Newbie Questions

[JDYoumans]

I plan on getting a Tivo in the next 1-3 months and I want to set it 
up to pull the video off and archive it to vcd. I am familiar with 
burning vcds so I feel pretty good about what to do once I have a 
file.

My questions are as follows (and please forgive me if they have been 
answered already. I searched but could not find them here)...

1) Do you have to be running a linux machine to use the extraction 
utilities? Can you run it under Windows? Do you have to use a 
network card or can you use the built in serial port?

2) Do you have to load files on the Tivo to make the extraction 
software and network card work?

3) Is there a step by step guide out there that will walk me through 
all of the steps?

TIA

Jim