# tivo desktop not seeing dvrs



## marcom1234 (Nov 23, 2006)

ok i installed a network for my home.

hooked up the computer and internet and tivo to the router.

tivo can get it's scheduleing info just fine and can connect and do it's thing. but my tivo desktop does not recognize or able to find any dvrs.

i have tried to reboot my computer my internet... my tivo ... my router.... everything and still nothing.
i have called tech support and i literally spent 3 hours on hold... not all at once but over the period of 3 phone calls. first call basically got disconnected. so i called back and got put on hold again.... for about 45 minutes so i hung up and called back and then spent another 45 minutes onhold.

tech support told me to uninstall tivo desktop and reinstall.

didn't work.
next lady told me that wouldn't do anything and it was a issue with my firewalls and antivirus software. but it cant be cause i disabled all of it before hand when i uninstalled and reinstalled the desktop. 

she wouldn't believe me. .... then told me it must be some of my ports were blocked.... so i asked how i could fix that and she told me id have to figure that out myself. 

i said are you serious? your tech support right? she said yes but thats beyond her scope of things to deal with. i hung up on her and came here... 

can anyone help me? im not a big computer guru but i can find my way around usually.... 
i look at the network screen on my tv and it gives me one ip address and then i look on my router setup and diagnostic page and it gives me another ip... 

if i manually set my ip address's and things on tivo to match what my router says it doesn't recognize anything... if i let tivo get nework setting automatically it says everythings fine. .... even though it's not. cause my desktop still doesn't work.

yet it can still use the internet to get it's programming info.... im lost


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## windracer (Jan 3, 2003)

I have to agree with tech support ... it sounds like a firewall issue. What firewall are you using? If it's the built-in Windows Firewall (in XP) just turning it off does not necessarily disable it. You have to go into the Services control panel and actually stop the service.

Check out this page on TiVo's support site for some basic troubleshooting information and this page for a list of ports that need to be opened in the firewall.


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## marcom1234 (Nov 23, 2006)

ok dug into my router and i "think" i have all the ports allowed now... thanks for the link.... 

but tivo desktop still is looking for dvr's.

one thing im curious about is if you click "server" then " tivo server properties"......
then under configuration tab 

under network identification i have it saying " this address is used by tivo dvrs to access your computer = 192.168.99.199 (Linksys LNE100TX Fast Ethernet Adapter(LNE100TX v4) - Packet Scheduler Miniport).

then gives me an option to select but it's grey'd out so i can't click it.

the address is not what the address on the tivo screen on my tv says it is, 
just above the mac address. 

this mean anything?


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## windracer (Jan 3, 2003)

No. The address you see on the TiVo is the address of the TiVo itself. The IP address you're seeing in TiVo Desktop should be the address of your PC.

So, it looks like your PC is at 192.168.99.199. What's the IP of your TiVo?

Also, those ports need to be open in the firewall on your PC, not the router.


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## marcom1234 (Nov 23, 2006)

ok how do i open ports on my pc then? and how do i check my pc ip address


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## marcom1234 (Nov 23, 2006)

also on tivos "system information" screen it says under the option of "tivotogo" = a,a,a

this mean anything?


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## windracer (Jan 3, 2003)

To get your PC's IP address, you can right-click on the network icon (wired or wireless) down in the system tray (by the clock) and choose Status. Then go to the Support tab.

I don't use the Windows Firewall (I use ZoneAlarm) but it looks like you can go to Start -> Control Panel -> Windows Firewall, then the Exceptions tab, then "Add Port."

As for "a,a,a" in TiVoToGo, that is good. That means everything is active. If you see "i,i,i" here, you'd have to go to your online account and enable transfers for your box.


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## lafos (Nov 8, 2004)

Can you ping the Tivo from your PC? Start, run, cmd, then type ping xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx (IP of Tivo).

Did you double check to make sure the media key was entered correctly in Desktop?


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## gizmoz (Jul 17, 2006)

lafos said:


> Can you ping the Tivo from your PC? Start, run, cmd, then type ping xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx (IP of Tivo).
> 
> Did you double check to make sure the media key was entered correctly in Desktop?


I am having the same issue. And when I ping my Tivo ip address the request times out. This is wierd as the list of connected clients (on the router) includes my Tivo's ip. Program guide and messages are getting updated as well. So it is on the network but I am unable to ping it.


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## ant (Feb 23, 2008)

I am having a problem with my series 2 not working I have it all hooked up with a wireless adapter and router and can access the internet for lineup changes but the tivo desktop wont show any recordings. Tivo support says they cant help me . Does anyone have any ideas?


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## Goldilocks (Feb 25, 2008)

I am having the same problem. I have been trying different things and troubleshooting this for a couple of months now. In that time, my Series 2 DVR has *never* recognized the PC with desktop media running and with music and photos published. And I can only intermittently see the DVR from my tivo desktop. But it lasts for only a few minutes. I've uninstalled/reinstalled the software, rebooted the DVR, changed router and switch (for other problems), turned off the firewall (ZoneAlarm Pro, I've also added allow any any from the PC to the DVR in the firewall rules) on the desktop PC, all with no joy. I can occasionally transfer from the DVR to the PC, but again, connectivity lasts only a matter of minutes. Pings work fine, TiVo updates work fine, just not the desktop tivo PC to DVR communications. Anybody seen this and found a fix?


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## steve614 (May 1, 2006)

Besides Windows Firewall, you may also have to configure your network adapter settings.
I was stumped for the longest time until I finally found a firewall in the network adapter.
This is with XP and a computer with nVidia nForce.
Not all systems may have this.

Navigate to Device Manager, expand the Network Adapters category, Right click on the Networking Controller and select Properties.
From there, look for configuration and/or firewall.


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## raspberrybee (Sep 24, 2008)

I know the original post was five years ago, but I was having the same problem and I finally had to go into my router settings and disable the router's firewall. It recognized my tivo no problem after that.


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## Tippy (Oct 12, 2004)

Okay, I have a Dell laptop with Windows 7 and the Tivo Desktop software runs fine on it. However, on my new Macbook Pro, I can't get the software to "see" my DVRs. So, I'm pretty sure I don't have any issues with my router, network or the DVRs. Thus, I guess the problem has to be with the settings on my new laptop??? I did turn off my firewall and virus software temporarily to see if I could see the DVRs, but that did not fix the issue. Here are the specs on my laptop, and I'm running this program on the Windows side:

Macbook Pro
VMware Fusion
Windows 7 Ultimate
Microsoft Forefront 
Microsoft Defender
TivoDesktop 2.8.2

I've uninstalled the software, run the "cleaner" utility, and re-installed it. Still no luck. 

The specific message I get is "Tivo Desktop did not find a Tivo DVR on your home network."

Any help would be greatly appreciated!!!

Tippy


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## Tippy (Oct 12, 2004)

I "think" my Macbook successfully pinged one of the DVRs:

Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4

That is good, correct?

Tippy


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## jcthorne (Jan 28, 2002)

Forget the poorly performing and badly programmed Tivo Desktop software.

Get pytivo running and it will do everything TD can and far more. And very reliably.


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## lrhorer (Aug 31, 2003)

:up::up:

I second that, although for TiVoToGo functionality, I recommend kmttg or Galleon. Both are superior to pyTivo for TTG transfers. For PC => TiVo transfers, pyTivo can't be beat.


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