During the recent storms here on the West Coast, internet outages were experienced in many communities. Some of these outages were due to power outages. Cellular outages were also
prevalent.
Since most of us would like to keep track of events in situations like this and the Tablo is dependent on connecting to the internet to be used (for some explained and undisclosed reason) - this is a problem
I tried connecting my streaming box to the cellular hotspot on my phone and other streaming apps on the box worked, but the Tablo was a no-go probably due to not being on the same LAN network the streaming box was on. The solution would probably getting a router router with cellular fallback ( , , )
Can the Tablo team or anyone else offer a solution/explanation to this problem?
At one point, I ran my entire network off of a mobile hotspot. Including my 4th gen Tablo. I can’t speak on behalf of legacy devices, but the was adequate for watching both OTA and recording (FAST worked about as expected with a 4G LTE signal).
But if the problem arises that cellular reception is also out, I’m not really sure how any of this would help.
“But if the problem arises that cellular reception is also out, I’m not really sure how any of this would help.”
That’s what we deal with after hurricanes here in Florida. With no tradidiontal internet and no cellular, it’s run the antenna coax to the TV and give up on the Tablo.
BTW- How did you connect all your devices your mobile hotspot? Did you set all your devices to the SSID of your hotspot? or did your hotspot have an ethernet port? If your Tablo and streaming devices are connected by ethernet its may be easier.
Fortunately this was not a very long emergency where I had to jury rig a solution. Was looking for simple, quick and cheap first.
At first, everything was connected wirelessly to the 2.4ghz network, then the 5ghz network for obvious network speed benefits. Yes, it worked, but again, as expected on a 4G LTE cellular connection. My hotspot only has a USB-C connection, but I imagine if I had used a USB-C to ethernet adapter it would have worked okay, although I’m not sure if the speed would have improved.
The higher internet speeds are only necessary for watching FAST and even when I was at my cap, bringing down the data to 600kpbs, the only downside was waiting a bit longer for the guide data to load when I went into the live grid.
Near the end, I used a network extender between all of the devices so that it would relieve some of the pressure off of my hotspot. It was also better since the router had higher network transfer speeds. I would imagine that an extender with ethernet port would work for your hard-wired devices, but I can’t say for certain – it would depend on the product.
Might sound stupid, but I only switched to real internet because it was finally cheaper than running my current system – and after a couple weeks of FAST, I became spoiled!
The hardest part about making a temporary system work is that the 4th gen Tablo does not have an official way to switch between networks. It’s a matter of “tricking” the puck into not finding an internet connection, then going through the setup app again and setting it up on a different network.
So, cheap it is, but simple, maybe not so much. But it works?
That would likely be the best thing to do in that current situation. I can only imagine how much you’re keeping an eye on generators and resources to begin with!
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