I had to laugh when you said "first unplug the box".
Doug, believe it or not, this is exactly what happened when I tried to find out WHY I WASN'T GETTING CHANNEL 369 AND CHANNEL 537. This happened last week.

First of course I called Directv who informed me they would charge me $75 to come out to my house. I politely told them to blow it out of THEIR nose.

Then I found a Directv message board with helpful people (just like on these boards) who know everything about directv.

I reset all boxes (that means, unplugging, waiting 1 minute) plugging them back in (I've known how to do this for 10 years). Only have had to do this two times to get the system back on track. Didn't solve anything this time!!!

SO THAT WASN'T THE PROBLEM.

Then I said "well, I'm getting the channels in my bedroom, but not the living room, let's check my signal strength in the bedroom, (so I did the dish pointing, the signal strength, checked the transponders (yeah, I know all about the 32 transponders). Everything worked fine in the bedrooms.

SO THAT TOLD LME THE PROBLEM WAS NOT THE DISH ON THE ROOF!!!!

So I immediately went to the multi switch in the bedroom (I have 3 tvs going ito the multi switch (which was only 5 months old). I changed all the inputs, all the outputs, nothing changed. I still couldn't get the channel 369 and 537 in the living room. Now I could get Showtime 2, 3, The Movie Channel, but NOT SHOWTIME, AND NOT THE RELIGIOUS CHANNEL, which was 369.

So I said to myself "Melody, it has to be the cable coming out of the living room box and going out of the house into wherever they connect stuff for Directv. So I followed the cable (making sure I marked down the number that was imprinted on the cable). I then went outside, traced the cable around the side of my house to the middle of the wall outside my house where everybody's cables were all intertwined and conneced in circles and traced MY problem cable, into the back of my bedroom that went into the multiswitch. I said "Aha, so I know where the cable from my living room tv is connected, now how do I prove that there is a problem?. I looked at where the cable was connected (on the side of my house) and it was connected to some worn looking little thing tht had tape all around it. I said BINGO, now what do I do?

I could have gone to Radio Shack, paid $50 or so bucks for a 100 foot co-axial cable and ran it from my living room tv, into my bedroom and whtat would have fixed everything but then I would have been tripping over coaxial cables (I don't have the necessary equipment to staple these cables against the walls (like the service guys do).

So here's exactly what I did. I called Directv, got a very nice man on the end of the phone and told him. "For five days, I have done the dish pointing, the signal meter testing, the transponder testing, I switched boxes, I unplugged boxes, I traced the cable from the living room, outside of my house to where all the cables are connected and I FOUND THE PROBLEM. I asked him "can you please send me a barrel and a coupler so I can refit the coaxial cable so I can get my channels?? I heard a distinct quiet from the other side of the phone and the guy goes"

"Holy Cow, you are the most inteligent customer we have ever had, we have never had someone who found the problem like you did, YOU DESERVE A FREE SERVICE VISIT, I'M SENDING THE GUYS TO YOUR HOUSE ON SATURDAY MORNING. I politely thanked him and Saturday morning, two guys show up and they are taking this big ladder out of the van. I go over to them and say "put the ladder back, I know where the problem is". He goes "Lady, no body knows where the problem is, we have to check". I said "okay, but just indulge me, you can always go back and get the ladder" So he and his new apprentice who was just learning, follow me inside my house and I show him the "searching for signal" on my screen on channel 537 and I said "now follow me". we go outside my house and I make them trace the cable into the side of the house and I show them WHERE I THINK THE PROBLEM IS. The guy burst out laughing and said "well, let's just see little lady if you are right"

He disconnects the two cables and he goes "Holy *****, she's right, there's no pin in this cable". I said "you need a barrel and a coupler (or some such word I said". He said "And she knows about barrels, jeeeeez". We laughed our heads off. In two seconds flat, he fixed the problem came back into the house and when I mentioned I would like to upgrade my box in the bedroom, he said "no problem, we have a new box in the van", he went out and now I have a programable directv box in the bedroom so I can change channels automatically. I LOVE THIS FEATURE. The guy asked me "Lady, how come you know so much about Directv and I proudly said: "Well, I go on message boards on the internet and I LEARN!!!!!

I had to sign a lot of paperwork. There was no charge to my account. But the best part came when I said "Listen guys, I would love to tip you but I'm on a fixed income, I just have a batch of blueberry cranberry muffins that I just made, can I give you some. I gave them 5 nice big muffins in a nice pie tin and they went off happy as clams eating their muffins.

So now I have everything working and I learned even more about directv.

So thanks Doug, for coming to the rescue of a damsel in distress (who really hasn't been a damsel for many years.).

love ya,
Melody