# Messed up bad .....



## daveshawuk (Sep 18, 2002)

Hi

I think I've messed up. For all sorts of complicated reasons ( primarily a bust broadband router ) I just tried to convert my networked Tivo from static IP to DHCP. Now I cannot connect to my Tivo at all and it also can't make its daily call.

My process was :

1> Telnet to Tivo
2> mount -o remount,rw /
3> cd /etc/rc.d
4> cp rc.net rc.net.old
5> FTP to Tivo and drop in the following file created on my Windows PC :

#!/bin/bash
# Copyright (c) 2001-2002 TiVo Inc.
#

if [ "$DEBUG_BOARD" != true -o "$dhcp" == true ]; then
if detectDynamicNet; then
mkdir -p /var/state/dhcp
/sbin/dhclient -q "$DYNAMIC_NET_DEV" 2>/dev/null &
fi
fi

6> mount -o remount,ro /
7> Reboot Tivo
8> Plug Tivo network cable directly into broadband connection which serves DHCP.

RESULT: Daily call now doesn't work ( no dial tone detected ) and when connecting directly to TIVO using an Ethernet crossover I can't ping the original static address.

Any advice appreciated as I now don't know how to connect to the Tivo to revert the rc.net file. Does it get a default IP address if DHCP fails ?

Thanks

Dave


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## mikerr (Jun 2, 2005)

The above script looks like its from an S2 TiVo ... is this a UK S1 TiVo ?

There should be an initialisation of the network drive in rc.net which you don't show there.

Only solution is to pull the drive and reinstall the drivers (which will also fix rc.net):

http://www.tivocentral.co.uk/downloads

Our UK TiVo's don't have a dhcp client installed as standard, either...


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## daveshawuk (Sep 18, 2002)

Mike

Thanks for the bad news 

Yes, it is a s1 UK Tivo, and I copied the rc.net file from Steve Jenkins guide here http://tivo.stevejenkins.com/network_cd.html#_Toc101001792. This was obviously an error.

In fact this Tivo is one of yours judging by the splashscreen. I bought it a few months ago on eBay.

Cheers

Dave


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## daveshawuk (Sep 18, 2002)

Hi

I am still having problems.

I have removed the TIVO drive and installed it as the seondary master in my PC. I then booted of the Tivoland Cachecard driver CD image and ran nic_install/nic_install cachecard command. All looked good ( DHCP and network call appeared to be selected ) so I applied the changes and it appeared to do its job.

I then re-installed the drive, tested that my DHCP configured laptop worked with the network cable, then plugged the net cable direct into the cachecard with the lid off the TIVO. I booted and all seemed fine. However a test call still fails with "Number unavailable".

Next step was to replace the Cachecard with a spare one I have ( this one without memory ). Apart from a few errors on booting the TIVO indicating that no memory was found all looked fine. However a test call still failed.

I notice that with both cards the link light never comes on, and suspect that this is a clue as to what I should try next. Can anyone advise ?

Thanks

Dave


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## AMc (Mar 22, 2002)

mikerr said:


> Our UK TiVo's don't have a dhcp client installed as standard, either...


Seems to me that this is likely your problem. I've not read about anyone successfully using DHCP with a UK Series 1 Tivo AFAIK you _must_ use a fixed address.

Re link light : check that the cachecard is properly seated on the motherboard. Temporarily removing the front left foot can make this easier.


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## daveshawuk (Sep 18, 2002)

First let me explain my dilemna. The reason I am in this mess is because my wireless hub packed up whilst I was away on holiday. It can't be easily replaced because I am in the mountains of southern Spain and the nearest IT store is an hour and half drive away ... oh yeah, and my car's off the road until tomorrow. SWMBO loves Tivo more than eeeerrrrh, me, it turns out ! And I broke it ....

Anyway .... today I took AMCs advice ( thanks BTW ) and re-ran the cachecard installation but this time copied the DHCP configuration my laptop was given by my broadband router i.e. same IP address, same subnet mask and same gateway address, and then p;ugged Tivo directly into the broadband router supplied by my ISP. The result was an improvement. The link light now comes on the cachecard ( hurrah !!! ), but still the daily test fails. This I don't understand. How can my ISP know that I am using the lease it has given me for my laptop on another device ie. the Tivo ?

The only thing I could surmise was that the ISPs router was checking that the MAC address to which it had issued the lease was consistent. My last attempt therefore was to change the laptop MAC address to match Tivo's and release and renew the IP configuration. I then plugged in Tivo ( again with all the IP config cribbed from the laptop ) but still the test call failed.

I can't explain this but am open to suggestions.

Can anyone confirm that the UK Tivo's don't support DHCP ?


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## Automan (Oct 29, 2000)

daveshawuk said:


> Can anyone confirm that the UK Tivo's don't support DHCP ?


No DHCP option exists for our old UK Tivo boxes.

Automan


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## JudyB (Jan 25, 2006)

daveshawuk said:


> How can my ISP know that I am using the lease it has given me for my laptop on another device ie. the Tivo ?
> 
> The only thing I could surmise was that the ISPs router was checking that the MAC address to which it had issued the lease was consistent. My last attempt therefore was to change the laptop MAC address to match Tivo's and release and renew the IP configuration. I then plugged in Tivo ( again with all the IP config cribbed from the laptop ) but still the test call failed.
> 
> I can't explain this but am open to suggestions.


I think that it is less complicated than that - the problem is that you cannot have two computers on the same network using the same IP address. So, if you turned off the laptop then you _might_ get away with this for a short time.

What you need to do is to allocate a static IP address for your Tivo which does not clash with one which the router will allocate using DHCP to anything else.

On our router (Linksys WAG200G) the setup allows us to specify both the router "local" address (192.168.1.1 for us) and the starting address to use for DHCP.
You then allocate any static IP addresses you need for things like Tivos in the range below your DHCP starting point.
We have the DHCP start address set to 192.168.1.100 and we use 192.168.1.20 for our Tivo.


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## AMc (Mar 22, 2002)

daveshawuk said:


> The only thing I could surmise was that the ISPs router was checking that the MAC address to which it had issued the lease was consistent. My last attempt therefore was to *change the laptop MAC address to match Tivo's and release and renew the IP configuration.* I then plugged in Tivo ( again with all the IP config cribbed from the laptop ) but still the test call failed.


I think that may be your issue.
My old cable modem would only support a single computer (which could be a router). It paired based on MAC address and assigned a DHCP IP address on start up. It then wouldn't allow you to connect another computer to the same port without being powered down and back up again.

Assuming this is the case...

Power your modem down, turn it on again and connect the laptop.
Make a note of all the settings (assigned DHCP IP address, subnet, gateway and MAC address).
DON'T RELEASE the IP.
Disconnect the laptop.
Clone all the settings on the Tivo including the MAC address which is configurable on the Tivo to match the settings you noted.
Now connect the Tivo to the modem without turning off the power.

Hopefully the modem will simply 'see' the same computer being disconnected an reconnected within the time expiry of the DHCP lease and Tivo will be able to connect externally.

This sounds like a PITA but the best I can suggest. I appreciate that ordering a new router is difficult but as you may need to repeat this process everytime the modem is powered off or the DHCP lease expires you will need to do it fairly soon.

Good luck and post back if that doesn't help!


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## daveshawuk (Sep 18, 2002)

Thanks for all your input. I eventually admitted defeat and waited until I could buy myself a new router which, with a static address assigned to Tivo again, fixed the problem.

Cheers

Dave


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