CCcam Server Forum: Config, Setup & Troubleshooting

If you've spent any time on a cccam server forum, you already know the quality varies wildly. Some threads are genuinely useful. Most are people posting C-lines that stopped working three years ago, or asking the same "card not found" question with zero log output attached. This guide pulls together what actually works — real config syntax, real diagnostic commands, and the kind of migration knowledge that forum threads usually bury across 47 pages of noise.

This is written for people who already have a receiver running, have tried the obvious stuff, and need specific technical answers fast.

What CCcam Forum Users Actually Ask (And What Works)

The honest answer is that most cccam server forum traffic hasn't changed much since 2012. Same questions, same half-answers, same people recommending configs that were written for CCcam 2.1.x on hardware that nobody runs anymore. That context matters before you try to apply anything you find in an old thread.

Top Recurring Thread Topics in CCcam Communities

The threads that get the most activity — and have the most useful answers buried in them — tend to cluster around a few core problems:

• C-line not connecting — usually a port or credential issue, occasionally a protocol version mismatch
• Card found but channel freezing — ECM timeout, high hop count, or ISP throttling
• Migrating from CCcam to OScam — by far the most technically dense topic since about 2016
• Port forwarding behind NAT — especially since CGNAT became common with IPv4 exhaustion
• Log file interpretation — people post logs without understanding what they're seeing

Why Most CCcam Forum Answers Are Outdated or Incomplete

CCcam development is frozen. The last meaningful version was 2.3.x, and there's no active maintainer pushing updates. That means any thread from before 2016 might be referencing a binary that behaves differently from what you're running now — and nobody in the thread will flag that discrepancy.

The community shifted hard toward OScam after 2016 because OScam is still actively maintained, supports multiple protocols natively, and runs cleaner on modern hardware. A lot of the best sysadmins who used to answer CCcam questions are now answering OScam questions instead. So the good answers moved.

How to Frame a Technical Question to Get Useful Answers

If you post "my C-line doesn't work please help" you will get nothing useful. Post this instead:

• Receiver model and Enigma2 image version (e.g., OpenATV 7.3 on Vu+ Duo4K)
• CCcam version — check with CCcam --version or look at the log header
• The relevant config lines, sanitized — replace your actual hostname with server.example.com and your password with XXXXXXXX before posting. Never post real credentials publicly.
• The exact error line from /tmp/CCcam.log, not a paraphrase of it
• Output of ss -tlnp | grep 12000 to confirm whether the port is even listening

That five-line summary will get you a real answer in one reply instead of five pages of guesswork.

CCcam Server Config Reference: Files, Syntax, and Port Setup

This is where most guides fall apart — they describe what config lines do without showing actual syntax. Here's the real stuff.

Core Config File Locations: /etc/CCcam.cfg and Variants

On most standard Enigma2 images, the config lives at /etc/CCcam.cfg. On some OpenATV and OpenPLI builds, it's at /var/etc/CCcam.cfg. If you're not sure which one your image is reading, check the init script:

cat /etc/init.d/CCcam

Look for the CONFIGFILE variable. That's the canonical path for your build. Don't assume.

On non-Enigma2 devices — Raspberry Pi, x86 Linux boxes — the path depends entirely on how CCcam was installed. Common locations are /usr/local/etc/CCcam.cfg or wherever the binary was compiled to look. Check the startup script or run strings /usr/bin/CCcam | grep cfg to find the hardcoded default.

One thing that silently kills configs on Linux: Windows-style CRLF line endings. If you edited CCcam.cfg in Notepad on Windows and transferred it over, run dos2unix /etc/CCcam.cfg before blaming anything else. Parse failures from CRLF are completely silent — CCcam just ignores the malformed lines.

C-line and F-line Syntax Explained with Real Examples

A C-line connects your box to an upstream CCcam server as a client:

C: server.example.com 12000 myusername mypassword {2 1}

The fields are: hostname, port, username, password, and optionally {hop reshare} in curly braces. The hop value here is what you request from the server; the reshare value controls whether your box will reshare the card to connected clients.

An F-line defines a local user allowed to connect to your box:

F: clientuser clientpassword {2 1} 0 0 0 0

The trailing zeros control CAID filtering and au (auto-update) settings. Most users leave these at zero for unrestricted access.

Default Port 12000 and When to Change It

CCcam listens on TCP port 12000 by default. In CCcam.cfg this is controlled by the SERVER PORT directive:

SERVER PORT : 12000

If your ISP is blocking port 12000 — which happens more often now due to DPI-based anti-piracy filtering — you can shift to a less scrutinized port like 8080 or 443. But every C-line pointing to your server needs to be updated with the new port number, and you need to update your firewall rules:

iptables -A INPUT -p tcp --dport 12000 -j ACCEPT

If you change to port 443, replace 12000 in that command. Also update any NAT DNAT rules if you're behind a router.

Behind CGNAT — which many ISPs now use — port forwarding is impossible at the router level because you don't have a real public IP. The workaround is a VPN tunnel (WireGuard works well) to a VPS with a public IP, then reverse-proxy the CCcam port through the tunnel. It adds 10-30ms latency but it's the only reliable solution under CGNAT.

Hop Count Configuration and What N: Lines Control

Hop count is how many servers a card has passed through before reaching you. Hop 1 is a direct card. Hop 3 means it's been reshared twice. Each hop adds latency and instability.

The MAX_HOPS setting controls how deep your server will accept reshared cards:

MAX HOPS : 3

Default is 10, which is garbage for production use. Set it to 2 or 3. You'll refuse deeply cascaded cards, which is exactly what you want — they're slow and unreliable anyway.

N-lines are for Newcamd protocol connections, not CCcam protocol. Syntax:

N: server.example.com 15050 myuser mypass 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14

The 14-byte DES key at the end is Newcamd-specific. Don't confuse N-lines with C-lines — they're different protocols and different ports.

Cascading Limits and Why MAX_HOPS Matters

Beyond ECM latency, a high MAX_HOPS value creates another problem: your server will cache and advertise cards it can barely decrypt reliably. Clients connect, request ECM, and get timeouts because the upstream chain is 6 hops deep with a 900ms round-trip time. Keeping MAX_HOPS at 2-3 forces your server to only advertise cards it can actually serve.

NEWCAMD and CAMD3 Listener Blocks in CCcam.cfg

To serve Newcamd clients from CCcam, add a listener block:

NEWCAMD LISTEN PORT : 15050

For CAMD3 protocol clients:

CAMD3 LISTEN PORT : 15000

Both require corresponding firewall rules. And if you're running OScam and CCcam on the same box simultaneously, you'll hit a port 12000 bind conflict — only one process can own the port. Decide which one is the server and which is the client, or run them on separate ports.

Migrating from CCcam to OScam: Forum-Proven Steps

The cccam server forum community largely moved to OScam between 2016 and 2018. If you're still on CCcam purely because you haven't migrated, now's a good time. OScam speaks CCcam protocol natively, so your existing C-lines work without modification on the client side.

Why the Community Shifted to OScam After 2016

OScam is actively maintained, handles multiple protocols in a single instance, has a web interface, and gives you per-client statistics that CCcam never provided. CCcam's development stopped and nobody's fixing bugs. For a production server, that's a problem.

oscam.server and oscam.user Config Equivalents to CCcam Lines

A CCcam C-line translates to an OScam reader block in /etc/oscam/oscam.server:

[reader]
label = myserver
protocol = cccam
device = server.example.com,12000
user = myusername
password = mypassword
group = 1
cccversion = 2.3.0

A CCcam F-line (local user) translates to an account block in /etc/oscam/oscam.user:

[account]
user = client1
pwd = clientpassword
group = 1
au = 1

Converting C-lines to OScam Reader Blocks

The conversion is mechanical — hostname and port go into the device field as hostname,port, username and password map directly. Add cccversion = 2.3.0 if your upstream server runs CCcam 2.3.x. Mismatching this field doesn't always break the connection but can cause silent card list exchange failures — the handshake completes but you get zero cards. That's the 2.1.x vs 2.3.x compatibility issue in practice.

Setting Up CCcam Protocol Listener in OScam (Port 12000)

To serve CCcam clients from OScam, add this block to /etc/oscam/oscam.conf:

[cccam]
port = 12000
reshare = 1
version = 2.3.0

This tells OScam to listen on port 12000 for incoming CCcam connections. Existing CCcam clients with F-line credentials will connect using their original C-lines unchanged.

oscam.conf Global Settings That Affect CCcam Clients

In the [global] section of oscam.conf, the ecmwhitelist and preferlocalcards settings affect how OScam prioritizes decryption. Set preferlocalcards = 1 to always try local card readers before going upstream — this reduces ECM time for locally-attached cards.

Logs go to /var/log/oscam/ by default. The main log file is oscam.log. For live monitoring: tail -f /var/log/oscam/oscam.log.

Testing Connectivity with nc and telnet After Migration

Before debugging OScam config, verify the port is actually reachable:

nc -zv server.example.com 12000

If that fails, the problem is network-level — firewall, DNS, or routing — not config. Fix the network first. If it succeeds but OScam still doesn't connect, then you're looking at an authentication or protocol issue.

OScam's web interface runs on port 8888 by default: http://receiver-ip:8888. This gives you live ECM times, reader status, and connected clients. Use it. It's the single best diagnostic tool available for OScam setups.

Diagnosing Connection Problems: The Sysadmin Checklist

Don't skip steps here. Every time someone posts on a cccam server forum saying "nothing works," it turns out they skipped the port check and their firewall was blocking everything.

Reading CCcam Log Output: What Each Line Means

The log at /tmp/CCcam.log shows connection attempts, ECM requests, and card sharing events. A successful connection looks like:

connected to server.example.com:12000 as myusername

A card sharing event shows the CAID and SID being decrypted. If you see connections but no ECM activity, the card isn't being shared from the upstream server — that's a server-side reshare limit issue, not your config.

Enable debug logging by setting LOG LEVEL : 8 in CCcam.cfg. Monitor with tail -f /tmp/CCcam.log. Disable debug after troubleshooting — on receivers with flash storage, continuous debug logging will degrade write performance and can shorten flash lifespan.

Card Not Found vs. Card Not Shared — Different Root Causes

These look similar but have completely different fixes. Card not found means CCcam searched all available servers and nobody has a card for the requested CAID/SID combination. The channel simply isn't available through your current server setup. Check what CAIDs are actually listed in the CCcam info page at http://receiver-ip:16001.

Card not shared means a connected server has the card but won't reshare it to you. The upstream server has reshare set to 0, or you've exceeded their hop limit, or CAID filtering is blocking the specific channel. These are server-side policy decisions you can't override from the client.

ECM Timeout Errors and How Hop Count Affects Them

ECM timeout means the decryption request went unanswered within the timeout window. Under 300ms is clean. 300-800ms will work but may stutter on fast-moving sports content. Over 800ms causes visible freezing.

High hop count is the most common cause. Each additional hop adds 50-150ms of latency in typical conditions. A 6-hop card can easily push ECM times over 1000ms. Reducing MAX_HOPS to 2-3 forces CCcam to use faster upstream paths.

If ECM times are consistently high even on a hop-1 card, the bottleneck is either the server's load or your network path. Try ping server.example.com — if you're seeing 200ms+ ping times, that's your answer.

NAT and Router Port Forwarding for CCcam Servers

Standard port forward in iptables for a local CCcam server at 192.168.1.100:

iptables -t nat -A PREROUTING -p tcp --dport 12000 -j DNAT --to-destination 192.168.1.100:12000
iptables -A FORWARD -p tcp -d 192.168.1.100 --dport 12000 -j ACCEPT

Under CGNAT, this won't work because your router's WAN IP isn't a real public IP — it's a private address in another NAT layer your ISP controls. The only workarounds are a VPN tunnel to a VPS, or switching to an ISP that gives you a real public IP. Some ISPs offer this for a small monthly fee and it's worth asking.

Firewall Rules Blocking Port 12000 on Linux Hosts

Check your current iptables rules first:

iptables -L INPUT -n --line-numbers

If you see a DROP or REJECT rule that comes before your ACCEPT rule for port 12000, that's your problem. Rule order matters in iptables. Insert your ACCEPT rule before any blanket DROP:

iptables -I INPUT 1 -p tcp --dport 12000 -j ACCEPT

Also check if your ISP is blocking the port at their level with the nc test from an external host, not from inside your own network.

Clock Sync Issues Causing Authentication Failures

This one is genuinely underdiagnosed. Some CCcam and OScam implementations use HMAC-based handshake verification that requires server and client clocks to be within roughly 30 seconds of each other. If your receiver's RTC battery is dead — which happens on older sat boxes — the clock drifts badly after every reboot and you get intermittent auth failures that look exactly like server-side credential rejections.

Fix it: install NTP on your receiver. On Enigma2: opkg install ntp ntpdate and sync on boot with ntpdate pool.ntp.org. Then monitor with date to confirm the clock is sane. If the clock is wrong every time after a power cycle, your RTC battery needs replacing.

Checking Active Connections: CCcam Info Page on Port 16001

CCcam runs an HTTP info page at http://receiver-ip:16001. This shows you connected clients, available CAIDs, current ECM times, and hop distances. This is the fastest way to verify what cards your server actually has access to. If you're seeing "card not found" but port 16001 shows no CAIDs listed at all, your C-line either isn't connecting or the upstream server isn't sharing anything.

Evaluating a CCcam Server Source: Technical Criteria (No Names)

The question people ask on every cccam server forum is "which server is good?" — and it's the wrong question. The right question is what technical indicators tell you if any server is reliable. Here's how to evaluate without guessing.

What Server-Side Specs Matter: Uptime, ECM Response Time, Redundancy

ECM response time is the primary metric. Under 300ms is acceptable for normal content. Sports broadcasts at 25fps need sub-200ms consistently or you'll see stuttering during fast motion. Ask for ECM time statistics, not just uptime percentages.

Hop count of 1 (direct card) is the gold standard. Hop 2 is generally fine. Hop 3 and above introduces increasing instability — if one reshare server in the chain drops, your ECM fails. A server advertising direct cards at a reasonable price is worth more than a cheap heavily cascaded connection.

Redundancy means multiple card servers in a pool, not just one box. Ask whether there's failover if the primary server goes offline at 2am on a Saturday.

How to Test a Trial C-line Before Committing

A proper test runs 24-48 hours minimum, covering both off-peak daytime and peak evening load (typically 19:00-23:00 local time). Test ECM times across multiple channels and CAIDs, not just one. Check at midnight when server load is low, then again at 20:30 on a Friday when load peaks.

The CCcam info page at port 16001 lets you monitor ECM times in real time during the test. Log the values. If ECM times are under 300ms consistently across both periods, that's a server worth keeping.

Red Flags in a C-line Offer: Shared Credentials, High Hop Count

If you find a C-line posted publicly on a forum with the real username and password visible — don't use it. Those credentials are burned. Every person who saw that post has the same C-line, the server will reject duplicates or throttle them, and you'll get unreliable service at best.

A hop count of 4+ advertised as a selling point is a red flag. Nobody with a direct card needs to advertise the hop count. If someone's selling "fast stable" service but the CCcam info page shows hop 5 entries, the math doesn't work.

Protocol Version Compatibility Between Server and Client

CCcam 2.2.x and 2.3.x have minor handshake differences. In most cases they interoperate, but the card list exchange can fail silently when there's a major version mismatch — your client connects, the handshake completes, but you see zero cards and no error message. If this happens, check what version the server is running and set your client's cccversion field (in OScam) to match.

CCcam versions before 2.2.x are deprecated and shouldn't appear in any current setup. If a thread references 2.0.x or 2.1.x config syntax, that thread is too old to be reliable.

What a Legitimate Test Period Should Look Like Technically

48 hours, not 1 hour. Real issues — server reboots, card offline periods, load spikes — don't show up in a 30-minute test. A legitimate test period should include at least one overnight window to catch any scheduled maintenance or cron-triggered restarts the provider runs. Monitor the log the whole time with tail -f /tmp/CCcam.log and count the disconnection events. More than 3-4 disconnects in 48 hours is a problem.