Unfortunately the Radio Shacks by me do not carry the parts needed, nor does any other store around. I'll just order the cable from 9thtee and be done with it. It is actually cheaper any way, just have to wait until next week for it to ship.

I've Got the Vonage connect problem and would like to use the PPP Serial solution I see posted. I would like to use my notebook which only has USB.
Has anyone found a way to connect using USB on a notebook?

How would one go about making this cable with the 1/8" stereo plug and DB9 female?

Exactly what parts do I need?

I also have the Vonage problem. I have two DTV units. One in the LR downstairs and one in the MB upstairs. Neither one will call in anymore. Go figure. My desktop computer is upstairs in the office. I have a wireless laptop that I use downstairs. How, if at all, could I set up a PPP connection using my wireless network? Thanks.

I have installed serial to PPP on my wireless XP notebook and it works just like I would imagine a desktop working. And no more difficult to set up if it has a RS232 serial port.

My notebook did not have a RS232 port but had the USB ports. So I purchased a USB to RS232 adapter for my notebook and it works ok.

Let us know how you are doing should you go this route and good luck.

John

My approach was to use an USB to RS232 cable adapter. http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProdu...-184-003&depa=0

Perhaps this would work for you, too?

Keep us posted and good luck.

John

Wow! I have zero problems connecting through Vonage. I don't even have to enter any dialing prefixes. I am using the Cisco ATA 186 with a Phillips DSR 704 (four of them actually) if that helps any. My only problem is that I have to run a long telephone cord from my ATA to each of the units one by one to dial out every two weeks. As a matter of fact, I just finished about five minutes ago.

I built the cable (the lady at radio shack gave me the wrong parts, I got the solder 1/8" stereo plug instead of the crimp type, and she gave me the male DB9 end instead of the female) so since the male DB9 didn't work I just took a null modem cable and stuck the three wires I connected to the stereo jack to pins 2,3, and 5 and it worked like a charm.

I had to assign an IP to the DTivo as it did not want to use the laptop's IP address. Connected at 115kbps just fine.

Wanted to share my results...

Got around ordering cables from The 9th Tee for each of my Series 2 machines. My Series 1 has a NIC in it but no network access (yet) in my new house.

Using a Thinkpad with a port replicator for the serial port and wireless networking, it worked flawless the first time on all three machines.

When I switched to VOIP back in the fall of 2004, that was the last time each one of my machines had made a call.

Now all I'll do it run the laptop to each machine every couple of months or so to "activate" any new software updates that comes down.

I really don't mind living with the nag screen but this solution makes it easier to "call home" when you need to. I was going to have to unplug my machines and take them to a friend's house to make a call, but I don't need to now.

Thanks to whoever figured this out and spent the time putting the PPP over serial guide together!

Have you tried a NY area code yet? I think 718 is what got mine working. Several others have nothing work but the NY area code.

Been following these threads as I have a couple of Tivo's (series 1) that I can't connect to Vonage for the life of me.I'm going to try PPP as decribed in an earlier post,seeing as I just realized I already have one of these cables from an old Pronto remote I used to use. Hopefully I can make these things connect now!

So check your old cables laying around,you just might have what you're looking for! (You do save them right?)

Does the PPP solution work for ordering PPV items as well or is it strictly for the tivo portion of the device?

It calls DirecTV, they handle your entire account, not TiVo. If you have a DirecTV DVR with TiVo of course....

I wish I had your patience. This would really tick me off.

So let me get this straight before I spend $10+ on this cable; so I can call-in using a PPP connection via my computer. We have ordered 3 PPV movies in the last few months. I haven't hooked up the phone line across the house to have it upload this information. Now if I get this PPP process working via my laptop it calls in and essentially gets rid of the dial Nags. Wouldn't it also then send my PPV information? In hence, then you could still continut to order PPV via remote?

I don't see why not if all we are doing is using our broadband connection to talk to this same servers that otherwise get called by our landline phone.

A great big Thank you to this forum! Finally after months of frustration this works flawlessly! Had a cable laying around,followed the instructions posted,only had to change the IP addresses,and now I'm connected! Only down side,cable is too short so I have to "push" everything together! Does anyone know if I just use an extension miniplug female to male will it still connect? I guess I could try and see what happens?

Thanks again!

I tried PPP with Win2k and have had no success. Is there anything different in the setup betweek Win2k and XP that I need to be aware of?

Thanks!

Be sure that you get a stereo cable and it should work just fine.

I have a 30 ft extension on mine and it works fine. I did have to slow the connection down to 19200 but that was the only change I had to make. Of course I used cables that are quite old and poor, better quality cables might make even that unneeded.

Will this work when activating a new DirecTivo box? I'm about to order my 2nd...

I don't think the Pronto cable will work, it isn't a stereo 1/8th inch plug, it has 3 rings on it instead of 2.

It works flawlessly dude! :-)
Even put an extension on from an old pair of headphones I had so I can have it 20' away from the computer. So nice not to have those nag messages anymore. Now I just have to delete the old ones from the past 6 months!


As far as PPP working for NEW activation,I'm not sure, maybe someone else can chime in on that.

Yes, PPP will work with new activation. That is how I activated my HR10-250.

I stand corrected, I just hooked up my HDVR2 with my Pronto cable, and it works great! Now I just need to figure out a way to get a 9 pin up to my Tivo in the bedroom.

Any way for me to do serial ppp with Mac OS X 10.3? I can do the cable no problem and get a RS232 to USB adapter. Thanks!

OK, so I'm a yutz, and got the normal Tivo serial cable, and not the null modem one from weaknees...

So, trying to dig waaaaay back in the memory banks here on serial cables, I'm guessing I only need a null modem adapter between my tivo cable and my PC's db9 port? (example of this would be radio shack's part # 26-264 )

Thanks for the sanity check - can't wait to activate my HR10-250 and R10.

You need a null modem adapter and a gender changer. (F to F)

you sure? Was under the impression the tivo cable is 1/8" to DB9 female, and the null modem adapter is male / female, and the DB9 on the PC is male, so...

1/8" to db9F to null DB9M to null DB9 F to DB9M on PC...

Again, this is OLD knowledge on my part, so apols in advance if I'm screwy...

It does work with Win2K...I just set it up last night and it worked. There are a couple of things to look out for.

1. Make sure you have the flow control set to "None" in the modem properties for the serial com port.
2. You'll probably have to set the IP range manually in the connection properties rather than letting it use DHCP. All you have to do is open a cmd prompt and run ipconfig. This will tell you the IP address your router has assigned to your PC. For instance, mine was 192.168.2.33. So I set the connection IP range from 192.168.2.34 to 192.168.2.39. That worked great.
3. Make sure the Guest user account is enabled and that you check the box on the users tab in the network connections screen to allow users to connect without providing a pwd.
4. I'm not certain of this, but it makes sense and fits my experience...I think you have to be logged into the local domain on the PC (the same domain that the Guest acct belongs to).

More on #4: I'm using my wireless laptop to connect, which is actually my business laptop. At first I was logging into my corporate domain and though I'm sure I set everything up properly for the network connection, it wouldn't connect and make the call. After playing around with it for a while, I started focusing on the Guest account. I went into Users and Pwds in the control panel and that's when I realized that the Guest user belonged to my laptop's local domain. So I logged off the corporate domain, and logged back into the local domain as administrator and it then worked like a charm.

If anyone's trying to use Win2K for PPP serial connection and have more questions, let me know and I might be able to help out.

-Eric

Should be no problem at all, as long as you can get drivers for the USB to serial adapter. Just get the root account enabled at a command prompt, then google for instructions on configuring incoming PPP on a BSD system.