Latest update: The tech showed up today saying he was ready to do the job. Got about halfway up the roof and came sliding back down (he did stop at the ladder, luckily did not fall all the way off). Resulting in much skin loss on hands, an ambulance and a trip to the hospital. The supervisor for my area calls and says he has a couple new guys who can come out and do the install if I am comfortable with that. I let him know that I am not, let him know I would contact the original installer instead. Feel super bad for the guy who hurt himself. Guess we both learned that a 45 degree pitch is best tackled by super seasoned professionals. Hope the guy is OK.
Cheapest way to get MRV?
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That was a bad ass installer, I would have declined...I bet that scared the s*** out of him..
Same here. I couldn't even get up on the roof with my fear of heights.
OT, I'm going to try and get my landlord to add an internet port to my living room, but one of the caveats is that I am going to have to connect one of the ports to my vonage and then to my DVR, so it would be:
Router -> DVR
and
Router -> Vonage -> DVR
Does anyone see this causing a problem in terms of both DVRs being able to talk to each other and use the MRV? Will the Vonage cause any issues since it's between the Router and the box? I only ask here because I'm not sure how much help I'd get from D* considering I'm doing this by myself and not via the methods they would probably use.
The guy was plenty scared after, and I could not blame him. I don't think he will be on a roof anytime real soon. The professional antenna guy is coming tomorrow at the same time the DTV tech is here (hopefully, they only gave me the 8-12 time frame and my guy will be here between 9 and 10). Worst case, I have to pay the antenna guy for the LNB and his climb up. Best case, they are both here at the same time and the DTV guy provides the LNB and I only pay for the climb. Either way, I am out at least another $100 up front and DTV is already saying they will not cover any of that. I will keep working on them, though. Hopefully it will be worth it, feel I need to upgrade to the single wire connections anyway for any other changes in the future, so will get it done.
add a switch after your router if you need more connectivity; do not go thru your voip adapter
Looks like I have no choice. I just tried hooking up my DVR through my Vonage and my computer can't find it on the network, and if Windows 7 can't find it, I doubt my other DVR will be able to. Stupid question: I can use my old Linksys WRT54G as a switch if I configure it properly, right?
You could, but don't.
Consider putting your Vonage SIP adapter ahead of your router if you're completely against having a proper switch.
I can't put the Vonage before the router. I know that's the better way to do it (I configured my dad's Vonage that way) but I have one of those AT&T DSL Modem/Router systems that's all in 1, and even if they were separate, it's set up in the basement. Not exactly the ideal place for a phone.
I'm not against buying a proper switch, but seeing as I want the cheapest way possible, if I can just use my unused router to do the job for free, I'd rather go with that.
As usual, took longer and was way more involved than I would have thought, but finally got everything hooked up and working. Unfortunately, spent a great deal of time with one of the DVR boxes only to find that it was not working properly (after multiple re-starts and software updates). The upside was that it was replaced with the newest DVR at no cost. So ended up with a new HD box (replaced a SD box) and new DVR (replacing the old one). Had to pay the antenna guy $140 for his work so now need to get to work on the DTV folks to see if I can get some of that back in programming discounts.
Once again, DTV customer service has stepped up, giving me 6-months worth of discounts that more than covered my extra out of pocket expenses for this upgrade. I will say it took some patience and time, being denied at twice before they came through, but that is not totally unexpected.
so, u will buy cat 5 or 6 wire, do it your self, waste alot of time just to avoid paying 150? whats with you people
Theres an old joke somewhere about someone who yells "Help! I'm stuck in this hole! Help me out!" and someone comes by and says "I can lower a rope and you can climb out", and the guy in the hole says "Well, I found a shovel and I think I'm going to dig and see if I can get out that way". Then another guy yells "Hey, I can see you and you're not that far down, I can reach in and you can grab my hand" and the guy in the hole says "Well, I'm still digging and so far so good. I think I'm going to just keep digging a while longer".
It goes on from there, but I think you get it. You can take a router and probably turn off the routing function, dhcp, nat and a whole bunch of other stuff and then plug things into the routers switch ports and it would probably work okay. Or the router might not have those configuration options or might still decide to spew things on the network that screws things up.
A small switch is often available for under $10. Further, a little modern switch probably uses 1/4 the electricity of a router, especially an older one. So it'd probably pay for itself in a year or two. I just looked and both newegg and amazon carry a variety of 5 port 10/100 switches for about 10-12 shipped.
I already have all the components necessary (assuming my dad finally finds my router) so it's really spending $0 vs $150.
The CAT6 was VERY inexpensive and why not DIY and how is it wasting my time? I would turn the question as to why spend $150 if you don't have to and get the same thing? To each his or her own!
Okay so I'm a little confused. I called DirecTV and they said that I MUST use the DECA for MRV, that they wouldn't even activate it without a professional installation. I'm not spending $150 for a function that may not even last past 3 months (I plan on moving next year.) I have the wiring and router ready to go. I was under the impression that MRV could be achieved with just a switch and an internet connection. Am I wrong in that regard, or is D* just trying to milk me for some more money?
It can, I had it that way before I went DECA. You just have to find a CSR with a clue, and tell them you want MRV activated "Unsupported."
Good to know. Should I just bypass a regular CSR and demand to talk to a supervisor?
It's to avoid the hassle of an install. I ordered Deca twice and both times SWM was not included in the order because their computer assumes that I already have it because I have 11 tuners. Stayed on the phone until my battery ran out trying to get it changed. Apparently only God can change a work order and he wasn't available.
Cat-5 works, it's steady and never drops units. Reading other peoples experiences it seems that a lot of installers don't know how to install a Deca system properly. If you go to their tech help forum you can see the problems subs are having trying to get their systems to work after a poor install. Someday I will have it done when it becomes commonplace. My local installers have never done one. In the meantime I'm enjoying MRV, it's a great feature.
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