Moving your line to a new receiver

Published September 2026

A new box does not need a new line. Here is what to copy across, why the old box has to stop first, and what stays exactly as it was.

You have replaced the receiver, or you are moving the good box to the living room and putting something else in the bedroom. The line comes with you. A line is an account on the server, not something bound to a particular piece of hardware, so there is nothing to buy again and nothing to tell us about.

What actually moves

Four details, and they are the same four you were given when the line was created:

• Both hostnames, one per server.
• The username.
• The password.

That is the whole line. Understanding your line breaks down what each field does and why there are two hostnames rather than one.

The expiry date is a property of the line, not the receiver, so it is untouched. Same account, same end date, different box.

Take it off the old receiver first

This is the step people skip, and it is the one that causes the confusing result.

Two receivers connecting with the same username knock each other offline. Not “one wins and one fails” but both flapping, which looks like an unstable line rather than a configuration mistake. So before you set up the new box, delete or comment out the entries on the old one and stop the softcam there.

If the old box is going in a cupboard, switching it off is enough. If it is being passed on to someone else, clear the config properly rather than leaving working credentials on a receiver you no longer control.

The exception is if you want both boxes live at once. That is not a move, it is a second room, and one line, multiple receivers covers how it works.

Copy the config rather than retyping it

Most failed moves come down to a typo in a hostname or a password, often a character that is easy to misread when it is written on a piece of paper.

Our config generator takes your details and produces the formatted entries ready to paste, with both hostnames included so the new box has failover from the start. Put both in rather than only the first: that is the entire point of having two servers, and a box configured with one of them will drop when that host is busy.

If the new receiver runs OScam rather than CCcam, the OScam quickstart covers the equivalent file, and CCcam or OScam is worth a look if the new box has given you a reason to reconsider.

Then restart and confirm

The softcam reads its config at startup, so a restart is required before anything will happen. After that, tune an encrypted channel you know the line carries. If it decrypts, you are finished.

If it does not, work through the field guide to a dead line rather than assuming the move broke something. The usual answers are a typo, a softcam that was never restarted, and an old box still connecting in the background.

If the new box is a different make

The setup differs slightly between images and manufacturers, mostly in where the config file lives. Our receiver compatibility checker lists the common boxes, and the CCcam quickstart has the paths.

If you are still shopping for the box

One thing worth knowing before you buy: the line does not constrain the choice. Any receiver running an Enigma2 image with a softcam works, so pick the box on its tuner, its build and its support rather than on compatibility with a service.

And if you are moving away from another provider rather than another box, run both side by side first. A free 3-day trial on the new receiver, during an evening that matters, tells you whether to complete the move before you commit to anything.