Connecting to the Dreambox

Many enthusiasts decide to get a Dreambox due to the fact there are many different types of image that can be applied. This opens up many opportunities to the home user as this allows the STB to be customised to suit the owners tastes. This could represent localisation or simply add new images to menus etc.

Flashing a Dreambox can be completed either via a serial cable or through an ethernet cable connected to a LAN.

Methods of Connection

All Dreamboxes currently in production support both serial and ethernet connections.

Serial Connection

To create a serial connection between your PC and your Dreambox you will need the following:

  • 9 way serial cable
  • free serial port on your PC.

To create the connection, simply attach the serial cable to the back of the Dreambox (to the port marked Serial) and then to your PC. You will need to take a note of the COM port number on your PC. This is essential, as this will be the reference point for any software you care to use to enable communications between your PC and Dreambox.

To determine the COM port number, you need to take a look at you computers hardware. This can be done via the Device Manager. There are a number of ways to get to this screen, as detailed below:

  • Right-click My Computer, click Manage, and then click Device Manager.
  • Right-click My Computer, click Properties, click the Hardware tab, and then click Device Manager.
  • Type the following command at a command prompt: start devmgmt.

Under the section marked Ports, COM & LPT, expad the view to list all of your available ports. Most modern computers will only come with one physical serial connection. It is not surprising to see COM1 the only available port on a modern PC.

Ethernet Connections

Ethernet is a very easy way to connect a Dreambox to a computer to carry out management tasks. To create an ethernet connection to a Dreambox you will need the following:

  • An ethernet cable.
  • A spare ethernet port on your switch/router.

At its simplest, this is all you will need to do. Your router will detect the Dreambox and assign it an IP address, thus making the device available on your network. To check this, simply visit the admin page of your router and take a look at the connected devices. Depending on your model of Dreambox, you will see something like dm600pvr. This is the netbios name of your device, so if you enter this into the address bar in a web browser, you may be taken to the web interface (if this feature is enabled).

To work like this, you must have a DHCP server on your network. Most modern routers for use with broadband will have this feature already and typically you will already be using this. To compliment this feature, your dreambox will also need to use DHCP, due to the amount of images available for these boxes it isnt always the case that this enabled.

Flashing Tools

As the Dreambox is a very popular device, there are a number of ways by which you can flash an image onto the box. It can be done via a serial connection or it can be done over the LAN using a third party tool or the web interface. Note that not all Dreamboxes allow you to flash an image directly via the web interface - but this can be altered to allow this functionality to work.

Dream Multimedia provides a tool called DreamUp to let you flash an image with a serial cable. This is a very well trusted and stable tool and is widely available from Dream's website as well as out on the Internet. Dream also provides a tool called DreamUpLAN.

There are also a number of third party tools that will help you flash a Dreambox with a new image:

Both these tool will allow you to flash a box via FTP.

Considerations

It is naturally obvious to assume that not everyone has their Dreambox connected to a LAN, so in some instances creating a serial connection may better suit. However note that flashing via ethernet is a lot faster than via a serial connection. But, this does not stop anyone from using an ethernet cable to carry this out. If no router or switch is present or near, a cross over ethernet cable connected direclty from the PC to the Dreambox will also work.

With this method, a static IP needs to be assigned to the PC as well as the Dreambox. Once this is done, flashing via the web interface is possible.

References

FlashFXP home page
DreamUp from Dream Multimedia

Unless otherwise stated, the content of this page is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License