My Tivo has gone blind!!

December 28, 2008 9:46 AM

Last night my brother in law installed our new router. This morning my Tivo can't see either of the two computers on the network, and they can't see the Tivo either. Help?!

Said brother in law in on his way back to PA, so he can't come and fix it. I know the MAK is correct. The Tivo can see the internet fine, it just can't seem to see either of the computers on the network, and Tivo Desktop says that there are "no Tivos available on this network". I've restarted the Tivo. I've spent the past hour and a half digging through forums with no luck. Seems like this should be an easy fix, but I know nothing about routers. Help?

posted by anastasiav to technology (9 comments total)

The Tivo still has the IP address it had the day before yesterday, but your new router dishes out new and different IP addresses.

You need to find a way of changing the Tivo's address to put it in the same netblock as the one the rest of your house just moved to.

For example, perhaps yesterday morning everything, Tivo included, had an address starting 192.168.1.x. If (to pick a random example) your new router came from Netgear your own computer might now have an address starting with 192.168.61.x instead. You can check on Windows by typing 'ipconfig' into a command prompt window (Start->Run->cmd), or in Terminal on a Mac by typing 'ifconfig' or maybe '/sbin/ifconfig' -- I don't own a Mac.

Anyway, chances are your Tivo got left behind in a move like this. I have a Series1 Tivo with a Turbonet card added and the address can only be set manually through a Telnet window. Perhaps your more-recent Tivo lets you set its address on screen?
posted by genghis at 10:07 AM on December 28, 2008

My Tivo is a series 2. When I restarted it, wouldn't it have pulled down a new IP address?
posted by anastasiav at 10:16 AM on December 28, 2008

Is DCHP enabled on the Tivo? Also, what's the exact model of the router? The name and number on the front should be fine to start with. If people want something more specific from the bottom or the firmware, they'll walk you through that part.
posted by mccarty.tim at 10:24 AM on December 28, 2008

Is this a wireless router?
Wireless routers have an option to isolate devices connected via wireless from each other and from any wired devices.
posted by tresbizzare at 10:39 AM on December 28, 2008

An S2 will have pulled down a new address if

a) It didn't have a static address set before and
b) DHCP is enabled on the Tivo

Most people wouldn't set a Tivo to use DHCP because then you also have to configure the router to give that particular machine the same address every time. Otherwise it gets a different address periodically and you won't know what it is, making finding it in a browser more-than-difficult.

(Yes, this does suggest the possibility that your Tivo is set to use DHCP *and* it's working fine but you just don't know what its address is right now.)

So if you can set the address from the Tivo onscreen config, do so (and make sure it's in the same netblock as your own computer). That's the easier option. Or, if you're able, access your new router and tell its DHCP server to always issue a specific address to the Tivo.
posted by genghis at 10:39 AM on December 28, 2008

The Tivo is set to get its IP address automatically from the DHCP server. (Tivo calls this the "typical" setup) I don't believe that it had a static address before. How do I check to see if the IP is in the same netgroup as the other IP addresses?

Its a Netgear wireless router. (Its upstairs right now and I can't get upstairs at the moment ... I'm recovering from a broken knee and need assistance on stairs.)
posted by anastasiav at 10:53 AM on December 28, 2008

Oh, and...

When I reconnected to the internet this past time (checking the DHCP settings), the Tivo Desktop software now sees the Tivo (from the laptop that is down here with me) but the Tivo still doesn't see the laptop. Weird. Also, the Tivo now claims that we don't have Amazon downloads enabled, when we actually do.

Grrr. I hate technology.
posted by anastasiav at 10:56 AM on December 28, 2008

The Tivo should list the IP address, subnet mask, and gateway address it has been assigned with DHCP.
Compare that to windows settings: Click 'Start, 'run', enter "cmd" and click OK. In the black dos box the comes up type "ipconfig".

The info listed should show an IP address with the same first 3 segments as the Tivo.
The net mask and the gateway should be the same on both.
posted by tresbizzare at 11:40 AM on December 28, 2008

You don't have two routers by any chance, do you? A wired router that is also being used with the new Wireless one?

It sounds like the tivo is on a different subnet as your computer.

So...
What's the make and model of your wireless router?
What's the IP address of the router? (Router's info page...probably 192.168.0.1 or 192.168.1.1)
What's the IP address of your computer? (Run..."CMD", "IPCONFIG"
What's the IP address of the Tivo? (under it's settings.)
posted by filmgeek at 5:08 PM on December 28, 2008