Compatible Network Adapters and Drivers for 4.x and 6.2

[trongod05]

I would like to start a thread where members can post the types of Network Adapters they are using. It would be helpful to have a list with the Make, Model, Interface, Tivo Software version, and possibly the method they used to get them working.

[Jamie]

Does anyone know of a list of Network Adapters that will work with a hacked Series 2 with 4.x or 6.2 software? Searching the forum seems to turn up mixed results for Network Support and there are really no guides for it.Anything with an ASIX ax88172 chip is a good choice.

Here's some previous threads where there are some suggestions: link1 (http://www.dealdatabase.com/forum/showthread.php?t=40674), link2 (http://www.dealdatabase.com/forum/showthread.php?p=199796#post199796), link3 (http://www.dealdatabase.com/forum/showthread.php?p=215973#post215973).

There are gige adapters just coming out now. The driver support isn't there yet, and it isn't clear that they will perform any better than what we have now. In a month or two they might be another choice.

[gpontis]

There are gige adapters just coming out now. The driver support isn't there yet, and it isn't clear that they will perform any better than what we have now. In a month or two they might be another choice.

We can hope that they help in the same way that GigE NICs help even on a 100mbps network. That is, reduced CPU load due to improved buffering. Our local Fry's Electronics recently had a sale on the Airlink AGIGAUSB, which is their version of GigE-USB2 based on the AX88178. At $19 I had to buy a couple. But unless one plans on using them with Windows 2000 or XP, they will be out of luck due to lack of drivers. The latest backported drivers will not fire up this device even if the PCI vendor/model is forged.

The chip company, ASIX, has a data sheet up on their web site for this part. It includes register level definitions. I briefly considered comparing the new with the existing to see how much of a job it would be to support the new part, but did not follow through. Thanks to your backported 2.4.27 drivers and the USB200M we are not suffering too much.

[Jamie]

The chip company, ASIX, has a data sheet up on their web site for this part. It includes register level definitions. I briefly considered comparing the new with the existing to see how much of a job it would be to support the new part, but did not follow through. Thanks to your backported 2.4.27 drivers and the USB200M we are not suffering too much.I've got several of the airlink parts on the way and will be working on usbnet driver support. Not promising anything, but I'm hopeful. The current 2.6.12-rc5-mm2 linux tree includes support for a related chip (ax88772) that seems to have a similar register level interface.

[lgkahn]

I am using usb200m's on all 3 of my dtivos they are cheap work well (except for flimsy connector which could but never has broken)

and am getting about 1.5m/sec extraction and about 600K/sec insertions and
this is over a connection to a linksys switch and a 11g wireless WDS/repeater using jamies backported drivers (thanks jamie)

[pjin]

Jamie: Has the ax88772 chipset been supported yet? Fry's currently has a Fast Ethernet USB Adapter for $5.99, model is ASOHOUSB, made by Airlink101,
http://www.airlink101.com/products/asohousb.html
It might be a good choice for those needing a ethernet usb adpater.

[Jamie]

Jamie: Has the ax88772 chipset been supported yet? Fry's currently has a Fast Ethernet USB Adapter for $5.99, model is ASOHOUSB, made by Airlink101,
http://www.airlink101.com/products/asohousb.html
It might be a good choice for those needing a ethernet usb adpater.Not in the current backport tree. There is code for it in the 2.6.12-rc5-mm2 linux tree. I'm using that code as a base for the ax88178 support, as the register interfaces look very similar. So the bottom line is that it might eventually be supported, but it isn't today.

I don't have a Fry's near me, but if someone wants to send me one of these I can integrate support into the backport drivers. PM me if interested. I can ship the device back to you when I'm done testing.

[pjin]

Let me see if I can get hold one or two this evening after work. outpost.com has this item for $14.99
Will there be any difference in tems of performance of this adapter comparing with FA120?

[Jamie]

Will there be any difference in tems of performance of this adapter comparing with FA120?I guess we won't know until we test it, but they claim it supports "High performance packet transfer rate over USB bus using proprietary burst transfer mechanism (submitted for US patent application)." This is really just a framing protocol for stuffing multiple ethernet frames into a larger usb bulk transfer. It's not clear to me that this is going to make any difference - my gut feel is that the cpu bottlenecks on the tivo are upstream in the network stack. It should reduce the number of interrupts though, which might help.

[trongod05]

Well, I decided to go with the Netgear FA-120 and since I wanted a wireless config I am going to use this handy little device to make it so. http://www.compusa.com/products/product_info.asp?product_code=319753&pfp=srch1

Probably going to try it out this weekend. I already know the two parts talk to each other. I configured the Viewsonic WAPBR-100 as an AP Client so it will work as if it is a wireless card and feed data to the FA-120. I know it's kinda overkill but for the money it's good to just have around. I look at it like this, even if I end up using another wireless adapter later on that works standalone, I will use the viewsonic as a repeater to boost my signal.

I'll post my config once I have everything working.

[Jeff D]

Jamie, I noticed Fry's has the airlink usb2.0 ethernet adapter with the ax88772 controller. Did you get any of these and do you have any news on if they are supported?

[Jamie]

Jamie, I noticed Fry's has the airlink usb2.0 ethernet adapter with the ax88772 controller. Did you get any of these and do you have any news on if they are supported?We just discussed that in this very thread this morning. Read starting at post #6.

[Jeff D]

We just discussed that in this very thread this morning. Read starting at post #6.
DOH! I thought I read the entire thread! Arrgh.

The units at Fry's are $6, almost what it costs to ship 'em almost think it would be better to just sacrafice one to the USB driver gods rather than have it shipped back.

I haven't made it out today (and may not) but if I do I'll check on picking up an extra (may require going to two cashiers...

[trongod05]

Well, it looks like I am almost there. I am a bit new to this but I think I am pretty far for my first attempt. I installed a 250G drive, restored a 4.01b image to the disk and used this guide http://www.dellanave.com/projects/tivo/4xrid.html to accomplish it. Everything worked just fine until I tried to test my network connection. It continues to fail saying "Connection Failed, Service Unavailable." However I can telnet to the Tivo just fine. So I ran ifconfig eth0 and this is the output:


eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:0F:B5:4E:1E:EB
inet addr:192.168.1.105 Bcast:192.168.1.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:178 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:0 errors:13254 dropped:136 overruns:0 carrier:0 coll:0

As you can see, lots of errors. I then ran a ping on the gateway which was successful. I was even able to ping outside sites like Yahoo.com.

These are the settings that I configured my Tivo's network connection to use.

IP Address: 192.168.1.105 #can see it on the network
Netmask: 255.255.255.0 # of course
Default Gateway: 192.168.1.1 # Linksys WRT54G
DNS Server: 24.28.131.63 # This is the DNS server that the router uses from the ISP. All of my other network adapters use this as did this one when I had it connection to a system running Windows XP.

Does it look like I missed a step? Is this feature even supposed to work? Any suggestions? :)

[Jamie]

As you can see, lots of errors. I then ran a ping on the gateway which was successful. I was even able to ping outside sites like Yahoo.com.The error count reported by ifconfig is wrong. This is a known issue with the ifconfig that ships with the tivo. There is one that works in the usb2 backport package. This has been covered before. Search for ifconfig and you'll no doubt find some hits.

Your problem lies elsewhere - basic network connectivity seems ok. Look in the various tv* logs in /var/log to see if there are any clues there.

I think the OP intended this as an infomational thread rather than a debugging/troubleshooting thread. I'd suggest you start a new newbie thread if you still can't figure out what's wrong with your daily calls.

{Edit: silly me: you are the original poster.

Other ideas: Are you running on a SA or dtivo? A dtivo shouldn't be calling in (or testing the network through the tivo software) at all. On a SA, make sure you are set up to call through the network instead of via the phone line.}

[trongod05]

I have a DTivo, so I guess that answers my question when you said I shouldn't be making a call (I knew this) or testing the connection through the Tivo software. I get program guide data so everything else looks good to go. Just need to do more searching for the HMO/MRV stuff so my PC can see it. System information already indicates all that is active. Well, the network config I posted earlier seems to be working fine. My own version of wireless. Thanks for the help guys.

Keep posting network configs though. I still think it would be good to have a nice thread on compatible network gear.