Good news on the vacation home, I shut down the old 211 and hooked up the new 211k. It ran through all the switch checks and downloaded software, then asked about the TV and asked about the old receiver being replaced. It spun its wheels, tried accessing our account, but it failed to register. Calling Dish, I was able to get the new receiver added to the vacation account and turn off the 211.
After it was activated, the message popped up saying that EHD support was enabled, so I plugged in the EHD and all programs were watchable, even the oldest.
So, I did my family Tech Support duty by replacing the old flaky ViP 211. It has had a long life, and it now just sitting in a box, waiting to be called back up to the Majors.
One thing I noted was the Security card in the 211 was a G3 card and the new 211k is a G4 card (same as the other 211k).