TiVo's call home IP?

[hammer32]

I've got a sub'd SA TiVo, with TurboNet, tivoweb etc. I let it call home now, but I'd like to block the TiVo servers IP for a while until the 3.0 software (some say 'this month', other say 'maybe this year' :) ) has been out for a while to see if things like tivoweb still work. Right now I get my guide data manually (Canadian listings).

Does anyone know what IP/ports the TiVo uses when it calls home?

Thanks!

[BubbleLamp]

I thought it just made standard HTTP requests over port 80.

[hammer32]

Do you know what IP it calls to?

:confused:

[BubbleLamp]

I don't recall offhand, but if your logs are still enabled I think you can find it by digging around in them.

[dsshoser]

Hammer, thanks for posting this.
I was about to post the same question.
I got my SA up and running with Tivonet yesterday.
Then wacko wacko all of a sudden a bunch of messages and 2.5 is loaded on the unit. It is not subbed. I was using it to learn more about Tivo/Linux. I too would like to block it calling home as I am planning on loading Cdn content slices.

I remembered from another post.
telnet in to bash prompt
cd /var/log
grep http tclient Otclient

This should give you the IP address you wish to block. Look for the http request.
Thanks for making me help myself ;)

[T_RJ]

Just set the default gateway address to 0.0.0.0.
It won't be able to get to the internet that way.
You will still be able to access it on your lan but the tivo won't know the default gateway route.

[mrblack51]

you actually dont even have to specify a default gateway. just remove that part of the line from the rc.sysinit or wherever is starting your tivonet/turbonet stuff, and you should be good to go.

[hammer32]

It looks like it's a bunch of addresses in the 204.176.49.xxx range. I've tried blocking them with a MacSense router, but it still gets through I'll have to try the rc.sysinit or gateway thing... I'm using this with the Can stuff too and an ExpressVu system, i got the guide data in (woohoo!) now I just need to keep it from getting any software upgrades...

[T_RJ]

No gateway = No internet.

[hammer32]

Well, I edited the rc.sysinit and made the gateway 0.0.0.0 I ftp'd the file up to the TiVo and rebooted. Now I get the "please wait" screen (hours later...).

I can't get into the tivo via ethernet, so I tried serial. When the unit first starts up I can get to the password prompt, but after I enter 'factory' none of the menu options seem helpful.

I pulled the drive and used Dylan's Boot Disk to mount hdb4 and edited rc.sysinit in joe. It looks fine, except for the gateway change. I changed it back, but no joy on the restart.

Do I need to do anything else to this file to help the tivo out? (set permissions etc? how to do that from a boot disk?)

Thanks!

[BubbleLamp]

rc.sysinit needs to be executable. Type ls -la and see if it looks like

-rwxr-xr-x 1 0 0 20847 Mar 22 01:40 rc.sysinit

To make it executable

chmod +x /etc/rc.d/rc.sysinit


Also, I didn't set my GW to 0.0.0.0, I just left the route line commented out altogether.

[hammer32]

You're right. I never ran that command after ftp'ing the file up. How can I do it from Dylans boot disk? ls gets me the contents of the floppy disk.

Edit: Got it:

mkdir /mnt/4
mount /dev/hdb4 /mnt/4
cd /mnt/4/etc/rc.d/

it's not executable, see below for next problem :)

[hammer32]

With Dylans I get chmod not found. Is there a way to add this command to the boot disk?

Thanks

[BubbleLamp]

You have to mount the partition just like you did before when you edited the file.

This should work, assuming your Tivo drive is still the Primary Slave like you used before.

mkdir /mnt/foo
mount /dev/hdb4 /mnt/foo
/mnt/foo/bin/chmod +x /mnt/foo/etc/rc.d/rc.sysinit
cd /
umount /dev/hdb4

[hammer32]

Looks like we were typing at the same time. I mod'ed the file using the tivo's ethernet connection and a telnet session. Once I rebooted i lost the ability to use ethernet or serial (for a bash prompt), so I pulled the drive and am trying to use Dylan's to chmod the file, but I get unknown command back from the chmod command. Is there a way to add this command to the boot floppy?

[BubbleLamp]

Look closely and you'll see I changed the code above to run chmod from the mounted partition.

[hammer32]

Thanks, it knows the command now, but I get:

/mnt/4/bin/: Permission denied

?

(logged in as root, rc.sysinit is owned by root)

[BubbleLamp]

Originally posted by hammer32
Thanks, it knows the command now, but I get:

/mnt/4/bin/: Permission denied

?

(logged in as root, rc.sysinit is owned by root)

Wierd. OK, try this

cp /mnt/foo/bin/chmod /chmod
/chmod +x /mnt/foo/etc/rc.d/rc.sysinit

[hammer32]

hmmm...

got:

chmod: not found

[BubbleLamp]

did you have the drive partition mounted?

mkdir /mnt/foo
mount /dev/hdb4 /mnt/foo
cp /mnt/foo/bin/chmod /chmod
/chmod +x /mnt/foo/etc/rc.d/rc.sysinit
cd /
umount /dev/hdb4

[hammer32]

it works fine until the chmod part, i can ls and see the rc.sysinit, i can copy it to another directory etc.

Edit: could hdb4 be mounted as read-only?

[BubbleLamp]

it shouldn't be. if you type mount what do you see? should be something like

/dev/hdb4 on /mnt/foo type ext2 (rw)

if it's (ro), then it is read only.

Did you by any chance do a chattr on the rc.sysinit file? If so, that could be the problem.

[hammer32]

mount says it's (rw), i didn't use chattr on it, i had tried with something else, but didn't have that command in the tivo's /bin so it just gave me an error. How can i tell if it has been used on it, or un-chattr it?

Thanks again!

[BubbleLamp]

cp /mnt/foo/bin/chattr /chattr
/chattr -i /mnt/foo/etc/rc.d/rc.sysinit

[hammer32]

There's not a chattr in the tivo's bin, so when i run the chattr +i I get not found... I wonder if I need to use a different boot disk?

[BubbleLamp]

Change the name back to chattr.

[hammer32]

BubbleLamp, Thanks for your help dude, I've monopolized your evening! I got the rc.sysinit from the hdb7 partition and it was still the old file (i was reading the ppp on win 98 tutorial and it keyed me to the multiple partitions thing) after i removed the existing rc.sysinit (that wasn't exec) and coppied the old one over the old one kept it's executable-ness. :)

Thanks again dude! If you'd like a couple free patches just let me know:
www.mercenary-missileer.com

hammer32
:)

[BubbleLamp]

Sometimes the simple ways are the best. Glad you got it back running. For the future, always make a b/u file before you mess with critical files :D

[hammer32]

Wouldn't ya know it. I was ftp'ing around today and there ARE rc.sysinit.bak files. The PPP-over-win98 tutorial had me make them as part of the set-up. It's been about ten years since I did any unix stuff, guess I should keep my day job!

[theplunger]

To keep my SA tivo from calling home over the internet I just used my firewall to block internet access for my SA tivo's IP.

For me this was the quickest way to controll its ability to call home.