[dalime]

Just felt the need to share. There is a lot of great help on these forums and you can accomplish most things by yourself at a lower cost and level of stress.
When I first had my system installed, I had a single HDDVR (HR20) which was installed before the advent of the SWM. I then added an HD receiver. But when I added a 2nd DVR, it became clear that I needed more equipment. DTV of course wanted to charge me to send out a tech to put in a SWM. Through the help of these forums and Ebay, I put in the SWM myself with some parts to spare for about $35.00.
Recently, I wanted to add whole home DVR so I could watch recordings on the non-dvr box in my garage. Called DTV to ask them to send me the DECA adapters and they said they couldn't because I didn't have a SWM installed. After explaining the self install, three different departments (locations), and two weeks later, they were finally able to override the system to acknowledge the self-install. I will say that I have no problem getting them to send me as many DECA's as I wanted for free. Very cool.
So then came the conversation of bridging the "DECA cloud" to my internet connection. I was told emphatically on more than one occasion that I needed a tech to come out and run "a separate line" to the broadband adapter that they would have to install.
Again, I turn to Ebay and $14 later I have a broadband connection kit, absolutely NO NEED to run a "separate line", and everything works beautifully.
Thank you DBS Talk and thank you Ebay.

 

[Diana C]

I'm glad you have your system running the way you like it! We too have done SWM, DECA and BBCK installs ourselves.

In a small defense of DirecTV, the members here are not the typical customer. The ins and outs of coax cable, Cat 5 wire, network switches, IP addresses and routers are a mystery to many people. DirecTV's systems are designed to support the average user, and attempts to minimize follow up support calls. They also strive to have all installs have the same basic topology, again to ease later support calls.

Those of us who would rather get stuff done ourselves in an hour or two on the weekend, versus spending a day waiting for a tech to come by, will continue to bump into DirecTV's "standards."