# Problems with 942 phone line after 280/281 !!



## Gary Murrell (Jan 11, 2005)

This is starting to get unreal with the 942

I would like to first of all thank the Dish Engineers for sending me a new 942, this unit does not seem to have as many problems as my first 942

I have one major issue though

the phone line connection has be screwed with 280/281

my original 942 would give the "No Dialtone" message when doing anything invloving the usage of the phone line, under diagnostics etc.

but the callerid function worked just fine, as did the modem, because one could listen to a phone while testing the phone connection on the 942 and it would click on and off

I eventually figured I had a defective 942 and forgot about it

well after the 280/281 fiasco my 942 was a mess, the Dish engineers contacted me and said we want your unit for testing and offered to send me a new 942 to replacement this unit, I said that is fine, but is not needed(All we need is new software), but I will swap no problem

a few days later I received the replacement 942, connected it up and took a update, tested the phone line, it worked, Yeah!!  

Called dish did the old change out, new 942 in/old 942 out, a sit down to watch the 942 and all my channels were still red, tested the phone line and it worked still

I reset the unit after few minutes later and after some downloads and a few more resets, boom all my subscribed channels were there, everything seemed fine, I decided to do a final check of the phone connection, guess what?? The same damn error message came up "check connection, no dialtone"  

Bottom line is that this is a problem with the software in the 942, the chances of having 2 units that didn't get a dialtone are not even worth mentioning

both units modems click on and off, both units receive caller id just fine

My phone line is fine, the connection cable is fine

the units seem to get a dial tone before fully downloading the needed info and before being lite up by dish, and afterwards everything is crap

I just thought I would throw this out there, the phone connection in the 942 software needs some work badly

another interesting note is that way back when the 942 first came out the phone line worked fine, this is most certainly a software problem

I have a lower dialtone in volume that one should have in their home, that could very well be the problem, but the 942 needs to be able to hear that dialtone, it has to be a new software glitch of some kind, because these units did see the phone line in times/softwares past

for record, my 522/510/322 and 301's all see the phone line fine

If anyone has any suggestions for me I am all ears?? 

for now I have to pay 4.99$ extra per month on top of: 
4.99 Add. Receiver/4.99 DVR

Thanks

-Gary


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## Tom-Tx (May 23, 2005)

Call Dish each month and ask to have the fee removed.
During that call and as often as possible, ask them to roll back the software. Of couse they won't do this but as far as I'm concerned, if it can't be fixed in a reasonable period of time, Dish has an obligation to put it back to where it used to work!


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## Gary Murrell (Jan 11, 2005)

Calling Dish would actually get this fee removed??

Hum?

-Gary


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## Jeff McClellan (Apr 22, 2002)

Gary, my phone line works, but I realize that doesnt solve your problem either. Since from what I gather most do work, what you need is some good assistance on figuring your problem out. I realize Mark is very busy of late, but shoot him a message with your problem and he might be able to get someone to help you resolve this. In the end that is all you are asking for.


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## Mike Johnson (Jan 16, 2005)

Gary, your dial tone should not be low. This makes me thing there is something wrong somewhere in your phone system. I was looking through some past posts about 942s not seeing the phone line came up with a few things to try. 

Another user that also had "low dial tone" found a bad DSL filter elsewhere in his house. The bad filter was loading the line down a bit. A bad surge supressor could cause the same problem (a problem I had in my house.) Answering machines and cordless phones are something else to try unplugging, as they can fail with a partial short on the line. (I had one that would only short when the line rang.) You may want to unplug everything except your 942 to see if that helps at all. If it does happen to work, listen to the phone line as you plug things back in one at a time. You might be able to hear the level drop when you plug in the bad device.

Also, please tell us more about your phone service. Do you have DSL? VOIP? (Dish doesn't support VOIP.) Wireless phone jack?

Have you tried another jack elsewhere in your home - even with a really long line cord? If you have DSL, is a filter installed on the 942 (or the whole house)?

Just some ideas and a few things to try.


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## djtowle (Feb 2, 2004)

On modems there used to be (probably still is but I haven't used one in years) an option to 'ignore dial-tone'.

Since this is (low dialtone) thing becomes a billing issue, extra fees & dishnet can't confirm connection to phone line from their end, pay-per-view problelms, etc.

Maybe this 'ignore dialtone' option could be written in/hidden somewhere as a preference option. Then Dish tech support could quickly walk a user with phoneline problems through turning it on with a ->secret<- code or something. 

This would at least allow the reciever to dial out on a phoneline where it doesn't recognize the dialtone.

my .02c


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## elbyj (Jan 9, 2003)

Added semi-related comment on this thread --- one thing we have noted concerning the Caller ID on the 942 versus our 501 is the lateness in the call being displayed on the screen. With the 501, the information appeared on the screen almost the same time as the first ring, while the caller ID info for the 942 appears after the third or fourth ring. 942 software issue?


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## Mike Johnson (Jan 16, 2005)

elbyj said:


> Added semi-related comment on this thread --- one thing we have noted concerning the Caller ID on the 942 versus our 501 is the lateness in the call being displayed on the screen. With the 501, the information appeared on the screen almost the same time as the first ring, while the caller ID info for the 942 appears after the third or fourth ring. 942 software issue?


This appears to be a software issue that came up with 280/281. Before that the Caller ID came up right away.


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## Gary Murrell (Jan 11, 2005)

OK guys Thanks a bunch

Thanks very much for your helpful replys, let me get some info out there

I do not have DSL or any filters or anything like that installed

no VIOP
no wireless phone jack

I have tried unplugging everything in the house but the 942, no dice

This is what is strange, I received the repalcement from Dish, got everything connected up, checked the phone line, it worked jsut fine, I used the diagnostics section in the menu

I call dish get everything setup(by the way anyone ever notice who thurough Dish is when activating the 942's  ) After I was off the phone with Dish my receiver had obviously not been hit yet, at that time I checked the phone line again, it worked just fine

At that point in time I did a hard reset, with the front panel power button, everything booted up, but the receiver had still not been lite up

this was around 15 mins after hanging up with Dish, up until now the phone was owkring, at that point in time I waiting a little longer and then did a power cord reset, upon that reboot the until was slow and was obviously downloading some stuff, it even did a Hard Drive diagnostic and then reset again and up that reboot everything was happening, channels are there Etc Etc.

off to do a phone line check again and there I get the dreaded "Check phone connections" which still occur to this day

This is my 3rd 942, the first was bought way back when these guys were first released, software was way back then, the phone line worked perfect, I sold that 1st 942 because I hit hard times

hard times left and I once again purchased a 942 from a fella on ebay, this 942 never saw the phone line or dial tone, this is the receiver the Dish engineers wanted for testing, so they sent me my latest current 942, which is having these problems noted above

one thing I haven't done is haul the unit to a family members home and test the phone line, I will do that this friday when I visit my grand mother

I am at wits end here, there is no way 2 942's would have the same problem, both are different hardware #'s and such

Thanks guys for your help, I aprpeciate it very much, the 4.99 extra per month wouldn't hurt as bad if the 942 wasn't a POS right now, heck I would pay it per month as a tax to have the 942 up to perfection and be rid of all these problems

PS Caller ID has worked fine on ALL 3 units, no problems with that at all

-Gary


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## Mike Johnson (Jan 16, 2005)

Gary Murrell said:


> one thing I haven't done is haul the unit to a family members home and test the phone line, I will do that this friday when I visit my grand mother


I'm anxious to see how this test comes out. This is an odd problem, since it is only the 942's that seem to have a problem. Let us know what happens. Maybe Mark can get you in touch with one of his contacts when he checks in. I'm not sure what else to try......


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## Paradox-sj (Dec 15, 2004)

The tone generator at the head end needs to be fix....


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## Gary Murrell (Jan 11, 2005)

Well good news the problem is fixed  

I went out to my phone box, I have knowledge of phones and connections from years past

My house built 10 years ago has the standard 2 channel/line phone wiring, of course the first channel was being used(green/red) I decided to try the second channel(yellow/black) because I have done alot of monkeying around with the first channel(green/red) over the years, adding phone jacks etc.

So essentially I sent my main only phone line out to both channels of the wire(green/red and yellow/black) ran upstairs to where my 942 was in my theater, accessed the phone jack and connected only the yellow/black up to the jack, success!!  
I accessed the diagnoastics and did a check and then a dial in to update everything, everything was peachy

basically I am going to put all my receivers on the 2 channel(yellow/black) of the phone lines(leaving all my phones etc. on the first channel wiring) because my first channel(green/red) obviously has some issues with a lower dial tone and pops and cracks

anyway, the question still stands, why did previous software versions recognize the wiring I had before I did this change??, wiring now that the 280/281 software won't recognize??

Anyway my problem is fixed, and I am a happy man

Thanks for the help guys

-Gary


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## Mike Johnson (Jan 16, 2005)

Good work, Gary! I'm glad you were able to solve your problem. I'm not sure what to make of why this problem appears to have come up after a software update, but at least you can now save that $4.99 no phone line fee.


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## Gary Murrell (Jan 11, 2005)

Thanks for your help also Mike

maybe you won't have much to do in this forum in a few weeks or so  

-Gary


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## Bichon (Jun 5, 2003)

Paradox-sj said:


> The tone generator at the head end needs to be fix....


I don't think they've used dial tone generators since the days of electromechanical telephone switches. Modern digital ones generate dial tone, ring back, reorder tones and the like in software.

Also, a head end is where a cable company keeps its gear, the phone company puts its equipment in a CO.


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## Mike Johnson (Jan 16, 2005)

Gary Murrell said:


> maybe you won't have much to do in this forum in a few weeks or so


We can all hope!


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