With Dish Network, the only reason to have the phone line connected is to notify Dish that you have watched pay-pre-view stuff. I don't, and the phone line has been disconnected from both of my receivers for about two years now. If you don't connect the phone line and watch pay-per-view things, the receiver will tell you to connect to a phone line. It will allow you to rack up a bill (not sure how much) before it disallows access to pay-per-view. ----- Original Message ----- From: Tom Handley To: Sent: Sunday, March 05, 2000 7:50 pm Subject: Re: [OT] How do satalite systems work? John, I've been with DirectTV for a couple of years here in the USA. In this case, the receiver must be connected to a phone line. This is how they activate your account, what premium channels you have access to, and bill you for Pay per View events. This data is all stored on your card. The card contains NVRAM and possibly a micro-processor but I'm not sure. There are news groups that go into this but I'm just a regular `pay my bill each month' type of customer so I have not got into the `hacks'... In any case, be it Dish or DirectTV, the card has to be there, and the phone line has to be connected, or you will eventually loose your service if you don't pay your bill... - Tom At 10:16 AM 3/5/00 -0800, John Pearson wrote: >I don't understand how satalite dish systems work: > >I have a reciever into which I insert a card. What is on the card? > >How does the dish service discontinue my subscription if I don't pay my >bill? > >Thanks > >John ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Tom Handley New Age Communications Since '75 before "New Age" and no one around here is waiting for UFOs ;-)