Unresolved HomePatrol-1 Connectivity Issue

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cinephonic

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Aug 28, 2007
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I am having some sort of connectivity issue with my HomePatrol-1. It was suggested earlier that the cause was my using a satellite internet service and/or that my Norton anti-virus program was blocking the transfer. After turning off Norton, I tried again using a dial-up modem via AOL. This time, something actually started to download, but after a few minutes I got an error message. During subsequent re-ties, I got three different error messages. One of them read “Unable to read data from the transport connection: A connection attempt failed because the connected party did not properly respond after a period of time, or established connection failed because connected host has failed to response.” Another one read “The remote name could not be resolved: ‘ftp.homepatrolcom’” The most common message I receive is “The operation has timed out.” My computer “sees” the HP as a storage drive and I have the latest version of Sentinel installed on my computer. Late last year, I sent the unit to Uniden and they updated the firmware and the database (as of 11/8/12) and returned it saying that it performs to factory specifications. (I have no trouble downloading updates for my Garmin GPS device, which works on a similar principal!) Any help or suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

Eric in Descanso, CA
 

ST-Bob

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Your problem undoubtedly stems from your lack of high-speed, low-latency broadband Internet connection. Due to the long time delay inherent in satellite-based Internet connections, you cannot use them to update the database or firmware on the HomePatrol. The database server and client will time-out before making the connection due to the large amount of latency in the path between the server and your computer.

Your dial-up almost worked but the modem is probably too slow to make it work right either. The only solution I can see is to use a laptop with wi-fi and travel to someplace with a public wi-fi hotspot that's fed with a wired (cable, dsl or fiber-optic) Internet connection and perform the occasional updates there. Or have someone (relative, neighbor, co-worker etc.) do it from their wired broadband Internet connection.

Unfortunately there's nothing Uniden can (or should in my opinion) do to fix YOUR problem. The database software they use to serve the data is not Uniden's - it's commercially available database software and hardware with its own limitations (not under Uniden's control). You noticed I highlighted "YOUR" above. The lack of low-latency, high-speed Internet at your usual connection site is entirely YOUR problem. You must meet the minimum system requirements and you, apparently, do not.

Sorry, but that's the way it is. Move somewhere with high-speed wired Internet or deal with the fact that you cannot update the scanner at home and do it elsewhere. Just my opinion but there are many technical reasons why it cannot be fixed in any other way.
 
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cinephonic

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Joined
Aug 28, 2007
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Location
East San Diego County
Bob,

Many thanks for your detailed explanation as to the cause of my problem. (This information is something that Uniden might want to include in its HomePatrol-1 instruction manual.)

Eric in Descanso, CA
 

scosgt

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OR, if you or a friend has a cell phone with 3G service, you should be able to tether to it and do what you need.
 
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