Customer Reviews

TiVo AN0100 Wireless N Network Adapter (Gray)

5 star:		(40)
4 star:		(22)
3 star:		(14)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(15)

 

 

This works a lot better than the prior USB version, I can now stream HD Netflix movies on my TiVo HD for example whereas before I had trouble doing that because the USB version wifi adapter was so slow!

This doesn't plug into the USB on your TiVo but rather the ethernet port. It also requires AC power as well.

My only complaint is that this is too expensive.

If you plan to watch streaming content such as Netflix with your TiVo, I would recommend this device. However, if you only need it for the standard TiVo updates and network connectivity, the much cheaper USB version really works just fine. Even for scheduled downloads the USB version works fine because it does that in the background so the speed doesn't matter in that case.

When you understand what this thing really does, it becomes clear that it's an amazing device. Yes, you need to plug it into power, but that's only because it has a built-in microprocessor and internal web-based setup guide and those capabilities require power. This isn't a "dumb," USB-based adapter. It's much more powerful, and it serves as a stand-alone ethernet bridge.

As I mentioned, the basic idea is that this device is nothing more than a wireless-to-ethernet bridge. By enabling it and hooking it to your TiVo's ethernet port, your TiVo simply thinks it's hooked to a hard-wired ethernet connection. The beauty is that it requires no changes to your TiVo configuration. The adapter is detected automatically.

Ok, so it's a wireless-to-ethernet bridge, like many others available. What makes this one different? First, it's FAST, and it gets great reception, and it also works in the 5 GHz band, which is less crowded than the typical 2.4 Ghz band. If you have an N-standard wireless router (or dual-band router) such as the Linksys WRT610, you can fully utilize the power of this adapter. I've tried it using both old-fashioned WEP encryption, as well as the WPA2-AES mode (which is the Draft-N standard encryption protocol). I EASILY get 25 Mbit/sec data rates from across the house and through walls from my Linksys 5 Ghz N router.

Simply put, if you set this up properly and don't get full-speed streaming via Netflix through your TiVo HD, it's due to excessive Netflix server loading (or limits to your home internet service) and not a speed bottleneck in this adapter. Or, your adapter may simply be too far from your router, but I find this adapter to work very well at longer distances.

As a side note, if you hook this adapter to any PC or laptop via the ethernet port, you can use it as your N wireless connection to your router and to the internet. That is, if you have a machine that needs a wireless connection, and you don't have or don't want to put a wireless adapter in it, this device works great as a general-purpose wireless-to-ethernet bridge. You simply connect it to your remote PC's ethernet port and set it up. Thus, it's a convenient way to get a N connection to your N wireless router from a PC or laptop that doesn't have wireless but does have an ethernet port. I love this thing, and it's well worth the money.

One final note for techies... if you use "channel bonding" on your router, that is, joining two channels together to achieve 40 Mhz bandwidth instead of the typical 20 Mhz, this devices takes advantage of that too!

TiVo's new wireless N adapter is an interesting concept. It is a wireless adapter, however, it appears on your network as a wired adapter. Setting up the device is also unusual. You have 2 options. If your router supports it, you can connect via single push of a button, otherwise, you need to connect the adapter to a PC via the LAN port and access the set up through the 192.168.10.1 address we are all familiar with. Using option 2 is not difficult, and once in the browser you have 2 options, automatically scan for a network or manual setup. Because I do not broadcastt SSID, I utilized manual setup. It supports WPA2 security as well so no issues there. Now, where the issues come in. If, for whatever reason, the adapter loses connectivity with your router, and you live in an area, where others are broadcasting their SSIDs, the adapter wll try to connect to one of those instead of te network selected as part of the original setup. This is also the case for the TiVo G Adapters. Unfortunately unlike the Old TiVo adapters, you cannot simply go into settings and re-attach to your network. With this device (N Adapter) you need to unplug it from your TiVo box, back into your PC and run setup again to register it on your network. This is a pain, from a convnience perspective, and could pose challenging to those not technically inclined. The performance of the adapter is excellent when working as designed. I am still tinkering to determine how to prevent the above events described from occurring.

In the year 2011, a wireless device really shouldn't be this difficult to set up. My router doesn't have a WPS button, so I had to do a manual setup by plugging it into my home computer -- apparently TiVo doesn't have software built in to talk to the adapter. While theoretically the adapter should be compatible with my WPA2 security settings, I couldn't get it to recognize my connection. I called TiVo tech support, and they admitted that the adapter doesn't always work with WPA or WPA2 security, and suggested I downgrade my security settings to make my router compatible with the adapter.
I had to downgrade my router security to WEP hex (not ASCII, because the adapter isn't compatible with that setting). Only then was I able to get the adapter to work, and then I had to change all the other wireless devices in the house to connect to the new WEP settings on my router.
Now that it is finally set up, the adapter does seem to work well with my TiVo Premiere. I haven't tried any streaming movies yet, but so far the response time is comparable to when I had a wired internet connection.
I was just really surprised that my new Tivo Premiere doesn't have software built in to make the setup process easier -- the steps really should have been 1) plug in adapter, 2) enter password into Tivo, 3) enjoy working adapter.
Also not sure why I have never had an issue getting various devices to work with my WPA2 security (various computers, Wii, iPod Touch, etc.), but the TiVo adapter can't recognize it. Pretty lame. Now I have an unintelligible set of four hex passwords to remember instead of just one. Whiskey Tango, TiVo.

I've had TiVo ever since it came out. After using a Sony Series 1 TiVo with lifetime service for years, I was convinced to upgrade when the TiVo Series 2 with the ability to network them wirelessly came out. I first networked those with the Linksys Wireless B USB adapters that were originally supported and excitedly upgraded those to the TiVo AG0100 Wireless G USB Network Adapter for TiVo Series 2 and Series 3 DVRs adapters when they came out, becoming very pleased with the speed increase.

There were several reasons I chose to upgrade to TiVo TCD746320 Premiere DVR (Black) in November 2010, not the least of which was the fact the new TiVo model supports the Wireless N standard. As anyone who has networked multiple TiVos in their home will agree, the faster the better for transferring shows between TiVos or even to a PC.

I ordered the TiVO AN0100 Wireless N Network Adapters before I even had the new TiVo Premieres in hand, as there was no question that I would network them with the new adapters.

When I set the adapters up on my new TiVos, I quickly found that TiVo seriously downgraded the new adapters. Yes, they are faster, enjoying Wireless N speeds. However, where the previous wireless adapters for TiVo were easy to set up and manage, the new AN0100 adapter is not quite as simple on either count.

The old adapters simply plugged into the TiVo USB port, and then you plugged in your wireless network's SSID and password in the network setup screen. This new Wireless N adapter, however, plugs into the Ethernet port on the back of your TiVo. If your wireless router supports Wifi protected setup, it `usually' isn't so difficult to connect it to your wireless network using that method, but I have to say that it doesn't always connect the first time using the Wifi protected setup. Since I got the Wireless N adapters for TiVo, I've connected them to three different Linksys routers and a Belkin router (long story, don't ask..) The Wifi protected setup is finicky with the TiVo AN0100 Wireless N Adapter no matter which router I used. Conversely, I had no trouble using Wifi protected setup with other network adapters.
If you cannot use the Wifi protected setup method for any reason, you must connect the TiVo AN0100 Adapter to a PC using the USB cable to configure it for your wireless network, then move it to your TiVo.

On to the management issue. With the old adapters, you could easily go to the network setup area of your TiVo menu and change the networking information for your wireless network, check wireless signal strength, and more. This is not possible with the TiVo AN0100. There is NO visibility to these settings and information through the TiVo menus, leaving you essentially blind when it comes to how your AN0100 Adapter is doing and whether it is connected to your network.

And just try to move your TiVo Wireless N Adapter to a new Wireless network as I've needed to. To do this, you must first reconfigure the wireless networking settings on the AN0100 adapter and then reconfigured the Ethernet settings in the TiVo menu as well (especially true if you change subnets with the new wireless router).

Given my issues with the setup and management of the TiVo AN0100 Wireless N Network Adapter, I was torn between rating it with three stars or four. Yes, the setup is tricky and it chafes that I can't easily check the status of the wireless adapter, but once connected it does work. I wish I could give it three and a half stars, but as Amazon only allows whole stars, I will round up to a four.

Really, if you want to network your TiVo with the Wireless N standard, you are pretty much stuck as this is the only option. I hope the next model that comes out will have a better interface for configuration and management, but until then I will have to suck it up and live with this one.

I am using a Tivo Series 3 DVR and this was an improvement over my prior network adapter. Downloads and video and photo access are considerably faster than with my prior adapter. Set up was easy and it seems to work from any location as opposed to the prior adapter which was more location senstive. I still get occasional periods of unexplained lack of connection and tivo freezes but I still rate this as an improvement.

I had high hopes for the N Adapter but have been generally disappointed in its performance. First of all, the installation is awkward. You must connect the adapter to your computer in order to establish connection to your wireless network. The connection wizard seems to work ok as long as you remember to reset the adapter before changing the network parameters. I have experienced numerous losses of the wireless connection even though the router, an Apple Extreme Base Station, is in relatively close proximity. This necessitates unplugging the adapter from the TIVO and the power outlet, taking it back to the computer and repeating the setup process. Tiresome after repeated episodes. The older network adapter (b/g) was much more user friendly and could be accomplished via TIVO's on-screen settings. At this point, I'm sorry I purchased it.

If your router is an Airport Extreme this network adapter is NOT FOR YOU. This is unless you want to leave you network completely open and unsecured. I did the manual setup and it said the connection was established!! Yea but in reality the connection is working but slow as dial-up (that is no exaggeration). I tried downloading a movie and it said I had to wait 18 hours. I can't even configure it to work with WEP because only WEP hex works with the Tivo adapter. WPA/WPA2 is much more secure but the Tivo adapter is not compatible with it. The adapter is a total piece of crap.

Having recently upgraded to a wireless N router (Airport Extreme), I was excited to upgrade my TiVo wireless adapter. I was shocked at how poor the signal reception was with this new TiVo Wireless N adapter. Even testing it in the same room as the router, I was not able to get a full signal!!! I wasted a significant amount of time configuring the router to broadcast on different frequencies, hoping that one would work better than the other. Trying to use it two rooms away was a complete waste of time, it did not work at all. I even tried setting it up to use the wireless G signal, which it could barely pick up, but not enough to function. Temporarily, I switched back to using the USB style TiVo wirless G adapter, which did work OK. A few weeks later, I decided to buy an Airport Express to hook up to the TiVo via ethernet cable and that had no problems at all.

Bought 2 n wireless adapters. Very easy to setup. One still working great but other one failed after one week. The power just wouldn't work. It had been in a surge protector with the tivo and tv so don't think that was a problem. Transfers from one tivo to another were very fast when both were working. Amazon is shipping out a replacement at no charge so hopefully I just had a defective unit.