Tablo requires an internet connection?

I know ISP outages never occur. I have a LAN router behind my ISP WAN router. So how long will it take to obtain a replacement WAN router when it burns out? All my tablo traffic except for tablo management goes through the LAN. I live 3 miles from a bestbuy, 6 mile from a walmart, and 10 miles from a frys. I can replace my LAN router in 90 minutes.

Nuvyyo is a VC startup. What do you think would happen if the VC investors decide to sell to Tivo or channelmaster…

I didn’t know they were funded by VCs?

As well, my local cable company I use for my ISP(evil Rogers) has a retail store 5 minutes away where I can pick up a new modem if this one dies. That’s why you pay the modem rental fee to them, so it’s easily replaceable.

It’s really not a big deal ‘without internet’, but what if Tablo Servers were to shut down or perhaps the company were to sell out? Then what? I’d rather my device be 100% standalone without the reliance of servers. That’s what ‘cutting the cord’ is supposed to be about. I want to know I can use this device, make manual recordings, etc, even if Tablo were to sell out.

I agree with that scenario but I hope they don’t do that, I have more faith in them than that.

Just a heads-up… Yes, we are VC funded and the VC is happy.

Happy VC = happy CEO = no danger of us going anywhere anytime soon. :slight_smile:

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Being a VC means that if the right offer comes along your happy CEO is even happier and out of there. And the VC investors will be happy. And depending on how the VC funding was obtained the CEO may not have any say in a buyout.

I worked many years for large software company. We acquired many small innovative companies over the last few years. Even one in Toronto larger then Nuvyyo. In all cases the plan was always, the existing customer base abandoned and the technology integrated into our existing product line. Of course Oracle likes to buy larger companies integrate and also support existing customer base.

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OK, so I love my Tablo, but the fact that it requires an internet connection to connect to it at all is a huge bug in my opinion. My internet is AT&T dsl and it’s down fairly often truthfully, but I have a local network that is working fine on these occasions. One of the reasons I chose the tablo is because the internet options in my area are sparse and all of them are not suited to streaming (not fast enough generally). If my internet is down, first thing we want to do is watch TV!

But regardless, I can understand that maybe not all the functionality might be there if my internet connection is down, but I see no reason why I can’t connect and either watch live TV or recordings.

I have android phones, a roku 3, a chromecast, and an amazon fire stick. The fire stick is a train wreck on it’s own, so if the internet is down it’s down. But the phones see the tablo just fine, and the connection starts but never completes. As soon as the internet is back it’s instantaneous.

I totally agree.

Tablo folks: Please add a section to the FAQ explaining how or if we can watch OTA when the WAN connection is down!

Specify which devices, apps etc work and those that do not.

There are many threads on this and the information is confusing and something contradictory.

Thanks.

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I think the best you are going to get from tablo is that the app is designed to work without the WAN. There are way too many combinations that are out of tablos control to commit to that kind of documentation.

depending on what version of device OS software that is installed.

  1. It may always require the WAN
  2. It may not require the WAN unless it’s rebooted.
  3. It may never need the WAN.
  4. It may need the WAN for DHCP reservation or lease renewal if the DHCP server is on the WAN

Or in the case of some routers where the DHCP server is in the ISP router, depending on the model and firmware level the DHCP server fails to respond if the routers connection to the ISP fails. Of course if the devices already have addresses and don’t need the WAN everything continues to work.

Thanks Zippy,

I agree that the combination of hardware variations make it difficult to give a definitive answer; however, just as you did, Tablo could provide guidance as to what will probably be OK.

In my case I have an eMTA from Spectrum and my own TP-LINK C5400 router. The modem in the eMTA is set to bridged mode so my router is the switch and DHCP server.

All of my connected devices are Apple: iPad, iPhone and Apple TV.

Recently, we had a brief WAN outage so I wanted to see if my Tablo worked. I tried my iPhone and iPad both running the latest iOS. They both report searching for Tablo and then failed to connect. Once the WAN returned the Tablo connected as normal. Since my router is the DHCP server I do not understand why the Tablo could not be located.

If Tablo could provide some technical assistance on the FAQ for all users to understand the chances of their setup working it would be nice. Also, there a many cord cutters who really want to cut the cord and may want to know if it is possible to use Tablo with no WAN or very limited WAN via cell connection to refresh the guide.

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I have an ATT router that serves as nothing more then a DHCP server and connection to the WAN. Behind that router is another router handling all device connections.

One day last week when I got up in the moorning the WAN connection was non-functional. The connection lights appeared good,etc.

I had 6 headless devices, including Roku and tablos, that already had IP addresses. They all seemed to work on the LAN but not WAN. But any new devices failed to acquire an address from DHCP server.

Thus I couldn’t get any device connected to evaluate what the ISP router state really was. So I had so choice but to reboot the ISP router to clear the problem.

Interesting - very weird issue, likely a bug is the router function of the ISP modem. It should still assign new internal IP addresses.

What are you using as your WiFi access point? Just curious to know how well it performs, looking to upgrade my WiFi.

I’m sure it was a bug in the router. But since another user had a similar problem with a ATT DSL router - mine is also a ATT uverse router. And the ATT techs have been in the neighborhood doing a bunch of work. I’m sure they left the node in an indeterminable (from my end) state.

No new router here. My LAN router is a 3 year old Netgear WNDR4300. It’s been a solid giga-bit router. It easily detected and configured router-behind-router configuration.

Powerline in for tablos, one Roku and other devices upstairs. 5Ghz WiFi for one Roku downstairs. 2.4 Ghz for all the PC’s and tablet devices downstairs.

Since I live in a location which rarely has power failures, The router can go 1 to 1.5 years without a burp. But now I’ve probably cursed my self and the router will self destruct.

Actually it is a huge deal in south Florida. When a hurricane hits, Internet service can be down for weeks.

My understanding is all devices now work locally without live internet except for the my.tablotv.com website in Chrome / Firefox browser on a computer.

For more recent confirmation of this, see the post below.

I know this is an old thread, but it is the closest I could find for my resent issue.
I’ve got a Tablo 4 and have been very happy with it.

Yesterday lightening struck the AT&T office in Richardson, TX which took out the internet in a large area for almost 12 hrs. During that time, my internal network kept operating and I was able to watch my Tablo via my Roku devices connected to the internal network.
The problem I encountered was attempting to watch my Tablo on my laptop using the Chrome browser. Since the browser gains access to the Tablo through my.tablotv.com and there was no internet access, I was unable to watch my Tablo on the laptop.

Is there a work around for watching the Tablo on a laptop or PC whenever there is not any internet availability?

Sorry, but as a web-based app there’s no workaround for this. Glad you were able to stay tuned via Roku though!

Don’t worry. They are on Amazon AWS. A fireball from space could hit their HQ and things should still work as long as Amazon keeps getting it’s checks or as some Canadians might say “cheques”.

There is a half way work around. Use the Tablo ripper for stuff already recorded.

None I like as much as the Tablo. Many of us have one model or another of the Homeworx DVRs in addition to the Tablo. It’s a decent second or backup DVR with NO FRILLS!

You can pick up a compatible Android device for nothing or next to it. Someone probably has an old one lying in a drawer you could use. Otherwise pick up a cheap tablet or prepaid phone. You don’t even have to activate it.

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