Keep Virmin box online!!

[stuckwithsky]

Apologies to those who know this, but I have only just discovered it!!

If you do not have your Virmin Media box connected then then I would advise that you read this!

Having updated a friends box last night, I reconnected his Virmin box to enable access to the On Demand services. First point found was that his box no longer received the channels he should have had. Apparently Virmin sent a signal when the last key change happened and if your box wasn't connected then you missed it and lost your subscribed channels. Only way to reconnect was to ring Virmin and report the fault. Obviously they will know that the box had not been connected!

Secondly, and I recall this from memory, from the Virmin 'home' menu there is an option for Technical Info - select this and then page down and you will see that Virmin send signals to their boxes which then reply back to acknowledge the message. Goes without saying that if a box isn;t connected then it will not return the signal...and it shows as "Failed" once reconnected.

Put this into perspective, this will not tell them you are using other equipment, but it will tell them you are perhaps not using theirs! Remedy is to reconnect the Virmin box and so remove yourself from being a potential suspect!

We found a splitter kit c/w cables on eBay for £3.50 - daft not to really!

[20rsport]

so those ppl that turn there boxes off at the mains, will now have to ring VM and reconnect?

i think not....

[stuckwithsky]

Originally Posted by 20rsport

so those ppl that turn there boxes off at the mains, will now have to ring VM and reconnect?

i think not....

Well I don't know, I was referring to a box which had been disconnected from the cable source prior to key change.

I'm only reporting what I have found - not supposition!

[Other_Dave]

Originally Posted by stuckwithsky

Apologies to those who know this, but I have only just discovered it!!

If you do not have your Virmin Media box connected then then I would advise that you read this!

Having updated a friends box last night, I reconnected his Virmin box to enable access to the On Demand services. First point found was that his box no longer received the channels he should have had. Apparently Virmin sent a signal when the last key change happened and if your box wasn't connected then you missed it and lost your subscribed channels. Only way to reconnect was to ring Virmin and report the fault. Obviously they will know that the box had not been connected!

Secondly, and I recall this from memory, from the Virmin 'home' menu there is an option for Technical Info - select this and then page down and you will see that Virmin send signals to their boxes which then reply back to acknowledge the message. Goes without saying that if a box isn;t connected then it will not return the signal...and it shows as "Failed" once reconnected.

Put this into perspective, this will not tell them you are using other equipment, but it will tell them you are perhaps not using theirs! Remedy is to reconnect the Virmin box and so remove yourself from being a potential suspect!

We found a splitter kit c/w cables on eBay for £3.50 - daft not to really!

I have had VM for about 3 years and a eurovox for the best part of that. I had to reconnect my VM box a few months back as the C14 capacitor blew on my eurovox, just until I fixed it. My VM box took about 30mins to update as it hadn't been used for months. I only subscribe to the minimum package but I didn't lose any channels., well not that I am aware of anyway.

[BunGee]

I'm on the package where I pay for broadband, a phone and get a very basic cable package for "free".

Do you think its worth keeping the VM box connected too?

I want to save the earth (and 75p worth of electric a year), so if its not worth it then I'll sling it back under the stairs.

[TVCOHL]

ive always read this but what do you mean by connected? I think it may be plugged in, but its never on??

[KWANGO]

VM are able to ping boxes in any area they select, boxes that are not on line or have their return path cut will not respond ,these boxes go on a non responsive box file, engineers are occasionaly sent out on visits to these homes to check the box status as it's common sense that any one subscribing to even the basic package would have registered a fault if the box was'nt working correctly.

[light]

My Vermin box has been in a cupboard for years, just reconnected wiated few minutes for the auto update and bingo all channels are there, Vm wont disconnect you if your box is not plugged in overnight and you shouldn't lose any channels either that are part of your subscription package.

[tiger56]

Originally Posted by light

My Vermin box has been in a cupboard for years, just reconnected wiated few minutes for the auto update and bingo all channels are there, Vm wont disconnect you if your box is not plugged in overnight and you shouldn't lose any channels either that are part of your subscription package.

VERY soon if you aint subbing you wont get nowt apart, from 1-5

ps you seen the date of the post??? 08!! shed loads happened since then

[TheCoder]

eh, what ?

Cant quite suss what this threads about !

Any subbed box that isn't connected will eventually lose access as the channel tiers expire. Most boxes only have a maximum of 2 months before expiry unless they are onstream to get the package update Emms. Thats normal action.

As update Emm's for any particular card tend to be only transmitted for a few days every few months (as needed for normal operation) then you may end up having to ring up VM to re-hit your card with the Emm's. Ther's nothing odd or sinister about this. Its just how the system works (and always has).