Question regarding the internal workings of Serial PPP

[KennyH88]

Hi guys, first off I would like to thank everyone for contributing to this forum. I have learned a tremendous amount of information in the past few months reading posts here, one of which was how to get DTivo to make Daily Calls via Serial PPP. I just completed this successfully on the following:

My setup includes:

-- Hughes GXCEBOT Series 1 DTivo
-- Windows 2000 SP4 computer with serial connection on COM 1.

I read a couple of tutorials on how to set up Serial PPP and I was able to get it to work on the first try. Anyway, I was wondering how the Serial PPP really worked. I was curious as to how the ,#211 was able to connect and make a call. My questions regarding this is:

1) Does the DTivo still use a dial in number to make the Daily Call?
2) Does the Serial PPP connection somehow bypass the whole dial in number and area code?
3) How does the DTivo know where to go and get the daily call information needed? Is it going to a DTV site to get the info?

Thanks in advance for any help. I was just wondering how all of this really worked. I am sure some of the guys that have been around for a while can help enlighten me on this. :)

[eastwind]

The dialing prefix ',#211' tells the TiVo to use the serial port @ 115,200 instead of dialing a real phone number (so yes, it bypasses the whole area code/phone number part). The modified HAYESMDM file receives the information from the serial port (specifically the '~' character) and interprets it a 'RING' (like a from a modem). The PC 'answers' the 'phone' and establishes a point to point protocol connection to the TiVo and then allows the connected the TiVo to use it's (the PC's) internet connection to connect to the 'mothership'. The process is almost the same when the TiVo uses it's own modem to dial a phone number--it connects to an ISP (uunet?) which then allows it access to the mothership.

ew