TiVo Community Forums Archives - Simple HMO feature

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Simple HMO feature
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Posted by: Gadguy

How about adding a wake on lan feature to allow HMO to wake up your computer to serve photos or music. Instead of having to leave the computer on all the time, this would allow couch potatoes like me to turn my desktop on and get music from my tv room.

Once a server shows up, if it goes away you to select wake to wake it up, or you could use clear to remove it from the list.

Posted by: simonalope

Figured I'd bump this thread instead of creating a new one...
I used a second NIC to share my computer's ethernet connection with the TiVo (crossover cable connecting computer directly to Netgear FA120 USB/ethernet dongle in Toshiba SD-H400). When I installed the NIC, I connected the optional "wake on lan" cable to the motherboard's hookup for it, just to see what would happen. When I first tried having TiVo connect while the computer was off, the connection failed, so I assumed WOL wasn't working.
However, yesterday I had reason to power-off and reboot my TiVo. The computer was off at the time, and when I turned on the TiVo I heard the computer suddenly power up and I was able to connect to the network. When I turned the computer off again and had TiVo try to connect (without restarting the TiVo), failure.
So, is the limitation for WOL that TiVo only sends the "I'm here! Trying to connect to the network! Please wake up!" signal when it first boots and detects a dormant network connection? Is there any way that WOL can work without having to restart the TiVo?
I'm not a network guru, so I have no idea if this is a software or a hardware issue. Just curious...

Posted by: Gadguy

Wake on Lan is not just activity on the network. It is a special packet that is sent to wake a computer. Normally, you have to send this special packet to a specific computer (based on the MAC address of the device to wake). I would not think that the TiVo would send this out unless they specifically add it into the code.

Posted by: simonalope

quote:
Originally posted by Gadguy
Wake on Lan is not just activity on the network. It is a special packet that is sent to wake a computer. Normally, you have to send this special packet to a specific computer (based on the MAC address of the device to wake). I would not think that the TiVo would send this out unless they specifically add it into the code.

But clearly, *something* about turning on the TiVo triggered my computer's WOL - the computer had been off until I unplugged and restarted the TiVo, at which point the computer booted up. This only happens if the TiVo is powered down and then plugged back in - just trying to force a call over the network has no effect on the computer if it's off.
Is it just a fluke that my TiVo triggers WOL upon booting, but can't at other times? Have others played around with WOL?