Results tagged “FiOS” from ScottandMargo.net

or, How and Why I Switched to the serial cable.

Since we cut over to the Verizon FiOS video service this year, we have been having occasional issues with the Tivo. I have always used the IR sprayer for the Tivo to change channels on the cable boxes but for some reason, the box that we got for FiOS had trouble receiving the channel codes sometimes…especially on 3-digit channels. That caused the Tivo to record a different show that it meant to.

I decided to give the serial cable a try in spite of the fact that a lot of people out there in the world have been saying that Verison’s disabling the serial port on the Motorola QIP 2500-3 that I have.

I plugged in and in a couple minutes the config was changed. The serial port’s definitely working on my unit. Channel changing has been reliable so far. Will be watching it closely for a while. I’m pleased…I never really liked the idea of using the IR sprayer to change channels.

Cox lost a customer today.

Last weekend a few Verizon guys stopped by to sign people up in my neighborhood I'd been thinking about it for a while anyway. It's easy when I already have the FiOS internet hookup. All I had on cable was the extended basic service. I was paying $70 a month. The same level on FiOS TV has a few more channels (BBC America! Yay!) and it's going to come in at around $45. Sweet.

Margo was home for the install. It went pretty smoothly. I wasn't expecting that that they were going to replace the DLink router that they provided when the internet hookup was done. In its place is a Actiontec MI424WR router....the ethernet line from the FiOS goes into one jack, then the video comes out a coax port that hooks up to the cable that's in the house. I had a chance to talk to the Verizon tech about the new router and he said that it increases available bandwidth to accommodate the internet connection and video when things like Video on Demand are coming down on the video side. Interesting.

The set-top box is a Motorola QIP2500-3. The TiVo controls it perfectly with the IR sprayer. I haven't tried the serial connection since I can't find the cable and I've read that Verizon has them disabled anyway. The video looks good. I'm already TiVo'ing stuff that I couldn't get on Cox. It's a good day.

Technorati Tags: FiOS, Technology, Television, Tivo

This is also a follow-up to my FiOS install from a couple months ago.

One of the unexpected consequences of the FiOS install was that it cut the Tivo off my network. When I had Cox cable internet, I put a splitter on the cable that went to the TV in the living room. One end went to the cable box, the other went to the cable modem. The Linksys WRT54G router connected to the cable modem, and since everything was right near the TV, I did CAT5 from the Tivo to the router. No fuss no muss.

With the FiOS install, the internet connection comes from a CAT5 drop that's downstairs in a corner of the basment. I'm not pulling cable all the way across the house, so the wireless router is in the basement now.

So I bought a Netgear WRT111 USB wireless NIC, and figured I was good to go. Oops.

I tried joining the network right after adding the new NIC. It couldn't join the network. So I did some Googling and found out that Series 2 Tivos don't do WPA or WPA2...they only do WEP. That's not good. I'm supposed to drop my WLAN down to WEP? I don't think so.

Fortunately, I still have the DLink DI-624 that Verizon provides on the FiOS installs. I decided to run two wireless networks...my main one, and then one running WEP that the Tivo runs through. It's simple enough. I made sure that the Dlink router's LAN IP address is set to a different subnet than the LAN IP address of the Linksys (the defaults already are), then plugged the WAN port on the DLink to one of the LAN switch ports on the Linksys. The Linksys gives the DLink an IP address in its subnet, then the DLink gives an IP on a different subnet to its clients, and routes through to the Linksys.

I did have some connectivity trouble for a couple days. The signal strength on the DLink was almost unusable....KisMac showed 35 when I was standing right next to it, and down to 15 when I went 10 feet away. The Tivo couldn't connect to it at all. I called Verizon and got a replacement and the new one works fine.

This configuration has been set and stable over the last couple months without any trouble. The TiVo is getting its updates as needed, and I didn't have to change anything on my main WLAN.

I'm slowly but steadily junking up the basement corner with computer-related gear, but it's always been an ugly corner so I don't mind.

Technorati Tags: FiOS, Technology, WLAN, TiVo