Problem & Solution Found Tonight

About an hour ago, I was watching one of the shows I have recorded on my Tablo, and I was disconnected from the Tablo server in the middle of the show. After logging back into the server, which had not rebooted (I can see the LED), I checked the shows that had been recording - all was fine. No interruption had happened. Puzzled, I thought maybe my DHCP had reassigned the local IP address for the Tablo server (maybe its lease had expired). So I logged into my router and made the IP address static (reserved in the DHCP). This failed completely, I lost complete contact with my Tablo and could not immediately reestablish connection. Upon investigation, I found that my router listed the Mac address for the Tablo different from the Mac address that Tablo shows in its Settings screen. After going back into my DHCP server and correcting the Mac address (removing Tablo’s Mac address and replacing it with the one in use by the router), all began working again. Having the correct Mac address in the DHCP table helps A LOT.

The Tablo has two MAC addresses, one for ethernet and one for wi-fi. The one on the box (and likely the settings screen as well) is the ethernet one.

Are you using wi-fi to connect your Tablo?

Yes. I use wifi for all connections in my home.

And yes, I understand why the Mac Address was the wrong one. I own a media server, and when it is connected to the router by cable, I run into the same problem. I would have thought, though, that the Settings screen should display the Mac Address currently in use – like “ipconfig /all” does. If the Mac Address for wifi was printed on the box… at this time of year, I seriously doubt I could find the box (Santa Claus (my wife) is at full throttle - boxes out the wahzoo around here).