TiVo Community Forums Archives - Tivonet with no broadband?

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Tivonet with no broadband?
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Posted by: kperrier

If you read the Coffee House, you may know that I got a returned TiVo at Circuit City (a 30 hour Philips) for $99 (:)). So now I am planning my upgrade path :)

I want to add a network card to the machine so I can access via my home network. Is there any issues doing this if I don't have a broadband Internet connection for the Tivo to use to download the program guide (and software) updates? Put in other words, will the Tivo still download updates via the phone line if I have a network card installed in it?

Thanks,

Kent

Posted by: tmiller74

I'm not sure if this answers what you are asking, but I don't have any problems using my TiVoNet cards to download updates to without a broadband internet connection. I already had a home network set up with an OpenBSD machine that autodials whenever computers on my LAN attempt to access the internet. Getting my TiVos to work on this setup was merely a matter of installing the TiVoNet and assigning them IP addresses.

It's been a real TiVo-saver, since both of my TiVo modems were fried by lightning last summer. Yes, they were both connected to a surge suppressor, and they still fried. I have read several similar posts in these forums in the past. Since I have upgraded the capacity on both, sending them in for warranty work wasn't an option. I really appreciate all the work the TiVo hackers have done and made available to the underground community.

Now, if what you are asking is "can I put a TiVoNet card in my TiVo and still have the TiVo use its own modem to download program information," I don't know the answer. Maybe somebody else can comment on that.

Posted by: kperrier

quote:
Now, if what you are asking is "can I put a TiVoNet card in my TiVo and still have the TiVo use its own modem to download program information," I don't know the answer. Maybe somebody else can comment on that.

When you get down to it, yes, this is my question :)

Kent

Posted by: junior15

Now don't quote me on this, but, if I am correct, the script that sets up the TivoNet changes the IP routing in your Tivo. Since your Tivo is just using it's modem to dial into a POP and then use that internet connection to access the program guide and any s/w updates, the Tivo just uses the same IP routing as any linux box. What the TivoNet install script does is to change that routing to go through your local network. You can try looking at that script to see if you can edit it to not change the routing. You may need to edit the routing to include a route to your local network so that if you need to transfer something from the Tivo to another PC on your network, the Tivo knows to use the TivoNet instead of the modem. Since you will be assinging the Tivo an IP address, access the Tivo from another PC will be quite easy.

Hope this helps.

Posted by: pderocco

The update script includes an explicit call to a dialing function. In order to get it to use the LAN instead, you have to edit this script, not merely install a network card.

Posted by: junior15

pderocco - I think that kperrier is looking for a way to keep using the dial-up for the updates instead of the LAN. So, if the update script specifically uses the dial-up, then all kperrier needs to do is make sure that script doesn't get changed (I think the install script for the TivoNet changes the update script because when the TivoNet install script is done, the updates are done over the LAN).

Posted by: pderocco

quote:
Originally posted by junior15
pderocco - I think that kperrier is looking for a way to keep using the dial-up for the updates instead of the LAN. So, if the update script specifically uses the dial-up, then all kperrier needs to do is make sure that script doesn't get changed (I think the install script for the TivoNet changes the update script because when the TivoNet install script is done, the updates are done over the LAN).

My point was that he didn't have to do anything. When I installed TiVoNet, it didn't modify the script for me--I had to go in and do it manually. (It would have been very rude for it to assume I had broadband.)

Posted by: kperrier

quote:
My point was that he didn't have to do anything. When I installed TiVoNet, it didn't modify the script for me--I had to go in and do it manually. (It would have been very rude for it to assume I had broadband.)

Thats great! I'll have to download the scripts and take a look at them. Its been a while since I touched TCL (I'm much more comfortable with perl) but I think I can muddle through.

Kent

Posted by: tkris

I swore I read in one of the tivonet threads that if you use the std eth0 driver for the tivonet card, the factory scripts will assume that the unit is connected to the debug card and try and do the updates without dialing the modem...

The only changes I saw happen when I installed mine were to fool the tcpphonehome script to keep it from being able to break my networks default route.

I saw someone recommend finding a different driver that installs under a different name (there's supposedly one out there, maybe someone who reads this will know?) that would avoid that conflict.. I don't think it's as simple as simply not making some of the script changes that the install docs say.

Good luck getting it to work right :)

Posted by: tkris

Someone else was just discussing this type of thing in another thread... look here:
http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-v...&threadid=38361