Cable question for gurus

I live in Michigan, comcast country. I recently went to Lousiana for a couple of months to work. Got an apartment with basic cable included. Went to a garage sale, and laying on the wet sidewalk was the same cable box that I use at home [Motorola DCT2224]. The lady wanted $10, I offered $5 and she took it. When I finally got around to getting an extra cable a week or so later I hooked it up. Much to my suprise, it recieved all of the pay channels save for PPV. Worked like a charm for more than a month. Now that I'm back home, yes indeed I'm gonna plug this baby in. Will comcast find out ? Would it matter, since people are allowed to use their own boxes right ? Aren't these boxes adressable ? Why wasn't this thing shut down in LA if so ? Could it be because it was in an apartment complex with 100's of cable connections ? I don't expect people to help me scam here. Honestly, I don't watch all that much TV anyhow. I'd just like a rational explanation as to how a box bought at a garage sale could pull in all premium channels for a month and why it wasn't sent a signal to stop doing so.

Regards

Reply to
T-bone
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For one, the boxes are typically owned by the cable company. It should not have been for sale in the first place.

It's possible the account it's tied to is still current, so it's still active. At some point, it will probably be shut down.

Another possibility is that it has been hacked.

Whether or not it will work outside it's native area depends on how it's working in the first place. At some point, they WILL find out, and you could find yourself paying a steep fine, and maybe time in jail.

Reply to
Andrew Rossmann

It's possible someone moved in a real hurry. That is, they disconnected the box and only later remembered to call to cancel the cable service. It's also possible that the box has been modified. I hear there are people who are quite good at doing that. Don't know, as I've never tried it. -Dave

Reply to
Dave C.

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