connect to your router.


First everyone complains because there's no built in WiFi. Then folk complain when it gets built in and have the problems that led them to not do it in the first place........


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## ltxi (Feb 14, 2010)

estrader said:


> i *wasnt in the mood* to pull the carpet up in the hallway and run cable underneath it. now it looks likei have to .
> 
> so when i go go wired, cant i just change network settings to "ethernet" and it will be all good? what are the issues if wireless stays on? it will keep throwing errors even thought connected with wired?


Well....I was feeling rather sorry for you about your problem and having to deal with the least effective connection option. Not so much now.....


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