Techgadgetz sells all sorts of things like cheap cell phone jammers, but what really caught my eye was this JTAG programmer for satellites — do people really hack their sat dishes with these? It unlocks free channels? Post up in he comments –
A Jtag is simply a device which communicates with your satellite receiver unit. It acts as an interface between your computer and satellite receiver. Simply unplug your satellite receiver, connect the wires to your receiver’s jtag port as shown in the instructions, using either tape or just touching them with a soldering iron (recommended), clip the alligator clip to any ground point of your receiver, and plug the DB25 connector into your parallel port of your computer! It’s that simple. To make it communicate with your computer, you will need the program jkeys. This will be emailed to you after your purchase.
Dish / Bev Jtag Unit – Link.
24 thoughts on “Dish / Bev Jtag unit?”
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Yes, people actually use those to get free access to all ppv and premium channels. There are IRC chat rooms where you can get the latest keys (they are flashed every month – I’m not sure exactly how this stuff works I just know that they must be regularly updated).
However, by buying one of those from a vendor you’re subjecting yourself to prosecution. People who have bought kits for this purpose in the past have been mailed intent-to-prosecute letters after places who sell such equipment have been busted.
It is illegal and I don’t think it’s suitable for posting on Make, where the focus has in the past been on innovation and creativity, not thieving media.
Previous Post is wrong on a lot of things.
Jtags are not illegal. JTAG stands for “Joint Test Action Group” is the name for the IEEE 1149.1 standard
also know as Standard Test Access Port and Boundary-Scan Architecture
It is in almost any device with a micro controller now a days with the event of surface mounts, burried vias etc etc bed of nail testing has become kinda useless plus you cannot test as much as you can with a JTAG port.
It is an amazing debugging tool and very useful you don’t need to desolder your TSOP flash to reprogram it if something went wrong you can just JTAG your micro controller and tell it to reprogram the flash with your bin…you can peek and poke memory register etc etc very useful.
As for keys they are not “flashed” every month they are changed as frequently as the provider sees fit. You are not subject to being busted for being a JTAG adapter. All you are buying if unbuffered is 5 100ohm resistors soldered to a db-25 male connector with some pogo pins.
If buffered it’s a bit different.
In any case JTAGs are very useless and used in the industry for many things other then ILLEGAL stuff.
They can be used from IRD (integrated Received/Decoreds to linksys routers and lots more)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JTAG
For more information.
I use a JTAG boundary scanner at work all the time. Nothing ILLEGAL about that =)
For educational purposes only!
As for Hacking their Receivers most people won’t even bother with the Service Providers Receivers anymore. Plastic or CAM (conditional Access Module) aka ROM cards are a pain, They can be looped, marked, etc etc. Atmega128 and AVR are mostly dead (you can still use atmega128) DSS REVs are mostly dead as well, DSSNEO are mostly crap, AVR-X are a pain.
Most ppl won’t even bother and will just buy a FTA and modify it.
So as for the question do ppl really use it. Yes some still do use it but it’s passed date FTA is the major thing now a days.
“For educational purposes only”
Oh please.
Coolbreaze has a point. JTAGs aren’t illegal, but what you can do with them with a satellite dish… Maybe so.
I HAVE a JTAG cable that I use all the time with my Xilinx FPGA. Regardless, they are marketing a JTAG with instructions and a key for illegally modifying a satellite receiver.
My point stands because this post does not even hint about using a JTAG for anything else besides compromising a receiver. I come here to learn about projects I can do WITHOUT being sued or harassed.
Actualy the site does make claim to legit reasons
* Backing up your receiver’s memory for use in case of damage/catastrophe (MAKE BACKUPS!)
* Restoring backups in case of failure to return receiver to it’s original state
* Extracting box keys from the receiver for your records
As for Gear Heads Oh please. I answered the question philliptorrone asked about if people used these.I’m sorry being technical makes you unhappy I can’t please everybody.
I in now way encouraging people to do ILLEGAL things I mearly answered the Questions Phillips asked and responded about JTAG being Illegal
If you look at my first post I’m talking about what JTAGS are and I work with them everyday Just like shbazjinkens I to have use for JTAGS that are not of the ILLEGAL nature. I’m just clearing up some points.
Of course everybody sees in the post what they wanna see.
I gotta side with Coolbreaze on this. JTAG’s are used for damn near everything these days including being able to restore my WRT55AG router to factory default settings.
We already know that a hammer can be used for good and “evil”; it’s the human on the other end of it that determines how it’s perceived.
Sorry to rock the ivory tower, but is that the “Hammers dont kill people, people kill people ” arguement?!?..;)
I’m pretty sure I learned about bumpkeys on this site too. But now I may recognize a breakin in progress whereas before I would have walked on by thinking they had lock problems. And I have taken steps to make me aware of entry to my condo via a master key or this method.
By the time a ‘secret’ method to do anything is posted on MAKE, the serious crooks have moved on to newer and better. IMHO.
……..
Then again, Orlando FL had news reports of apt. complex breakins using this method in the last few weeks. *Sigh*. I would still rather know what is possible, than to be shown by a crook!
I have to side with volkemon here.
Security through obscurity is just another take on the ignorance is bliss mentality. Humans are curious creatures, and sooner or later they’ll find out.
Now, that said, i don’t expect the media companies to make it easy for people to steal from them. It’s the constant play of cat and mouse, people break into their boxes, and the box providers make it harder. In the end everyone wins because this drives innovation!
shaba sounds like a wimp…big time