US Cable Support > RCN > [DVR] TiVos Dropping from Wifi/Router Suggestions

[DVR] TiVos Dropping from Wifi/Router Suggestions

I have had terrible luck with Netgear routers in the past and fantastic luck with Linksys gear. I like the Linksys E3200, but if you don't need Gigabit ethernet the E2500 should be fine. I have no first hand experience with the Apple Airport line, but I have read very positive things about them. But for the $179 an Airport would cost, a E4200 would have more features.

Thanks for the suggestions.

I don't know much about gigabit....what do I need on the other end to make gigabit useful? I have 2 RCN TiVo Premieres and one personal TiVo HD (all with TiVo brand wireless g adapters), a Roku LT, and an Apple TV.

reply to Komosatp
No TiVo models support Gigabit ethernet. It is only useful if you transfer/stream large files over your network. If all of your devices are wireless, then it doesn't apply at all. It only applies to wired-wired transfers.

Thanks again.

Dropping wireless signals is a common and frustrating complaint.
You have lots of company, although that is no consolation.

The 2.4 ghz spectrum is crowded, and includes not only your wireless devices, but your neighbors' wireless devices, portable phones, even microwave ovens, and even your neighbor's portable phones!

One quick suggestion is to change the wireless channel used by your Netgear router. If you are currently on channel 6, try 1 or 11. You could also try enabling both 20 and 40 mhz for the Netgear router in the 2.4 spectrum.

PC users can use InSSIDer from metagreek to find the best channel; I think KisMac works for Mac, but I don't use Macs or Netgear (both are great products however).

Smallnetbuilder.com is a terrific resource with lots of how to's.

Good luck!

(unlikely that changing your router will make any difference; better to figure out a way to make certain you are maximizing your wireless signal or better yet, how to get a wired connection, like Ethernet over power lines or Ethernet over coax (MoCA))

reply to Komosatp
It maxes out at 802.11g, but for years I've been using a factory-reconditioned Linksys WRT54G that I got for next to nothing, and it has always worked flawlessly with all of my WiFi devices.

Great solution Machpost!, love those classic Linksys products!; we are still using a Linksys WRT54GL loaded with the latest 1.28 Tomato firmware as a wired access point repeating a wireless G signal on the third floor (reboots measured in years? ). But to be fair, and as you know, the classic WRT54GL cannot handle the wan to lan throughput that RCN and other ISP's are capable of providing (RCN at 75/6 Mbps, VZ at 150/50 Mbps) or gigabit lan. Komosatp apparently has a modern Netgear router (although he hasn't posted the exact model number) which likely has considerably more throughput horsepower than the aging, but still serviceable, WRT54G line of Linksys products. I am pretty sure merely changing routers does not fix his problem.

reply to Komosatp
With regard to the suggestion about finding a clear channel, the fact that the issue appears on the 5Ghz band is what tipped me off about the router itself being the culprit as opposed to the configuration. I have experienced exact issues like this where the signal just disappears randomly and swapping out the router has been the solution for me. YMMV

Good point owine, 5Ghz is less crowded and easier to find a clear channel; but as you know it suffers from its own issues; as a shorter wave than 2.4Ghz, it doesn't travel as far and is more prone to drop outs from walls and floors and as you get further away from the router. If the router is right next to or in the same room as the TIVO, the 5Ghz would be an improvement.

And I think some of those more recent Netgear routers even automatically search for the best channel (but may do so only on reboot) so channel changing may not be the issue.

And I suppose we are both assuming that the Ipad and the Macbook are set only to 5Ghz on a unique SSID different from 2.4 Ghz and are stationary and are not themselves having issues roaming or switching between the two bands or upon returning to the home.

For these reasons and others RCN requires hard wired connected TIVO's for the whole house DVR solutions.

Having said all that, your suggested Linksys routers are all excellent and should be included on anyone's short list.

I've had consistent connection with:

»www.amazon.com/D-Link-DGL-4300-W···006TIA02

I moved the TiVo dongle arround to get the best signal as per the Tivo diagnostics but it never dropped that I know of. If it did, it seems must have reconnected because everytime I checked the router, the TiVo has was connected.

This is an old router and I don't know why it costs so much on Amazon but you can get something like this for cheap on ebay. Or maybe a similar brand/model that's newer.

Oh...the other thing I remebered was that I had the TiVo IP address static instead of DHCPed. I don't know if this effects anything but maybe you can try that if you didn't already do so?

Assigning a static address to the TIVO is a good idea!

i have the apple router and i have zero problems with it and not only that my laptop gets pretty much the whole 75 mbts or whatever it is called wirelessly as well as wired!

reply to artjohn

Hi Komosatp: Although all major router manufactures (like Cisco (Linksys), Netgear, D-Link and even Apple) share common hardware and features and are pretty much alike, clearly users experience varying success with different routers.

At the end of the day, even after updating to the latest firmware, and checking all your devices for optimum settings, and eliminating interference from within or without the home, some users report better wireless after changing routers.

You may be in that latter category.

In addition to Owine's suggestions, I would add that a refurbished Linksys E4200V1 purchased directly from Linksys at under $100.00 is an excellent value; I use a combination of Linksys, Buffalo Tech and Asus routers to get a wireless signal on all three levels of our home, but most of our equipment including the TIVOs is wired. The Asus RT-N56U and N66U are hot right now; and gigabit wireless was announced at 2012 CES and is on the horizon (it will be a while before it is adopted by both routers and receivers). Apple Airport is always a premium option as well.

Tim Higgens at smallnetbuilder.com runs one of the better information and rating sites for the home network.

Good luck in whatever you decide!

reply to Komosatp
I had the same problem with two of my Linksys' (WRT160N and E1200)... Only happened on my N wireless adapter... My Tivo would just drop off my network. Then I replaced my Linksys' with a three year old netgear and it's been fine ever since.

Just go with the Tivo bundle and get MoCa! HAHA sorry I was possessed by salesmen for a second but an exorcism got rid of that.

In all honesty though you might consider with Tivo looking into setting a moca network if you own your own Tivo. That's actually what I did at my house once Jason and his team got through most of their testing and fobbing with it and then had me do testing in the Networking / HSD side. I ran out and switched to moca at my house for the lan and Tivo's.

Yes you are going to invest some cash but if your thinking about replacing your router you might consider this option. Ofcourse sales tapping me on the shoulder is going to say to point out if you don't want to spend the money to replace all of that you can go with the bundles from us

Just sayin and I promise no more sales speak from me
--
Bryan Laird
RCN Engineering

Honestly, and I too am no salesman for RCN, but negativeduck has it exactly right!

It has the added advantage of renting rather than buying unfamiliar equipment, and it will be supported by RCN.

Wired ethernet is best, and wired ethernet over coax (MoCa) is a a good second best, a well proven technology, superior to wireless or ethernet over powerline.

Thanks for the suggestions. My sister just had the Q bundle installed and I'm going to go look at it soon to see how I like it. The main reason I haven't adopted it yet is that I have so much content on my boxes that can't be transferred off the box (movies from premium channels). There's a whole bunch of movies on those boxes that my kids watch frequently and I'd be in trouble if I lost them. That, and I might have to change providers in the next few months if the Disney Junior channel is not part of the RCN lineup (I have FIOS and Comcast available to me at my house).

And MoCA solves my TiVo problem...but I'm still running 2 Apple TVs, a Roku, smart TV & Blu-Ray devices, a laptop, game system, and several iOS products on my wireless so I need a robust wireless router.

Are there MoCA solutions that would let me hard wire in my other connected devices from a single MoCA interface? I have two TV setups that each have 3 connected devices (excluding the TiVos).

After reading this....I'm realizing we might watch too much TV in my house......