I just tried to use my Tablo without the house WiFi on which meaning no internet and it does not work on my Roku 3, it just takes me to the screen that says, “Discover live TV and DVR” shows on my Roku 3 and can’t find my Tablo without the internet so I would love to know how I can make it work without the internet. Thank you
“without the house WiFi on”. You have to have a functional LAN.
My Roku 3 has worked just fine without a WAN working. As long as the DHCP server has allocated IP addresses my Roku 3 works.
But I also prefer a router-behind-router configuration where my LAN is connected to the non-ISP router because it’s a better router.
Hate to rain on your parade, but try this…
Disconnect your ISP WAN modem network cable from your router.
Reboot your Roku.
You won’t be able to connect to your Tablo.
Do you think that when you reboot you Roku, it just might have to contact the DHCP server for an IP address - dah? DHCP discovery is part of the device boot protocol required to obtain an IP address.
Some ISP routers don’t disable the DHCP server when the WAN is down. Some do.
Some people enable the DHCP server on their bridge router. In fact I’ve successful access the tablo with a Roku 4210, where both were connected via the same switch when the bridge router was inaccessible. Why! because both devices already had their IP addresses and the switch recognized that the IP addresses were just different ports on itself.
Do think there is a way to just have the ethernet wire cable connected directly to the tablo and the other end connected to the moden/router and then from the modem to the Roku with another Ethernet cable? I’m trying this method but it’s not working, I don’t want to use the “wi-fi” I just want to use the internet with the Ethernet wire and have the Tablo work 
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Yes you can hard wire the Tablo to your combo modem/router, and hard wire your Roku to the same combo modem/router. This is actually the most stable connection, definitely no drop in speed.
When the Roku is hard wired to your modem/router, can you access the internet and watch Netflix for example?
My router is separate from my ISP modem, and my router provides the Roku’s IP address.
Really, try it yourself.
Disconnect the WAN network cable from your router, reboot your Roku, and see if you can connect to your Tablo.
I should clarifiy that connecting to your Tablo is kind of incorrect.
It appears you can connect, but you won’t be able to do anything.
Every screen will display a spinning circle, like it’s trying to do something, but never displays anything.
By the way, I noticed this behavior began with Roku OS v8.0.0.
Yes, I can see YouTube, amazon prime, etc but not my tablo app, when I click on the tablo app it just goes to their page and it has the search again button.
Just for you I ran two tests after I re-enabled the DHCP server on my ATT Pace 5031 router.
Roku 3 (4200x) OS 8.0.4143. Roku connect via 5 Ghz WiFi.
Leave Roku in home menu
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disconnect the WAN cable.
Start tablo app. Everything works like a charm. -
Reboot Roku. Then start tablo app. You get the message at bottom of the screen “can’t connect to internet”. Prior to 8.0 OS release this use to be a popup with an option to proceed.
Amazing I hit Okay on the remote and the tablo app worked. So you don’t know if it would have timed out proceeded or the Okay is required.
That Roku Tablo app connected, and displayed Live TV channels, and recordings, and stuff?
Hmmmm… definitely not doing that on mine.
I unplugged the WAN cable causing the green ethernet light to turn Red. Thus there was no cable Link light on. Because having link lights on is a different test then no WAN but ethernet link lights on.
I have three tablos. So I always disconnect before leaving the Roku tablo app. Thus when you start the tablo app it needs to do a LAN broadcast discovery.
That all worked but slower after the roku reboot… You then pick a tablo unit and enter.
Resumed watching the figuring skating. But I didn’t go into every menu and play around. To me tablo is a DVR - I want to watch recorded shows.
Each router can be a little different. But it would seem a little crappy if the DHCP server needed to drive a LAN device was impacted by WAN access.
Are you sure the Tablo and Roku are hard wired to the same device? Aka the same modem? The Roku should find the Tablo.
If you connect the Roku to the WiFi network you can connect to the Tablo?
You might have to open a support ticket to have them help you out.
Doh, my router must be hosing my setup then.
Previous to Roku OS v8.0.0, if I lost internet access from my ISP, my Roku Tablo app would not display Live TV guide info, eventhough it would allow me to watch Live TV channels.
Now the Live TV guide info displays correctly, but the Roku Tablo app won’t allow me to do anything useful, if I reboot my Roku.
Ah well, it’s not the end of the world, since we don’t tend to lose internet access often.
Thanks for verifying it works differently in your environment, though. 
Yup, I sure am. I have a Ethernet wire from my tablo to the modem/router and from the router I have another Ethernet wire to the roku 3, but the roku 3 isn’t reading/finding the tablo.
I assume that ethernet cables rj45 port connections into both the router and the tablo have the appropriate green and amber lights on indicating a good link between the tablo and the router.
And I assume that tablo LED light isn’t flashing which would indicate an error code.
And I hope this isn’t a new initial installation because I don’t know if Roku can do an initial installation. I’ve always used a WEB browser.
And you can always log into your router and verify that it’s list of devices includes that MAC address of the tablo and that it is on the same subnetwork as the Roku.
Yes, this is definitely isn’t an initial installation as I have had the tablo for 3 years now, all I want to achieve is not using the wifi for it to work, I am trying to use the least of wireless things in my home. But it doesn’t seem to want to work for me. But thanks for all the advice everyone has given me. [For me it seems that the only way it’ll work is having some type of “wireless” be it LAN or WAN. I wanted to see if I could stay away from that and still be able to use the tablo as my DVR, but I have found another device that I can plug it in directly with an Ethernet cord and it also has a antenna port directly into the streaming box and I can record with it all at the sametime. I guess I’ll have to buy that one] 
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You shouldn’t have to buy anything else. I use my Tablo and Roku with both devices hard wired to the router, it is definitely possible, not a limitation. Contact support, they should be able to walk you through the setup.
When you connect the Roku via ethernet to your modem/router, you have to go under the Settings and change the Network settings to ‘Wired’.
Okay, finally I got it to work, thanks so much for your help. Have a great evening. 
How did you fix it? Don’t leave us in suspense
Well, sadly I forgot the most obvious thing, which was to disconnect it for 60sec and then connect it again. 
lol