Network my TiVo

Broke down, and bought the TiVo brand from Best Buy store.
they really need to upgrade the capabilities of the TiVo to allow other wireless adapters to work!

well, i just canceled my TiVO service for the time being so this goal will have to go on the bck burner for a while…

Good god, it wasn’t easy, let me tell you that…

I’ve struggled with finding adapters that will work, especially now that some/most of the TiVo recommended ones are not in mainstream stores.

TiVo has answered your call, though—they’re now selling TiVo-Branded network adapters in their online store.

so I can’t :’(

Now that they have finally put out a DVR software update for my model, I should be able to get it to work with a USB wireless adapter. Guess it is time to redeem some Best Buy RewardZone certificates.

I arrived home last night to find the wireless USB adapter waiting for me. I quickly ripped open the box and jammed the adapter into one of the USB ports on the TiVo and the link light instant lit up.

Giddy with anticipation, I turned on the television and found a new message for me from the TiVo. It recognized the device but cautioned that I first needed to upgrade its firmware and warned that the upgrade might make the adapter unusable with a PC. Another strike against seemless plug-and-play, I guess.

Updating the firmware was a simple procedure. Then it was on to selecting my wireless network and entering the network’s password. It took a while to find out how to get my Mac to give up the hex equivalent of the password but I finally got it.

With network configured, I unplugged the phone line and made a test connection to the TiVo service over broadband. Everything worked as expected.

The final test was to go to the Photos and Images menu. I tried to add my Mac as a server, but it couldn’t find it. I verified that the TiVo desktop was installed and running. This may be just a matter of punching the right holes through the firewall.

I was surprised to find that two remote servers were available. One had a bunch of wildlife images, not too interested in that one. The other, however, provided 50 or so MP3 songs to stream to the TiVo, including the new U2 album. I also found, much to my credit card’s dismay, a few tracks from obscure artists that actually sounded pretty good….

My TiVo’s phone connection is the last obstacle to freeing myself from a land based phone line. So it is time to get my TiVo onto my home network and start taking advantage of all the new multimedia functionality as well.

I tried plugging in the wireless USB adapter that I use for my PC (which I’ve turned on only once or twice in the last year), but of course, the TiVO is very sensitive about which adapters it will recognize. No luck with the existing hardware.

I tried browsing around the local electronics stores also without too much luck. Not only do you need one of the approved models, you also may need to have a particular version of the model. Ugh. The plug-and-play promise of USB has never failed quite so miserably before.

I finally decided to just buy an adapter from the TiVo store, at least that way I’ll know it is compatible. I am going to just stick to the basics and go for a simple 802.11b model, which should be supported better than the 802.11g models.