Does anyone make something like a “wireless telephone router”? I’ve been told by Dishnetwork that when I hook up a HD receiver, if it doesn’t have a phone line attached to it, there will be an additional $5/month charge. Does anyone make a device that would allow me to plug into my receiver without running a new line? I have plenty of spare wall jacks that I could plug a base unit into and then put the remote unit by the receiver but I don’t know if such a device exists. I already have a similar setup with my wireless phones but the remote unit doesn’t have any sort of “line out” feature.
I’m not sure of Dish Network can do this, but I have a similar issue with Tivo, which also requires a telephone connection. They have an alternative: You can get the information via a wireless Internet connection (WiFi). You buy a special WiFi antenna and plug it into the back of the Tivo and it downloads the information from that instead of from the telephone.
Thanks. That’s the kind of thing I was looking for but I couldn’t come up with the right search terms.
suranyi, it was a very good tech support guy that told me about the phone line so I doubt that they have a wifi option but since I already have a router, I will definitely check into it.
I’ve used the phone jacks that use the AC wiring to carry the signal with mixed success. One set worked fine for about a year, then didn’t work any longer. The next set didn’t work at all in some receptacles, and did work in others. Unfortunately the ones they worked in were no where near the receiver it needed to connect with. I finally broke down and ran a phone line back to the 66 block in the basement.
Radio Shack, Wal-Mart, Home Depot, and Lowe’s all carry these, so they should be easy to find.