Tivo remote access

[baward]

Forgive me if this is a basic, but is it possible to access my Tivo remotely on the internet, i.e. external to my wireless network?

Thanks

[DX30]

Quick answer - Yes.

You need to configure your router to forward the ports on the TiVo you want exposed to the internet. You will also want to configure some security on the TiVo to protect it against hackers.

This isn't something I've done myself so I can't really help on the details, but someone else who has done it may be able to help more.

[cerihp]

I have done this and it works fine, though I've found occasionally I have to request a page twice; I think this is down to the way I've implemented step (4):

(1) TivoWebPlus lets you specify a UserName and Password in the config\tivoweb.cfg file; if you set these but don't set LAN_Auth then you won't need them when connecting from your local network, but will need them when connecting from outside. TivoWeb lets you set a UserName & Password but doesn't appear to let you bypass them locally.

(2) Check (in the tivoweb.cfg file) what Port you are using.

(3) Your router should have a configuration page for port forwarding/applications/DMZ or somesuch; different manufacturers use different terminology. You're looking for something that lets you tell it what local machine to pass certain types of network traffic on to. It needs to be forwarding the port your TiVo is using for TivoWeb/TivowebPlus to the Tivo.

(4) the harder bit - identifying the external address of your router, which is what you need to access from outside (as the router will forward the requests to the Tivo). The router config pages will tell you what it is if you ask, and this IP address will work for a while, but unfortunately this address can change from time to time, particularly if the router reboots. There are dynamic DNS services that let you register the address with a server on the internet, but I've never set one up from scratch; I used the dynamic DNS system that came with my Windows Home Server, as that provided a proper URL which got redirected automatically for me; I just told the router to forward http: traffic to the Tivo and https: traffic to the home server and it all just worked!

[baward]

Sorry I am very late to say a big thank you to DX30 and cerihp for the information!