# Connection Failing 12/23/17



## TivoJD (Feb 8, 2005)

Anyone else having issues with connections this morning? I am getting failed on all of my boxes. Reboot of modem, router, and Tivos didn't help.


----------



## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

TivoJD said:


> Anyone else having issues with connections this morning? I am getting failed on all of my boxes. Reboot of modem, router, and Tivos didn't help.


One (of three) Roamio successful about 30 minutes ago. Next two are an hour away. I'll come back when they are done.

update: Three Roamio and one Premiere all connected ok. Guide advanced on schedule.


----------



## PSU_Sudzi (Jun 4, 2015)

Mine updated OK as well.


----------



## rdrrepair (Nov 24, 2006)

All good here


----------



## osu1991 (Mar 6, 2015)

Mine just failed too


----------



## Mooneyje (Apr 20, 2011)

TivoJD said:


> Anyone else having issues with connections this morning? I am getting failed on all of my boxes. Reboot of modem, router, and Tivos didn't help.


I experienced the same problem this morning when my TiVo Bolt attempted to do the daily connection. Received following errors; C-217 error ; Cannot connect to Port 37. 
Rebooted AT&T router, restarted TiVo Bolt & reconf network connection. Still receiving the same errors.


----------



## Mooneyje (Apr 20, 2011)

C-217 error & Port 37 error: This is the first time network connection failed since I brought TiVo Bolt in Feb 2018.


----------



## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

Mooneyje said:


> C-217 error & Port 37 error: This is the first time network connection failed since I brought TiVo Bolt in *Feb 2018*.


Getting ahead of things?

I would love to know what causes that Port 37 error. I'd love to know why I stopped having the error.


----------



## mattyro7878 (Nov 27, 2014)

Mooneyje said:


> C-217 error & Port 37 error: This is the first time network connection failed since I brought TiVo Bolt in Feb 2018.


You bought the Bolt in the future? Black or white?


----------



## theslack (Dec 27, 2005)

Me too. My Tivo will not connect. I get one of C215, C217, or C218 errors when I try. 

What's worse is that the tivo now thinks its unregistered, the guide doesn't work, no ToDo lists, no One Pass, no recording. We're having the family over for Christmas, and this is definitely not ideal.


----------



## NorthAlabama (Apr 19, 2012)

other users have reported connection failures in the Daily Guide Updates thread, but i haven't had any issues, either - sorry to hear about the bad timing.

is tech support open tomorrow? they might be worth a try, if you can find the time, it's a little hectic for everyone this time of year.


----------



## scandia101 (Oct 20, 2007)

Mooneyje said:


> Received following errors; C-217 error ; Cannot connect to Port 37.


The two issues are separate and unrelated. The port issue has existed for many months and is benign.


----------



## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

scandia101 said:


> The two issues are separate and unrelated. The port issue has existed for many months and is benign.


I think that most people never go to the networks diagnostics, so they don't know that the error has been on their system for months. I saw a post about Netgear routers. I haven't done the latest update of the firmware since it changes the GUI. I have a backup copy of my existing firmware, so I may get ambitious and upgrade my R8000 to see if the error comes back. I lived with it for six months.


----------



## theslack (Dec 27, 2005)

NorthAlabama said:


> other users have reported connection failures in the Daily Guide Updates thread, but i haven't had any issues, either - sorry to hear about the bad timing.
> 
> is tech support open tomorrow? they might be worth a try, if you can find the time, it's a little hectic for everyone this time of year.


Yeah not sure if tech support will be available but I've opened a case via the web portal. Just frustrating with the timing....but how is that new?


----------



## rainbow (Feb 8, 2008)

Just posted my experience on other thread at help center. Having same issues on premieres and both, but my series 3's are still functioning without those issues. Hopefully it will stay that way.


----------



## Toni (Nov 23, 2002)

I've been making myself crazy thinking this was a problem with my home network. My Bolt and Roamio (haven't looked at the Premiere yet) are failing connections as well, with the C215 error. Been happening at least since yesterday, although I was able to reboot them yesterday and make a successful connection. I rebooted today as well but am still failing the connection, usually at Configuring. Just now I got the response that the TiVo service did not give my Account Status and it failed there.

I don't know what else to do to trouble shoot this. Is it a wait and hope it fixes thing? I have a Netgear router but the connection seems fine on other connected devices, and my TiVos can all see each other.


----------



## HerronScott (Jan 1, 2002)

No connection issues here with Roamio Pro in VA.

Scott


----------



## rainbow (Feb 8, 2008)

Toni said:


> I've been making myself crazy thinking this was a problem with my home network.


Me too. I am no techie, but I have wasted many hours thinking it was a issue my side. I even called my internet Company, and norton sec in case things were being blocked thru them. I really think Tivo has really screwed something up on their side. Too many are having these same issues.


----------



## NorthAlabama (Apr 19, 2012)

if i remember correctly, i once had this issue, or a similar connection issue with reported port failures, and second level support through tivo was able to correct the issue on their side, but it took a couple of days.


----------



## JandS (Oct 1, 2010)

I've had failing connections for a few days on Bolt+ ethernet+MoCA, weird though, at times ok then not. 20.7.4.RC18 non-Hydra. Washington State, Comcast.


----------



## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

Three Roamio (one Hydra), three Mini (one Mini VOX), one Premiere and no problems with today's scheduled updates. I don't know why.

I'm starting to have survivors' guilt.


----------



## NorthAlabama (Apr 19, 2012)

JoeKustra said:


> Three Roamio (one Hydra), three Mini (one Mini VOX) and no problems with today's scheduled updates. I don't know why.
> 
> I'm starting to have survivors' guilt.


i know how you feel, and every time another user posts, it seems i check to see if i've had a failed connection, but all has been well (so far...).


----------



## mlcarson (Dec 31, 2007)

I just found this thread since I was originally looking for TCP/37 port issues and there was a seemingly more relevant thread on that in the Roamio forum. My Roamio hasn't been able to connect and is complaining about TCP/37 being blocked in the network diagnostics. Nmap and Wireshark are reporting that TCP/37 is making it outbound correctly. I rebooted the Tivo and replaced the router and neither made any difference. I'm convinced that it's on Tivo's side.

SW version 20.7.4.RC18-840-6-840
Non-Hydra since I doubt that Hydra will ever work as well on the older Roamio series.



TivoJD said:


> Anyone else having issues with connections this morning? I am getting failed on all of my boxes. Reboot of modem, router, and Tivos didn't help.


----------



## randyb359 (Jan 3, 2009)

TivoJD said:


> Anyone else having issues with connections this morning? I am getting failed on all of my boxes. Reboot of modem, router, and Tivos didn't help.


I can't connect either. I tried my mobile hotspot hoping it was a problem with my internet connection but that didn't work either. I tried running guided setup again which failed and now I can't use the Tivoe for anything. Connected my old Romio and it wouldn't connect either.


----------



## harveyvicky2006 (Oct 4, 2007)

Haven’t be able to connect since yesterday on my bolt and three mini’s. Fails at getting account status. Don’t know if TiVo service is open today.


----------



## rainbow (Feb 8, 2008)

*I would not recommend doing guided setup again.* I did that and it did not help. I kept forcing the connect and was finally able to get my premiere set up again. Issues are still the same.

Also, my local station id's and programming are now *INCORRECT*. I am in northern va. WJLA is abc affiliate, now showing as wjhl tri-cities. Channel 5 is fox and is showing up as KSASDT. Right now I am watching a show called home for the holidays with Paul Wharton but programming says it is supposed to be 'lawyer on the line'. Similar thing on local stations 7 and 9(1007 and 1009 via Cox communications)' abc and cbs affiliates. I have 2 premieres, 1 with an antenna connection. The antenna stations 7-1'etc, are showing correct local programming.

*HEY TIVo. I AM NOT IN KANSAS*!

This happened to me a number of years ago. Wrong programming from the head source. It was not my internet provider, but farther down the chain from that. It was the company that provided the guide data. 
At that time the only fix , once the issue was gone, was to clear and delete everything, and run guided setup again. 
I did not (would not) c&d on my premiere but that is why I tried to re-do guided setup yestersay. It did not help


----------



## Toni (Nov 23, 2002)

Is there any indication that TiVo is aware of this and is working on a fix?


----------



## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

NorthAlabama said:


> i know how you feel, and every time another user posts, it seems i check to see if i've had a failed connection, but all has been well (so far...).


Since I don't have a life, and "go" is a four letter word for me, I keep a record of all service connections. I printout a calendar every month and keep it near the TiVo. I note the connection times and guide dates. Like I said, no life. 

It's almost like the TiVo servers have lost a whole block of TSNs, causing failures that are not device or region specific. It's sort of like the time problem. I've never had a two minute offset. I wish someone at TiVo would document the error logs. There is so much data there. If it's not used, why bother to keep a log?


----------



## sfhub (Jan 6, 2007)

Based on past outages around holiday time:
1) it starts off with a few people complaining and others saying everything is fine
2) some diagnosis is done and it isn't a network issue on the user side
3) TCP port 37 is thrown out as a red herring, but many people already had the error, just never noticed because the connections were fine
4) since most people are on vacation they don't notice any problem
5) some percentage of people will call TiVo and they will open a case
6) however nobody at TiVo who can fix it is listening because it is holidays
7) as people get back from holidays anxiety increases
8) people who first notice the problem will keep trying to connect hoping for different result
9) they will post that things are still down
10) this will create more anxiety
11) TiVo will get back from holidays, notice the uptick in connection issues, and fix the problem
12) things will go back to normal
13) people who just went on vacation and came back, not using their TiVos nor reading TCF will have enjoyed their holidays

It does suck that people opening up their Christmas presents will have a chance of hitting this problem and won't be able to use their TiVos. Ruins that excited to try your new gift experience.


----------



## das335 (Feb 8, 2006)

OK, so I have an update for those of us that are stuck in the TiVo Network Connection mess.

I finally got two (2) of my TiVos to make a successful network connection. I think it was simply trial and error.

Here is what happened.
My Bolt finally connected around 9 AM EST after many attempts. I had restarted my router but I did NOT change any network settings on my Bolt. The last successful connection prior to today was on Sat 12/23 around 1 PM EST

I got excited so I tried another network connection on my Roamio. Bad Idea
It connected and actually started the downloading step, but then failed.
Now I was left with a TiVo with Lifetime Service showing a Service Level of "A:" in the Info screen.
I also no longer had any TiVo functions.

With nothing to lose, I moved my TiVo Roamio so that I could connect directly to my router.
I also changed to using a static IP address and used the Google DNS servers.
I tried a couple of connection and they failed at various points with C115 (account status), C118 (configuring) or C117 (connecting)

Finally, it connected and got thru the entire process. It was a really long download, since it had not connected since Fri 12/22.

I do not think my changes had anything to do with the Roamio finally connecting.

I am using Frontier FIOS internet in the Tampa, Florida service area.

One thought, I recently did the TiVo $99 Premiere upgrade special. Are there any others that are having the network connection problems that also did the $99 upgrade promotion ?

Merry Christmas and good luck.


----------



## MrPlastic (Apr 27, 2008)

I did the upgrade. I have been lucky to connect enough to download, but any changes on my end rebooting etc. I really don't think has any effect.


----------



## Tivoitis (Sep 12, 2005)

Problem for me as well with both a Bolt and a Roamio. The Bolt (20.7.4.RC18-USC-11-849) hasn't connected since 12/21 and lost its lifetime activation and now can't interact with my Roamio. The Roamio (20.7.4.RC18-840-6-840) has been sporadic making connections. It failed several attempts today, but was successful at least once.


----------



## foghorn2 (May 4, 2004)

One of My Roamios wont connect throws an error message, the other boxes will, the others wont do anything but connect and then disconnect, no error message.
The box that wont connect has been in a box for a month and has active service, just hooking it up to troubleshoot this issue.

I dont think its anything on our end, not the tcp 37 error either. Its Tivos servers.

They probably take parts of it down so updates not screw with the boxes and triggering calls over the holiday season.


----------



## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

I'm one of the guys now (almost). I plugged in my Premiere. It failed - getting account status - during the normal connection done after a restart. I saw that and forced a connection. It failed - configuring - so.. I forced another connection. Happy now.

Another Roamio passed - no problems.

Next Roamio - with Hydra - Failed on scheduled connection. No details (of course). Forced connection - success. One more to go.

Final Roamio - no problems.


----------



## Miles Lott (Dec 25, 2017)

Apparently there is an open case since Friday regarding the port 37 issue. I was seeing that on Friday but as of this morning no joy at all. I couldn't even change channels. At this point I am stuck in guided setup with either N17 or N18. Anyway, supposedly they are aware and working on it.


----------



## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

foghorn2 said:


> They probably take parts of it down so updates not screw with the boxes and triggering calls over the holiday season.


My ISP has a long standing policy. No scheduled maintenance on Monday or Friday. They are smart.


----------



## sfhub (Jan 6, 2007)

JoeKustra said:


> My ISP has a long standing policy. No scheduled maintenance on Monday or Friday. They are smart.


Probably union-negotiated shorter work week


----------



## innocentfreak (Aug 25, 2001)

Looks like one of my boxes is affected. Most of mine connect fine, but one keeps getting the C118 error at configuring.


----------



## Mr Tony (Dec 20, 2012)

my Roamio seems to be fine
took a update Sunday and took one (regular scheduled) about 2 hours ago


----------



## das335 (Feb 8, 2006)

All three (3) of my TiVos have been failing the daily connection since Fri 12/22. Today, I forced some connections and I finally got my Bolt and Roamio to successfully complete a network connection. Later today, both TiVos attempted their normally scheduled connections and failed.

I am going to wait and see if TiVo network support will check their logs and resolve this issue. 
If things do not clear up in a few days, I will try to force connections again when I need more guide data.

I have been using TiVo DVRs since the DirecTiVo days and it is really sad to see the level of support we now have to accept.


----------



## Miles Lott (Dec 25, 2017)

Forced how?


----------



## NorthAlabama (Apr 19, 2012)

Miles Lott said:


> Forced how?


since you're stuck in guided setup, just repeat the options to continue after entering your zip code. normally it would be found under settings > network.


----------



## kdmorse (Jan 29, 2001)

After another failed connection today, mine lost its activation status, and deactivated itself. 

It shows 5: Product Lifetime Service
A: - 
Last Successful: Friday December 22, 2017 - 12:37pm.

Program Information To, GC, Indexing, all are December 25. 

So, it finally gave up the ghost on Christmas day, and missed the Doctor Who Christmas Special. And there's no evidence it's going to record the Game of Thrones marathon, or anything else anytime soon...

Needless to say, I am not happy. Very, very not happy.

(Meh, I can't go nuclear about it though. I have other ways, and there's no other Tivo users currently here to kill me over it)


----------



## buildersboy66 (Dec 9, 2016)

Yep a planned Christmas Day FAIL by TiVo...they want us gone.


----------



## kdmorse (Jan 29, 2001)

Well, after some packet tracing and a little shenanigans, I'm back online.

When the Tivo first connects, it connect to something that I presume is a load balancer, and it responds with whom should be contacted next.

hserver:h2.tivoservice.com:80

It then connects to h2.tivoservice.com:80, sends some data, the connection abruptly closes, and the Tivo says failed.

So who is h2?

nslookup h2.tivoservice.com
Name: pdk-vip.tp1.tivo.com
Address: 208.73.183.229
Aliases: h2.tivoservice.com

Hmm, is there a h1? Yes there is...

nslookup h1.tivoservice.com
Name: pdk.sj.tivo.com
Address: 208.73.181.202
Aliases: h1.tivoservice.com

So, shall we shenanigan, assume h2 is sick, and redirect all traffic destined to h2, to h1 instead? On the router...

iptables -t nat -t nat -A PREROUTING -s 10.1.1.216/32 -d 208.73.183.229/32 -j DNAT --to-destination 208.73.181.202

(The first IP is the ip of one of my Tivo's. The second is h2. The third is h1.)

And my daily calls now work. (Odd note, after introducing the redirect, it always works on the 'second' daily call, and from then on. If I remove the redirect and break it again, it fails immediately. Then after reintroducing the redirect, it works on the second call again. That I can't explain without more tracing, so do call twice.)

I don't know what criteria the initial load balancer uses, but if it's deterministic (say, hash of TSN?, hash of source IP, etc?), it could explain why some people are hard stuck, and some are not.

My testing is currently stalled, as all my boxes are Loading (xx%) a backlog of data. The next step is to see if the experiment is repeatable. 

Edit: Repeatable. 5 successful calls. I deleted the redirect, 5 failures in a row.

You may be able to commit similar shenanigans with a fake DNS response. (resolve h2's name to h1's ip address)
You may be able to commit similar shenanigans with a transparent proxy and faked response from the initial loadbalancer. (changing the response from h2 to h1).

The last two are just theories that should work. A nat redirect, that I know works. 

(I really want to know if anyone can reproduce these results to resurrect their own units. )


----------



## foghorn2 (May 4, 2004)

For all we know, all these forced connections were doing is making all this worse and even breaking some boxes.


----------



## Jimmmmmmmm (Dec 26, 2017)

Hello, kdmorse. I'm among those for whom connections are broken. I would be THRILLED to try out your "shenanigans" and attempt to reproduce your results, but I need a little help from you.

I have a NETGEAR WNDR4500v3 router. I don't know how/where to enter the iptables ... command. Please advise. And thanks!



kdmorse said:


> Well, after some packet tracing and a little shenanigans, I'm back online.
> 
> When the Tivo first connects, it connect to something that I presume is a load balancer, and it responds with whom should be contacted next.
> 
> ...


----------



## sfhub (Jan 6, 2007)

kdmorse said:


> And my daily calls now work. (Odd note, after introducing the redirect, it always works on the 'second' daily call, and from then on. If I remove the redirect and break it again, it fails immediately. Then after reintroducing the redirect, it works on the second call again. That I can't explain without more tracing, so do call twice.)


I'll just hazard a guess that upon first connect after failure, it tries to pick up where it left off, and that fails because something it needed from earlier is missing or broken. Upon second connect, perhaps it does a full connection from the start. I didn't look at any traces, just guessing.

In their script, TiVo support does tell you to do 2 network connects when there are issues.


----------



## sfhub (Jan 6, 2007)

foghorn2 said:


> For all we know, all these forced connections were doing is making all this worse and even breaking some boxes.


Not sure if you meant breaking their servers or your boxes, but clearly if some units are being left inactivated, one is better off not connecting to TiVo until they fix this, especially if you have enough guide data for the next few days.


----------



## Jimmmmmmmm (Dec 26, 2017)

Jimmmmmmmm said:


> Hello, kdmorse. I'm among those for whom connections are broken. I would be THRILLED to try out your "shenanigans" and attempt to reproduce your results, but I need a little help from you.
> 
> I have a NETGEAR WNDR4500v3 router. I don't know how/where to enter the iptables ... command. Please advise. And thanks!


I had to do a lot of research, but ... SUCCESS for the shenanigans! I agree, h2 is apparently sick.

I have a MacBook Pro with High Sierra -- which removed telnet! So first I had to find out how to (re-)install telnet on my Mac. Then I downloaded and used telnetenable to open up the (hidden) telnet interface on my router. Finally, I used telnet to my router and entered precisely the iptables command provided by kdmorse (except of course that I used my router's (LAN) IP address instead of 10.1.1.216).

The FIRST time I forced a connection -- BINGO! No problem, and I finally received some program listings updates (the first since Friday, December 22).

I suppose that, in the interests of science, I should try deleting the redirect to see whether connections fail. But I'm not about to risk that!

Good luck to others who try these "shenanigans", and thanks, kdmorse!


----------



## kdmorse (Jan 29, 2001)

sfhub said:


> Not sure if you meant breaking their servers or your boxes, but clearly if some units are being left inactivated, one is better off not connecting to TiVo until they fix this, especially if you have enough guide data for the next few days.


This implies is a question I can't answer. Would the box have deactivated itself today without a forced call when I got home. I do not know. [Edit, I do now]

But, it did stop recording on it's own this morning. It did miss the Doctor Who Christmas Special all on it's own, it did completely fail on it's own.

(Found it thanks to the Mythbusters marathon. 9 AM - last episode recorded. 10 AM and on - history shows "Account Closed". It indeed took itself out, I didn't do it.)

I just didn't notice how dead it was until after I had made another attempt - actual timeline:

* I got home, someone asked me which Doctor Who's were on today, and which was the new one.
* I checked, hmm, none recorded? Damnit, must have run out of guide data, because I knew it was failing calls.
* Let me check on the web to answer the question, what did BBCA air tonight?
* While doing so, idly fired up a daily call, figuring I was just plum out of guide data.
* I failed to find what I was looking for on the web, it was just past midnight, and nobody likes to list yesterdays schedules.
* I hit Guide on the Tivo (Because I know I can go backwards on the onscreen guide)
* Fullscreen No Service Message.
* I ranted on the internet. (Honestly, I was more irked that I couldn't find the answer to the guys question at the moment, because that's what I had actually sat down to do).

And then because I cannot abide broken things, I started taking packet traces committing gerpokery. I should have been in bed hours ago.


----------



## kdmorse (Jan 29, 2001)

sfhub said:


> I'll just hazard a guess that upon first connect after failure, it tries to pick up where it left off, and that fails because something it needed from earlier is missing or broken. Upon second connect, perhaps it does a full connection from the start. I didn't look at any traces, just guessing.


I remember something vaguely like this from my more involved days. Certainly along the lines of logfile management. If you want them to see something you've done, two calls are required. But I think you're right, there's some connection based reason for the 2 calls, and the second one working. I just can't for the life of me remember why...


----------



## kdmorse (Jan 29, 2001)

Jimmmmmmmm said:


> Good luck to others who try these "shenanigans", and thanks, kdmorse!


w00t!


----------



## harveyvicky2006 (Oct 4, 2007)

Was able to complete download, but lost everything in my to do list. Still shows all my one past manager shows, but says there’s nothing to record. Even though it downloaded, it still shows to 1/3. Plus download goes to fast, like nothing is actually being downloaded. Hope there still working on this nightmare they created.


----------



## das335 (Feb 8, 2006)

harveyvicky2006 said:


> Was able to complete download, but lost everything in my to do list. Still shows all my one past manager shows, but says there's nothing to record. Even though it downloaded, it still shows to 1/3. Plus download goes to fast, like nothing is actually being downloaded. Hope there still working on this nightmare they created.


Yep, that happened to me. I think it might correct itself after a few minutes. I added some shows back but more appeared without my help later.
Good luck.


----------



## SteveD (Oct 22, 2002)

harveyvicky2006 said:


> Was able to complete download, but lost everything in my to do list. Still shows all my one past manager shows, but says there's nothing to record. Even though it downloaded, it still shows to 1/3. Plus download goes to fast, like nothing is actually being downloaded. Hope there still working on this nightmare they created.


What I had to do was flip the first two shows in SP manager, then it updated the rest.
I did lose all manual recordings that I had set up though and had to redo those.


----------



## scandia101 (Oct 20, 2007)

What I did was just wait for it to start connecting on it's own. Worked like a charm.


----------



## series5orpremier (Jul 6, 2013)

I’m still owed four days of guide data.


----------



## KJW (Sep 27, 2003)

I have the same problem on my brand new tivo bolt. but my 3 year old Roamio is fine. Will getting a replacement unit help? Should I just wait and hope they fix it before my unit deactivates?

so far, I tried everything -- all the restarts, unblocking port 37 on my router, using wifi instead of ethernet, hotspot from my phone, disabling firewalls, bypassing the router by plugging the tivo directly into the cable modem. . . Nothing helps. But I can see the bolt from my Roamio, and I can access the machine at Tivo online.

I should have searched this forum first, but Tivo support insisted the problem was my network. which really is the issue -- what happened to tivo technical support?? used to be great, now there is some overseas rep reading off a script that has far less information than I got from these three pages!! 

Tried emailing support. Not sure if that will do anything.


----------



## Toni (Nov 23, 2002)

I had a failed connection on my roamio this morning but forcing a connection finally worked for the first time in days. However the "loading data" part went way too fast so I don't think it actually grabbed any data on that connection.


----------



## KJW (Sep 27, 2003)

does anyone from tivo monitor these forums anymore? sometimes we would get lucking and someone would at least acknowledge the problem.


----------



## Miles Lott (Dec 25, 2017)

NorthAlabama said:


> since you're stuck in guided setup, just repeat the options to continue after entering your zip code. normally it would be found under settings > network.


There was no option to change anything other than the zip code and cable card settings. Anyway, it started working this morning. No info from Tivo on that.


----------



## KJW (Sep 27, 2003)

So my tivo connected this afternoon. Obviously a problem with the tivo servers. But I just got an email from CSR Bernard Ian giving me a link to a knowledge base article on ports and internet connections with no way to contact him to ask follow up questions -- like how could he think I didn't already look for this article, find it, and try what was suggested! Moreover, this was not even the issue. The problem was with tivo servers, as pointed out in this forum. Clearly, tivo's own customer support people know 
nothing about their service. I have been a tivo customer for 14 years. This is beyond embarrassing.

But thanks to everyone here for their help!


----------



## foghorn2 (May 4, 2004)

TiVo servers need a Xmas break too!


----------



## HZ2 (Mar 29, 2018)

kdmorse said:


> Well, after some packet tracing and a little shenanigans, I'm back online.
> 
> When the Tivo first connects, it connect to something that I presume is a load balancer, and it responds with whom should be contacted next.
> 
> ...


This is fantastic information.... YES... I can reproduce these results. THANK YOU FOR THIS!!!

As of March 2018... I discovered my menus and such running real slow (spinning wheels, two minutes between menus, etc)... and decided to check my previous hack. Turns out... now its H1 that works and H2 that is dead.

So... I solved this with a "PIHOLE" running on a Raspberry PI. I already have one of these on my network for Ad blocking and it supports DNSmasq to give out "false" IP addresses for a given DNS request. (this is actually designed as an ad blocker for your home network, which makes it an ideal candidate for solving this problem too)

I won't go into details on how to setup a PIHOLE / Raspberry PI on your network (research this yourself for the many benefits)... BUT if/when you get this working on your network. I can tell you which config file I modified to get the PIHOLE to deliver the results i needed to satisfy the Tivo's "h1/h2" port 37 server problem.

On the PIHOLE: Add these lines to the indicated file and then 'init 6' the PIHOLE. (you will also need to tell the TIVO your DNS server is the PIHOLE by IP address... All that is handled in the PIHOLE configuration notes.

FILE : /etc/dnsmasq.d/03-pihole-wildcard.conf (ADD THESE LINES)
====
address=/h1.tivoservice.com/208.73.103.229
address=/h2.tivoservice.com/208.73.103.229
# address=/h1.tivoservice.com/208.73.181.202
# address=/h2.tivoservice.com/208.73.181.202
====

This will make the h1 and h2 hosts both resolve to the .229 address. So... If... in the future, things switch again so H2 is the active box... then... simply change the comments to activate the other two lines and reboot the PIHOLE.

To test which is which should be used... you can attempt these two commands and use the IP address that returns immediately.

# nc 208.73.103.229 37
# nc 208.73.181.202 37

One may hang for a while... that's the bad one.. change the comments in the text above (in your conf file) to reflect the one that returns immediately.

TIVO TECHS - PLEASE FIX PORT 37 on the H1 and H2 servers... customers using iptables and/or dnsmasq to get around your technical issue is ridiculous.

Hope this helps someone as the kdmorse post helped me!

HZ2


----------



## babsonnexus (Jan 13, 2016)

I just want to push this back to the surface as it has happened for me a few times recently. First with my Roamio Plus and now with a recently installed Roamio OTA that has only been up and running in my house for a couple of weeks.

While I can telnet into my router, it does not appear to have a function for iptables. My issues just seemed to resolve as I was elsewhere on network pinging the two servers above. When I had this problem with the Roamio Plus, it took a few days of doing this and then it never happened again. Just noticed today for the Roamio OTA, so now I need to watch it for a while.

In the meantime, wondering if anyone else has ideas that might work more universally?

FYI, when I called TiVO during the Roamio Plus' issues, they said I needed a replacement unit, so no help there...


----------



## blvugirl (Nov 15, 2007)

HZ2 said:


> This is fantastic information.... YES... I can reproduce these results. THANK YOU FOR THIS!!!
> 
> As of March 2018... I discovered my menus and such running real slow (spinning wheels, two minutes between menus, etc)... and decided to check my previous hack. Turns out... now its H1 that works and H2 that is dead.
> 
> ...


Pretty sure this is what I need to do but not sure how! Help please! Do I change the "specify a static IP address"?


----------

