Can't Connect to ICS w/ Tivo Wireless B Adapter

  • Thread starter Thread starter mparente21
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mparente21

I have a Linksys Wireless B USB Adapter for my Series 2 Tivo (130)
that has worked fine for the last 3 years or so. I have usu. connected
the adapter to my Wirelss B/G Router with no problems. Recently, I got
rid of my router and enabled Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) on my
Windows XP Prof desktop and connected all my devices to ICS.

I am having problems getting my Tivo to connect to ICS, it says it
cannot connect to the DHCP server. I can see the wireless ad-hoc SSID
from my Tivo, but cannot connect for some reason even though I can on
my other devices. The desktop running ICS has a Wireless B/G PCI
adapter card that I use to broadcast the ad-hoc network.

Could the issue be related to the fact that my Tivo wireless Adapter
is B, while my desktop is broadcasting ICS wirelessly on a B/G
wireless card? Would getting a G adapter for my Tivo solve the problem
or is there something I can configure on the desktop to get my Tivo to
connect?

I tried having the Tivo automatically acquire IP, static IP setup, and
DHCP setup. The ad-hoc SSID uses WEP encryption.

Your help is much appreciated.
 
I have a Linksys Wireless B USB Adapter for my Series 2 Tivo (130)
that has worked fine for the last 3 years or so. I have usu. connected
the adapter to my Wirelss B/G Router with no problems. Recently, I got
rid of my router and enabled Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) on my
Windows XP Prof desktop and connected all my devices to ICS.

I am having problems getting my Tivo to connect to ICS, it says it
cannot connect to the DHCP server. I can see the wireless ad-hoc SSID
from my Tivo, but cannot connect for some reason even though I can on
my other devices. The desktop running ICS has a Wireless B/G PCI
adapter card that I use to broadcast the ad-hoc network.

Could the issue be related to the fact that my Tivo wireless Adapter
is B, while my desktop is broadcasting ICS wirelessly on a B/G
wireless card? Would getting a G adapter for my Tivo solve the problem
or is there something I can configure on the desktop to get my Tivo to
connect?

I tried having the Tivo automatically acquire IP, static IP setup, and
DHCP setup. The ad-hoc SSID uses WEP encryption.

Your help is much appreciated.
Click to expand...

You should have kept your router, but ...

Although your adapter may be compatible with both G and B, some (if not
all) adapters can be configured to operate in G-only or mixed (they may
also have a B-only mode). Make sure your adapter is set to mixed.
You'll have to use the configuration s/w from the adapter mfr for this.

Ad hoc wireless networks can have a maximum of 9 clients -- so make sure
that you have not exceeded this limit.

The most common problem is that the WEP password isn't entered
correctly. First try connecting without any encryption. If that works,
then enable encryption. You'll probably have to use the hex key rather
than the alphameric password you may have used on other devices. (And,
of course, by going to ad hoc, you've limited encryption to
easily-cracked WEP rather than WPA or WPA2).

If that isn't the problem, you can try setting a static IP address on
the TiVo's adapter. This may or may not work. ICS uses IP addresses in
the 192.168.0.x subnet, and is clever enough to detect static IP
addresses already in use and not try to allocate duplicates. Thus, if
you set the TiVo to something like 192.168.0.15, that ought to be OK.
On the other hand, I seem to recall a TiVo support doc that said that
TiVo does not support using static IP addresses is there is an active
DHCP server on the network. I don't know if the ICS "DHCP allocator" is
enough like a full-fledged DHCP server to cause a problem or not.
--
Lem -- MS-MVP - Networking

To the moon and back with 2K words of RAM and 36K words of ROM.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_Guidance_Computer
http://history.nasa.gov/afj/compessay.htm
 
I have a Linksys Wireless B USB Adapter for my Series 2 Tivo (130)
that has worked fine for the last 3 years or so. I have usu. connected
the adapter to my Wirelss B/G Router with no problems. Recently, I got
rid of my router and enabled Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) on my
Windows XP Prof desktop and connected all my devices to ICS.

I am having problems getting my Tivo to connect to ICS, it says it
cannot connect to the DHCP server. I can see the wireless ad-hoc SSID
from my Tivo, but cannot connect for some reason even though I can on
my other devices. The desktop running ICS has a Wireless B/G PCI
adapter card that I use to broadcast the ad-hoc network.

Could the issue be related to the fact that my Tivo wireless Adapter
is B, while my desktop is broadcasting ICS wirelessly on a B/G
wireless card? Would getting a G adapter for my Tivo solve the problem
or is there something I can configure on the desktop to get my Tivo to
connect?

I tried having the Tivo automatically acquire IP, static IP setup, and
DHCP setup. The ad-hoc SSID uses WEP encryption.

Your help is much appreciated.
Click to expand...

I don't think that B vs. B/G is causing the problem.

Are you sure that the Tivo and its wireless adapter have the ability
to connect to an ad-hoc wireless network? I can't find any mention of
"ad-hoc" on the Tivo web site. The documentation that I found here
only mentions a router-based network:

http://tivosupport2.instancy.com/La...-0a2d-4614-aa2c-0adee8bc9e6a&anchor=undefined

You might be able to find help in the Tivo networking forum:

http://forums.tivo.com/pe/action/forums/defaultview?msgBoardID=10100104

Ad-hoc wireless networks, even between two computers, can be very hard
to set up and use. I recommend going back to a router-based setup.
--
Best Wishes,
Steve Winograd, MS-MVP (Windows Networking)

Please post any reply as a follow-up message in the news group
for everyone to see. I'm sorry, but I don't answer questions
addressed directly to me in E-mail or news groups.

Microsoft Most Valuable Professional Program
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com
 
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