# Roamio and MoCA



## The Merg (Dec 2, 2007)

Quick question hopefully... I have a Roamio Pro and just had Verizon FIOS installed. 

If I want to use MoCA for connectivity to my Roamio and Mini, do I also need to have an Ethernet connection to the Roamio? Since I have a coax connected to my Verizon Actiontec Router, shouldn't the router be acting as a bridge for the Roamio so that a direct Ethernet connection is not needed for the Roamio?

Thanks,
Merg


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## CrispyCritter (Feb 28, 2001)

Correct. If you have a straightforward cable topology, it should be as simple as telling the Roamio to use MoCA.


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## Sixto (Sep 16, 2005)

Yep, the ActionTec provides the MoCA, and is the bridge. I'm all Ethernet but MoCA worked fine. I just wanted the 200mbps for transfers thus went gigabit Ethernet.


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## The Merg (Dec 2, 2007)

Hmmm... I'm missing a setting then. I needed to plug in the Ethernet cable in order for the Roamio to see it had access to the Internet. Is there a setting on the Roamio that needs to be changed or is it auto-detecting?

Thanks,
Merg


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## tarheelblue32 (Jan 13, 2014)

The Merg said:


> Hmmm... I'm missing a setting then. I needed to plug in the Ethernet cable in order for the Roamio to see it had access to the Internet. Is there a setting on the Roamio that needs to be changed or is it auto-detecting?
> 
> Thanks,
> Merg


Settings & Messages > Settings > Network > Change network settings > Connect using MoCA


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## The Merg (Dec 2, 2007)

tarheelblue32 said:


> Settings & Messages > Settings > Network > Change network settings > Connect using MoCA


Direct. Got it. Thanks.

Yeah, I figured that the TiVo would be self-detecting that it had a MoCA connection (or that the setting would be on by default).

- Merg


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## rifleman69 (Jan 6, 2005)

Yep the FiOS modem does all of the bridging...one thing I miss about Frontier FiOS. Enjoy!


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## gamo62 (Oct 12, 2002)

I don't understand why you need ethernet to have MoCa. Our Roamio has MoCa, and unless the ethernet is plugged in, the mini doesn't work. Why doesnt MoCa work with wireless?


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## BigJimOutlaw (Mar 21, 2004)

gamo62 said:


> I don't understand why you need ethernet to have MoCa. Our Roamio has MoCa, and unless the ethernet is plugged in, the mini doesn't work. Why doesnt MoCa work with wireless?


Since the Tivo-to-Mini connection would be wired, it is a bit of a head scratcher as to why the host Tivo must use ethernet when creating the moca network. Wireless from Tivo to router would be quite convenient.


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## lessd (Jan 23, 2005)

BigJimOutlaw said:


> Since the Tivo-to-Mini connection would be wired, it is a bit of a head scratcher as to why the host Tivo must use ethernet when creating the moca network. Wireless from Tivo to router would be quite convenient.


TiVo does not want you to stream unless connected directly to the Router by cable, MoCA comes after. The reason may be reliability as the Roamio is using the internet all the time as people have found out with the C122 error when TiVo can't get the internet or TiVo head end is not working. Some people have gotten good results by fooling the TiVo by using an WiFi to RJ45 access point (like the "N" TiVo adapter).


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## lpwcomp (May 6, 2002)

BigJimOutlaw said:


> Since the Tivo-to-Mini connection would be wired, it is a bit of a head scratcher as to why the host Tivo must use ethernet when creating the moca network. Wireless from Tivo to router would be quite convenient.





lessd said:


> TiVo does not want you to stream unless connected directly to the Router by cable, MoCA comes after. The reason may be reliability as the Roamio is using the internet all the time as people have found out with the C122 error when TiVo can't get the internet or TiVo head end is not working. Some people have gotten good results by fooling the TiVo by using an WiFi to RJ45 access point (like the "N" TiVo adapter).


I think the problem is not that MOCA requires wired Ethernet. It's that the Roamio cannot act as a bridge between MOCA and the rest of your network using it's internal wireless connection.


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## lessd (Jan 23, 2005)

lpwcomp said:


> I think the problem is not that MOCA requires wired Ethernet. It's that the Roamio cannot act as a bridge between MOCA and the rest of your network using it's internal wireless connection.


*Yes*, because TiVo does not want any streaming to happen if wireless is involved.


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## lpwcomp (May 6, 2002)

lessd said:


> *Yes*, because TiVo does not want any streaming to happen if wireless is involved.


I'm sorry, but that makes no sense at all. The router isn't involved in the actual streaming from a TiVo to a Mini via MOCA, much less the wireless connection from the Roamio, and a wireless connection is perfectly capable of supporting the required internet access for other purposes. It is far more likely that they simply neglected to provide the capability of using the Roamio as a wireless bridge. Or maybe there are technical reasons for not wanting to do it. But it has nothing to do with streaming.


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## The Merg (Dec 2, 2007)

lpwcomp said:


> I'm sorry, but that makes no sense at all. The router isn't involved in the actual streaming from a TiVo to a Mini via MOCA, much less the wireless connection from the Roamio, and a wireless connection is perfectly capable of supporting the required internet access for other purposes. It is far more likely that they simply neglected to provide the capability of using the Roamio as a wireless bridge. Or maybe there are technical reasons for not wanting to do it. But it has nothing to do with streaming.


Actually, it does make some sense. If you are connecting the Roamio back to your network via a wireless connection, you would most likely have the Mini connected via Ethernet. I say this because if you had the ability to connect the TiVo via MoCA, you would not need to connect via wireless for the Roamio or Ethernet for the Mini. TiVo would not want to stream from the Roamio to the Mini via the router through a wireless connection as there is too much potential for dropped connections. As the Mini would need to constantly have a solid stream from the Roamio, the potential of there being issues is much too great.

Even though DirecTV is doing it now with their Genie and wireless clients, it was a long time coming and there are still issues with it (and I am a huge DirecTV fan). TiVo is most likely not ready to take that jump yet.

- Merg


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## lpwcomp (May 6, 2002)

The Merg said:


> Actually, it does make some sense. If you are connecting the Roamio back to your network via a wireless connection, you would most likely have the Mini connected via Ethernet. I say this because if you had the ability to connect the TiVo via MoCA, you would not need to connect via wireless for the Roamio or Ethernet for the Mini. TiVo would not want to stream from the Roamio to the Mini via the router through a wireless connection as there is too much potential for dropped connections. As the Mini would need to constantly have a solid stream from the Roamio, the potential of there being issues is much too great.
> 
> Even though DirecTV is doing it now with their Genie and wireless clients, it was a long time coming and there are still issues with it (and I am a huge DirecTV fan). TiVo is most likely not ready to take that jump yet.
> 
> - Merg


I'm sorry, but you're not understanding the situation. There is no wireless streaming going on. The post that started this discussion was asking why the Roamio needed an Ethernet connection when it was connected to the Mini via MoCA. The streaming is via MoCA. The fact is that the Mini needs access to the net and the Roamio cannot act as a wireless bridge.

The only situation of which I am aware where a wired connection is explicitly required is when using a TiVo Stream unit, not streaming in general.

If I feel like it and have the time, I'll try an experiment tomorrow. I'll reconfigure my Roamio to use a wireless connection and see if it allows me to stream from my Premiere. I suspect it will.

Alternatively, someone in a position to do so, including the OP, could try this:

Connect the Mini to the net via Ethernet. No MoCA connection. Connect the Roamio via wireless. See if you can stream from the Roamio.

Edit: I realized right after I posted this that the Mini may require a wired connection to use a tuner for "Live" TV, but even then it has nothing to do with how the TiVo is connected to the net.


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## BigJimOutlaw (Mar 21, 2004)

lpwcomp said:


> I'm sorry, but you're not understanding the situation. There is no wireless streaming going on. The post that started this discussion was asking why the Roamio needed an Ethernet connection when it was connected to the Mini via MoCA. The streaming is via MoCA. The fact is that the Mini needs access to the net and the Roamio cannot act as a wireless bridge.


This. I'm just curious why Tivo made this limitation when the streaming is local moca.

I guess if there's a second non-moca DVR in the mix (Basic), there'd be no wired path for a Mini to stream from it unless it were the host and on ethernet. If the Plus/Pro were the host, the Mini can't access the Basic.

In which case "make all streaming require a wire" is just a safeguard to cover all if/then scenarios, which is a reasonable answer. I just wondered out of curiosity since I couldn't think of any problematic scenarios until now.


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## The Merg (Dec 2, 2007)

Well, I was the OP. My original question stemmed from the fact that my Roamio was not transmitting over MoCA. I assumed that the Roamio would self detect the MoCA connection, but did not realize that I had to turn it on manually.

As for streaming from the Roamio to the Mini, it is all done via Ethernet. Whether that is via CAT5 or MoCA doesn't matter. The Roamio can be connected via Cat5 and the Mini via MoCA (as long as there is a bridge, which the FIOS Actiontec router does) or vice versa. Of course, the Roamio needs the coax connection to receive the cable signal.

As for the Roamio being connected wirelessly and still streaming to a Mini, I can give that a try, but the software on the Roamio might prevent that.

- Merg


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## lpwcomp (May 6, 2002)

The Merg said:


> Well, I was the OP. My original question stemmed from the fact that my Roamio was not transmitting over MoCA. I assumed that the Roamio would self detect the MoCA connection, but did not realize that I had to turn it on manually.


My bad. It was gamo62's post that lead to the current discussion.


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## lpwcomp (May 6, 2002)

BigJimOutlaw said:


> This. I'm just curious why Tivo made this limitation when the streaming is local moca.
> 
> I guess if there's a second non-moca DVR in the mix (Basic), there'd be no wired path for a Mini to stream from it unless it were the host and on ethernet. If the Plus/Pro were the host, the Mini can't access the Basic.
> 
> In which case "make all streaming require a wire" is just a safeguard to cover all if/then scenarios, which is a reasonable answer. I just wondered out of curiosity since I couldn't think of any problematic scenarios until now.


That's just it, a wired connection _*isn't*_ required for all streaming. Obviously, the Mini has no embedded wireless capability and may require a wired connection to at least its host, although that may be enforced in the potential host TiVo , i.e. a TiVo connected via wireless will refuse to act as a host. I don't have a Mini so can't test that. I cannot even test wireless streaming at all. I was unable to get my Roamio to connect via wireless. It kept saying that it could not find my router.

However, I found this in the TiVo's "Roamio Built-In Wireless FAQ":



> Can I wirelessly access my other DVRs, TiVo Stream, and TiVo Mini?
> 
> The TiVo Whole Home Solution works best with a wired Ethernet or MoCA connection. However, if you have a Roamio Plus or Roamio Pro DVR, you can wirelessly stream content between it and other TiVo devices in your home.
> 
> Roamio Plus and Pro models have a transcoder that enables streaming without a standalone TiVo Stream.


Interesting that it does not include the base Roamio. Not sure what that means since the last sentence appears to have been written by someone who doesn't understand the vast difference between Tivo-Tivo streaming and the function of the TiVo Stream.

What all or at least Mini streaming may require is access to the internet for unknown reasons. Possibly validation? If the Mini is connected via MoCA, there has to be something that connects the MoCA network to the router. The Roamio can act as a bridge but only via a wired connection, not wirelessly.


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