missing links for beginners

[NerdCat]

Since I can currently offer no technical wisdom but only seek it, I thought it may be useful to provide feedback as I go through a series 1 install using this site. Hopefully this will be useful if perhaps piecemeal.

On trying to find out how to install a network card I found this (offsite) link defective

http://www.silicondust.com/turbonet/install_hardware_sa.html

on this page

http://www.oztivo.net/twiki/bin/view/Network/NetworkingHowto

Im currently searching for an alternate write up on how to do it . . .

(if this isnt useful, someone please tellme to stop ! But since I cant update the links myself I either ignore the error or write it up !) :

Then on this page

http://www.oztivo.net/twiki/bin/view/Hardware/AddAnEthernetJack

this (again offsite) link doesnt work which would have been good for a beginner :

http://www.eklecticsystems.com/turbo_install.html

but the write up on the linking page is just the job !

[petestrash]

Thanks for letting us know. I will re-write those pages.

All both of the links showed was where to install the network card. But really once you have the case open it is quite clear as there is only one place for it.

Peter.

[Skolink]

http://www.planetmain.com/ was written by Doug who helped me develop my card.

[NerdCat]

Ah nice pictures, thanks for that link !

Yes I agree Peter, it's pretty obvious once you open it. Im just the sort of guy that likes to read first in case I break something and then find a post saying "dont to it this way". !

Anyway, all done now, thanks.

And on the topic of helping out (for newbies like me), Ive now come across failure to do the first daily call (I can telnet, get web access, ping all through my router, through which other PCs happily connect to the net), and finally discovered the proxy issue (yes, Im with TPG !).

After reading many posts suggesting searching for "TPG PROXY" and the like, I finally found what may be solution here :

http://www.oztivo.net/twiki/bin/view/Network/BypassTransparentProxyServer

I made the change it suggests to oztivo.conf. But in tclient.conf I failed to find the second IP address suggested, and the first one was already in there.

Does this mean the first solution suggested is invalid, or has already been implemented (but in that case I should already be able to connect, which I definately cant), or is it partially implemented and I just need to change oztivo.conf - actually no, the connect just failed again !!

Ill try the second solution suggested I think ..... better change oztivo back first I guess ...

Further to the above, having abandoned solution 1 (as above), solution 2 also has me puzzled. It looks like EmuProxyZA is on the box as standard, which is good. But on editing emuProxyZA.conf, the comments therein clearly state that any change to serverip will be ignored. Yet solution 2 is telling me to change serverip in that file ? Hmmmm.

Also if I look in sysinit.author I see the use of emuProxyZA (or 2 or 3) is controlled by the setting of a variable. But my unix is far too rusty to figure out where it's set.

Im wondering if Ive picked the wrong solution writeup ? I cetainly think I may be barking up the wrong tree (woof) !! ????

Ah, so now Ive jumped back up a page and seen that solution 2 should already be implemented (since I have the latest image). Maybe this isnt a proxy issue at all then, but all other networking works .... and it even fails with myrouter firewall turned off (which logs no errors anyway).

Guess Im in serious need of some help here !!!!

[petestrash]

Because not everyone updates their TiVo's to the latest software, there are many different ways of doing the same thing.

For the current version,

Just make sure 3 of the lines in oztivo.conf have:
timing=16
emulator=www.oztivo.net
emulatorport=9090

Then reboot and try again.

Don't worry about emuproxyZA settings for now.

Peter.

[petestrash]

http://www.planetmain.com/ was written by Doug who helped me develop my card.

Thanks for the link, I had forgotten about this one.

I have used it in the wiki for now.

Also just for correct credit, from memory that site was actually made by Jim in the UK. He bought Terbonets from Doug in Canada, before making them himself.

Peter.

[NerdCat]

Because not everyone updates their TiVo's to the latest software, there are many different ways of doing the same thing.

For the current version,

Just make sure 3 of the lines in oztivo.conf have:
timing=16
emulator=www.oztivo.net
emulatorport=9090

Then reboot and try again.

Don't worry about emuproxyZA settings for now.

Peter.

Thanks for the reply Peter. Maybe I did too much reading to try and sort this out (7 hours so far !), but I can see that recent changes would make some of the posts outdated.

Anyway, I made the changes you suggested - no change : "failed. Service unavailable".:confused:

Ive added some further info below which may or may not assist you in assisting me !! :


I use TPG ADSL2+.
Proxy test says : The proxy host is syd-pow-pr2.tpgi.com.au which has ip address 202.7.166.164
The Tivo is getting out to the net as I can ping out to the web (the above address for example).
Im using OzTiVo version 3 release 1.6.2 on a sony 2000.


Ive also attached a putty log of the files involved in the posts Ive been looking at - if only for completeness because I firmly believe Ive put them all back to original state !

On the trivia side, to reboot the box when its stuck in maintenance mode is there a cleaner alternate to simply pulling the power ?

many thanks again . . . Im so close yet so far ! By the way the install process and documentation thus far was fantastic. Couldnt have been easier, and I was up to this point within an hour of opening the box ! What a great bunch of enthusiasts there must be to put it all together !

[Darren King]

On the trivia side, to reboot the box when its stuck in maintenance mode is there a cleaner alternate to simply pulling the power ?You can issue the command reboot from a telnet session.

[NerdCat]

You can issue the command reboot from a telnet session.

Thanks Darren. Im ashamed I didnt guess that really !!!!

All I need now is Peter's wisdom to get past the first call screen. Im almost excited !!:D

[petestrash]

Ok, to start you can also reboot easily from the Messages & Setup > System Reset > Restart the Recorder screen on the TiVo itself (I'll add it to the Docs).

First, just want to confirm that you have rebooted and then tried a daily call after doing the edits.

tclient.conf looks fine, but might try something different later.
oztivo.conf looks fine.
rc.sysinit.author looks fine, but there are too many lines to be certain. What did you originally change in this file?
emuproxyZA.confk should be called emuproxyZA.conf, so unless it is a typo this may be the cause.

If the above doesn't fix your issues, let's check just how much you can do so we can confirm that it is a proxy issue we need to fix and not a more fundamental networking problem.

Please run through these (http://www.oztivo.net/twiki/bin/view/Network/NetworkingHowto#Configuration_and_Diagnostics) tests so that we know your TiVo can talk to the outside world.

Peter

[NerdCat]

Ok, to start you can also reboot easily from the Messages & Setup > System Reset > Restart the Recorder screen on the TiVo itself (I'll add it to the Docs).


I dont understand how to get to that option though ? The box is always booting in maintenance mode because I cant make the first daily call ?


First, just want to confirm that you have rebooted and then tried a daily call after doing the edits.


Yes. I rebooted from Telnet as Darren suggested.



rc.sysinit.author looks fine, but there are too many lines to be certain. What did you originally change in this file?


Looking at this file again, I realise I didnt actually make any changes. I was following option 2 as per in http://www.oztivo.net/twiki/bin/view/Network/BypassTransparentProxyServer. But I realised they didnt make sense with this version of rc.sysinit.author because the emuProxy version is controlled by variables and not by commenting out.



emuproxyZA.confk should be called emuproxyZA.conf, so unless it is a typo this may be the cause.


I dont know how that k got there. Maybe something to do with the putty log capture and backspace/delete ? I can confirm that emuProxyZA.conf exists in the correct location :

[TiVo [p0] ~]# ls /hack/etc/
blocklist.txt cron.d emuProxyZA.conf resolv.conf
blockpatt.txt crontab emuProxyZA.conf~ trickey.conf
[TiVo [p0] ~]#


If the above doesn't fix your issues,


Unfortunately the box is still stopping at "first Daily Call" with attempt failed. I did notice that when I use the web interface under 'phone' to attempt the first daily call it eventually hangs on 'setting Up'. Does this just mean its in maintenance mode ?

[QUOTE=petestrash;13366]Please run through these (http://www.oztivo.net/twiki/bin/view/Network/NetworkingHowto#Configuration_and_Diagnostics) tests so that we know your TiVo can talk to the outside world.
/QUOTE]

All of these tests are still fine (according to me anyway, so Ive attached a log file in case Im fooling myself !).

The nic_config_tivo utility doesnt give the stated results with DHCP, so default gateway and the like are missing. But Id expect that when using DHCP wouldnt I ? Plus I can do everything network wise, so it must be OK. emulator port is ow 9090 not 80 of course.

Ive attached a screen dump in case Im fooling myself again.



Hmmm. What next . . . .


Thanks for your help this far, and it has confirmed my own amateurish diagnosis that I can network in and out and to the web which is a small comfort in the meantime !

An update from today's ongoing efforts :

As reported below a previous proxy test reported a proxy being in use. When I try again today the same test reports different results :

The request appears to have originated from host 220-244-85-247.static.tpgi.com.au which has ip address 220.244.85.247

but following the instructions the additional test reveals the use of a transparent proxy.

I have also tried adding 60.49.60.197 www.oztivo.net to the hosts file as per another post re PG and transparent proxies. No luck there either

[petestrash]

Ok, since you cannot enter the menu to do a reboot, I think you may be using the wrong terminology which has thrown me off.

I thought that you had completed setting the TiVo up, but were having problems with the daily call. But, I think that you still have not completed the setup menus on your TiVo (also known as Guided Setup or GS) and that this is where the call to the server is failing?

If that is the case then it is not a daily call you are trying to do. A daily call can only be made once your TiVo is fully set up (not an issue just need to know where you are at).

I this is correct, I would like you to edit /etc/tclient.conf (remember to make it read/write first).

Currently the last line has the following:

127::127.0.0.1:8000:::
Can You please add a # to the start of the last line and then add 2 extra lines so it looks like this:

#127::127.0.0.1:8000:::

Use a direct call to the new server

127::65.49.60.197:9090:::

then make the TiVo read only again and reboot.

Peter.

[NerdCat]

Sorry, Im such a newbie ! Correct, technically speaking Im still in Guided Setup and on the screen "First Daily Call". I think it's the reference to "daily Call" here that has caused me some confusion. So, the box has never made a daily call (first or otherwise) and Ive never been out of maintenance mode because Im still in GS.

So I made the changes so the end of the file looks like this :
# 127::127.0.0.1:8000:::
127::65.49.60.197.9090:::

I have left in the earlier change you told me to do (port 80 to 9090).

I did post results earlier saying "no dial in number chosen". But that was due to a typo in changes which I cut and pasted - of course it presumably shouldnt be 127::65.49.60.197.9090::: but 127::65.49.60.197:9090:::.

Ive corrected that and it now still says "Failed. Service Unavailable". Although not good it's better than dial number not specified because Ive not even dreamed of using a modem, let alone configuring one !

So just to be sure, this is how tclient.conf looks now :

=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~= PuTTY log 2008.09.06 10:44:37 =~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=
[TiVo [p0] ~]# cat /etc/tclient.conf
# Copyright (c) 2001 TiVo Inc.
#
# This file contains entries for each of the possible service
# instances supported. The fields are all ":": (colon) separated
# and are as follows with the folling meanings:
#
# label:phone_number:svr_addr:svr_port:ppp_user:ppp_ pass:radius_domain
#
# labelThis is a 3 character numeric field which must
#unique identify this entry (the /Setup field XXX
#will point to this). Note the value 911 is reserved
#to imply the Addr.itcl *_EMG_* fields. (i.e.
#emergency repair port). Note the value 000 is
#reserved to imply the Addr.itcl *_DEF_* fields
#(i.e. the default port).
# phone_numberThis is the full phone number to dial, minus any
#prefixes defined by the phone options screen
# svr_addrThis is the Ip Address of the service to connect to
# svr_portThis is the TCP port number of the service to
#connect to
# ppp_userThis is the username to connect to the ppp modem
# ppp_passThis is the password to connect to the ppp modem
# radius_domain This is the radius domain to put after the generated username.
# If ppp_user is set then this will have no effect.

#
# This is the default port, it's values come from Addr.itcl not here
#
000:
# Dennis' Emulator
126::66.23.218.193:80:::
# This is for the server emulator on minnie. Trouble if your ISP blocks HTTP .9
#127::131.244.9.101:80:::

# This uses emuProxy2 to avoid problems with transparent proxy. Thanks Tim!
# 127::127.0.0.1:8000:::
127::65.49.60.197:9090:::
[TiVo [p0] ~]# exit
logout

[NerdCat]

And here's tclient.log for good measure.

It's probably not relevant yet, but I notice the time on my box is out and ntpdate fails with
failed to connect to 132.163.4.103.

But maybe that's an unrelated problem for later.:o

[NerdCat]

OK, Ive sent more time reading and pondering what's going on. Suddenly it dawned on me to check my firewall. I suppose I was mesmerised my the excellent guided setup I forgot all about thinking for myself !

So now the setup call is progressing as I type ! Hurray !

Thanks for your help thus far Peter :D

If you have time, I would like to understand what the change you recommended was actually doing and why it didnt work prior to that ? Or maybe my firewall was always the problem ?

Also, not that I care at all, more out of interest, why did I need to make the update manually rather than it being automatically configured as part of the setup. Is it something to do with my specific setup ?

[petestrash]

It's very strange, the tests I asked you to perform should have picked up a problem with your firewall. maybe only port 37 was blocked. I don't even know if it looks for the time during the first setup call, that could explain it.

As for the change to tclient.conf, all that did was bypass emuprozyZA in case it did not work the particular proxy that TPG was using.

Peter.

[NerdCat]

Thanks Peter.

Well the tests definitely worked, and I havent even opened up the firewall for several months - so nothing changed inbetween ! But the block was there in the logs - I picked it only 'cos I knew the IP address the time update was using.

With the "fix", can you tell me where my understanding needs "adjustment" please.

The emuProxy are a method of altering data that goes via the web so that an ISP's proxy will pass it ?

So the tclient entry you gave me tells the TiVo not to use emuProxy at all by specifying a particular IP address, right ?

But I already know that my ISP (TPG) uses a proxy.

Does this mean that TPG's proxy just happens to work with OzTivo ? Might I otherwise need emuProxy ?


Ive just read a lot about transparent proxys, and TPG (and others) and seen loads of workarounds . . . so Im just trying to understand what is being worked around.

If there's a post that explains the essence of what's going on, that might do the trick. I just hate putting in a fix (to anything, car, PC, wife etc) if I dont understand how and why it works . . . .

[petestrash]

The trick is that TPG are only caching data to port 80, so by using port 9090 in tclient the TPG cache does not intercept it and emuproxyZA is not required.

In theory you could return tclient to it's original state and it should also now work using emuproxyZA as you have opened the firewall.

Peter.

[NerdCat]

Ah, I see now.

Presumably though that isnt common, otherwise OzTivo would just switch to port 9090 for all outgoing requests and have no need for emuProxy at all ?

Or isnt it that simple.

And the IP address you said to put in, that's unrelated to the failure to connect and is simply pointing at the correct new server ?

[petestrash]

We plan to standardise on 9090 in the upcoming image. and emuproxyZA will not be enabled. But emuproxyZA is required for some ISP's even to allow the call to a time server to go through.

The IP address is just that of the new server, and by putting it in tclient.conf bypasses emuproxyZA and other settings.

Peter.

[NerdCat]

Thanks for the info Peter.