# Tivo Roamio Wireless Speed - Wireless-N Adapter compatible?



## eherberg (Feb 17, 2011)

After having a premiere for a few years in one apartment - I got a Roamio almost a year ago for a 2nd apartment. In the past year due to work situations changing, I gave up the 2nd apartment and now have both Tivo's in the same place - the premiere in the bedroom and the roamio in the living room. The premiere has a Tivo wireless-N adapter attached, the roamio using the built-in wireless. The layout of the apartment does not make hard-wiring connections practical. The modem/router is in the same room as the roamio and the diagnostic screen shows 100% signal.

While using pyTivo to transfer files to the roamio - I would get speeds usually in the high 2's or low 3's Mb/s. I didn't think much of it -- just chalking it up "that's lousy wireless speed for you". A couple of months went by and my wife wanted something transferred to the bedroom (which we hardly ever do) and so I sent the files to the premiere via pyTivo. Expecting the normal transfer times - I was very surprised when I looked at the computer just a few moments later and saw the transfer was complete. The premiere received the file (while being in a completely different room from both my laptop sending the file and the router) nearly 5x faster.

Now realizing that what I was seeing from the roamio is probably not normal - I started doing some experimenting.

Send to roamio from laptop: Slow
Send to premiere from laptop: Fast
Transfer a show from premiere to roamio: Slow
Transfer a show from Roamio to Premiere: Fast
String ethernet across the floor from the roamio to the router: *Really* fast (as expected).

I've tried to eliminate all things besides the roamio (resetting the box - repeating setup, etc).

I even went so far as bringing in a whole new router/modem just to make sure that it wasn't the issue. No change. Everything behaves as described.

The only thing left is the Roamio. Everything else has been eliminated.

First - what are other experiences with Roamio transfer speeds? I'm assuming other people see at least speeds on par with the premiere, correct?

Second - because I am not looking forward to dealing with support and going through the pain-in-the-ass it will be to first get them to confirm that it is a problem with the wireless in the box .. and then the hassle of dealing with a repair - I'm wondering if I can use a wireless-N adapter on the roamio? Has anybody used the wireless-N adapter with the box? I read on their site that it is not officially supported (because you shouldn't need it with the roamio) - but that it *should* work.


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## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

eherberg said:


> I even went so far as bringing in a whole new router/modem just to make sure that it wasn't the issue. No change. Everything behaves as described.
> 
> The only thing left is the Roamio. Everything else has been eliminated.
> 
> ...


Ok, I'm not trying to start a fight. But there are some thing you can check. First is the TiVo measured speeds. That's under Network Diagnostics - View Transfer Speeds. Get the TiVo's opinion.

Also, what does your other stuff think? Any way to get speeds from your PC, TV, BD player, etc.?

Finally, I stopped using the built-in wireless on my Roamio. It's connected to a wired ASUS adapter that runs in the 5G band. The Mini is using a TiVo AN0100, also in the 5G band and I have a wired Premiere. No streaming problems and I archive stuff to a laptop with a Realtek USB 5G adapter with Desktop all the time. Major impact is the NETGEAR R7500 router. Like the Roamio it is dual core and pretty quick. I can, using a 4Mbps internet line, stream Amazon 1080p/5.1 trailers with no issues.

Since my cable modem & router are on first floor and my "man cave" is on second floor, I decided to go wireless for everything. And it's not my house. All that is 2.4G is my AVR and Printer and they use channel 1 since everybody seems to use channel 6 around here.


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## ThAbtO (Apr 6, 2000)

Wireless is susceptible to interference and that may be what's happening here. 

You should go to your wireless router's settings and choose a wireless channel 1, 6 or 11 and never use 'Auto.'

Microwaves, landline cordless phones should never be close to the router or devices (within about 2 feet) as they also cause interference


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## eherberg (Feb 17, 2011)

Yes -- done all of those things. Different wireless channels, moving the Tivo, etc. I'm convinced I've eliminated everything (and that includes using a completely different router).

All other devices connected wirelessly (including the premiere in a completely different room) consistently get around 12 Mb/s for items in other rooms to around 18-20 Mb/s for devices in the same room (xbox, roku, blu-ray, etc).

Through elimination, it appears to simply be bad wireless in the roamio.

Even these first responses convince me that I would have to go through the whole job of convincing support of this - as TiVo support will likely try to come up with *any* other reason than the TiVo being at fault.

Hell - if I could get the speed of the premiere in the other room, I would be happy.

That's why I'm leaning toward trying a wireless-N adapter, rather than go through the pain of getting the TiVo repaired (or replaced).

Has anybody tried one with the roamio? I assume other people get speeds at least equivalent to the premiere with the wireless adapter?


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## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

Quick benchmark. Data: pilot of _Breaking Bad_ as recorded by Premiere yesterday, 1hr 3 min, 6.35Gb 1080i/5.1 and Premiere is recording another episode now and I'm streaming Pandora also. Network is working.

Premiere to Roamio: 13min 66.82Mb/s
Premiere to laptop external USB drive Desktop: 16Min 56Mb/s
Laptop to Roamio: 21min, 43Mb/s

Premier wired 100mb, Roamio wired to wireless ASUS EA-N66r, laptop Realtek wireless USB. My old TiVo wireless-N AN0100 is on my Mini. BTW, I could never make the Mini find the Roamio until I used the adapter on the Roamio. The Roamio internal wireless wasn't visable. DHCP but reservations for a few things.

To see if there are people sharing your channel get a copy (free) of inSSIDer and use on pc that's wireless, not usb either.


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## ThAbtO (Apr 6, 2000)

eherberg said:


> Yes -- done all of those things. Different wireless channels, moving the Tivo, etc. I'm convinced I've eliminated everything (and that includes using a completely different router).
> 
> All other devices connected wirelessly (including the premiere in a completely different room) consistently get around 12 Mb/s for items in other rooms to around 18-20 Mb/s for devices in the same room (xbox, roku, blu-ray, etc).
> 
> ...


Location could also be the culprit, try swapping the Roamio with a Premiere's location which has good reception and see what happens.


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## eherberg (Feb 17, 2011)

Location and/or interference isn't the problem. Putting something else in the same spot doesn't demonstrate any wifi problems.

In anticipation of the next question - I actually took the roamio to a friend's house -- sitting right next to the modem. There is no change in the behavior.

It's ... the ... TiVo. 

Also - when I connect to any wifi network (whether mine or somebody else's), just selecting the list of networks that show up on the scan will not connect. I have to manually enter the network name using the dialog on the right of the screen to get it to connect. All other devices connect normally. In fact - when I run the Vudu network test on any other device, it completes with results that show HDX speeds, no problem. The TiVo under Wifi can't even complete the Vudu test - throwing an error about 1/4 of the way through.

This all has been good practice, I suppose, for the battle I will have trying to convince TiVo Support that it's ... the ... TiVo. 

Assuming I get them to admit it -- and the repair/replace cost is not worth it -- I'm back to trying to find alternate solutions. 

Which brings me back to whether anybody has tried using the wireless-N adapter with the roamio - bypassing the internal wifi. Again - I'm assuming the roamio built-in wifi would at least get what the premiere is getting. Perhaps using a powerline adapter would be better?


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## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

eherberg said:


> Location and/or interference isn't the problem. Putting something else in the same spot doesn't demonstrate any wifi problems.
> 
> In anticipation of the next question - I actually took the roamio to a friend's house -- sitting right next to the modem. There is no change in the behavior.
> 
> ...


You mean someone besides me? You did read my post, right? Two different CAT5 to WiFi with a third coming tomorrow I could try. This morning I got 80Mb/s from Premier to wireless Roamio. Network was quiet.


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## eherberg (Feb 17, 2011)

JoeKustra said:


> You mean someone besides me? You did read my post, right? Two different CAT5 to WiFi with a third coming tomorrow I could try. This morning I got 80Mb/s from Premier to wireless Roamio. Network was quiet.


But your roamio is wired to the wireless router, correct?

I was curious what people using the internal wireless from the roamio get -- not connected to anything.


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## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

eherberg said:


> But your roamio is wired to the wireless router, correct?
> 
> I was curious what people using the internal wireless from the roamio get -- not connected to anything.


I'm confused. Sorry. I read:
"
Which brings me back to whether anybody has tried using the wireless-N adapter with the roamio - bypassing the internal wifi. Again - I'm assuming the roamio built-in wifi would at least get what the premiere is getting. Perhaps using a powerline adapter would be better?
"
Which led me to believe you were looking for something used with the Roamio. It's wired to an adapter that uses WiFi to get to the router. ASUS EA-N66 5G


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## eherberg (Feb 17, 2011)

Ah -- I get it. Something similar to the official wireless-N adapter.

I'm assuming people who just use the regular ol' built-in wireless have normal speeds.

Knowing that some kind of adapter works will put me on my next steps. After what I expect to be a painful process getting support to admit that it's not wireless interference and it's the TiVo - and finding out what the repair cost is - I may be going that route (or using powerline) - to get transfer speeds up to something acceptable.

Curious - has anybody used powerline? I've got Christmas Best Buy gift card money burning a hole in my pocket and a 4-port powerline adapter I'm looking at on the best buy site.


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## Ieolus (Oct 20, 2006)

Yes I used powerline in my old house to connect the roamio to my router. I'm not a big fan of wireless. It always seems to be less than reliable.
The powerline worked great while I had it.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

eherberg said:


> But your roamio is wired to the wireless router, correct?
> 
> I was curious what people using the internal wireless from the roamio get -- not connected to anything.


I get up to 95Mb/s speeds from the internal wireless with my Roamio Basic. Which is basically identical to the speeds I get over a wired connection with it. This is connecting over 5Ghz WiFi. The WiFi connection is routed through the 100BT connection. Otherwise I should have been able to exceed the wired speeds since I see wireless link rates of up to 300Mb/s. And real world speeds with that link rate has the potential to max out at 150Mb/s.


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## philt56 (Aug 22, 2008)

Have you tried moving the wireless N adapter from the premiere temporarily? Should be no issue. The roamio will just think it's connected to Ethernet.


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## questors (Jun 4, 2009)

I was getting a marginal WiFi connection to my Roameo Pro. I put an access point right above the Roameo and connected the two with ethernet. Works great, a world of difference. The built-in WiFi did not work well.


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## pppingme (Apr 21, 2012)

WiFi just isn't good for streaming or large transfers, ESPECIALLY if you live in an apartment or other densely populated situation.


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## eherberg (Feb 17, 2011)

Just an update:

I spoke with Support and outlined the various steps I had done to narrow down the slow transfer to the Roamio from both the Premiere and pyTivo. They agreed to ship a replacement and exchange it for my current Roamio.

The replacement arrived. I set it up ... tried my first transfer using pyTivo ...

And got the exact same result as the previous Roamio. Just as before - transfer speeds around 2 Mbp/s ... Vudu unable to complete the network test ... etc.

I officially give up. I can't explain what is going on. Either there is something in the way the DSL router is creating a network that affects only the Roamio (and nothing else in the entire house ... including the Premiere) ... or something is up with the Roamio when connecting via wireless to the router.

Again -- location doesn't matter. No other device is affected. The router's config options have been experimented with to exhaustion.

I'm heading to the store tomorrow to burn some Christmas gift card money and get powerline adapters.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

pppingme said:


> WiFi just isn't good for streaming or large transfers, ESPECIALLY if you live in an apartment or other densely populated situation.


That's why you should use 5Ghz, it's less crowded. Around here, 2.4Ghz has become very crowded during the last few months because of the Comcast WiFi hot spots they enable on customers modems. But I've been using 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz for years.

After recently adding a fourth Access Point I now use four channels on 5Ghz and three channels on 2.4Ghz. I can stream all day on 5Ghz without issues(And I have eight IP cameras streaming over 5Ghz WiFi 24/7/365). Large files, small files it doesn't matter. So if I connect over wiFi with my Roamio, it is the 5Ghz spectrum I use at home.


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## eherberg (Feb 17, 2011)

Just an update on the resolution to my problem in case anybody was following:

I did purchase an actiontec powerline adapter kit. The 4-port hub for the TiVo as well as the unit plugged into the router. The hub also allows me to plug in the XBox and Roku (although neither had any wireless speed issues). This has worked perfectly. When both powerlines are in the same room, I get speeds that are the same as when I strung ethernet across the floor to the router. If I move the router to the spare bedroom (where the wife prefers it as it's out-of-sight) the powerline adapters connect at 'orange' instead of 'green' and speed is about 1/2. Both options are better than what I was getting with the TiVo built-in wireless.

I still believe there is something wonky going on with how the Roamio is handling the wireless connection - as no other device is affected and multiple locations were tried with no change.

However - the powerline seems to have solved the problem on getting acceptable transfer speed without having to string ethernet across the apartment floor.


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## Rich.Wolfson (Nov 27, 2004)

eherberg said:


> ...I still believe there is something wonky going on with how the Roamio is handling the wireless connection...


I agree, Mine is miserable too. But no one ever said whether the TiVo N adapter will work.

I really don't want to crawl into the attic to run a wire.

Rich


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## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

Rich.Wolfson said:


> I agree, Mine is miserable too. But no one ever said whether the TiVo N adapter will work.
> 
> I really don't want to crawl into the attic to run a wire.
> 
> Rich


The TiVo adapter will work if the distance isn't too far. For better results use an ASUS EA-N66R. My Roamio has been using one since this thread started. See post #2.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

eherberg said:


> But your roamio is wired to the wireless router, correct?
> 
> I was curious what people using the internal wireless from the roamio get -- not connected to anything.


I get the same 90+Mb/s speeds over wireless that I do with the wired connection on the Roamio Basic. Since the wireless is still routed through the 100BT connection.

For wireless if multiple devices are sending receiving from the same Access Point, they will be pulling from the same amount of bandwidth. A properly setup WiFi network requires multiple APs to avoid saturation and congestion issues. Then you also need to be using the proper WiFi channels to avoid other issues. I use four APs, just in my condo, to make sure all my wireless devices have excellent signal strength and can send/receive at maximum speeds. If I only had one, two, or even three APs then I would be having speed issues with the wireless devices.


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## questors (Jun 4, 2009)

The WiFi antenna in the Roamio is very poor. I have an HD with the wireless adapter and a Roamio in the same location. The HD gets excellent reception and the Roamio gets poor reception. I solved the problem by putting an Apple AirPort Express next to the Roamio and connecting the Ethernet output to the Roamio.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

questors said:


> The WiFi antenna in the Roamio is very poor. I have an HD with the wireless adapter and a Roamio in the same location. The HD gets excellent reception and the Roamio gets poor reception. I solved the problem by putting an Apple AirPort Express next to the Roamio and connecting the Ethernet output to the Roamio.


I've only used wireless in my Roamio Basic from 2013. I have not tried it yet with my refurb Basic. But the one from 2013 gets great reception for me. At home I don't expect an issue since I use four APs to get excellent WiFi signal strength anywhere in my condo. But at my GFs house I only have the one router/AP there. I still get excellent signal strength there with the Basic compared to the external TiVo wireless adpaters I've used there.(old version and new).

I guess i should test out the refurb wireless before the thirty day return period is up. Just in case the reception isn't as good as my other Roamio Basic.


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