# zippered tivo picks up line and tries dialout - how to stop?



## marklyn (Jan 21, 2002)

I have 3 DirecTivo's that are zippered and occasionally one of them interrupts a phone conversation by picking up the line and trying to dial out. Can someone tell me where to look (in the logs?) to determine which one of them is doing it and how to stop it?

I do occasionally see the 'fake call' message pop up on all 3. I thought this prevented the box from actually trying to call out?

I have phone lines hooked up to all 3 so I can use the caller ID info.


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## Gunnyman (Jul 10, 2003)

The unit is probably calling Directv. That call, which reports PPV usage, is seperate from the Tivo call. There isn't a way to block that call that I am aware of.

Also the fake call running is only part of the puzzle. The Tivo has to reboot for the don't dial out flag to actually be set. make sure you're tivos are rebooting a couple times a week.


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## marklyn (Jan 21, 2002)

I don't ever use PPV on any of the Tivos that I own and I'm pretty sure all of the units are rebooting since that was part of the zipper install choices as I recall. Any way to verify that?


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## Gunnyman (Jul 10, 2003)

check the logs in tivoweb


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## marklyn (Jan 21, 2002)

Gunnyman said:


> check the logs in tivoweb


Looks like they reboot around 4:28 each morning...
Any other ideas to consider what may be causing the dial out or how to verify which one may be responsible?


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## Da Goon (Oct 22, 2006)

whether or not you order ppv, dtv will still prompt your box to call out every so often to check if you are (among other things)


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## marklyn (Jan 21, 2002)

Da Goon said:


> whether or not you order ppv, dtv will still prompt your box to call out every so often to check if you are (among other things)


I thought fakecall actually prevented it from dialing out though. It seems to be infrequent and random that we happen to be on the phone and we are 'interrupted' with the dialing.


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## Da Goon (Oct 22, 2006)

all fakecall does is set a few things in mfs to fake the tivo into thinking it has called tivo recently. it doesn't actually _prevent_ anything on its own. the dtv call is completely separate from this.

you could set the option to check for dial tone before dialing via the phone menu to prevent this from happening, if it's the tivo call that's doing the interrupting. if it's the dtv call, I don't think there's any way to prevent it.


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## IminMs (Sep 10, 2006)

While it is trying to dial out, look at the tivos and see if any have the red light on. It could be something else such as an alarm or something else dialing out.
You could also unplug two of them and wait a few days. If no problems, plug one more back in etc.(that could take a few weeks)


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## bengalfreak (Oct 20, 2002)

marklyn said:


> I don't ever use PPV on any of the Tivos that I own and I'm pretty sure all of the units are rebooting since that was part of the zipper install choices as I recall. Any way to verify that?


If you don't ever use PPV on the tivos, there isn't any reason to have a phone line plugged in. Just unplug the phone cord and your problem is solved. Mine haven't been plugged into a phone line for years.


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## magnus (Nov 12, 2004)

He's using the caller ID function with them.



bengalfreak said:


> If you don't ever use PPV on the tivos, there isn't any reason to have a phone line plugged in. Just unplug the phone cord and your problem is solved. Mine haven't been plugged into a phone line for years.


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## classicsat (Feb 18, 2004)

Get line blockers. It is basically a box that has capacitors which pass only the caller ID and ring signal, but does not allow the TiVo do put the line on hook to dial out.

Or do NCID.

If you know how, you can disable the hook relay.


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## marklyn (Jan 21, 2002)

OK, so there isn't a log I can check when the phone line is taken over and the dial out occurs? I could unplug them one at a time, I was just hoping I could find out sooner by looking somewhere, checking somewhere.
Also, the 'check phone line' option is on for all 3 but one of them is still dialing out.


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## IminMs (Sep 10, 2006)

Try looking at the kernel log. Since mine don't dial out i can't double check but, i think it should be in there.


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