TiVo Users! - Firmware Fix From Vonage Found HERE

Posts: 12 · Posted: Fri May 13, 2005 10:54 am Post subject: my service **** too

I'm glad to find that I'm not the only one having problems. I've been calling for months to get help. I was promised a link 3 weeks ago but nothing. Now I was told today I am going to get one sent to me again. Looking at the messages here, I wonder if I'm even going to get the latest version or not. Hell, I wonder if I'll ever get it period. Vonage has some serious customer service/tech support problems. I would never suggest anyone get Vonage..unless I really hated them. Worst.service.evah!

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

Sorry you are having problems (I am not a Vonage rep, just a user) - I think it depends on their current workload. I posted in this thread, then a PM and they got back to me in a day. I must have hit them at the right time. Also don't forget you attract more flies with honey than vinigar.

Posts: 12 · Posted: Fri May 13, 2005 11:29 am Post subject:

I used honey the first dozen times I called, emailed etc. I'm all out now. I treat people according to how they treat me.

Posts: 10 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: May 05, 2005 Posts: 10

FYI:

Apparently in addition to the packet-size change, the tech support rep also turned OFF the "echo cancellation". Seems that was the reason for the echo I reported earlier today.

Posts: 10 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: May 05, 2005 Posts: 10

Here is my tale of my attempt to get my DirecTivo to work with Vonage using this first round of beta firmware for my Linksys RT31P2.

Unfortunately I was unable to successfully place a call even with this firmware "upgrade", but here is a brief summary of the things that have taken place in the past week.

1. Thusday May 5?: Called Vonage tech support and immediately was told there was a new firmware that was supposed to help with series 2 Tivos that were unable to place daily calls. I was put on "the list". That night I trolled through the vonage-forums.com website and also "signed up" to receive this firmware.

2. Saturday May 7: I had yet to hear back on the firmware so I called tech support once again. The person on the phone seemed to think the firmware was deemed "not successful" so he had me try all the stuff I had already previously (February?) tried the last time I attempted to remedy the situation (my Tivo had not been able to place a daily call since Dec. 8, 2004). These tricks included the *99 and *70 prefix trick, as well as the #034 prefix, etc. Nothing worked. The tech support person then set my frame/packet size to 10 and turned the echo-cancellation OFF, but that did not solve the problem.

4. Sunday May 8: I decided to see what my series 1 Tivo was doing. It has not been used in months because it had zero programming data due to its inability to also place a daily call. Much to my surprise I saw it had just placed a call sometime while I slept. Seems like the change made the night before DID fix my series 1 ability to place a daily call. Interesting!

5. Tuesday May 10: I received the new firmware via the email below and installed it on my RT31P2. I again tried all the tricks and prefixes to no avail. I still cannot place a daily call, a test call, or a new access number call. I even tried a brand new phone cable directly from my series 2 Tivo to the RT31P2. As far as I EVER got was to the "negotiating" status, only to fail during it. So, for me this firmware did not solve my problem. I should tell you I have an RCA DVR80, in case that makes a difference.

6. Wednesday May 11: I took my null-modem serial cable (actually my Pronto remote serial cable), my serial-usb adapter (Keyspan adapter) and my Mac OS X computer and used serial PPP to place my first daily call since Dec. 8, 2004. That seems to be the only way for me to make the daily calls for now.

More info on doing connecting via PPPd can be found here:
http://www.osxhax.com/archives/000066.html
http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=2628191#post2628191
http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=191812&page=6
http://minnie.tuhs.org/twiki/bin/view/Network/MacOSXSerialPPPWithTivo

Posts: 12 · Posted: Fri May 13, 2005 1:40 pm Post subject:

weborican, is there anyway you can explain that in English???? LOL I'm not a moron but I don't split atoms in my spare time either. I tried the links you listed but it confused the hell out of me. Is there anyway you could dumb it down for me?Start w/what PPP stands for! LOL I just uploaded that new firmware and tried to get my tivo to initiate. No go. Cry

Posts: 176 · Posted: Fri May 13, 2005 2:45 pm Post subject:

BlahFrickinBlah wrote:

weborican, is there anyway you can explain that in English???? LOL I'm not a moron but I don't split atoms in my spare time either. I tried the links you listed but it confused the hell out of me. Is there anyway you could dumb it down for me?Start w/what PPP stands for! LOL I just uploaded that new firmware and tried to get my tivo to initiate. No go. Cry

It's simple, you get a null modem cable from www.9thtee.com and plug it into the serial connection on the rear of your TiVo box. The other end goes to a serial port on your WinXP or 2000 PC. You set up your PC to let an unauthorized guest make a connection and bingo, your TiVo calls out over the web through the cable using your PC. I have used it for a year now, but we are moving and my PC won't be near my PC anymore, so I need a phone to work.

Start your reading here: http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?postid=2487738#post2487738

And then the programming for your PC is here; http://www.tivohelp.com/archive/tivohelp.swiki.net/45.html

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

BlahFrickinBlah,

if you do have a serial cable but you can't hook it to your computer, you can also try an external modem solution for your DirectTivo. That is how I get my series 1 tivo to work over Vonage. See link below for more info:

http://wiki.ehow.com/Make-Your-Directv-Tivo-work-with-Vonage-VOIP-service

Posts: 10 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: May 05, 2005 Posts: 10

It actually is VERY easy to do, but itis all done on a Mac OS X computer (Mac OS 10.3 or newer). So, if you have a PC you will need to find the pages that talk about how to accomplish the same thing on Windows Sad

For OS X you'll need the following:

1. A Macintosh with Mac OS X 10.3 or later and connected to the Internet.

2. Tivo serial cable. The one included with the Tivo is not wired properly for this, so you will either need to buy one:

http://www.9thtee.com/tivo-dt2.htm

...make your own with parts you can buy from Radio Shack. Here is how your cable should be wired:

http://www.tivohelp.com/archive/tivohelp.swiki.net/.uploads/serial/tivocable.jpg

...or if you have a Pronto remote control, the included cable works perfectly (which happens to be what I'm using).

3. A serial to USB converter like this one:

http://www.keyspan.com/products/usb/USA19HS/

There are other brands on the market, but the above one is the one I use.

Once you have all of the above, then you are ready for it. OK, here we go:

1. Open the Terminal application in Applications -> Utilities

2. Find the name of your serial-to-usb device. You can find a list of all of your devices by typing the following commands on terminal:

cd /dev

ls

The device name will start with "tty.". In my case the device name is "tty.USA19W1b1P1.1".

3. Find your computer's IP address either via terminal or the Network panel in System Preferences. You can use the command:

ifconfig -a

in terminal if you don't want to get your finger off the keyboard.

4. Find an IP address not used by any other devices in your network so that you can choose it for the IP address the Tivo will use.

5. Enter the following command on Terminal:
sudo sysctl -w net.inet.ip.forwarding=1

Note the use of "sudo" in front of the command. You will need this unless you are logged into your OS X as 'root'.

6. Enter the following command on Terminal:
sudo pppd device 115200 local persist passive maxfail 0 proxyarp macipaddr:tivoipaddr

In my case, since my computer's IP is 192.168.0.34, my device name is "tty.USA19W1b1P1.1", and the free IP address I picked is 192.168.0.60, my command looks like this:

sudo pppd /dev/tty.USA19W1b1P1.1 115200 local persist passive maxfail 0 proxyarp 192.168.0.34:192.168.0.60

The command won't appear to have done anything. It runs as a daemon, so it should be ready to go.

7. These settings will remain in effect until your reboot your machine.

Posts: 8 · Posted: Fri May 13, 2005 3:42 pm Post subject: DSL Filter

Did you guys try a DSL filter inline. Before the firmware fix when the tech would turn off the echo controls I needed a DSL filter in reverse to connect. Now I have a Replay box not a TIVO which max modem speed is 33.6. With the firmware fix I needed the DSL filter placed in the correct way and slowed down to 19.2kbs. It has connected every night I have since bumped it up to 24.6kbs