DIRECTV DVR (TiVo) + VOIP...dailing settings that work!!!

[ANK_Tivo]

I have a vonage wireless router (PAP2) and 2 DTV Dvr's (1 Phillips and one HDVR2, both 40 hour). I surfed alot of forums and finally found this solution on directv's website. It tried a couple combinations and one finally worked. NONE OF THIS require new hardware, just modifying the call settings on your DTV TiVO should resolve the issue. Try each combination (see below) 3 times before you try the next...sometimes it will take 2 or 3 attempts to get through.

Here is what I finally worked for me:

Dial In Number: 1-212-277-3895
Dial Prefix: 12122773895,,,,,
Call Waiting: ,*79,
Tone/Pulse: Tone
Phone Detection: Off
Dial Tone Detection: Off

Forget Vonage customer service, they suck! Directv had some user forum on their website that actually helped plus a little bit of input from the Tivo community forum and my Dtv Dvr's were talking to the mother ship again :D

HERE IS WHAT WAS POSTED ON A FORUM ON DIRECTV'S SITE:
Re: DirecTV DVR (TiVo) and VOIP Posted Feb 14, 2006 by HD94
Try the following, this will usually get the DVR to connect

DIRECTV Central
Messages & Setup
Settings
Phone
Edit Phone Settings
Set to Tivo number in New York (free call since VoIP has free long-distance):
Choose: Area Code 212
Select Dial-In Number: Manhattan South 12122773895
Or, simply enter the number in the Dial Prefix field.
Test number. May need to try 2 or 3 times.
Set Call Waiting Prefix: (without qoutes, use only one at a time)
"*99," or ",*79," or ",#034" or ",#019"

Tone/pulse: Tone
Phone avail detection: Off
Dial tone detection: Off
After the "test changes" are successful, make a Daily call.
If TiVo daily call still fails after 3 tries:
Vonage - Try "Change speed through Vonage Dashboard menu" (see steps below).
Other VoIP - Change dialing speed through your VoIP menus (for help, see documentation from your VoIP provider). Or ask VoIP provider to add fax capability.
Vonage - Change speed through Vonage Dashboard menu:

Go to Vonage website, Log into your Vonage account.
On the Vonage dashboard, click on FEATURES.
Go to BANDWIDTH SAVER, and click on CONFIGURE button.
Review sound quality / bandwidth selection (expressed in kilobits per second).

30 Kbps / Normal Sound Quality = same quality as normal telephone service
50 Kbps / Higher Sound Quality = above-average sound
90 Kbps / Highest Sound Quality = best digital audio quality possible

Change the setting to 90 Kbps.
Advise customer - The new setting may affect your Internet speed.
If already set to 90 Kbps, continue below.
Press SUBMIT.
If test indicates "failure," do all the above steps again. (If test never succeeds, try fax option below.)
Log out of your Vonage account.
Try TiVo daily call.
IMPORTANT - If you changed setting to 90 Kbps in step 6, wait 1 hour before trying TiVo daily call.
If setting was already 90 Kbps, you can try TiVo daily call right away.
If TiVo daily call fails:
Ask Vonage to add fax capability (see below).
Ask VoIP provider to add fax capability:

(This is an option if neither customer nor VoIP provider was able to change dialing speed.)

When VoIP has faxing capability, it usually has the right speed for TiVo.
Suggestion:
Call your VoIP provider and say you want the ability to send and receive faxes.
Just mention faxing - not satellite TV or TiVo. The VoIP providers know how to make fax changes, but will not know how to make any changes specific to satellite TV or TiVo.
If VoIP has fee for faxing - Say you want to send and receive faxes only through your primary line. This way, there might not be any charges.
Your VoIP provider can usually make the change quickly, with no service calls or extra hardware.
IMPORTANT - Always check with your VoIP provider for phone and fax charges.

[stevel]

If it works for you, that's great. These settings work for many others too, but not everyone.

[whalerfan]

Does this work with a phone wire connected from the Vonage router or did you go through a wireless phone thing?

[ANK_Tivo]

Yes, I have the phone line running from the Vonage adapter, through a three way "Y" splitter with one wire going to the phone and the other two lines going to my two DVR's. You may need to try slight variations of the directions to make it work. For my set-up, it only works when the dalin number is selected as the local call number and the same number is used as the "Dail Prefix" with 4 commas (an 8 second puase).

[ANK_Tivo]

If it works for you, that's great. These settings work for many others too, but not everyone.


Steve makes a good point. This may not work in every case, but before you try external modems and other custom built hardware solutions, it is worth spending and hour or so trying these combinations to see id it works. I spent a couple hours testing different iterations until I found my solution...