I had problems initially connecting to set up the DVR. I called a CSR and they had me type in all sorts of special codes. I do not remember what they were. They had me try 5 times to connect while I was on the phone with the tech. On the fifth time it connected.
With Lingo you must take it to someone elses house to do inital setup or us a null modem cable hooked to a PC from you Serial port on the back of the Tivo. Do a search on the TivoCommunity for a complete set of instructions on how to do it.