I must say up front that I know nothing about IKS type receivers and have read very little about them. I believe what happens is a unit is connected to the internet and gets its up dates from a server somewhere. Does everyone use the same server(s)? I have no interest to use an IKS receiver nor do I plan on using one but was just wondering if this is possible: Let's say a group of maybe 20 close friends had their own server and only those 20 or so people had access to it. Then there would be more groups that did the same thing, etc. Kinda like people in a small subdivision having their own server and no one outside that subdivision could access it. Would this work? I'm just throwing this up for discussion as I'm just interested in what is feasible. Please don't look at my posts as I have been on here in the past numerous times and just came back after being out of this FTA stuff for a long time.

I must say up front that I know nothing about IKS type receivers and have read very little about them. I believe what happens is a unit is connected to the internet and gets its up dates from a server somewhere. Does everyone use the same server(s)?

Everyone with one brand of box pretty much uses the same servers.

I have no interest to use an IKS receiver nor do I plan on using one but was just wondering if this is possible: Let's say a group of maybe 20 close friends had their own server and only those 20 or so people had access to it. Then there would be more groups that did the same thing, etc. Kinda like people in a small subdivision having their own server and no one outside that subdivision could access it. Would this work?
Yes. It certainly would work, with only one card, with 10 people. They would have to access the server every 8-15 seconds or whenever they changed the channel. I have heard 15 seconds, I have read in N2 doc 8 seconds, and some providers reduce that time in order to put stress on the servers.