# Ethernet Port Doesn't work. Options?



## jeremy3721 (Feb 16, 2002)

I found a couple of old posts but nothing that addresses this problem on a TiVo Premiere.

I have two premier's and just realized back over a year ago when I setup the first unit that I'd used a 10/100MB USB ethernet adapter because I was having trouble connecting directly via the ethernet port on the tivo. I'd forgotten all about that work around until I started trouble shooting my inability to stream shows successfully between my two premiere units which I knew were both hard wired. I finally realized the stress point is that usb adapter but after trying all night I never could get the ethernet port to work.

The problem is I upgraded the drive in this unit just after purchasing it and we have a couple hundred hours of tv stored on it so I really hate to exchange it and lose both the shows as well as the expanded harddrive. My second, newer premiere doesn't have the expanded drive or the ethernet port issue.

Is there a USB adapter that might be faster and give me a workaround for this issue. The USB ethernet adapter appears to perform about the same as the USB wireless G tivo adapter and now that my wife liked HDTV she's complaining that the transfer is too slow and streaming is impossible. Since the wirelss N adapter utilzes the ethernet port I can't use it either I'm afraid. Can I swap the bigger drive out and put it back in the new unit if I swap them out? I used to know a little about all of this but it's been over a year since I did my upgrade and that stretched my capabilities even then but I've lost that knowledge at this point.

Someone please help. I'm going to try and contact TiVo tomorow but I'd rather not go that route if theres a fix I can try or another USB adapter that might work better.


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## smbaker (May 24, 2003)

I assume you've checked all of the usual things to make sure that it's not the cable or the switch or some other non-Tivo cause for the Ethernet problem? I've had crappy cables before that would work on some ports but not others. If you look in the port, are any of the pins in the connector bent or damaged?


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## jeremy3721 (Feb 16, 2002)

Thanks, I'd tried everything I could think of and went back and checked the pins for damage like you suggested but no luck.

I just called TiVo and setup an exchange would stinks for a couple of reasons. I have the upgraded drive that I have to deal with swapping out for the original which means 2TB of data I have to backup somehow and I also will have to deal with Comcast to get the cable card working in the new unit when it arrives as well as trying to remember how to upgrade/clone the drive again if I want to use my bigger HD again.

Oh well, that's life but sounds like 2 days of my life are going to be shot.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

That's why it's a good idea to check all these things out when you first receive a TiVo. And then if there are any issues you exchange it within the first 30 days.


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## jeremy3721 (Feb 16, 2002)

Good idea yeah, practical not so much. Between the drama of being home for delivery of the TiVo and getting Comcast out to install the cable card correctlly (3 visits and $40 later - all necessitating leaving work early I was under a lot of pressure just to get the thing working. Streaming and HD transfers weren't a big deal over a year ago when I only had one TiVo premiere so it didn't even occur to me that using the usb adapter as opposed to ethernet was a big deal. As such I'm a little irritated with TiVo for not having better quality control checks in place for a product that takes so much effort to get setup and running. I don't think the average consumer would have thought to test the ethernet connector more thoroughly either if things seemed to work fine via the usb adapter connection. Even if I'd have known then that this would be an issue later I'm not sure I'd have gone through the process of having it replaced at that time anyway.

I'm out of my contract with TiVo in 2 months and I'm considering going with a Comcast/DirectTV DVR after being a customer since the first year the device was out. It's just becoming too aggrivating to coordinate the setup/installation and deal with any kind of hiccup with the device on top of paying what I consider a premium price.


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## OCSMITH (Mar 16, 2006)

jeremy3721 said:


> Good idea yea, practical not so much. Between the drama of being home for delivery of the TiVo and getting Comcast out to install the cable card correctlly (3 visits and $40 later - all necessitating leaving work early I was under a lot of pressure just to get the thing working. Streaming and HD transfers weren't a big deal over a year ago when I only had one TiVo premiere so it didn't even occur to me that using the usb adapter as opposed to ethernet was a big deal. As such I'm a little irritated with TiVo for not having better quality control checks in place for a product that takes so much effort to get setup and running. I don't think the average consumer would have thought to test the ethernet connector more thoroughly either if things seemed to work fine via the usb adapter connection. Even if I'd have known then that this would be an issue later I'm not sure I'd have gone through the process of having it replaced at that time anyway.
> 
> I'm out of my contract with TiVo in 2 months and I'm considering going with a Comcast DVR after being a customer since the first year the device was out. It's just becoming too aggrivating to setup and deal with any kind of hiccup with the device on top of paying what I consider a premium price.


Jeremy is the ethernet light coming on in the back? I moved my PXL to make room for my P4XL and I could get it to connect. I had to let it use a USB a clp times to update and reboot the Tivo a clp of times now it works fine. It could not get an IP address. Try it a clp times. Good luck!!!


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## unitron (Apr 28, 2006)

jeremy3721 said:


> I found a couple of old posts but nothing that addresses this problem on a TiVo Premiere.
> 
> I have two premier's and just realized back over a year ago when I setup the first unit that I'd used a 10/100MB USB ethernet adapter because I was having trouble connecting directly via the ethernet port on the tivo. I'd forgotten all about that work around until I started trouble shooting my inability to stream shows successfully between my two premiere units which I knew were both hard wired. I finally realized the stress point is that usb adapter but after trying all night I never could get the ethernet port to work.
> 
> ...


Before you admit defeat, and especially before you let anything your cable company does succeed in driving you away from TiVo to renting their DVR, give all of your TiVos and everything else on your home network that doesn't travel fixed IP addressess in a range that's outside of the range you allow your router to give out as DHCP addresses.

Might help, can't hurt.


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## jeremy3721 (Feb 16, 2002)

The tivo/network can't even see each other when the ethernet cable is connected so I don't think I can change any ip settings. I'm pretty sure it's a hardware issue with the port itself on the tivo. I've tried 4 cables and 4 ports on my router in various configurations and nothing has worked. Even tried putting pressure on the jack itself to ensure it wasn't just loose or something like that.


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## atmuscarella (Oct 11, 2005)

jeremy3721 said:


> I have two premier's and just realized back over a year ago when I setup the first unit that I'd used a 10/100MB USB ethernet adapter because I was having trouble connecting directly via the ethernet port on the tivo. I'd forgotten all about that work around until I started trouble shooting my inability to stream shows successfully between my two premiere units which I knew were both hard wired. I finally realized the stress point is that usb adapter but after trying all night I never could get the ethernet port to work.


Ok want to make sure we have your situation correct:


You have 2 Premieres both are hard wired one through it's Ethernet port and the other through a USB to Ethernet adapter
Premiere to Premiere transfer speeds are to slow.
Premiere to Premiere streaming does not work well
The older Premiere has a hard drive upgrade and the Ethernet port does not work.

Can you tell us:


What are your Premiere to Premiere transfer speeds?
What is the brand/model/age of your USB to Ethernet Adapter?
When did the Ethernet port stop working before or after the hard drive upgrade, if after how soon after the upgrade? 
Does you USB to Ethernet Adapter work to connect to the TiVo servers (does your daily connection work). Have you tried the Adapter on a computer to see how it works on something other than a TiVo? 
Have you actually tried a TiVo wireless G adaptor?
Who is your cable provider - any issues with cable cards or tuning adapters?
What is the brand/model/age of your router?
Are you using any switches in your set up? If so what is brand/model/age.
Is the Premiere with the bad Ethernet port covered by any extended warranty? Do you pay monthly or does it have lifetime? If monthly are you past your commitment period?
If your USB to Ethernet Adapter is older a newer one might work faster, but I am not sure what brands/models a Premiere would actually support so if you buy one, buy it locally from some place that you can return it.

If the Ethernet port was working with the original hard drive I might put it back in and see if the port works again. Also depending on if your TiVo is lifetime or not it might make more sense to buy a new TiVo and just keep the bad one around to finish watching the shows off of it.

Good Luck,


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## compnurd (Oct 6, 2011)

i wonder if the premiere does not support USB 2.0 that could explain the lower USB speeds


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## atmuscarella (Oct 11, 2005)

compnurd said:


> i wonder if the premiere does not support USB 2.0 that could explain the lower USB speeds


I am fairly sure that newer TiVos including the Premiere must support USB 2.0 or the Wireless G adapter would be terribly slow also.

What I am not sure about is how well USB to Ethernet Adapters are support, but he can tell what his Premiere to Premiere transfer speeds are and that will tell us how well his USB to Ethernet Adapter is working.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

The old TiVo wireless g adapters works fine with the Premiere line. But of course since it's wireless g it is slow compared to the wired connection or wireless n. It has to be USB 2.0 to get the wireless g speeds.


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## atmuscarella (Oct 11, 2005)

I did some test on my own Premiere and the results were very interesting.

I transferred a 2.71GB 30 min HD program from my TiVo HD to my Premiere with the following results:

Transfer Speed = 22.97 Mb/sec
Time needed = 16 min 50 sec​
I then (on the Premiere) I pulled the power plug, removed the network cable and plugged in the Belkin USB to Ethernet Adapter I had from my Series 2 and plugged the Premiere back in. It came up and connected to my network without any input on my part and seems to be working fine.

I deleted the file I had transferred above and then transferred the same file again from my TiVo HD to my Premiere. The results were:

Transfer Speed = 5.2 Mb/sec
Time needed = 1 hour 17 min.​
The Belkin USB to Ethernet Adapter is about 6 years old, a model F5D5050 and listed as a 10/100 model. However I do not know if it is a USB 2.0 or 1.1 device and did read one review on Amazon that claimed it was only a 1.1 USB device which would limit the speed to something under 12 Mb/sec.

I will have to boot up my old Series 2 and see how fast the Belkin adapter works on the Series 2.


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## jeremy3721 (Feb 16, 2002)

I guess TiVo couldn't spare a power cord with my warranty replacement unit so I could at least power it up and transfer some of the shows before I send the other box back.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

You don't have any non polarized cords lying around from other devices? Like an old VCR or old DVD player?
If they were just sending the box to swap, then I don't know why a power cord would be expected.


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## jeremy3721 (Feb 16, 2002)

Anyone know if I need to erase/format my 2TB drive before I can run the copy/expand program and begin using it in the replacement TiVo?


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## unitron (Apr 28, 2006)

jeremy3721 said:


> Anyone know if I need to erase/format my 2TB drive before I can run the copy/expand program and begin using it in the replacement TiVo?


If you're using the jmfs v1.04 cd, it'll just write right over it without ever noticing what was there before.


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## jeremy3721 (Feb 16, 2002)

Thanks! 

Had quite a few computer related issues pop up but finally managed to get my 2TB drive formatted for the new tivo and it's up and running. Just decided to cut my losses and let all the recordings I already had go. Hopefully my wife is able to find the shows we lost via netflix/hulu/xfinity on demand and I don't get in too much trouble


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