# Help... My HD-TiVo is making 25 calls a day!



## TallGuy (Feb 18, 2003)

OK, I could call DirecTV CSRs but I thought I'd check with some people who actually have a clue.

My Vonage bill jumped to $49 this month. (I'm not on the unlimited plan.) When I looked at the call activity, I saw that the New York 212 area code number is being called *20-25 times a day*, always for 1 minute, often just 1 minute after the previous call. My HD-TiVo screen says that it made a successful call yesterday and its next call will be a week from now. ??

I changed phone numbers and Vonage settings a couple months ago in order to get the phone calls working again so I could receive 6.3 and 6.3a (what a joy). So for several months, I was using the New York number with no problems (I live in Colorado). Then without making any changes to the phone settings, it's freaking out all of a sudden.

I restarted the HD-TiVo last night but it's still doing it today. I can unplug the phone line, but then I'll start getting the nag screens every day. Is this a known bug or does anyone have an idea what to do about it?


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## BrianCT (Nov 1, 2003)

Back when I had a 10-250, mine did the same thing. I unplugged the phone line, until it nagged me, then I forced a call. I am using Voicepulse for VOIP (not unlimited), but I caught it only after it called 10 times in one day. You wont get the nag screen daily, it wont start until day 10 I think?


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## TallGuy (Feb 18, 2003)

OK. That's just weird though. Good to know I'm not the only one!


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## unixadm (Jan 1, 2001)

My guess is that it gets through and because of Vonage, can't complete the download...it keeps trying and trying and eventually gets a successful call.

Try going through the phone setup again and choosing a local number instead of the NY number. That way, Vonage won't charge you minutes


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## TallGuy (Feb 18, 2003)

Vonage charges for local minutes too. Plus the local numbers never worked for me after I got Vonage - apparently DirecTV or TiVo has set up the New York modem bank differently to be able to handle VoIP calls. It was a major effort to get successful connections to happen over Vonage, and they only happened with this New York number and some technical changes made by Vonage when I called them.

Plus I don't think all the calls are unsuccessful - on the TiVo screen it says that the last call was Successful and the next call will be in a week. So why does it think it needs to dial at all?


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## Avenger (Mar 26, 2002)

TallGuy said:


> Plus I don't think all the calls are unsuccessful - on the TiVo screen it says that the last call was Successful and the next call will be in a week. So why does it think it needs to dial at all?


I think what the other posters are suggesting is that only the most recent call is, in fact, successful. The preceding 24 that day were not. So you're seeing a snapshot that indicates only that the overall effort was finally successful. NOT that the first call was a success, and that the machine is arbitrarily placing 24 calls after that for fun.


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## TallGuy (Feb 18, 2003)

That may be what they're saying, but that's not what's happening. The successful call was a week ago Friday at 4:30 a.m., and yet it was trying to call all day yesterday and this morning until I unplugged it. And it says that the next try won't be until tomorrow. So it's still doesn't make logical sense.


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## Todd (Oct 7, 1999)

TallGuy said:


> Vonage charges for local minutes too. Plus the local numbers never worked for me after I got Vonage - apparently DirecTV or TiVo has set up the New York modem bank differently to be able to handle VoIP calls. It was a major effort to get successful connections to happen over Vonage, and they only happened with this New York number and some technical changes made by Vonage when I called them.
> 
> Plus I don't think all the calls are unsuccessful - on the TiVo screen it says that the last call was Successful and the next call will be in a week. So why does it think it needs to dial at all?


I did the same thing and I have the same problem with both my HDTiVo (well not at the moment since it's unplugged so that I won't get 6.3a) and my S2 SDTiVo. I plug it in every couple of weeks and then uplug it. I have no idea why it does this, but it's ridiculous!
:down:


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## TallGuy (Feb 18, 2003)

Have you ever called for DirecTV support on this? (I know, that's an oxymoron.)


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## BruceShultes (Oct 2, 2006)

This is not easy, but it may provide a solution to your problem. 

If you get InstantCake and PTVNet from dvrupgrade.com, you can set fakecall.tcl to fool the box into thinking that it has made a successful call each day and it will never attempt to make a phone call. 

There are other advantages. You can gain telnet and ftp access to the box to try out other hacks and you can upgrade to a larger hard drive to allow room for more saved programs.


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## mdfuller (Aug 21, 2003)

BrianCT said:


> Back when I had a 10-250, mine did the same thing. I unplugged the phone line, until it nagged me, then I forced a call. I am using Voicepulse for VOIP (not unlimited), but I caught it only after it called 10 times in one day. You wont get the nag screen daily, it wont start until day 10 I think?


This is exactly what I decided to do because mine were doing the same thing!


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