DHCP Reservation Solves Legacy Tablo Connectivity Problems For Local Devices

Support & Troubleshooting
1

I have a 4-Tuner Legacy Tablo Device. For years, I could reliably watch Tablo via different computers and mobile devices, than more than year or two ago, things changed. Tablo connectivity only worked reliably from my Windows 11 Box. Success on smart phones using the Legacy Tablo app was very, very rare and always very temporary. I never could spot a pattern in these many failures and rare temporary successes I blamed this on Tablo itself for not supporting their Legacy device properly, but now, after a recent success, I am not so sure where the blame was. Quite likely, the problem had nothing to do with Tablo. Very likely, the problem was elsewhere.

How did I find this solution?

I recently solved a sporadic connection problem with an ancient but incredibly reliable Brother printer by assigning it a static IP address. Before this change, only my Windows 11 Box could find this printer, but Windows 11 is well known to be highly aggressive in finding devices, and many devices work harder to be discovered by Windows 11 computers. So all my other devices - several MacBooks and many Chromebooks - could never find that printer, much less print to it. Assigning a static IP address to that printer solved those connectivity problems.

With that success, I wondered if assigning a static IP address to my Legacy Tablo device would help? I was disappointed to find that Tablo does not support assigning a static IP address to its device. Then I learned I could still get an equivalent effect by using a DHCP Reservation using a MAC address to assign what is effectively a static IP address to my Tablo. I made a DHCP Reservation for my Legacy Tablo on my router.

Bingo!

It has been 10 days since that change, and I have now been able to watch Tablo using the Legacy Tablo app on all my mobile phone devices. Everything has been working perfectly. It even works on ChromeBooks, I believe, though by this I mean it works via the Legacy Tablo app - not the Chrome browser. It also works via the FireFox app.

Note: on some routers, it can be tricky to find your way to where DHCP Reservations are made.
For me on a Velops router from LinkSys, it took a fair bit of trial and error (with quite a lot of error) before I stumbled on to how to navigate to DHCP Reservations.

Also note that my DHCP lease was for a day, not an uncommon duration for a lease.. So I did not have some weirdly short lease duration. Nonetheless, I had terrible connection problems to my Legacy Tablo until I gave my Legacy Tablo (effectively) a static IP address through a DHCP Reservation.

So if you are having problems with your Legacy Tablo app connecting to your Legacy Tablo, try a DHCP Reservation. Your connectivity problems may go away.

NOTE: troubleshooting tips from Tablo do COVER this: DHCP Reservation, kind of

If Tablo Connect suddenly stops working, your router may be assigning a new IP address to your Tablo which would cause the port forwarding rules to stop working. Assigning a DHCP reservation to the Tablo will prevent this from happening.

I think (??) they wrote this in respect to watching your Tablo remotely when you are not at home, but travelling etc. Turns out that this advice also applies when you are trying to watch a Legacy Tablo from other devices on your local wi-fi. Certainly when I contacted Tablo with my local connectivity problems, they never told me to make a DHCP reservation for my Legacy Tablo.

3 Likes
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For any device that is accessed by another device it is best for it to have a static IP, so it can’t change.
Everything on my network has a static IP.
That way I can monitor the network to make sure there are no unknown devices.

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My router has a feature in “Access Control” named “Block all new devices from connecting”. The only way anything new can connect is if I give it permission.

About 50% of the time when I’m legitimately connecting a new device I forget about it and rack my brains over why I can’t get it to connect. Then I remember :zany_face:

3 Likes
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I agree! “For any device that is accessed by another device it is best for it to have a static IP, so it can’t change..” But the fact is things worked great for years without a static IP… until it didn’t, and it didn’t occur to me that a dynamic IP address was the problem. Nor did Tablo technical support offer any such tip to me when I contacted them. Compounding matters is that you have to realize that while the Legacy Tablo itself does not support static IP, a DHCP reservation is a workaround.

I only described my experience because when I looked for a solution I never found someone describing this DHCP reservation solution. It would have saved me a lot of frustration..

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This is the exact issue I have been struggling with. Does anyone know how to set this on Arris Router? I don’t know if I should click “DHCP” or “IP Reserved” in Connected Devices, and also where to enter the Legacy Tablo’s MAC address. Not sure if there are any other changes I would need to make. Any assistance would be appreciated. Thanks.

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I did it on my RT-AX86U over a year ago, and it made a world of improvement. That, and removing both the ASUS router and the Tablos from their UPS units.

LAN > DHCP Server > Manual Assignment - Enable Manual Assignment - Yes > Manually Assigned IP around the DHCP list (Max Limit : 128) >
Client Name (MAC Address) - IP Address - DNS Server (Optional) - Host Name (Optional) - Add / Delete

Hui Zhou Gaoshengda Technology 28:AD:18:5F:XX:XX - 192.XXX.XX.XX - Default - Nil - Add / Delete

Note: I replaced the digits with X.

As long as the Tablo units are seen by the WIFI, they will show up in the Client Name (MAC Address) column.

The IP Address is the Tablo, or whatever else is on WIFI.

  • To add
  • To remove

Always use ‘Apply’ for each addition or subtraction.

This is the info that is shown when logged into the ASUS router.

DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) is a protocol for the automatic configuration used on IP networks. The DHCP server can assign each client an IP address and informs the client of the of DNS server IP and default gateway IP. RT-AX86U supports up to 253 IP addresses for your local network.
Manually Assigned IP around the DHCP list FAQ

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I also suggest that you manually check and set your DNS to your router or other service because FireStick and maybe others automatically assign 8.8.8.8. If that’s what you want to use then no biggie, but it could make a difference if your devices are set differently than your router. All my devices and router are set to Cloudflare. One thing I’ve learned with my home network - don’t assume something is true; it’s best to set it.

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Yes, unfortunately there is more to it with Arris Surfboard router/modems. IP reservation in Connections is not enough to consistently preserve remote Tablo connectivity.