DirectTivo and Vonage Success Stories ONLY

Posts: 217 · Posted: Thu Apr 14, 2005 8:03 am Post subject:

FYI...the following was posted by "spepi" in mid_January.

Quote:

I got mine to work too, but I had to bring another PC into the picture. I was trying all this time with a USB to Serial cable...not gonna happen...Something about it DirecTivo and Tivo in general do not like...
Now I have to come up with a long time solution

So as a reminder.....DO not try the USB to Serial adapter.....unless you want to drive your self MAD

Check out the following thread for more details:

http://www.vonage-forum.com/ftopic4581.html+serial

Posts: 3 · New Forum Member Joined: Mar 15, 2005 Posts: 3

Yeah, I had seen that post before and it partially discouraged me but I didn't really have any other choice. I paid $13+ for the cable (including the shipping) and gave it a shot. After disabling the windows firewall, it worked every single time. I probably made it do it 5 or 6 times, partially out of happiness and also trying to see if it would fail, never did fail.

My next task is to setup a sniffer and see exactly what it's doing. I didn't see anything in my Vonage call records so I'm wondering if when the Tivo is set to go out the serial port, is it going out to the Internet somewhere? I'll find out Smile

Posts: 217 · Posted: Thu Apr 14, 2005 9:28 am Post subject:

Correct, you will not see anything in your call records since the connection is via the Internet and not really through Vonage.

Posts: 112 · Vonage Forum Senior Joined: Jan 17, 2005 Posts: 112

Looks like someone got lucky with the USB to serial. Its ok the way I am doing it now though. Now I dont even have to worry about hooking up the cable to do my call in.

I have better things to worry about...just 1 less thing on my plate..

Posts: 3 · New Forum Member Joined: Mar 15, 2005 Posts: 3

If it was something I had to do on a regular basis, I would want to find an easier method. However, I tried just about every combination I could find to get it to work through the phone line via Vonage and it just wouldn't. I never do PPV (which I could just order over the web anyway) so as far as I know, I'll never have to do it again unless my Tivo blows up (again). Maybe test it out once a month or something but other than that, the unit does exactly what I want it to, I'm happy Smile

These postings are great because it really appears that everyone has a totally different experience. You didn't have any luck with the usb-serial, worked great for me. Codes worked for others, not for me. This creates kind of a knowledgebase of things to try. You just never know I guess. Ain't technology grand....

sd1

Posts: 1 · New Forum Member Joined: Jun 13, 2005 Posts: 1

I'll post since I have scoured these boards for help and something finally worked.

We were already set optimally on the Vonage end, had 2 successful calls to the toll free number before everything quit. We use Vonage with Linksys wireless router connected to the whole house phone lines. Set to maximum quality.

Here's what finally worked with a Samsung Directv Tivo 70 hour type and a Samsung Directv Tivo 30 hour

ignore the dail in number
Dial Prefix: 12122773895
Call waiting Prefix: ,,#019,,
phone available: off
Dial tone detect: off

I skipped the look for local numbers (the old unit still is set up for our old house in a different state)

Posts: 9 · New Forum Member Joined: Jun 10, 2005 Posts: 9

If you want the solution to Tivo/Vonage issue e-mail me at:

[ADMIN EDIT]. I have it all documented in a MS Word document with all the setup parameters you need to provide, plus 8 tips and tricks that will help you in the event you get failures.

Since I can't attach a file here, I'll have to e-mail it to you.

Posts: 5 · New Forum Member Joined: Jun 19, 2005 Posts: 5

carrieN3chicks wrote:

I'll post since I have scoured these boards for help and something finally worked.

We were already set optimally on the Vonage end, had 2 successful calls to the toll free number before everything quit. We use Vonage with Linksys wireless router connected to the whole house phone lines. Set to maximum quality.

Here's what finally worked with a Samsung Directv Tivo 70 hour type and a Samsung Directv Tivo 30 hour

ignore the dail in number
Dial Prefix: 12122773895
Call waiting Prefix: ,,#019,,
phone available: off
Dial tone detect: off

I skipped the look for local numbers (the old unit still is set up for our old house in a different state)

After HOURS of research and trying God knows how many different configurations, the above configuration worked on all 3 of my Tivo receivers (all different makes). The only change I made was to put *99 into the call waiting prefix, thus *99,,#019,,

Ignoring the dial-in number, and setting the dial prefix to 12122773895 with phone available off and dial tone detect off did the trick.

FWIW, my 3 DirecTivos are a Hughes 35 hr series 2, a Samsung 35 hr series 2, and a RCA 70 hr series 2.

What a PITA this was to figure out. I hope I never have to go through it again!

Posts: 5 · New Forum Member Joined: Jun 19, 2005 Posts: 5

ptymps wrote:

If you want the solution to Tivo/Vonage issue e-mail me at:

[ADMIN EDIT]. I have it all documented in a MS Word document with all the setup parameters you need to provide, plus 8 tips and tricks that will help you in the event you get failures.

Since I can't attach a file here, I'll have to e-mail it to you.

This guy is a shill.... don't waste your time. He sends you a password encrypted file and then trys to get you to pay $10 for the password. I have no idea what the hell the file contains, nor do I care. Charging for info that should be freely shared is BS.

I got all 3 of my DirecTivo receivers working last night using the info I posted in the previous post. Don't waste your time with this tool.

Posts: 25 · Vonage Forum Junior Joined: May 02, 2005 Posts: 25

I am able to connect 100% of the time now, without doing it through the internet - dialing using Vonage.

I hooked up an external modem to my Tivo using the serial cable I bought directly from Tivo (cheaper) and a cheap external serial modem. I set the baud rate to 9600 and it dials out and connects every day. Takes about 10 minutes to download, but I don't care - I just leave the phone line hooked up to the modem like I did to my Tivo and it just works.