Cable -Satellite are the cards different somehow

[trigger]

Hi
I have installed a few systems for Norweigans that bring their own cards and sometimes use their own receivers, but sometimes we have to supply a Conax capable box. This has worked well in the past. We receive very limited channels here but the ones we do are the important ones to them.
As far as I know all the cards have been for satellite.
Recently I had a lady wanting an install and she had a cable receiver and card. She obviously lives in a cabled area but we put her card in a satellite receiver and it opened the channels no problem.
But now the card has stopped working with the exp date showing 09/03/13
According to Canal Digital payments are all up to date and many refreshes have been sent but the card will not open the channels.

So my question is:

Are the cable and Satellite cards different somehow?

Even though it worked in a sat receiver once is it looking for a different type of activation signal?
All other cards seem to be able to keep themselves "alive" with the limited channels that we do get so why this one has stopped is a mystery.

Has anyone successfully used the same card in a cable box and a satellite receiver?

Thanks

 

[Channel Hopper]

The broadcaster is probably trying an upgrade via the local broadband network. If her system is not connected to anything that accepts the upgrade (which a satellite receiver is unlikely to do, unless it has an ethernet connection which is programmed to accept a service running offshore), then the card will not see the data for the next year of subscription.

Does you custmer have relatives back home she can post the card to ?

 

[smoggy07]

Canal Digital cable cards and Canal Digital satellite cards "should not" be interchangeable, even if they share the same flavour encryption system i.e. Conax, it should work differently (think if Nagra3 was cracked wide open in the US on satellite, that would not mean we could bring their cards to the UK for our Nagra3 cable system)

The only thing I can think of is they both use the Conax encryption and by fluke or some other strange reason, the keys from Feb to March where the same on both cards.

With digital cable in the UK, the cable box talks to the headend via something called the return path, this is like the UK Sky Digital boxes call home via landline feature
The cable box, receives a signal from the headend and sends a valid reply via the return path, it`s used for PPV, interactive features and also to make sure all the receivers on one subscription are all in the same property (something which they can`t do all that well/something that is easy to fool within a street or two lol)
It may well be that the card was expecting the next set of keys via a 2 way communication between the box and the headend or it may be that the headend has tried to talk to the box on a number of occasions and the box has not replied so the headend has blocked the box/card (not quite sure how that would work unless their cable playout and satellite playout center(s) are in the same building/room and is split between one feed going to the cable trunk and one feed going to the satellite uplink from the same playout source?)

What she would need to do is send the card back home to a friend who lives in a cabled area (with a live cable feed and receiver), leave it on stream for a few hours and see if it comes back to life or if they pair their cable cards to the cable boxes she would need to send the card and box back, leave them on stream for a few hours and see what happens

TBH tho if their cable system dishes out the keys after talking to/interrogating the box, the card will only go off again at the next key roll, if it works on satellite at all when she gets it back (it may well have just been some strange fluke that both sat and cable used the same keys at the same time)

EDIT

Is the cable box/card local to you/her or is it from Norway? and is she living in a cabled area now, or back home?