# Just converted to Tivo's USB Wireless G - Wow!!



## WayneCarter (Mar 16, 2003)

We originally had the two S2 Tivos on our home network using Linksys 1.1 USB wireless B interfaces - transfers between the Tivos were about 2x runtime (2hrs for a 1 hr show).

A week ago, I sprang for 2 of Tivo's new Wireless G interfaces. The difference is _AMAZING_ - transfers are now fast enough that not only can we watch the show as it is being transferred, _we can even skip commercials while doing it!_. I estimate the transfers to be about 0.5x runtime (30 minutes to transfer a 1 hour show). I was further astounded to find we can watch a show as it is being transferred while both Tivos are recording other shows (I didn't think it was even possible to record one show and receive another by transfer at the same time).

The Tivo interfaces aren't cheap ($60 each), but they make multi-room viewing really worthwhile - any show on either Tivo is equally available to be viewed at either location.


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## dirtypacman (Feb 3, 2004)

Great to hear of your success!

I love the ability to transfer shows while Tivo is recording/burning/watching, etc. But it does not work well unless you have the speed to do it. Now you do!


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## nirisahn (Nov 19, 2005)

What quality level are you recording at? I find that programs that I record at medium quality transfer quickly, but programs I record at high or best quality don't record fast enough to watch it while it's transferring. I have one Tivo on an ethernet cable and the other has a Tivo adapter.


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## Dr_Zoidberg (Jan 4, 2004)

Can anyone else confirm the speed? I have a nonTivo wireless G and get really slow rates on my S2


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## CuriousMark (Jan 13, 2005)

Dr_Zoidberg said:


> Can anyone else confirm the speed? I have a nonTivo wireless G and get really slow rates on my S2


Sure. It is faster because it offloads work from the TiVos anemic processor. The speed you see will depend on the quality setting of the recording you are transferring, whether you are doing an MRV or TTG transfer and on the quality of the signal in your wireless system. In other words your mileage may vary. If your current system is slow due to serious wireless interference, fix that before trying to upgrade.

Mark


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## jcnipper (Aug 19, 2006)

I've been using tivo 2 go for about a year with a "normal" wireless g adapter. Based on comments from this forum, I finally bought the bullet tonight and bought the Tivo G adapter. Wow! Much faster, and seems to be more reliable as well.

I finally got the BCS championship game to my PC! 

Go Gators!


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## Dr_Zoidberg (Jan 4, 2004)

CuriousMark said:


> Sure. It is faster because it offloads work from the TiVos anemic processor. The speed you see will depend on the quality setting of the recording you are transferring, whether you are doing an MRV or TTG transfer and on the quality of the signal in your wireless system. In other words your mileage may vary. If your current system is slow due to serious wireless interference, fix that before trying to upgrade.
> 
> Mark


I was questioning the download rate. Obviously, larger files will take longer, whether they're longer from time or recording quality.

My wireless G download rates from the Internet are in the several hundred KB/s rate, whereas from my Tivo it's maybe 50KB/s or so.

I guess I'm going to get one of these babies ASAP!


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## Norm_bone (Dec 4, 2001)

We had 802.11b, and were getting about 40% signal strength. We'd have to let it start about 15-30 minutes transfer before we could start watching.

After putting in just the Tivo brand adapter, and the same signal strength, we were able to start watching right away!

Except for sporting events, our recordings are at medium, but I was really impressed.

Once we switched to an 802.11g router, it got even better.

Way to go, Tivo!


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## MusicMama (Mar 6, 2005)

Mark me as one who is terribly disappointed with the TiVo adapter.  My download speed has actually decreased since putting this on my upstairs TiVo - and worse, when I try to download from 2 TiVos at the same time, it takes HOURS!!

I am seriously considering going back to the Belkin or Netgear because they were soooooo much faster.


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## rcobourn (Nov 10, 2004)

Mark me down as also disappointed... I tried two different ones and both caused both of my TiVos to continuously reboot.


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## john123 (Nov 18, 2002)

I'm impressed with mine - we can watch medium and high recordings live from the other tivo. Before I got the tivo ones, we could only watch basic recordings live (with cheap B adaptors).

Very high WAF.


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## Joey Bagadonuts (Mar 13, 2006)

Not too happy with mine either. Maybe someone can help with my problem. I am seeing a really bizarre IP address for my Tivo. It's showing 169.254.85.xxx where as the rest of my networked devices are all showing 192.168.1.xxx It is showing the correct name for my Network and I am seeing an excellent signal at 82% but the TiVo isn't seeing my Network and I am unable to connect to the TiVo service. My Network is WEP enabled and I am using a Linksys WRT54G router with the wireless TiVo G adapter. I am certain the problem lies with the weird IP address I am seeing for my TiVo. Can anyone offer some advice?

Joe


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## wobly (Apr 17, 2004)

Joe, I would recommend you use a static IP address. That is, find out what your IP address range is, then make it a few numbers higher. ie, if you are using 192.168.1.1-9 then make the Tivo 192.168.1.111 or something similiar. 
That fixed my issues.


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## Joey Bagadonuts (Mar 13, 2006)

wobly said:


> Joe, I would recommend you use a static IP address. That is, find out what your IP address range is, then make it a few numbers higher. ie, if you are using 192.168.1.1-9 then make the Tivo 192.168.1.111 or something similiar.
> That fixed my issues.


Wobly, bear with me but how do I assign a static IP address to my TiVo. I am using a Linksys WRT54G router with WEP security.


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## WayneCarter (Mar 16, 2003)

It's in Tivo's "Change network settings" - after you specify the encryption and "password".


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## john123 (Nov 18, 2002)

Joey Bagadonuts said:


> Not too happy with mine either. Maybe someone can help with my problem. I am seeing a really bizarre IP address for my Tivo. It's showing 169.254.85.xxx where as the rest of my networked devices are all showing 192.168.1.xxx It is showing the correct name for my Network and I am seeing an excellent signal at 82% but the TiVo isn't seeing my Network and I am unable to connect to the TiVo service. My Network is WEP enabled and I am using a Linksys WRT54G router with the wireless TiVo G adapter. I am certain the problem lies with the weird IP address I am seeing for my TiVo. Can anyone offer some advice?
> 
> Joe


Whenever I see a DHCP device with an address in the 169.* range, it usually means it was unable to grab a valid IP from the server, and so self assigned that address to itself.

Looks like it was unable to connect to your wireless network - you probably have some settings messed up. Try simplifying it - turn off security for a bit to see if that help. Should help narrow down the problem.


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## Joey Bagadonuts (Mar 13, 2006)

Thank you for the suggestions. Now I am wondering if maybe I have a bad adapter. I started from scratch. I dc'd the WEP on my router. Then I rebooted my router. Then I rebooted TiVo and tried to set up a wireless connection with the adapter connected. First I got a msg saying no wireless adapter was found. That eventually corrected itself and I set up a wireless connection from scratch and I manually assigned TiVo an IP address of 192.168.1xx. I entered all the defaults for my network (subnet mask, gateway, etc...) and restarted TiVo. In the phone and network screen, I am now seeing the IP address I assigned TiVo and I am seeing the network name and it says I have an excellent signal at 80%. Yet the green light on the adapter that should be a steady green to indicate a network/internet connection is flashing on and off and as I moved the adapter around to see if that effected the signal strength (as it should), nothing happened. It stayed at 80%, as though it was locked up or frozen. I then went into my program list, scrolled down to where I can normally see my other two TiVos on my Network and they weren't visible. tried to connect to the TiVo Network and I got a msg saying no Gateway could be found. 
Out of frustration, I disconnected the TiVo G adapter and reconnected my original Linksys WUSB11 adapter. TiVo immediately saw it, and the IP address was automatically assigned (192.168.1xx) and within seconds I was connected to my Network and I was able to connect to the TiVo Network.


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## jjmg (Feb 3, 2002)

I'm really surprised that the original poster is getting acceptable speeds over wireless. I have my tivo connected via wired 100Mbps ethernet and it takes hours to transfer a show to my computer via TivoToGo. No way a wireless connector is going to be any faster than that. I think I read somewhere, though, that TTG is slower than transferring from one Tivo to another.


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## TivoPip (Feb 26, 2003)

A major limitation of transfer speeds on many TiVos is the processor speed. As the TiVo wireless adapter takes some of the load I wouldn't be at all surprised if it was the fastest method to transfer data if it is configured correctly.


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## Stu_Bee (Jan 15, 2002)

I thought the Wireless Tivo Adapter only helped with the processor overhead that is added by the Wireless protocol itself. I didn't think it helped with any other type of processing. If this is the case, then I wouldn't think it would be faster than wired, but maybe comparable.


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## painkiller (Jun 23, 2005)

Would it be possible to ask folks who have been successful to share their settings??

Just curious. I bought one awhile back and didn't have much luck with my downstairs TIVO. I might try it on the TIVO just next to the room with my wireless router.


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## Joey Bagadonuts (Mar 13, 2006)

painkiller said:


> Would it be possible to ask folks who have been successful to share their settings??
> 
> Just curious. I bought one awhile back and didn't have much luck with my downstairs TIVO. I might try it on the TIVO just next to the room with my wireless router.


Never got mine to work either.


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## ajayabb (Jan 12, 2007)

I purchased 2 tivo brand wireless adapters about 6 weeks ago and connected my 2 s2 tivos (upstairs and downstairs) to my network via Netgear 624 router. I initially was getting great transfer speeds with high quality recording, I was able to transfer shows between tivos and from pc to tivo with about 1:2 time ( able to transfer 1 hr show in 30min). Then everything slowed to a crawl. I changed channels on my router , disabled wep, repositioned adapters (despite signal strength of 60-90% on tivo adapters), rebooted tivos and adapters all to no avail. I finally decided to replace my netgear 624 with a netgear rangemax and all is back to original speed (with wpa I am back to 1:2 speed). Turned out the router was failing, giving me horrible throughput.


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## supasta (May 6, 2006)

jjmg said:


> I'm really surprised that the original poster is getting acceptable speeds over wireless. I have my tivo connected via wired 100Mbps ethernet and it takes hours to transfer a show to my computer via TivoToGo. No way a wireless connector is going to be any faster than that. I think I read somewhere, though, that TTG is slower than transferring from one Tivo to another.


You have a problem. 

I have 2 TiVos on wired ethernet but my laptop is wireless G. I can transfer a show better that real time, to or from the TiVo.


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## classicsat (Feb 18, 2004)

jjmg said:


> I'm really surprised that the original poster is getting acceptable speeds over wireless. I have my tivo connected via wired 100Mbps ethernet and it takes hours to transfer a show to my computer via TivoToGo.


I have to ask, is it a USB2.0 adapter? Is it a USB2.0 TiVo?

It makes a difference.


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## Grover2 (Apr 13, 2007)

I just bought 2 80-hr Series2 DT (DVRTCD649080) units and 2 TiVo Wireless G USB Network Adapters.

I have a Linksys 400SRX MIMO Router to link the units and my computers. The TiVos work great but it took 13 hours to transfer a 1 hour program from one machine to another last night. It took 2 1/2 hours to transfer a half hour program to my desktop. I get signal strength ratings of 80 to 95 % which should be sufficient. I've tried contacting TiVo support, but after waiting on hold for 45 minutes to be told I had to go to a different area just to go to the end of the cue again, I couldn't fool with it any more tonight. I am considering going to a powerline Ethernet adapter from Linksys and sending the TiVo adapter back.

Does anyone know how to make these things work? Is there a guide on the TiVo site that I cannot find that addresses this? Some of you are having great success and some are in the same boat that I am. This has to be figured out somewhere.

Thanks.


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## rdrrepair (Nov 24, 2006)

Grover2 said:


> Does anyone know how to make these things work? Is there a guide on the TiVo site that I cannot find that addresses this? Some of you are having great success and some are in the same boat that I am. This has to be figured out somewhere.


Welcome to the site.

Try this article.

I love my Wireless network. I can't believe I waited this long to buy the TiVo branded adapters.


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## raiden256 (Mar 30, 2002)

Love my TiVo wireless G units. I only record at best, and I can watch a show live while transferring, including skipping about 80% of the commercials during the breaks.


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## Grover2 (Apr 13, 2007)

Thanks to rdrrepair for the welcome and the link. I lucked up and got the problem fixed by changing ONE setting on my router. I have a Linksys 400SRX MIMO Router and according to the TiVo boxes my signal strength was great. I reviewed my router wireless settings tabs and noticed that on the advance wireless settings tab the auto channel selection was set to "disable" while the default was "Auto." I haven't the foggiest idea as to what that is all about but I changed it to the default and now everything works great. This is the blue line below. The file I was transferring when I applied the change had 30 minutes left to transfer and that changed to 5 minutes after the change. One hour high quality files now transfer to my computer in about 45 minutes where before we were looking at 9 or 10 hours. The same is true for transferring between the two DVRs. It took 13 hours to transfer a 1:09 program before the change. Now, I can transfer and watch and FF past most of the commercials even early in the file.

I've replicated the wireless settings for my router below in case they may be helpful to someone else:

　 　 　 BASIC WIRELESS SETTINGS　TAB　
　 　 　 Wireless Network Mode: G-Only　 　
　 　 　 Wireless Network Name (SSID): Party	　 　
　 　 　 Wireless Channel: 　 　Auto
　 　 　 Adaptive Channel Expansion: Auto　 　
　 　 　 Wireless SSID Broadcast: X Enable

WIRELESS SECURITY TAB
Security Mode: WEP 
Association Mode: Auto 
Default Transmit Key: x1
WEP Encryption: 128 bits 26 hex digits 
Passphrase: use your own here 
Key 1: use your own here	
Key 2: use your own here	
Key 3: use your own here	
Key 4: 　 　 use your own here

WIRELESS NETWORK ACCESS TAB
Wireless MAC Filter: x Disable

ADVANCED WIRELESS SETTINGS TAB
Basic Rate Set: Basic Rate Set #2 (Default: set #2) 
Transmission Rate: Auto (Default: Auto) 
CTS Protection Mode: Disable (Defalut: Disable) 
 Auto Channel Selection: Auto (Default: Auto)  
Beacon Interval: 100 (Default: 100, Milliseconds, Range: 1 - 65535) 
DTIM Interval: 1 (Default: 1, Range: 1 - 255) 
Fragmentation Threshold: 2346 (Default: 2346, Range: 256 - 2346) RTS Threshold: 2347 (Default: 2347, Range: 0 - 2347) 
Preamble Type: Long (Default: Long) 
Network Density: Low (Default: Low) 
Compression: Disable (Defalut: Disable) 
Concatenation: Auto (Default: Auto)

I lucked up on this. I hope this saves someone else some grief. Apparently the TiVo Adapters work great IF all of the setting are right on the router.


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## Joey Bagadonuts (Mar 13, 2006)

_No Longer Disappointed With the TiVo Wireless G USB Network Adapters_

Grover2, thank you for your very detailed post. I have been having nothing but trouble with my Tivo G adapter. I will duplicate your settings and see what happens.

Joey


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## WayneCarter (Mar 16, 2003)

> I reviewed my router wireless settings tabs and noticed that on the advance wireless settings tab the auto channel selection was set to "disable" while the default was "Auto." I haven't the foggiest idea as to what that is all about but I changed it to the default and now everything works great.


By having "Auto channel selection" disabled, the router loses its ability to find and choose a frequency that is relatively free of interference.

IMO The important point is that, _with the exception of security_, the default settings are usually best - don't change from the default unless you know what they do and you have a good reason to do so.

BASIC WIRELESS DEBUGGING

Start by disabling ALL security features - ENABLE SSID broadcast, DISABLE encryption (WEP/WPA), DISABLE MAC address filtering, etc.

Make sure you now have connectivity and good thruput - if not find the problem and fix it BEFORE proceeding. Check your settings - if anything is not at its default setting, try returning it to the default (be sure to write down the original settings "just in case").

Enable the security features ONE BY ONE, making sure that the network is working well before enabling the next.


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## Grover2 (Apr 13, 2007)

It was just dumb luck that that I saw that setting on the Linksys router and thought that it looked odd and changed it. I am new to this, but it still seems to be working well for us. 

We are transferring files between TiVo and two computers and from the computers back to TiVos without incident. It has been a lot of fun now that it works. With the ability to put the programs, on the computer we avoid arguing over what is going to get deleted. This thing is supposed to be fun, not cause trouble.

Let me know what results you get.


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## Grover2 (Apr 13, 2007)

Settings Posted..... It's kind of buried, but I posted my wireless settings in the post titled below in case you missed. I hope it helps.

No Longer Disappointed With... 04-13-2007, 11:19 PM


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## Grover2 (Apr 13, 2007)

Joey, one other thing, someone else suggested in another post to you that you assign static IP addresses. I did NOT assign IP addresses to my wireless devices. I am not saying that is bad advice, I am simply saying that I have not done so.

Here is a Copy of my DHCP active IP table

Dynamic DHCP Client List

Hardware Address Assigned IP Hostname Expires (seconds)
00:E0:91:G4:BE:8F 192.168.1.100 HAPPY 82666
00:22:R9:16:B2:74 192.168.1.101 TIVO-72419892795X325 46726
00:11:Q9:81:Q6:0D 192.168.1.102 TIVO-72419892784G282 48707
00:80:99:8F:0A:32 192.168.1.103 BRN_7D0A89 48707
00:338:HG:54:3D 192.168.1.104 BOYS 59620
00:24:B4:62:GH:84 192.168.1.105 user-b3m827db09 84606

Certain names and numbers have been changed to protect the innocent. HAPPY and BOYS are 2 ethernet connected desktops running TiVo DeskTop Server software. BRN is a Brother printer hooked up via Ethernet and user is an HP Pavillian laptop using internal wireless-G to connect.

Taney


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