Daily Call Help Please

[SPR]

Have already followed advise given in other threads I have found & have now had to ask for help.

My daily call insists on dialling via modem instead of using the cachecard.

I have already:
1. Set to dial, reboot, set to network, reboot
2. Re-installed the cachecard drivers (ftp/telnet, not pulling the drive)

Neither made a difference.

Network wise all seems ok. I can access TiVo both locally & remotely.

Any further suggestions?

[ColinYounger]

Have a look in /var/log/Otclient - right at the end should be the details of what your TiVo did on the last daily call. Look from a line with 'setting area code'.

[SPR]

Unfortunately that just told me what I already knew - that it was using dial-up instead of network.

Still at a loss as to why though...

[atari_addict]

Unfortunately that just told me what I already knew - that it was using dial-up instead of network.

Still at a loss as to why though...
ntl/Virgin Media internet users often have a problem with the ISP's transparent proxy causing problems with the daily call, but not sure if there's a fallback to diallup.

I suppose daily call fails completely if you disconnect the phone line?

[cwaring]

I don't think there are any transparent proxies left on the VM network. Not 100% sure about that but do seem to recall that they have now been removed. Unless that's some other kind of proxy and I mis-understood something. Tell you what.. I can ask in their support group :)

[blindlemon]

Have you set your gateway address?

[atari_addict]

I don't think there are any transparent proxies left on the VM network.
I hadn't heard about that, but I've just tested my connection, and it seems that there isn't a proxy any more as you suggest.

[SPR]

Transparent Proxy checks have been done and were not found. Is dialup a fallback option? I had always assumed it was one or the other.

Default route is good - I can access TiVo from work and from an internal routed network at home.

[ColinYounger]

Any result on this at all SPR?

My play TiVo hasn't made a successful call for four days and I'm displaying identical problems to you - TiVo is insisting on using the modem rather than the internet.

Anyone know a way to force a network call?

[SPR]

No - still the same.

I have run out of ideas. I have left the phone line connected at the moment so not causing me a problem, but would like to fix it if I can.

Quite glad you posted as somebody new might spot the post now - thought it might have been a bit rude/pushy if I bumped it myself :-)

[ColinYounger]

Hmm. Just noticed that main TiVo was still plugged into the phone line. That one fails as well when I unplug it.

How very bizarre.

[NickB]

I'm with Virgin and tried to update via the network card around a year ago. It failed miserably and I left it using the modem. After upgrading the hard-drives late last week, I was in full-on hacking mode, so I thought I'd have another go.

When I ran nic_config_tivo to change to 'network', I spotted that the default gateway was 192.168.1.1 when I could have sworn I'd changed it to 192.168.0.1 as it should have been - D'oh!

I changed that, unplugged the phone cable and forced a dial-up. It worked - SWEET!

So the moral of the story is go back and double-check everything again.

[SPR]

Wouldn't surprise me if I had missed something basic. Wouldn't have been the first time and definitely not the last.

Except that in this instance network config is good as I can access TiVo from different subnets for TW, telnet, ftp etc. TiVo doesn't seem to try to update via network.

I can also ping 204.176.49.31 & 204.176.49.32 which I believe are required to be reached for the update.

Have just set a policy on my Netscreen to explicitly permit & log any TiVo external traffic. Was already permitted by a global trust to untrust policy but not logged.

Not sure why I didn't do that before. Possibly just occured to me by being prompted to go back to first principals - Thanks NickB :-)

[TCM2007]

It's possible to have a perfectly good network config but have the daily call set to use the phone.

IIRC the giveaway is the name of the ethernet adapter, which is eth0 if network calls are set and eth1 if phone calls are set. Run nic_config tivo to check.

[ColinYounger]

I'm definitely on eth0 and gateway is fine as all network connectivity is fine - just that the daily call goes via phone.

I tinkered with play TiVo and didn't get anywhere so in a fit of rage, I re-imaged it. It now happily calls via the network so the task now is to try to spot what's different between main TiVo and play TiVo.

[ColinYounger]

A clue?

In /var/log/Omessages, I find:Mar 26 06:32:05 (none) pppd[1384]: pppd 2.3.5 started by TiVo, uid 0
Mar 26 06:32:05 (none) pppd[1384]: Couldn't restrict write permissions to /dev/cua1: Read-only file system
Mar 26 06:32:05 (none) pppd[1384]: Using interface ppp0
Mar 26 06:32:05 (none) pppd[1384]: Connect: ppp0 <--> /dev/cua1
Mar 26 06:32:06 (none) pppd[1384]: not replacing existing default route to eth0 [192.168.0.1]
Mar 26 06:32:06 (none) pppd[1384]: local IP address 62.188.122.218
Mar 26 06:32:06 (none) pppd[1384]: remote IP address 62.188.129.30
Mar 26 06:32:19 (none) pppd[1384]: Terminating on signal 15.
Mar 26 06:32:19 (none) pppd[1384]: Connection terminated.
Mar 26 06:32:20 (none) pppd[1384]: Exit.

6.30am is when my daily call starts. The other (now working) doesn't have this...

[SPR]

Something new to add.

If I set to dial & reboot, I can only access TiVo via IP locally. Seems the dial option kills the default gateway despite it being set.

[ColinYounger]

Yup - when you change the call method, nic_config_tivo resets the gateway to the default 198.162.1.1. You always have to change that as well after changing call method.

[SPR]

Should that have read 192.168.1.1?
If so that's the DefG I want anyway and was what was showing in the nic config.

Not that it really makes a difference - I can get access working, just not Network Daily Call.

Is there any difference re-installing drivers by "FTP & cpio over telnet" & "pulling the drive"?

[ColinYounger]

It may be the right setting for some, but not all. ;) It's the fact that the gateway changes silently that's the gotcha.

As for reinstalling drivers inline and via pulled drive - no idea.

Calling Blindlemon!

[SPR]

My firewall now seems to have logged outgoing traffic to

204.176.49.3:80
204.176.49.31:8080
204.176.49.32:8080
204.176.49.3:80

Will pull the phone connection when I get home to confirm, but I think I may have had success!

My Netscreen had an alarm complaining about dns, so I manually put some in & at the next TiVo update I got traffic!

Previously it was picking up DNS from the ADSL line which worked fine for everything else on my network - although they were all using dhcp.

[ColinYounger]

Well, main TiVo still stubbornly refuses to call via the network, even though I've tried all the usual fixes.

<grump>

[SPR]

Seems I celebrated too early :-(

Update didn't work yesterday with phone line disconnected and no more outgoing traffic logged by my firewall.

Found this in TClient log:
04/03:13:51:45: /tvbin/TClient: dial config code: () found
04/03:13:51:46: /tvbin/TClient: no line matches code =
04/03:13:51:46: /tvbin/TClient: Using default TiVo Service params

Is this relevant? Or is this expected?

[SPR]

Really don't understand what is happening.

If I disconnect the telephone line, update fails, no traffic logged through firewall from cachecard..

If I re-connect the telephone line, tclient shows dial connect but firewall log also shows traffic (NTP, TCP 80, TCP 8080).

This implies to me that the network update is working, but only if the dial connection is present :confused:

Any alternative explanations or suggestions for a fix would be most welcome :)

[SPR]

to continue my diary entries...
The converse is also true.
Disconnect ethernet & keep modem - update fails

I assume that TiVo will not attempt to update without the PPP connection, but then directs the update request traffic to the default gateway.

Upshot is, still not updates unless I have both the modem connection & the ethernet connection.