Help!!! My Hacked Unit Dialed DirecTV

[Tim_K]

My son ordered PPV on my Zippered HDVR2 and now the System Info. screen shows "Account Closed" and "Combo Full Service Cancelled".

Now what do I have to do?


Tim

[JWThiers]

Is your account actually closed or is it an error?

[Tim_K]

Not sure.....my other TVs in the house are working but the main Tivo cannot download info. from the satellite, even when I put back in my original hard drive.

DirecTV wants to send out a technician.

[Hichhiker]

My son ordered PPV on my Zippered HDVR2 and now the System Info. screen shows "Account Closed" and "Combo Full Service Cancelled".

Now what do I have to do?


Tim

Quick!!! There is no time to loose! They know where you live, so you must move quickly. Leave all non-essentials behind, change your name, ditch the car, remember, they have satellites, they can shut down 115' HD to track you... I might have some people who can get you over the border......


Seriousy, your tivo is fine. Usually the problem is that you CANNOT make a call, so you would need to order PPV on the web site. Worst case scenario, force a fakecall script (simply rebooting will do that) and keep the phone line disconnected if you are concerned

-HH

[JWThiers]

Not sure.....my other TVs in the house are working but the main Tivo cannot download info. from the satellite, even when I put back in my original hard drive.

DirecTV wants to send out a technician.
If it is still FUBAR even with the original drive it might actually be FUBAR.

[Tim_K]

Good one Hitchhiker.....you made me laugh!

Simply re-booting the Tivo didn't work either. I can't get any satellite strength on Satellite 101 Transponder 1 but the other 2 satellites are fine. Any other recommendations?

[Hichhiker]

Good one Hitchhiker.....you made me laugh!

Simply re-booting the Tivo didn't work either. I can't get any satellite strength on Satellite 101 Transponder 1 but the other 2 satellites are fine. Any other recommendations?

I;ve seen the account closed a few times, but it usually after I re-image a new box and it goes away fast. It is actually preventing you from using the PVR functions? can you see the programming? I would test the connectivity to the dish, try swapping the cables to the tuners or try connecting them to another location. Also, when you reboot do you see the "fake call" message? Does it do full 100% satellite connectivity bit or does it get stuck?

Just so you know, I've ordered PPV on my boxes a few times, never an issue, although I usually do it via the web

-HH

[Tim_K]

No PVR functions.....no programming.......satellite download sticks at 26%......and now DirecTV is at MY DOOR!!!!!!!! Just kidding.

[Hichhiker]

No PVR functions.....no programming.......satellite download sticks at 26%......and now DirecTV is at MY DOOR!!!!!!!! Just kidding.

Well, I doubt it has much to do with the PPV call, it is most likely one of three main things:

1 - software issue - maybe something is corrupt in MFS and it is having problems
2 - reception issue - bad cable, or antenna is not quite aligned, or something like that
3 - your tuner gone bad


Now, you siad you tried anothe HDD (presumably with other software) so it is not likely to be 1. You should try changing the cables to illiminate 2, and if it is 3, you will need to replace the whole box, as I don't believe there is much you can do. The box can still be used as an MRV station though

-HH

[Krosis]

No PVR functions.....no programming.......satellite download sticks at 26%......and now DirecTV is at MY DOOR!!!!!!!! Just kidding.That's your problem, if the satelite download doesn't complete then your account will show closed. I've had some issues lately with the satelite download hanging, usually at 9%. I just reboot it and it usually works the next time. Try to keep rebooting it to see if the download finishes. You might have to re-adjust your dish for better reception. I highly doubt the phone call had anything to do with it. My box calls DTV and Tivo all the time. I didn't use the Zipper though, I did my hacks manually.

[CrashHD]

Does anybody know (seriously) what kind of bad things can happen if a hacked DTivo dials in? It seems everyone, everywhere says they MUST be unhooked from the phone or otherwise prevented from dialing in.

I have 2 R10's that failed to catch the 6.1a slices. If I could be sure it would cause no problems, I would consider letting them make a few phone calls to get the update.

[Gunnyman]

a properly hacked dtivo (at least one hacked with zipper) can't dial in. Calls will fail.
The dtv pv call is unaffected and causes no problems whatsoever.

[Krosis]

Well, if you haven't taken steps to prevent auto-updating of the software your Tivo will update itself when you least expect it and you will lose your hacks. I have auto-update disabled on mine so I can choose when to do the updates. Also, the call will report your PPV purchases and DTV will then charge you for them, meaning you will then have to pay for them :D

[CrashHD]

My units are zippered. That's a marvelous tool, by the way.

I don't know if I did something wrong, but I don't think mine have the fakecall thing working right. They always make their scheduled reboots, and in the system info screen it indicates a successful call (fakecall) at around the time of the reboot. However, sometimes the next scheduled attempt is only 1 day into the future (before the next scheduled reboot). Also on other occasions, the system info screen showed the last connection attempt as unsuccessful, which indicated to me the box tried to call out, and failed (phone unplugged). Since callerID didn't work on the R10's anyway, I saw no reason to leave the phone plugged in, and elected to unhook it rather than troubleshoot the issue.

Let me see if I'm understanding this correctly.

Directivo's make 2 types of calls. Once monthly to DirecTV's 800 number to dump PPV and/or other DTV info, and the call to Tivo at the various every several days interval, to the number set up in phone options. Is this correct?

Allowing a hacked unit to make the DTV/PPV call then has no negative consequences?

It is the periodic calls to Tivo that we seek to prevent? If so, what are the potential drawbacks of this phone call going through?

[Tim_K]

Thanks to all who responded to my original post. Turns out it was the tuner on my HDVR2 that was the culprit (as recommended by Hitchhiker). I pulled the Zippered hard drive and placed it in another HDVR2, ran 51 Killer and all is well!!!

Thanks again to all!!!

[Gunnyman]

the phonecall going thru to tivo will reset your mrv certificates and mrv will cease to function in 180 days from the successful call. DTIVO will continue to download new software if it is available but won't install it on a properly hacked unit. a 6.xx unit dialing in is not as big an issue as the units dialing when we hacked them to run 4.xx a dtivo is NOT supposed to be running 4.xx and it was theorized that 4.xx units would overload tivo's servers because they would try to get the current software every call.
really the only side effect from dial in on a hacked 6.xx unit that you need to worry about is the aformentioned MRV issue.

[CrashHD]

Are these the same MRV certificates removed during the ./tweak.sh portion of a zipper installation? In other words, I could hook my units back to the phone, and if a call got through, I'd have 180 days before I'd have to rerun tweak.sh to remove expiration certificates again?

Thanks for the enlightening information. I may hook my phone back up to get caller ID to work again.

[Gunnyman]

corrrect

[Smee]

a properly hacked dtivo (at least one hacked with zipper) can't dial in. Calls will fail.
The dtv pv call is unaffected and causes no problems whatsoever.
Gunnyman,

I can call in with my Zippered unit with no problems. If you have these line in your rc.sysinit.author file, you won't be able to call in:

# add two static routes so the TiVo doesn't phone home (stops breakage)
route add -host 204.176.49.2 gw 127.0.0.1
route add -net 204.176.49.0 gw 127.0.0.1 netmask 255.255.255.0
Although if you do call in, you will have to remove any certificates that may get added to your unit if you plan on using MRV.

Smee

[CrashHD]

I've seen that code about adding those routes in other posts, but I was under the impression that was for tivos that connect to the mothership via broadband. Does that work for the regular modem connection as well?

[Hichhiker]

I've seen that code about adding those routes in other posts, but I was under the impression that was for tivos that connect to the mothership via broadband. Does that work for the regular modem connection as well?

There is not much difference between modem and broadband - think DSL vs dial-up - speed is different, but the transport layer(TCP/IP) is the same. IIRC, Tivo is renting dial-up numbers from a large ISP (Earthlink??)

-HH

[Gunnyman]

I've seen that code about adding those routes in other posts, but I was under the impression that was for tivos that connect to the mothership via broadband. Does that work for the regular modem connection as well?

Tivo.com's ip address is still blocked whether dialup or broadband

[CrashHD]

That makes sense. I never thought about what happens in the connection process beyond the outbound call on my line. A TCP/IP connection via a local ISP makes perfect sense.

Thanks for the info

Edit...adding question.


I don't know why, but my R10's did not get the 6.1a upgrade slices. Since it appears that a hacked tivo phoning home will not bring about the armageddon, is there any reason I should not hook up and force a call, and capture the slices if they download, or should I wait for them to be available by some other means?

[Tim_K]

Gunny....thanks for the assistance. So to re-set my MRV Certificates, can I simply re-run the "tweaks" script again without pulling the drive? If so, is there any impact on my existing recordings or any other hacks?

[Gunnyman]

just go to the enhancements directory via bash and execute cert-remover.tcl

[Ronin]

Question regarding the MRV certificates.

I received 6.2 as a download from a phone call back in September 2005. I then hacked my 3 units with the Unguide. Everything still works fine but my certificates expired March 5, 2006.

I just moved so my TiVo were unpluged and have now been running for 19 days.

MRV is still working fine. Not complaining but curious since everything I could find says that MRV will stop working if the certificates are expired and then the unit is restarted.

Any ideas why it still works?