My write up

[digidude]

moved to own thread from here which also deleted all thanks from everyone was 16 of them

this is a quick 'first impressions' as ive only played with it for about 15 mins due to having the kids here, ill post another in a few days time

first off, a public thank you to darkman for the receiver

the receiver arrived wrapped in plain brown paper, addressed to mr digi dude, i dunno what the postie thought was in there, but he gave me a wierd look lol, anyway, ripped it open, and as has been said, very flash packaging, reminded me of my DM800 packaging, took the receiver out, matt black with silver buttons, made me think 'future retro'. then i grabbed the screw driver roud:

lifted the lid, and the insides look top quality, hefty power supply with quality components and high temprature capacitors. one of the advertised 'features' is the extra protection built into these, its a standard internal 2A fuse, so while its nothing special, it shows that corners have not been cut in the production of the unit. the heatsink on the processor i thought was small compared to some ive seen, but at the same time, its a lot bigger then some ive seen (4x the one on a skyHD receiver though ) another thing i saw, that i wasnt expecting, was the receivers MAC address on a barcode sticker on the main board. i dont know what relevence this has to the post lol, but its just something you dont normally see, i suppose its cheaper to leave it out??

anyway, that was wednesday, and its been in the box untill tonight. when i unpacked it all and set it up

got the remote out, and liked it straight away, its like a cross between an old type phillips TV remote, and a skyHD one, but smaller. with the functions of a universal one so can be programmed for yout TV, DVD and something else i cant remember

plugged it all in, turned it on to be met with a menu screen, looks nice and fresh, but my eye is drawn back to the receiver, on the display it says nEnU, the display is four 8's, after seeing the insides a few days ago, i thought it would have more for characters, but i guess as long as you know what channel number youre on, or the time from it, its better than nothing

ive already got my patch on a usb stick, but have a flick through before patching. it sorted itself out with the network fine, and i scan the sky satellite, finds about 750 tv channels in around 7 mins (was on phone at time, and sorting kids, so didnt notice really), flick through some fta channels, try BBCHD and LUXE HD then apply the patch, its done and restarted in about a minute. go ito the menus and find the gift settings, try to activate to get the message 'this key is already registered' and think ahh fook, now what, but, when i check the details, its been registered today, and shows as active for a year, it sorted itself out, nice

now as ive got this setup in the bedroom, and the dreambox downstairs controls the dish, im stuck on 28.2, so cant check the gift channels (yet) so i enter my internal details to connect to my linux receiver with my card in (which in this post, i wont name lol ) it shows as newcamd straight away, connected and 1 card, so i flick to discovery HD, and it clears. my channels are still in the order they were found, so cant comment on lists etc, but one thing i did notice (again, this is just me being wierd lol) was the sort of infinity symbol on the right of the screen with the time in, it reminds me of the ugly iTgate 220, or the borge from star treck, but again, i dont yet know if theres skins or anything that is customisable for that, i doubt it due to the nature of the firmware

anyway, discovery HD clears, and so far im impressed with the receiver, and how easy it was to get up and running, then my boys start to strangle each other in a fight over a paper gun that one of them made, but the other painted, so i go and watch for a bit roud:, but when i come back 20 mins later (they were both fine, nobody bled) i have a blcak screen with 'scrambled channel' in the middle

press menu, and check im still connected, reboot the box (very quick) and still nothing, check on the computer to ensure i havent used the same login details for the boys bedroom to access the card, but alls fine there, so turned the telly off, unplugged the box and left it for now and will see what happened tomorrow and sort it out

but first impressions are that its a well made box, thats simple to setup, even an english man did it (manic01 :salute: lol) and if i can get it to stream .avi files from the computer, i can see it being a permenant fixture in the bedroom

 

[digidude]

Re: Spiderbox - My personal review

just thought id point out, that the gift menu says active untill 2/5/2011, so i dont know if that counts it as being activated from tomorrow, or if it gives you a year and a day, what ive read, you can clear channels straight away once active, so it could be a year and a day, again, one of the little thing i notice lol

but just read my post back, and i bet youve never seen anything like this in a receiver review before, anywhere, ever, lol

then my boys start to strangle each other in a fight over a paper gun that one of them made, but the other painted, so i go and watch for a bit , but when i come back 20 mins later (they were both fine, nobody bled) i have a blcak screen

i actually LOL'd when i read it back roud:

 

[digidude]

Re: Spiderbox - My personal review

thinking a bit more, if the gift connects to a server (?) 'wherever' to activate and get details, this would show that wherever the gift connect to, is at least +4GMT as this was around 8PM GMT that i did this, and thinking that Seoul is +8GMT that could explain the date differences

or do only paranoid people think of things like this??

even non-paranoid people sometimes get watched lol

 

[digidude]

Re: Spiderbox - My personal review

So darkman gave you both a free box so you could post a positive review.

Pathetic.

if i thought the box was crap, id would have no problems saying that i thought it was crap. if you read back through my posts, i was actually going to buy a spiderbox with the intentions of seeing what all the fuss was about, and to try and get the 'gift' channels to work on my dreambox, which i still am going to try

i have no problems with paying for equipment that i try out, as i generally then sell it on, and if you read back, about the past between myself and darkman, it was quite a risk on his part, as a lot of people listen to what i say (for some reason lol), and i could have slated the box to bits, if anything, i suppose i looked at it harder to try and find problems with it, but im honest and impartial, and the receiver is worthy of what i typed last night, while wrecked lol

 

[digidude]

Re: Spiderbox - My personal review

ok, ive been playing for a while, and still havent used any gift channels, as im struggling to get the main uk channels working smoothly

i did notice that the orange data light on the ethernet port is on all the time, not just when data is moving, so i bought new leads and a new network switch, still the same

connecting to my own internal newcamd server, it works fine for 20 mins, then crashes and stops, and i get a scrambled channel screen, the only way i can reset it is to power it off and back on

as i have dual broadband lines, i go out through one, and back in through the other, but this makes it worse, it now glitches every 10 secs or so, before locking up after 20 odd mins

so i ask a friend with a newcamd server to open a slot for me, and its the same

so i decide to switch to cccam servers, and phone another friend

on hop 1, 2 or 3 cards, its exactly the same (cccam 2.1.1 on the server)

can any other owners have a look and see if the green and orange light are on all the time on the rear of their receiver please, as to me, this says that the box is continually sending / receiving data of some kind. i know my network is fine, as linux receivers connect in every way ive tried with the spiderbox, and run flawlessly

ive tried it where the spiderbox is the ONLY thing connected directly to a router, with newcamd and cccam servers, to ensure its not something else on my network, ive tried standard ports, default ports, and random ports, standard DES keys, random DES keys, DNS redirectors, direct IPs and internal IPs

something at the back of my mind keeps on about the orang light being some sort of cause of it somehow

 

[zad]

See I hate reading too much, I have just recommended this box to my old man as he is going to buy one for me also... I now don't know...

ffs there are far too many to choose from I want HD but not sure about cs as I don't know who to trust etc...

 

[digidude]

this is the only thing so far that has put me off it m8, ive read allsorts, and heard allsorts, and this is probably something being overlooked by me or ive failed to setup something as i did everything, as i assumed it would be faultless on my own internal network, i even bought new networking gear as i suspected that at first due to the orange light

as an installer, this would be an installation option (among other receivers) that i would recommend to my own customers, but, on the same note, as an installer, 3rd party patches etc (in other words, any software on the receiver other than what was on it when it came out of the box) would NOT be covered by aftersales care

thats what internet forums are for

 

[zad]

this is the only thing so far that has put me off it m8, ive read allsorts, and heard allsorts, and this is probably something being overlooked by me or ive failed to setup something as i did everything, as i assumed it would be faultless on my own internal network, i even bought new networking gear as i suspected that at first due to the orange light

as an installer, this would be an installation option (among other receivers) that i would recommend to my own customers, but, on the same note, as an installer, 3rd party patches etc (in other words, any software on the receiver other than what was on it when it came out of the box) would NOT be covered by aftersales care

thats what internet forums are for

My pm is working

 

[digidude]

My pm is working

lol

what i meant by that m8, was that as im actually in the business of selling and installing satellite equipment, on a business level, i would be happy to recommend this receiver to potential customers, but if they were to then ring me 3 days later, complaining that a server they connect to dont work (or something along those lines) id have to tell them to turn to the internet for help (officially) as businesses can get into deep sh!t selling patched receivers, which is why a lot of shops have their own forums, hosted in a different country, that are nothing to do with the shops (in theory) and ANY receiver you buy, whether its a spiderbox, a dreambox, a technomate, or even a CAM or card, comes with standard FTA software on it, or blank, and you have to programme it yourself

the only exceptions ive come across of this, is a shop in south wales that used to sell patched receivers via ebay, now gone, and protek and nanoXX receivers

 

[afc007]

Re: Spiderbox - My personal review

[

can any other owners have a look and see if the green and orange light are on all the time on the rear of their receiver please, as to me, this says that the box is continually sending / receiving data of some kind. i know my network is fine, as linux receivers connect in every way ive tried with the spiderbox, and run flawlessly


hi mate my orange light on permanantly green flashes every so often
thats with multiple clines and gift enabled

 

[rp3X]

Had a check and mines constantly orange, with a green light every now and then.

Ive noticed on routers/pcs it can vary ie on my pc right now its a constant green light with no activity light it just always go green but on some pcs it can vary and show activity with green/orange lights flashing.

 

[rp3X]

Ive praticly given up with my spiderbox for now....
I was just hoping it would be more compatible with peoples ccam servers but nearly every server owner ive spoken too has told me there not supporting spiderbox users, even if I ask for a test line they say they cannot offer me one since spiderbox is no good, Dreambox seems to be the main choice there supporting or TM.

Of course I can just find a decent server thats spiderbox friendly and approved but it would be better to have the choice and luxury too go to any Server for channel ranges and prices....

A high price too pay for instance on a popular cs site, 20 servers listed and only 2 say spiderbox friendly/compatible....

And I know for sure its not anything im doing wrong my end cos on a spiderbox friendly server im 95% glitch/freeze free.

If they can fix this making compatibility with most cs servers then spiderbox would be a great choice for everyone.

 

[mdt]

im hopeing that they fix the c***m 2.13/4 problem before the next footy season starts as ive already got a c-line lined up for the uk based channels but as everyone knows there running on 2.14. ive got the funds here for the 9000hd but am waiting a bit longer before i part with the cash. what is the blind scanning and tuner sensetivety like m8? regards mdt

 

[Matoskah]

Re: Spiderbox - My personal review

ok, ive been playing for a while, and still havent used any gift channels, as im struggling to get the main uk channels working smoothly

i did notice that the orange data light on the ethernet port is on all the time, not just when data is moving, so i bought new leads and a new network switch, still the same

connecting to my own internal newcamd server, it works fine for 20 mins, then crashes and stops, and i get a scrambled channel screen, the only way i can reset it is to power it off and back on

as i have dual broadband lines, i go out through one, and back in through the other, but this makes it worse, it now glitches every 10 secs or so, before locking up after 20 odd mins

so i ask a friend with a newcamd server to open a slot for me, and its the same

so i decide to switch to cccam servers, and phone another friend

on hop 1, 2 or 3 cards, its exactly the same (cccam 2.1.1 on the server)

can any other owners have a look and see if the green and orange light are on all the time on the rear of their receiver please, as to me, this says that the box is continually sending / receiving data of some kind. i know my network is fine, as linux receivers connect in every way ive tried with the spiderbox, and run flawlessly

ive tried it where the spiderbox is the ONLY thing connected directly to a router, with newcamd and cccam servers, to ensure its not something else on my network, ive tried standard ports, default ports, and random ports, standard DES keys, random DES keys, DNS redirectors, direct IPs and internal IPs

something at the back of my mind keeps on about the orang light being some sort of cause of it somehow

Have you experience of C/S with newcamd?
I'm not being impertinent, but I have to point out that what you describe is not normal. I have a newcs server with 8 lines connecting to it, all spiders, Those lines are connected continuously and one has received over 739,000 ok ecms and only 500 bad ecms in the 30 days since the last reboot. That length of connection time shows both stability for the server and spider client.
If you are having dropouts all the time like you say, then somebody is doing something seriously wrong.
There are many forums that can help you with setting up correctly, or if you need advice I may be able to help sometime even though I'm rarely online.

 

[Freethesignal]

Hi gents forgive my intrusion in to this discussion but I did a search on lights and their meaning, Amber flashing or continuous

1.Usually means that the connection is only 10Mb instead of 100Mb.
2. Router is not secure

Well I found out the info out there depends on manufacture

I posted two reasons that people had given answers to with regards to the light and their meanings I hope this helps in some way.

 

[chronoman]

Re: Spiderbox - My personal review

Have you experience of C/S with newcamd?
I'm not being impertinent, but I have to point out that what you describe is not normal. I have a newcs server with 8 lines connecting to it, all spiders, Those lines are connected continuously and one has received over 739,000 ok ecms and only 500 bad ecms in the 30 days since the last reboot. That length of connection time shows both stability for the server and spider client.
If you are having dropouts all the time like you say, then somebody is doing something seriously wrong.
There are many forums that can help you with setting up correctly, or if you need advice I may be able to help sometime even though I'm rarely online.

Have so many spiders set up and so little posts on here would suggest you are from another forum.
I aint being rude but how can we get unbiased opinions on "such an easy box to set up" when nearly every regular member who has a spider on here are shaving some problems getting stabilised.
I personally would buy 8 of them if i could get running on a local network as i only require small friens and family and its nice box .
The cccam is cauising problems.
I am away and i think putting my dream 500 to cccam 2.12 from 2.11 has caused problems with glitching.
When i get home i am setting up a 600 with cccam 2.11 and will invite all spiders to test from here once i believe it stable

 

[digidude]

Re: Spiderbox - My personal review

Have you experience of C/S with newcamd?
I'm not being impertinent, but I have to point out that what you describe is not normal. I have a newcs server with 8 lines connecting to it, all spiders, Those lines are connected continuously and one has received over 739,000 ok ecms and only 500 bad ecms in the 30 days since the last reboot. That length of connection time shows both stability for the server and spider client.
If you are having dropouts all the time like you say, then somebody is doing something seriously wrong.
There are many forums that can help you with setting up correctly, or if you need advice I may be able to help sometime even though I'm rarely online.

only a few years of experience, but i can setup newcs based receiver servers, to run 30 connections with no issues at all, this is why i assumed it would connect to my internal network without any issues at all

using the exact same login details on a linux based receiver, wether for my internal network, or the external newcamd and cccam servers, runs faultless.

EVERY forum thats anything to do with the main spiderbox forums, im perm banned from, but even using another brand of non linux receiver, that has known issues with ND$, connects better, it still has the glitch, but it doesnt drop connection after 20 odd mins, and even with the spiderbox connected directly to the router with a 3 foot new lead, and being the only thing connected to the router to ensure theres no IP issues, it still happens

 

[Coach]

Re: Spiderbox - My personal review

ok, ive been playing for a while, and still havent used any gift channels, as im struggling to get the main uk channels working smoothly

i did notice that the orange data light on the ethernet port is on all the time, not just when data is moving, so i bought new leads and a new network switch, still the same

connecting to my own internal newcamd server, it works fine for 20 mins, then crashes and stops, and i get a scrambled channel screen, the only way i can reset it is to power it off and back on

as i have dual broadband lines, i go out through one, and back in through the other, but this makes it worse, it now glitches every 10 secs or so, before locking up after 20 odd mins

so i ask a friend with a newcamd server to open a slot for me, and its the same

so i decide to switch to cccam servers, and phone another friend

on hop 1, 2 or 3 cards, its exactly the same (cccam 2.1.1 on the server)

can any other owners have a look and see if the green and orange light are on all the time on the rear of their receiver please, as to me, this says that the box is continually sending / receiving data of some kind. i know my network is fine, as linux receivers connect in every way ive tried with the spiderbox, and run flawlessly

ive tried it where the spiderbox is the ONLY thing connected directly to a router, with newcamd and cccam servers, to ensure its not something else on my network, ive tried standard ports, default ports, and random ports, standard DES keys, random DES keys, DNS redirectors, direct IPs and internal IPs

something at the back of my mind keeps on about the orang light being some sort of cause of it somehow

My Orange light is on constantly, I only have the std patch network loaded.
I put a cheap sniffer on my network and something from the spider ip is accessing the external network (internet) with a passion both in and out; and I was on a UK freeview channel. This sniffer is crap so I cant tell which port it is sorry.

 

[Coach]

Re: Spiderbox - My personal review

Have so many spiders set up and so little posts on here would suggest you are from another forum.
I aint being rude but how can we get unbiased opinions on "such an easy box to set up" when nearly every regular member who has a spider on here are shaving some problems getting stabilised.
I personally would buy 8 of them if i could get running on a local network as i only require small friens and family and its nice box .
The cccam is cauising problems.
I am away and i think putting my dream 500 to cccam 2.12 from 2.11 has caused problems with glitching.
When i get home i am setting up a 600 with cccam 2.11 and will invite all spiders to test from here once i believe it stable

Put me down for a test line

 

[Coach]

Manic said he tested all this with every version of ccam what did he do that was so different and got his to work?