Bell Tracking Receivers

S

Speed Demon

New member
How does bell track receivers? I know they use phone lines, but can they also track your receiver if you hook it up to your computer (via ethernet)? Will a proxy server work to hide it? I`m looking at hooking up my 9242 for remote pvr capabilities, but I`d rather bell not no where this receiver is located.
 
Bell tracks you receivers throught the telephone line...if your receiver is not hooked to a telephone line it therefore doesn't dial out. Espacially if you have more than 3 receivers, Bell will put you on a TO CALL list, and they might call you to "verify" your receiver. This simply mean they will ask you to read the location ID of each machine.

To my knowledge Bell TV has no other way of tracking the actual location of the receivers, reason why lots of snowbirds could easilly bring their receivers with them in the USA, even if it's forbidden by Bell TV
 
I see no reason Bell cannot trace the IP being used fro Remote PVR.

If you are happy to just have your PVR start a recording from a Computer, or "app" on a smart phone, you do NOT need to connect to the Internet.
 
I have no doubt they log the IP of the receivers. And if you're a Sympatico customer, they already have all your info.
 
Even if they track by IP, as long as you are always connecting to the same ISP, there should be no issue as long as it is near where it is supposed to be. They may be able to track a very general area, but not exactly where the receiver is.

My ISP sometimes shows me in different cities when the IP refreshes. I'm assuming they have servers in different cities nearby, so I just happen to connect to different ones at different times. Under this premise, it is impossible, without going to the ISP and getting them to release the information (not going to happen unless you are with Bell Internet), they won't know your exact location.
 
He can say he got lucky...when SAT team puts a note on a customer account it says that no "save offer" should be offered to the client for that matter
 


If your receivers are connected to a telephone line, as they should, per you service agreement, they will therefore not contact you.

See service agreement, version for people who suscriber before July 2008 (the same rule is shown on the latest version of the service agreement as well) :


http://www.bell.ca/web/common/en/all_regions/pdfs/tv/rca_legal.pdf
 
My 6141 is looked up with a ethernet cable and no phone line. The receiver is showing it dials out every couple days.
 


Even if agent puts a note that you were angry about being called for that matter, or that you threathen to disconnect if they call you again your number might get back on their "to call" list if your receivers are not dialling out. The best way to ensure it won't happen again is to have all your receivers connetected to a telephone line OR be a client of another cable or satellite compagny

Your service woudn't have been totally deactivated if you didn't call, but, as previous post, limited to a single receiver (it was actually 2 at the time I was at SAT)
 
Fair enough EX Agent... But trust me, if they do call again for this I will definitely cancel, may as well take my phone, Internet and cell at the same time to get bundle pricing with the competitors. It's their loss, not mine. IMO, if they run you through this verification once and you "pass" they should leave you alone afterward. Some people don't even have landlines, how do you expect them to plug in their receivers... In my case I don't have a phone jack near my receivers and I sure as hell will not run extension cords on the floor just to please Bell.
 
Does it ever connect?
That is some good info on the isp. If i use an ip tracker, it comes up nowhere near my house, so i dont think they can actually track you through your ip. I think for now, im just going to leave it off the internet, but hooked up to the computer
 
I don't really think it matter's anyway if it connects. I have a friend that gave one of his receiver's to a buddy, the buddy order's ppv all the time and no one from Bell has ever questioned the receiver dialing out from a different location. The friend also connect's all of his receiver's to the phone line too. I don't think the phone line is used at all for tracking like people seem to think. I think it's just for smart card information, and ppv ordering.
 
Bell TV continue to install Receivers without them being connected to a Land Line at that time, therefore in my opinion, it is there problem, not mine.

If they want to provide Wireless Jacks or run new outlets, they can but they will have to do it at their expense, not mine.

It baffles me that they allow you to break the rules when it suits them......
 
Josh, I could confirm that phone line are used to track receivers...

I used to work for the SAT team, the departement that "verifies" receiver and assures that Bell's cottage policy is followed.

When your receiver is not "dialling out" Bell Express Vu after a X number of failed attempts to get the info from your receiver will put you on a "to call" list.

Since there is lots of suscribers and Bell TV doesn't have a huge budget to have a large team on this that team mainly focus on those that have 3 receivers or more, since they are the ones that are the most likely to have receivers in 2 locations.

Your friend is probably on that "to call" list. Depending on how many agents are at the time working in that departement, depending on how many receivers he has listed in his account, if he vere, or the friend he gave the receiver to, mentionned that receiver where not in the same location, will soon a later get a call to get his receivers "verified". Also, if the friend he gaved the receiver to has his phone line connected, but your friend doesn't Bell doesn't get the info on both locations.
 
So does Bell just use the phone line to confirm the receiver is being connected or do they check the caller id coming in also? The buddy has had the receiver for over 2 years and been connected to the phone line.


If I had 6 receiver's at 6 different locations all hooked up to the phone line and dialing out, would I be ok as the receiver's are sending location id or does Bell check the caller id also? If that is so it would be simple enough to add *67 for the dial out and block the caller id.
 
Most of the time it doesn't make sense to put a TV next to a phone jack. You want the jack next to the sitting area to use a phone, not next to the TV.

If they care so much about the phone line being connected, why do they allow you to order PPV over the phone or internet? If that isn't an implicit acknowledgment from Bell that not all receivers can be connected, I don't know what is.
 
At the risk of hijacking the thread into the old "can I have a receiver at the cottage" discussion, I suspect the reason Bell makes minimal efforts to actually enforce the contract terms ExAgent highlights is that, deep down, they don't WANT to enforce the contract terms. The only reason Bell makes ANY effort to enforce the terms is, purely and simply, to be able to demonstrate to the CRTC that they are. And the only reason the CRTC cares if Bell makes any effort is because the cablecos scream bloody murder about the competitive advantage sat technology gives to the satcos.

I think the real issue isn't a subscriber taking a receiver out to the cottage - I suspect Bell secretly hopes subscribers do this, because it undoubtedly leads to new subscribers, i.e. the "neighbours at the cottage" that come over to watch the game on your HD TV and call Bell as soon as they're back in the city to sign up for their own account. Rather, the real issue is account splitting and accounting splitting is far more effectively addressed via limitations on the number of receivers per account, not on unwieldy and impossible to enforce terms requiring STBs to be plugged into phone lines and phone calls to Bell to take receivers offline every time you spend a weekend at the cabin.
 
joshwild, I don't know for sure if Bell track the calling number, but they don't need caller id. The box dials a toll-free number and the company that pays the bill always gets the calling number - you can't block that.
 
Not sure exactly how the information is collected exactly, but if 6 receivers are in 6 different location, which is against Bell service agreement, I woudn't risk hooking it to the telephone line. I would order my PPV events by internet, or by calling Emily instead.

If the SAT team calls, and they are unable to "verify" all receivers the "non verified" units will automatically be deactivated. They can only be reactivated by performing a positive verification. When the client calls to reconnect the deactivated unit he would have to "retest" all unit previously tested AND the unit that client is trying to reconnect. A delay of 24 hours is required before performing a second verification.

There is so many clients that have receivers not dialling out, meanning the "to call list" is really long, an Bell not having a huge budget to put on that, that it's very likely that some people, knowing receivers will work in different location are using them that way for years before Bell catches them with a "verification". I had a lady that told me when I called her to verify her receivers that she had receiver at the cottage AND at home for the last 8 years, and we never bugged her!
 
My uncle got burned when he called Bell TV to inquire about programming, the csr asked about the location of each box. He told them he had one at the cottage and one at home. The csr told him he would have to disable the one at the cottage and reactivate it once he was at the cottage, then turn the other one off. My uncle said if you shut the box off I will cancel my service. The csr said well then we never had this conversation. 2 years later both box's are still working.
 
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