Why would I want to set this up? Are there any applications that have been created to pull shows of the PVS3000 series using this broadband connection?

Just trying to determine why I would want to do this...:)

Thanks for your hard work...

This is primarily intended for those who have done away with their landline phone service but have broadband access.

In the linked document, JM references two files: 'mgetty' and ' noauth_fd.bat' ANy idea where these two files come from? He says to unzip them but they are not in any ofthe included archives...Thanks

I assume I have to run Linux, is that correct?

And if so, can I use something like Linspire, that runs Linux under Windows XP, as I dont know the first thing about Linux?

And one more question: Where can I find the phone simulator you mention?

Thanks.

J.M.

does anyone know anyone who has done this. I really want to get my showstopper off the phoneline so I can ditch my land line. The instruction give a lot of detials about software set up, but I am missing some of the basic understandings like cable hookups. I don't know exactly what a phone line simulator is. Radio Shack don't seem to have one and on the internet they seem to be expensive boxes. I imagine them to be a simple little filter like device. I think the hook up would be connecting the phone line between the showstopper and modem in the computer, but not sure. I'm confused when the list talks about a router. How do you hook to it. I have a home network, just don't get how to hook this phone line to it with the instructions given so far. Also, will all this work with a PC running win XP. Thanks for any help you have to offer.

I also tried setting up Freesco last night so that I can continue to use my 3000 series without a landline but couldn't find the files that the previous poster listed as well.

Any additional insight that you could provide would be greatly appreciated. I'm somewhat computer literate but feel very lost after reading many of the posts to the ReplayTV forum and seeing all the cool things that people have been able to do with their ReplayTvs.

Margie

I think most of the info is here, including the files to download.

http://www.freesco.org/

If anyone gets this working, I would be interesting in knowing about it. Especially if they were able to do it running Win XP.

Bought myself a junky PII-200 for $40 this afternoon, downloaded Freesco and JM's mgetty, fiddled a bit with the mgetty delays he mentions in his README, and now my Replay 3000 series is connecting over broadband through the PC. I didn't even have to buy a phonesim.

Thanks JM and the Freesco community! I was starting to regret having dumped my landline for Vonage.

For Vonage users out there, they cannot guarantee that your modem/fax will work over VOIP. Apparently some modems work, some do not. I was unable to get my Replay to ever finish a dial-up session (would start but hang up early), despite fiddling with its dial-up speed, trying different area codes (long discussion on AVSforum speculating that NJ/NY area codes might reduce latencies), and even using a DSL phoneline filter (as suggested by a Vonage tech operator and some on AVS forum.)

Anyway, a couple of pointers, per the questions earlier in this thread... JM has posted the files mgetty and noauth_fd.bat on his website at http://s95184944.onlinehome.us/ReplayTV.html. It was the parent page of the link posted by JLeavins, just took a little googling to find.

I pretty much followed JM's instructions verbatim. However, a couple of caveats. First, before picking up my $40 junker PC, I was unable to get Freesco to recognize the modem on my other PC, probably due to it being a winmodem?! If you're having trouble, you may want to add a different modem to your PC.

Second, I found setting DELAY1=4 and DELAY2=30 in mgetty pretty much guaranteed a connection. The ReplayTV is patient and will stay off the hook for a quite a while waiting for a connection after dialing (60-90 secs?), so mostly you want to guarantee that your Freesco PC starts a modem negotiation at least once a minute. Don't forget to tell your Replay not to wait for a dial-tone, as JM explains.

Finally, I had a tough time getting my modem to shut up. None of the commands JM posted seemed to work. I was finally able to turn the speaker off by setting the modem config string in Freesco to ATM0. Depending on your modem, you'll have to fiddle here.

Anyway... Thanks JM (and JLeavins for maintaining this site). I used to work at Replay, but no longer have any of my development tools, and have been bailed out several times by loyal hackers.

Everything was proceeding nicely until it tried to auto-detect my modem.

I used to use it for dial-up, so I know its working. Any ideas?

Freesco, says you must use a hardware modem and not a winmodem. I went through a couple of modem until it auto found one..

As noted by scottr, the full Freesco RTV package can be found on my main page, which can be accessed via http://jm-rtv.zapto.org . It contains the files for which some of you are looking.

As for a phone simulator, this is a piece of hardware that simulates a real phone line by providing a dial tone, ring voltage, etc. Phone simulators can be hard to find and rather expensive, but occasionally you can get a good deal on one via eBay. I was very lucky and got one for $40 that probably was worth a couple hundred. In any case, though a phonesim simplifies things, it isn't absolutely required if you follow my directions.

With regard to running this on XP, it certainly won't run natively, as this is a Linux-based solution. The XP "Incoming Connections" feature would be a viable solution, except the ReplayTV dial-up username is unfortunately one character longer than the Windows limit. I have no idea whether Freesco would work on XP in a Linux VM. It might. The easiest thing to do is just to buy an old PC for dedicated Freesco use. As long as the computer has a network card and a real modem that Freesco recognizes (as others mentioned, WinModems won't work), it should be adequate even if the PC is very slow and has little RAM. It doesn't even need a hard drive, just a 3-1/2" floppy drive.

Glad to see that some of you are getting use out of this!

would it work with MSFT ras in a 2000 server ?

From what I understand, the SERVER versions of Win2K/2003 *do* allow you to disable authentication on the RAS/Incoming Connection. Thus, with a phone simulator, it should be pretty easy to get going on those platforms. Without a phone simulator, however, you will have to find a way to force the modem to answer the phone at the appropriate time(s). That may be easier said than done.

3.2 works, 3.3 (the latest release of freesco) does not..

Don't even try it they changed a ton of the prompts and it will not let the replay authenticate. I spent half an hour messing with it, and ended up finding 3.2 and starting over and had this working in 5min.

thanks for the easy solution, my phone line wasn't working but my dsl still was and my showstopper needed guide info. And this solved my problems!

Greg

Thanks for the info about Freesco 3.3 not working. I may give it a look at some point; however, as I no longer use this and since 3.2 works, it's not a high priority.

I'm glad that my tutorial and scripts are proving to be useful for some of you!

FYI: This worked for me using windows xp with vmware 4.5. I created a machine of type 'other', gave it 32 megs of ram, up to a 500 mb harddrive (not necessary), told it to boot off of a floppy image, and a serial port directly connected to com1. I also checked the Yeild on CPU Poll box under I/O mode. To get to to recognize the virtual network card for vmware, which emulates and amd pcnet 32 card, you'll need the pcnet32 kernel module from the driver disk.

FYI: This worked for me using windows xp with vmware 4.5. I created a machine of type 'other', gave it 32 megs of ram, up to a 500 mb harddrive (not necessary), told it to boot off of a floppy image, and a serial port directly connected to com1. I also checked the Yeild on CPU Poll box under I/O mode. To get to to recognize the virtual network card for vmware, which emulates and amd pcnet 32 card, you'll need the pcnet32 kernel module from the driver disk.

Hey J.M. I've got a few basic questions regarding your solution for a replaytv broadband connection... I think I understand the setup and configuration, but, I still don't see how the "channel guide" will be downloaded to the PC/ReplayTV. If the ReplayTV "calls" the Linux PC, and the Linux PC is connected via router to a broadband connection, where is the program that makes a connection with the ReplayTV Channel Guide Server for download. BTW, I have a PVHS2xxx - will this work for me? Many thanks in advance.

I couldn't get mine to connect direct with no phone line simulator till I added voltage to the line. I found a website where folks did the same thing with a Sega Dreamcast. I did not use the same parts as they did, but my values were close, and it still worked. See http://www.psxemu.com/RVWinkle/DCConnect/index.html.

This worked great!

Brad

B.A.K.,

Yes, it will work on a Showstopper PVHS2000. That unit is essentially just a ReplayTV 3xxx.

As to how your ReplayTV gets guide data etc. with this solution, just think of the Freesco PC as a one-line dialup ISP. Once connected, the ReplayTV has Internet access and can connect to the ReplayTV mothership just as it would had it dialed up the normal way.

dead link

I was able to get the replay system so connect to my modem (no phone sym), but it will not talk to the internet. I'm connecting through a Liksys Router/Firewall. Is there anything special I need to do to allow the relpay to bypass the router. Thanks for any help:)

Also is there a way to do a manual connection through windows NT....by telling the computer to answer the phone and let it connect thru windows network?

I got tripped up on freesco 0.33 also, but once I went to 0.32, it worked perfectly the first time.

j.m., if you had a Paypal acct, I'd send enough for a Guinness.

I'm real new to linux. I was following the directions, and when i put the boot disk into my usb floppy on my laptop, i got the error "mount: the kernel does not recognize /dev/fd0 as a block device". From doing research, I have found that i need something like /dev/sda, but i have NO IDEA how to fix that problem. Any advice? Thanks.

It's not likely that a USB floppy will work. You gotta have simple hardware.

Also if you do successfully get it to work, but it won't finish, try deleting the Channel listings completely and try again.

I'm trying JMs solution for my replaytv since I've gone to Vonage for a couple of months, and Vonage really can't support modem or fax connections.
I'm finding 2 problems:
1) "use dhcp" doesn't work, the computer just tries to use it's own IP# that has nothing to do with my ?LAN. I think this is fixable since I should be able to configure more correct IP, gateway, etc., numbers manually.
2) Can't find my modem. Now, this I don't know how to fix. I only have one modem and I don't want to go through buying 10 of them to find one that works. Currently, I'm using a new USRobotics PCI 56K FaxModem, not winmodem. I just installed it under XP.

Does anyone have suggestions for how I can get this to be recognized? Are there particularl modem brands/models which freesco recognizes (maybe older ones than mine)?. Are there some settings I can change somewhere to help make it recognized? Can anyone offer how to set up the modem manually, without the auto-detection?

-Ann
http://www.codebright.com

Freesco does not and will not in any forseeable future support any USB.

Most PCI modems ARE software modems and as such will not work under Freesco.

Freesco needs at least a 486 class machine, at least 8MB of RAM or more, almost any VGA card (PCI/ISA/etc any memory-after you set it up, you dont even NEED a vid card), a true hardware modem, a floppy (or a CD-ROM drive, with a slight bit of extra work), and no hard drive required (silent PC anyone?). Freesco also has many add-on packages that are easy to install, often easy to setup, and expand the functionality of your Freesco box quite a bit!

Freesco has a great forum and the members would love to hear from you and try to help out answering Freesco related questions: www.freesco.org then look under support.

Don't be shy ;)

Oh, and Freesco is addicting =)

(I have a ReplayTV but no broaband yet...)

I, too, have attempted to make this RAS work. Unfortunately, despite some of the most detailed and helpful instructions I've ever read, I was still unable to get the Freesco machine recognize my NIC. I am using MS Virtual Machine 2004, and a WINmodem (which, oddly enough, Freesco DOES control without problems). I've posted my story over at the Freesco Forums. If anyone else is having problems like this, you may want to participate there (or here)...

BTW - J.M. thanks for the awsome guide!!

http://forums.freesco.org/support/index.php?showtopic=13715&st=0&#entry74604

First of all, special thanks to JM for the .3.2 guide and the "special" mgetty script.

I have it up and running and it slick. I would like to see an updated guide for .3.4. The RAS server has to turned on or it won't answer the replay. The NOLOGIN setting (220) will not save unless RAS is turned on.

Almost had it working, but an account has to be setup for the RAS. This is were I need some help. Just an effort to keep this working with the lastest and greatest freesco.

Thanks again JM

I ran into the same issue using freesco 0.3.4. I found the older 0.3.2 at the below link, and got it up and running first try.

http://freesco.sourceforge.net/

Hi.

Has anyone with a working ReplayTV connecting to a local router have this working through a firewall of any kind? I happen to have a Linksys wireless router but in general any NAT based router?

I see it trying to connect to different replaytv hosts with no luck. Do these connections need to occur both ways, or just ReplayTV -> ReplayTV.net ?

Thanks much for all the info!

-Eric

Is there a way I can setup the Freesco disk with my wireless cards drivers so I can use it as my broadband tunnel. I know my Linksys PCMCIA card does work under Linux cause I fiddled with it a couple years ago.

The original link provided is unavailable, does anyone know where I can find info about converting the phone-only PVHS2000 to a broadband service?

Here you go:
http://web.archive.org/web/20061231142602/http://s95184944.onlinehome.us/FreescoRTV/README.TXT

With HD becoming more popular, does anyone know if SonicBlue plans to offer Replay with HD recording?

i just did this with VMWare Player (free). I had to get this board to make my modem answer, however.

http://www.jagshouse.com/modem.html for the diagram and detail.

update to my above post...

while replay (2000) to my external modem worked ok at higher speeds, it was causing a lot of errors and data trransfer was erroring out a lot. Reducing modem connection to 14.4k on replay end fixed all issues.

External modem has verious LEDs and those game me a clue to what was going on... :-) I got new guide info again (after about 3 month of no guide).

ok heres the thing i need to connect my 3000 through the internet i have comcast and wireless in my house i run windows xp can anyone tell me step by step how to connect my 3000 to internet without using a land phone line i have vonage that just doesnt work any help would be great

thanks

did you get it to work? all information you need is in above.