Dish Network DVR & Vonage

Posts: 2 · New Forum Member Joined: Feb 16, 2005 Posts: 2

OoTLink wrote:

Weird, because we have 2 dish 322s and they're both on different lines, never had a problem with that config.

Thats strange, I thought your receivers had to be on the same line or on different accounts. ever since our number has been switched over the automated custamer service gets the wrong caller info, however when i get a live person they see the correct number.

Posts: 18 · Posted: Thu Feb 17, 2005 9:29 pm Post subject:

OoTLink wrote:

Weird, because we have 2 dish 322s and they're both on different lines, never had a problem with that config.

Have you tried to do something such as viewing your bill via the 322?

I get an "unable to connect to network" error. I called Dish Network and they said that since my ANI doesn't match my phone number that the call was being rejected.

Posts: 68 · Full Forum Member Joined: Feb 14, 2005 Posts: 68

Yeah we *had* 2 different landlines, but since a reconfig of the phone stuff, that's now 1 vonage and 1 landline Wink

unfortunately, I ran into the same problem.. box dials out through the test just fine but the dish server doesn't let it through, for that ANI reason I suppose.. I have no idea what dishnet's server checks for, but whatever it is, it's not getting it *shrug*

That's fine, as soon as I get another 1 to 2 splitter I'll just do a little trick I had fun with recently -- because I have my vonage box downstairs and the phone base HAS to be upstairs (long story).. well, it gets down to this, my desk is about 20ft from the phone jack, so I run a single cord to my table, but luckily it has 2 pairs in it.. the house wiring's capable of 3 so what I did was put what I call blue and red, into that one wall outlet. The blue is the landline (dsl), and the red is the vonage line.. the fun about that is blue goes from NID to my desk, red goes from my desk to the NID to the rest of the house..

Anyway, since I only had 1 long phone cord at my disposal I got out a 1 to 2 splitter (it's important to use the kind with 3 female plugs not 1 male and 2 female), and popped it open, switched out the pins on one of the plugs, and whatdayaknow, suddenly I've got dual phone jacks on different lines!

So I'll have to mimick that setup in my room where the base (and the other receiver) are.. I'm loving this setup though Smile

I suppose it's a good thing we have the flexibility of that damn $15 a month landline, it gets used for incoming faxes, the dish boxes, and whatever else I feel like doing with it *eg* -- the only problem is you never see caller ID entries, which is just as well.

It'd be nifty to be able to do it over VoIP though...

Posts: 14 · Posted: Thu Mar 31, 2005 11:48 am Post subject:

I have my DishNetwork boxes (2 - 311 receivers, 1 - 510 receiver). I just activated a Fax Line on my Vonage account and disconnected my 2nd POTS line from SBC. I did the phone test on the 510 box and it said the link was OK. I was able to view my recent bill history from Dish Home (I looked at my VoIP box and line 2 was active so I knew it dialed in to retreive the info). I called Dish Network's customer service line to see if I needed to have them add that new fax line to my "account" and they said it doesn't matter what line your dish box dials in on to pull updates. Now whether or not that's true, remains to be seen. I've had 2 POTS lines from SBC for a while and the Dish Network boxes have always connected on the 2nd line (account is under the first line #). I haven't tested PPV yet (will do that this afternoon) to see if it's able to place the order. I looked at my account activity on vonage.com and it showed a call placed by my fax line to DishNetwork, so I assume everything is working.

Like someone else mentioned, I have my 510 box set to "wireless jack", No Prefix and it connected without issue.

I'll post later today with the results of the PPV testing.

Posts: 23 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Apr 03, 2005 Posts: 23

I have only tried to connect using my 508 pvr, it keeps saying unable to connect or phone line in use.

I have it set on wireless jack but Comcast can't handle more than 50k upload in my area. 4 mbit down 50k up, go figure.

Anyways, Grandamguru what was your quality settings?

Thanks
James

Posts: 14 · Posted: Sun Apr 03, 2005 9:48 pm Post subject:

espaeth wrote:

If you have a 5xx series Dish DVR, I had great success with enabling the "wireless jack" setting which slows down the modem. Your bandwidth saver setting should also be 90k

here's an update. I ordered a PPV movie from the "remote", I did a history on my vonage account and my 2nd line (fax line) didn't show a call into DishNetwork. I did a test call to try and view my recent activity. While the call was going through I was watching the Voice Status page on my linksys VoIP box and it showed "dialing" & "Connected", but then the dish came back and said it couldn't connect to the network.

You said you should set bandwidth saver to 90K. Mine's currently set that way for my primary line. But my dish boxes are on the 2nd line and I don't have the option of bandwidth saver for the 2nd line.
What I might do tomorrow is disconnect the main house line from SBC and connect the primary from my vonage box(I'm still waiting for the phone number transfer to complete, that's why it's not currently hooked up).

The strange thing is last week I was able to view my account information on my 510 box (dialed in on the 2nd Vonage line). And today I couldn't connect. It's possible it was a network hiccup, and I'll try later tonight.

Posts: 23 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Apr 03, 2005 Posts: 23

well, I set my bandwidth to 90k and it was able to connect, I rarely order ppv, so its not real important to get this up and running.

I just hope I don't have problems with comcast sutting our calls off, I've had to lower the bandwidth to 30 to fix that problem before.

Thanks
James

Posts: 14 · Posted: Mon Apr 04, 2005 8:14 am Post subject:

I just talked to DishNetwork tech support and found out that the 510 box does not need to be connected to a phone line all the time. It only needs a phone line connection for ordering pay per view movies or viewing account information. I had a 522 box that did require the box to be connected. Good do know that my boxes don't have to be connected (saves me from having to troubleshoot this in greater detail). I'm still going to fark around with it to see if I can get it to work.

We really don't order PPV movies that often, and from now on, we'll just order them from online. Yeah there's a 1 dollar service charge for doing it online or over the phone, but they're few and far between. I'll just use one of the dollars I'm saving by telling SBC to lick my sack!

Posts: 3 · New Forum Member Joined: May 17, 2005 Posts: 3

I got my dishnetwork connection a month back and I have Vonage at home. I was not aware of the problems between Vonage and some of the Dish Network receivers (mine is model# 322) that need the phone line connected at all times.

Now I understand that the receiver cannot make a proper transaction when it dials out. But, what does Dish Network do to periodically verify that the phone line is connected to the receiver? Is Dish Network calling into the receiver or is the receiver prompted to dial the Dish Network every now and then? The reason I ask this question is....if it is Dish Network calling my receiver, that should not be a problem, but if it is the other way round, Dish Network will not see my phone number in the Calling Party information and hence charge me 4.99 a month Cry

Any ideas??

Thanks,
Srikanth

Posts: 14

gelli786 wrote:

I got my dishnetwork connection a month back and I have Vonage at home. I was not aware of the problems between Vonage and some of the Dish Network receivers (mine is model# 322) that need the phone line connected at all times.

Now I understand that the receiver cannot make a proper transaction when it dials out. But, what does Dish Network do to periodically verify that the phone line is connected to the receiver? Is Dish Network calling into the receiver or is the receiver prompted to dial the Dish Network every now and then? The reason I ask this question is....if it is Dish Network calling my receiver, that should not be a problem, but if it is the other way round, Dish Network will not see my phone number in the Calling Party information and hence charge me 4.99 a month Cry

Your receiver calls them, and I don't think Dish cares exactly what number your receiver calls in on. [edit: They do care where the number is from, tho, as in location of number.] I have never had any receiver hooked up to the phone number dish has, and PPV has always worked fine for 6 years/multiple receivers. Whether it works or not seems to be dependent on whether the receiver and Dish can establish an acceptable modem connection - affected by things like quality settings, whether its a Moto VT or Linksys, the ISP's capabilities, etc. They claim they *don't want* VoIP users receivers to be able to call in because they can't determine the true location of the call/receiver, thus VoIP is "not supported", then destroy their own argument by letting you order over the Internet for a service fee, without a clue where you are originating the order from. What difference does it make that a box is 2 receivers, if it cant call in even if it were a single receiver? In my opinion, both are just another way for nickel-and-dimeing Charlie to make more money.
When I tried to (twice) make a trouble report for * and # lockout on predial on the 921 the techs told me they are intentionally locking * out on new receivers so we cant use *99 predial to improve the likelihood of a successful modem connection. That's more like negative support than no support. Good luck gelli786!

edited: for clarity, toned down, and got my dates wrong - shouldn't write stuff late at night Smile