Previous boxes include New Wave, EchoStar, TM 5400 and Spider 9000HD.

The Spider's Ethernet and router both blew during last week's electrical storms.

Router replaced - but the damage to the Spider motherboard has rendered it FTA.

So after 5 lazy years it's time to roll up the sleeves and do a bit of work.

Making a knee jerk buy, I've already managed to brick a new HD6000 - but hope to get it restored later this week with the arrival of a usb/null modem cable.

In the limited time this machine was operating - I struggled to get it setup on a basic non usals motorised system. Initial impressions have been mixed, with rapid channel change, lightning fast Ethernet, - but it's far from the the plug and play of previous Spiders, with difficult setup,navigation and poor skin.

I hope to learn how to get the best out of the box, assuming I can flash the required boot file to it and bring it back from the dead.

In the event that my view of this box doesn't improve - I'll be in the market for a better standard of kit in the near future.