C Band Satellite TV Hacking Guide for Dummies - A Reference for the Rest of Us !!
By Iggy
The configurations you need to perform are highlighted in mustard. Just follow my instructions and you'll be up and running in no time !!
CONTENTS
1. Disclaimer
2. Downloads
3. C Band Dish
4. E2 Receiver
5. E2 Receiver Image
6. NCAM Emulator
7. Downloading NCAM
8. Unpacking NCAM
9. Uploading NCAM EMU Files to Receiver
10. Starting NCAM
11. Configuration Files
12. Softcam Key File
13. NCAM Monitoring
14. Finding Keys
1. DISCLAIMER
This guide is solely for educational purposes only.
Happy days are here again !! Unless you have been sleeping under a rock C band satellite testing in the USA is once again possible. But it takes a little bit of effort to get going. If you are familiar with directv or dishnetwork testing from the past, hacking C band is similar, except there is no smart card glitching and no flashing of an OEM FTA box involved. Instead C band testers are using E2 ( Enigma 2 ) linux satellite receivers loaded with a CAM emulator.
This guide is written for C band enthusiasts in the USA who have little or no background in linux and never owned an E2 satellite receiver like me until now. From the moment I bought my first E2 receiver ( Octagon SF4008 ), I struggled for nearly 6 months to get my first linux CAM emulator working properly and testing C band. But I finally nailed it !! If you are like me and struggling, this guide is dedicated to you !
2. DOWNLOADS
To get going you will need to download and install some programs.
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7-Zip ( for unzipping files )
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FTP Program ( choose one )
http://www.coreftp.com/download.html
https://filezilla-project.org/download.php?type=client
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3. C BAND DISH
You need a tuned C band satellite dish. Duhh ! Bigger is better. I use a 10 footer and I am pretty far north. It can be a fiber glass, aluminum or wire mesh dish. It doesn't matter as long as your dish is tracking the satellite arc.
4. E2 RECEIVER
You also need an E2 satellite receiver. There are many on the market. You might as well splurge a bit and go with a 4K model. Here are some examples:
Octagon SF4008 E2 4K ( sold by Rick's Satellite )
Edision OS mio 4K ( sold by Titanium Satellite )
Mutant, Zgemma, Gigablue and others should work too but I don't have any on hand to test.
5. E2 RECEIVER IMAGE
Your E2 receiver should run OPEN ATV. I think the latest version is 6.2 and works fine. Most E2 receivers sold today come pre-flashed with OPEN ATV, but if yours had a different image, you need to install OPEN ATV which you can find at
Other images like OpenPLi will work too but with a different emulator. Keep on reading.
6. NCAM EMULATOR
NCAM is the emulator software used with OPEN ATV. OSCAM is the emulator software used with OpenPLi.
This guide focuses on using NCAM since most of us on this side of the pond have E2 receivers flashed with OPEN ATV out of the box. You can try to get OSCAM working on OpenPLi by following this guide but directory locations and configurations will vary.
7. DOWNLOADING NCAM
Let's give it a go !
Download the latest version of NCAM from
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There will be several different emulator file for different hardware. Most E2 receivers today run on an *ARM* core, so you need to download the "MIPS-IPK" image. It looks something like
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Ncam-Images-MIPS-IPK.zip
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8. UNPACKING NCAM
This can get complicated. I use 7-zip to unpack it.
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Right click on the
Ncam-Images-MIPS-IPK.zip
and select "Extract to Ncam-Images-MIPS-IPK.zip"
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Double click on the extracted folder. You should see
enigma2-plugin-softcams-ncam-mips_V9.3-ro_all.ipk
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Right click again and "Extract to enigma2-plugin-softcams-ncam-mips_V9.3-ro_all.ipk"
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Now double click on the new folder. You should see something called data.tar
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Right click on data.tar and "Extract to data.tar".
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Double click on the data.tar folder.
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Right click one last time and "Extract to data".
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Double click on data and then on tmp and finally on the RAED folder.
If you did all this correctly you should see this directory
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Ncam-Images-MIPS-IPK/enigma2-plugin-softcams-ncam-mips_V9.3-ro_all.ipk/data.tar/data/tmp/RAED
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9. UPLOADING NCAM EMU FILES to RECEIVER
For this step you will need an FTP progam and your receiver's IP address. You can find your receiver network address by going into the menu and information and network selection.
Start the FTP application. Enter your receiver's IP address and the following
Username = root
Password = root
If the password root doesn't work for you try entering your E2 brand name ( like octagon, edision and so on ). If this doesn't work either then do a google search man !
Upload the following 3 files/folders from the directory you extracted before
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.../RAED/ARM/ncam to /usr/bin/
( change permission of ncam to "755" )
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.../RAED/openatv/etc/ncam.emu to /etc/
( change permission of ncam.emu to "755" )
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.../RAED/etc/tuxbox/config to /etc/tuxbox/
( change permission of config folder to "777" )
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You nailed it !! The NCAM emulator is now installed !!
In the future if you want to upgrade to a newer version of NCAM, just overwrite those 3 files/folders. Simple.
10. STARTING NCAM
Check to see if NCAM is working in your receiver.
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Menu - Info Panel - Softcam Panel
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Where it says "Select Cam 1", press the right arrow on your remote until you see the NCAM version you just installed. Press Start and NCAM should start running. To stop it, press Stop. To restart, press ReStart.
Whenever you make updates to your /config files, you must always restart NCAM for them to take effect. Remember this !