Linux novice

[difelma]

I think I have a transparent proxy issue and I've found some help on the site but it involves using Linux and I am a complete novice.

Is there anyone out there prepared to talk me through making the changes in idiot speak?

[Fred Smith]

http://www.freeranger.co.uk/TiVo/HowTo.htm

[SPR]

Have you checked for transparent proxy? (You say you "think" you have...)

If not try here:
http://www.lagado.com/proxy-test

Note also the link in this page for a cache test to check for a Stealth Proxy

[difelma]

Have you checked for transparent proxy? (You say you "think" you have...)

If not try here:
http://www.lagado.com/proxy-test

Note also the link in this page for a cache test to check for a Stealth Proxy

Thanks to this great link I can now confirm that I DO HAVE a cache proxy. The link itself makes some changes but this hasn't sorted my TiVo problem - ie my updates are still failing.

Thanks also to Fred Smith but I had already found this page and this is where my noviceness (is this a word?) :) comes into play because although I found a way to read the file, and can see that the line I need to edit is there, when I went in to edit the file I only got the first few lines and cannot find anyway to get more lines up to get to edit the conn Content Length line.

So that's basically what I'm looking for.

[Pete77]

Thanks to this great link I can now confirm that I DO HAVE a cache proxy. The link itself makes some changes but this hasn't sorted my TiVo problem - ie my updates are still failing.

Wouldn't it just be easier to switch to an ISP who doesn't mess you round with this transparent proxy nonsense. Who is the offending ISP?

See www.dslzoneuk.net/isp_ratings.php

and

http://bbs.adslguide.org.uk/postlist.php?Cat=&Board=which_isp

for more ideas about a better ISP to move to?

Are you perhaps with TalkTalk or a Tiscali product brand to be having these kind of internet access issues with your Tivo?

[difelma]

Sadly not - I live in a fabulous spot in Ireland which amongst it's very few disadvantages includes very old telephone cabling which means that there is no broadband available in the area and the phone line itself is prone to breaking down on an all too regular basis.

I now have a 3G modem from 3mobile which gives me everything I want in the world of broadband except for my TiVo updates. If I could update my TiVo through my 3G modem I could dispense with the otherwise worthless telephone line (complete with overpriced charges) completely.

[Pete77]

Sadly not - I live in a fabulous spot in Ireland which amongst it's very few disadvantages includes very old telephone cabling which means that there is no broadband available in the area and the phone line itself is prone to breaking down on an all too regular basis.

I now have a 3G modem from 3mobile which gives me everything I want in the world of broadband except for my TiVo updates. If I could update my TiVo through my 3G modem I could dispense with the otherwise worthless telephone line (complete with overpriced charges) completely.

Ah yes it all comes flooding back.

Definitely going to be the transparent proxy issue with Three 3G broadband then I would have thought.

Make sure to never ever exceed the monthly data cap with them. After that its £1,000 per Gb:eek::mad::down:

[Pete77]

Confirmation here that Three use a Transparent Proxy for their service in Ireland:-

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.html?p=8256669&postcount=8

[difelma]

Well happily I've been using it all year without exceeding - but I shall certainly bear that in mind - I wasn't aware that they were quite so expensive - funny how they forget to mention such minor details in their ads :-)

But Pete77 - you're a man who seems to know your Linux - if other threads are anything to go by - can you not tell me what I need to know about editing my Ident file????

I promise to let you rant away to your heart's content about the failings of TalkTalk and Tiscali if you do.............

:-)

[Pete77]

But Pete77 - you're a man who seems to know your Linux - if other threads are anything to go by - can you not tell me what I need to know about editing my Ident file????:-)

No I'm the knowledge retention expert on straightforward problems that repeatedly arise on the forum and I have enough basic understanding of computers (AO level back at the dawn of time in 1980) to be able to interpret some of that. But I'm not a Linux man in any shape or form other than the standard things that arise to install Tivoweb and Tivoweb modules.

blindlemon or Mikerr are the chaps you want for this kind of question. However so far as I'm aware from what I have previously read on here you will be the first person in the forum trying to overcome a transparent proxy issue on a 3G mobile connection with Tivo rather than on ADSL broadband. That's not to say that it is not achievable.

As to Three's download cap just stay away from the BBC IPlayer or 4OD services and don't listen to internet radio stations with high bandwidth for too long either. Most unacceptable with people like Three and these outrageous over-run charges on bandwidth (which are just deliberate extortion and there is absolutely no sensible basis for other than old fashioned racketeering) is that they don't seem to give you any accurate way to easily monitor how much bandwidth you have used as you use it.:eek::mad:

[difelma]

Ah well I shall just have to hope that blindlemon takes pity on me then!!!! If I can even try the fix that I've found it may well be all that's needed but until I can get editing I can't know.

Thanks for the link - at least I understand now what the transparent proxy is doing. Oh and for the other stuff - I was just thinking yesterday of having a look at the BBC IPlayer so your advice came just in the nick of!!!

[Pete77]

I was just thinking yesterday of having a look at the BBC IPlayer so your advice came just in the nick of!!!

About 1Gb per hour of programming downloaded and worse still than that they enable PeerToPeer sharing of that program on your computer (meaning more bandwidth with the program being uploaded again off your computer) unless you go to the option that turns it off in Settings (they don't give you a choice when the program is installed but just leave P2P turned on). 4OD doesn't even provide an option to turn off PeerToPeer sharing in their software. You have to get hold of a third party application to be able to do that.:eek::mad:

Email and web browsing hardly uses anything. Internet radio stations with higher quality data streams and especially downloading tv programs is a whole other story!

As to Three's over bandwidth charges on their UK product they express it as 10p per Mb. 1024MB times 10p per Gb = £102.40 per Gb!

[difelma]

Firstly let me just thank everybody for their help - it's taken me half the year but I can now update my TiVo using my Huawei 3G modem.

I know there are other people out there with the same lack of techie expertise as me and so for those people - here is how I fixed the problem:

From the bash /var/tmp prompt I could successfully ping 192.168.0.1 which is my ICS IP address and I could successfully ping 66.249.91.147 which is the google address. This indicated that the ICS was working via the 3G link and that TiVo could access the internet.

It was thought that 3G use a transparent proxy and I was given this link
http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb...hp?t=343293#10

This gave me the following information:

The important thing is to edit /tvlib/tcl/tv/Ident.itcl (after making a backup) and add the line

puts $conn "Content-Length: 0"

after the

puts $conn "IDB_TIMESTAMP: $now"

line.

However, as a Linux novice I needed some coaching on how to edit files and I found this link http://tivo.stevejenkins.com/network_cd.html#_Toc101001795

From here I found joe.tar and managed to install it and finally get into the Ident.itcl file. However I was stuck on two areas. The first was making a back-up file and the second was getting to the line that I needed to edit. I didn't want to mess with the file until I could find a way to back it up.

Whilst asking for help with this I was given this link http://www.lagado.com/proxy-test which helped me verify that it was definitely an issue of a transparent proxy that I needed to resolve.

Finally I found someone who told me that once you're in the joe editor hit ^K D to save the current file - you can save it as a new name and the original is left untouched. So having saved it as a new name I then felt brave enough to explore the file and I discovered that it was as easy as pressing the down arrow button to go further into the file.

I added the line recommended above and now I am able to update my TiVo using my 3G modem and have been able to get rid of my worthless telephone line completely.

Sadly I have not found a way to solve the second problem of trying to set-up an ICS link using a Vista computer - but I have what I need and so I am happy.

And if I can help anyone else along the way with this information then even better.