2) I was connected to Tablo via the web app on my Mac - browsing recordings and scheduling others.
3) I attempted to open the Tablo app on my iPhone. It said connecting. And it did not connect for a few minutes.
4) I turned off the WiFi on my iPhone, and tried to connect using Tablo Connect via LTE - and I connected instantaneously.
5) I turned the iPhone WiFi back on, and again, no connection.
6) Finally, after a 7-8 more minutes, the iPhone finally connected to my Tablo.
I’ve had other weird instances like that at other times, where some devices connect, and others don’t. I’m not a tech expert, so bear with me if this has an obvious answer. My guess is that my router sucks. I have a Belkin N150 router. I know it’s an older one, but I would expect it to be able to handle a few connections at once. It’s not an issue of range or WiFi strength - I’ve tested and get at least 20mbps in all corners of my apartment. Are there some settings in my router I could set to eliminate this issue? Or should I pony up and buy a new and improved one (and if so, what routers do you all recommend)?
It is wireless. I won’t buy a router until I do some in-depth research, so no worries there. But if I can get it working with the belkin, that would be ideal. I have to use wireless, tablo/antenna is far from router.
Right now, this has gotten even worse. Cannot connect to Tablo on mac, iPhone, or Roku 3. But I can connect instantly when turning off iPhone WiFi and using Tablo Connect. So I know that the Tablo is connected to my router. I know my hard drive is waking up - I can play recordings on Tablo Connect. For some reason my home WiFi network is not allowing the connection. Any ideas of what could be causing this?
Just tried a little experiment: found a long ethernet cord, connected Tablo via ethernet, and had instant connection on all devices. So I think I can narrow it down to 1) I’ve botched my WiFi settings on my router, 2) my router needs to be replaced, or 3) my Tablo unit’s Wifi is not behaving as it should.
@brunning just FYI - you are better off keeping the Tablo on wire. Reason is that your router is handling Wi-Fi from Tablo to router, and from your other devices to router. It’s double-Wi-Fi but if you wire the Tablo the only load on the Wi-Fi part is your device to router as the Tablo wouldn’t be using Wi-Fi to get to and from your devices for control.
My Wi-Fi is great and mostly all in the same room New strong router, I can get 150 to 300 Mbps Wi-Fi connection from notebook to router and the router is but 3 or 4 feet from my Tablo but it’s a nice difference having the Tablo “wired”. You may also be experiencing the devices stepping on each other depending on your Wi-Fi configuration.
unless you have major convenience issues, I’d leave the Tablo wired, if it were me.
Thanks @ShadowsPapa and @theuser86. Right now in my current set-up, having it wired means having the ethernet cable strung down a hallway and across a room about 3 feet off the ground… not a usable set-up. Thankfully I’ll be moving in a few months and can revamp my set-up to keep Tablo wired. That definitely sounds ideal, both in preventing double WiFi and for performance. I still think I’m going to invest in a new router anyways - been something I’ve been wanting to do for a while. This gives me a good excuse I’m not looking to break the bank, and have been reading about some of the TP-Link Archer routers. Thewirecutter.com gives them high marks. Anyone have advice on routers?
At least one company offers devices for Ethernet over AC wiring, too. I’m not aware of the cost, though.
Some Tablo owners have done that so they can avoid running Cat5 or better cable through the house. And with those, I would assume everything on the same leg or phase of the electric panel would be able to pick up the Ethernet signal.
I’ve looked into power line adapters. The building I live in right now was built in 1912, and I know that the wiring is not great. I decided against purchasing those since I’ll be outta here in 3 months and into a new place where I can have a more ideal Tablo set-up (or a place with newer wiring!). Thanks for the idea though.
@brunning It may be worth it to temporarily experiment with Ethernet - even if the setup isn’t permanent, to see if it eliminates the spinning ‘connecting’ issues. Or, if you’re not too bothered by it, you could just wait for the new place for a more ideal setup as you noted above. In any case, give me a shout if you have any questions.
Thanks @TabloSupport. I may try that tonight - plugging in the ethernet. I often have some sort of connection issue first thing in the morning, so it will be a good test. Will update tomorrow.
Powerline adapters are your friend. Just make sure if you purchase one, get at least a 500 Mbps one just to ensure you have a fast enough connection. Do not get a 200 Mbps one. Again like with WiFi a reported 500 Mbps with a Powerline adapter will not actually have a 500 Mbps throughput, hence why I said do not get the 200 Mbps.
I use a Powerline adapters to hard wire a Roku and it works great for local streaming of 1080p movies up to 20 Mbps and of course, Tablo streaming.
Powerline adapters work great. I have gigabit adapters rated at 500 Mbps into a gigabit router. Once connected they rated out at 185 Mbps. New adapter setup on a new tablo can be confusing since you have no console on the tablo to observe the state of the adapter. So I verified the adapter was working by connecting it to a PC. Then I replugged it into the tablo. Works great.
I use 5 ghz 18 feet across the rec room to power a roku 3. And 2.4 ghz to power the PC’s, etc. But what you might observe when using a dual channel WI-FI router is that a powerful 5 ghz WI-FI signal can reduce the maximum throughput of the 2.4 ghz WI-FI by 20-40%. During setup some routers will warn you and some won’t.
@TabloSupport The experiment went great - having the Tablo wired resulted in connection perfection every time. Now back to Wifi, hoping things work better. I’m a bit confused though - earlier in this thread the concept of ‘double Wifi’ was potentially blamed as a culprit. But don’t many people have their Tablos connected wirelessly, and not have that issue?
@theuser86@zippy I am definitely considering powerline adapters, both in my current situation and once I move, since they are so reliable. However as I mentioned, in my current situation I’ve got old wiring in an old house. I’ve read about the poor connection that old wiring can create with powerline adapters - should I even risk it? I would also need a model that has electrical plug pass-throughs. Old house also means not having enough electrical outlets unfortunately.
@brunning I gave up on trying to stream any video of 720p or higher quality (depends on actual bitrate but a good generalization for me) using wifi years ago. I’ve only ever bought routers and wifi access points that cost $100 or less though and that may very well be why.
I finally ran some cat5e through the basement and to my family room and put all front end devices on a switch. All my back end devices are wired directly to an 8 port switch in the basement connected to the router. After that setup was in place I no longer had ANY streaming glitches no matter what front end client or method I used. Most devices are also limited to 100Mb/s connections. So that wireless N device that said it was operating at 155Mb/s really wasn’t. Or my router sucks at wifi
Not saying that it is possible to run hard wire in your case, but most definitely wifi was always an issue in my situation.
The wiring in my house is 40 years old and has no problems. I didn’t have a need for power pass through . But the size of many powerline adapters can crowd the unused plug. The powerline acts like a mini network. Thus if you have gigabit router connected to a gigabit powerline adapter you can have multiple powerline clients driving above 100 Mbps into the router. And obviously the router can split it’s work out to other direct connect and dual band WI-FI.
@brunning ‘Double Wi-Fi’ can sometimes be a common issue depending on the setup, and it can commonly lead to issues like this. Most networks are fairly different, and are difficult to test (especially not being with them locally). Plenty of folks are using their Tablo’s on Wi-Fi (myself included) and don’t have any issues. It really depends on the network.
Could a dual band Wi-Fi router solve this? If I put the Tablo on one band, and everything else on the other? Right now I have everything on 2.4ghz on my old, low-end Belkin router.
Seems like my debate will be to decide between powerline adapters (with the risk of old wiring slowing things down), or getting a new router (and hoping that solves the issue)…
What is double Wi-FI? Is this dual band Wi-Fi (2.4 ghz and 5.0 ghz)? When the router is dual band and has a high power rating such as N750 some 5.0 ghz channels can interfere with 2.4 ghz. Especially if it is broadcasting it’s SSIDs. And if the router/client doesn’t support 802/11n the Wi-Fi connection basically runs at half-duplex. Alternating the radio frequency between send and receive.
I’m not looking to break the bank, and have been reading about some of the TP-Link Archer routers. 