# Does 811 require phone connection to get new software? Mine is still P284.



## jetz9335 (Feb 21, 2005)

Hello, 

Do I need to connect my 811 to the phone line to get new software? I wonder why I still have P284.  

Thanks,
Sunghwa


----------



## Jason Nipp (Jun 10, 2004)

Sometimes this can contribute. But in your case and many others P287 is not widespread. P284 is still a fact of life for hundreds of users.

Explanation of the sometimes comment.
There are 2 reasons why you should connect a phoneline at least periodically to your receiver. 1.) The 811 is programmed to dial up the system every so often to check your location ID, check for PPV's (the ability to continue to purchase PPV's from your remote), and do a sw handshake to update the smartcard settings. Also E* engineering will randomly instruct receivers to do a call in following a major software update (like P287) to confirm the receivers status or diagnostics. If your receiver has been disconnected from a live phone line for an extended period of time you will loose the ability to purchase PPV from the receiver or you could have trouble taking updates until the smartcard has updated. 2.) Your operating performance will decline because the receiver will continuously attempt to dial the system until it succeeds in establishing a handshake. In otherwords the receiver is continuously running a routine to dial up the system which uses processor and memory allocation. If it establishes the connection the allocation is freed up for other tasks. This is not something that would cause the unit not to function, but the 811 already operates within memory size and usage constraints (opinion).

If you want to force a handshake, run a phone line to your receiver, select menu 6-3 and connection to check for tone. Then select dial out. If it says no dial out pending your good to go, on the other hand it may say something like, "please wait, updating smartcard settings". If you see this message leave the unit be until it is done as it is doing a handshake and will update the smartcard automatically. You will see an acknowledgement when it is done doing it's thing.

How often does it update you may ask? When ever you order a PPV from the receiver or If no interactive features or ordering is used it will update every few days. 

Hope this helps.


----------



## jetz9335 (Feb 21, 2005)

Thank you for detailed reply. 

The engineer who installed dish at my home said that I won't need phone connection as long as I don't use PPV when I explained him that I don't have phone connection near the TV. 

I hope dish network teach installation engineers to explain their customer at least some of details that you just explained.


----------



## P Smith (Jul 25, 2002)

Jason, don't scare ppl by that tale in your 2) chart . Software smart enough to test line once in hour or so and shouldn't bog CPU all the time.


----------



## Jason Nipp (Jun 10, 2004)

P Smith said:


> Jason, don't scare ppl by that tale in your 2) chart . Software smart enough to test line once in hour or so and shouldn't bog CPU all the time.


 I would hardly consider it a tale considering the source of which I obtained that information.  If a software routine cannot terminate, and it loops until it succeeds? It makes sense to me.


----------



## Ron Barry (Dec 10, 2002)

P. Smith,

How do you know that is how Dish does it in when determing a line is down and doing a retry. Do you think they check every hour if the box determines that it feels it needs critical information like a smart card update? I would expect a more frequent check in this case for sure. It might do it more frequently and as a result it could add additional processing cycles. 

Since I don't have source code, a spec in front of me, or an analyzer on the line I cant really comment on what approach Dish takes. It might not be a tale at all. 

The description you give about Smart software certainly sounds sound, however depending on system requirements I could also see how the approach that Jason describes might be used. The point is I don't think any of us have access to the code or the design and it is possible that Jason's description might be more accurate but the resulting additional load on the system might not be an issue. 

I personally would not call it a Tale, but possibly a good practice to avoid additional CPU overhead. I don't think Jason was indicating that it would result in your 811 becoming a 6000.


----------



## BFG (Jan 23, 2004)

Hmm, Really? I may just have to plug my 811 into the phone, I've never done it and I've had my 811 for a year


----------



## Laverne (Feb 17, 2005)

Well, I for one appreciate Jason's detailed explanations, and need I remind anyone he has the best access to "the goods"??  

I always wish there were two manuals, sorta like with a car. The thin one for the average user who doesn't understand the details and doesn't care, and a lot thicker one, like Chilton's or Haynes (except we can't work on our own 811's  ), for those of us who really want to know how everything works. Sounds like it might be a candidate for a Feature Request, except for all those pesky SW updates. :lol: Maybe an online PDF version?? :grin:


----------



## Rodney (Aug 22, 2003)

I recently connected a spare 811 (it had been in storage for about seven months) to use as a second OTA tuner with a 921. It was turned off for 36 hours and would not update P266 to the latest software. Tech support decided that if it had not upgraded in that length of time that it would never update. The decision was made to send a new 811. I plugged in the replacement, did a switch check, and it immediately upgraded to P287. Neither of them had a phone line connected.


----------



## Jason Nipp (Jun 10, 2004)

Rodney said:


> I recently connected a spare 811 (it had been in storage for about seven months) to use as a second OTA tuner with a 921. It was turned off for 36 hours and would not update P266 to the latest software. Tech support decided that if it had not upgraded in that length of time that it would never update. The decision was made to send a new 811. I plugged in the replacement, did a switch check, and it immediately upgraded to P287. Neither of them had a phone line connected.


Rodney, the box has been out of stream too long. There has been more than one Bootstrap update since your 811 last updated. As such your boxes Bootstrap is so out of date that P284 or P287 will not overlay on top of it.

You have two choices. 1.) If you are in a hurry, you can send it in for a refurb, since this requires removing the flash micro it can only be done in the lab, so theres a small fee of like $50.

2.) You can PM me your account phone number, contact info, and the Caid, R-ID, etc, of the receiver in question, (Pic of the sysinfo screen would be best), and I will make some calls to see if the R-ID can be re-inserted into the target range for the next update, P288 which will be out shortly.
​Otherwise at this point I have been told your box will not grab the current software.


----------

