The receiver won't work unless you pay your bill or deal with web sites like
this.

http://www.satellitesdirecttvdishnet...cript-hack.htm

When you stop paying your bill they do something to the receiver to turn it
off.

I don't know if they still do it this way, but the receivers had a card in
them. You could purchase a hacked card that would give you access until the
sat company defeated them and you would have to get a new card. The other
way to get this card was to get one that could be reprogrammed. I was once
in a house that had a cable running from their receiver to a old computer
that kept the card up to date.

Its explained a little bit here.

http://www.tech-faq.com/signal-theft.shtml

"Sigmand" wrote in message ...
I have a hypothetical friend. He has subscribed to both Dish Network and
Direct TV in the past. He currently has the Dish Network network dish
mounted on his house and is subscribed to cable. He also has a
hypothetical friend that currently subscribes to Direct TV. He wonders out
loud what would happen if he borrowed the extra box that is hardly used
from his friend.

Are both disks the same. Would one box work with the other's dish? Would
the box work if he climbed up on the house and changed the dish back to
Direct TV?