Re: cable modem + wireless router

Jose Rodriguez <josec.rodriguez@xxxxxxxxx> hath wroth:

That's because using the MAC address for authentication is a PITA.
It's not the MAC address in the cable modem that gets registered. It's
the one in the router which tends to change.

Uhm, I'm not sure whether I get this. Why would the router's MAC
change? I read about the need to clone MAC addresses in the router
in cases where other machines had been previously registered, but
nothing about changing the same router's address.

People buy new routers all the time, especially if there's a wireless
access point inside. The ISP has control over the cable modem, but
not the router, which is usually supplied by the customer. In the
bad old days of early cable broadband, the idea behind identification
was to restrict the customer to only connecting one computah. MAC
authentication was fine for that as long as the customer plugged the
computah into the cable modem direction. However, with an NAT router
in between, the ISP can't see the computer(s) and ends up
authenticating the router instead of the computah. I think most ISP's
finally gave up on the idea of counting computers (and billing for
them) about 6 years ago. The few that kept up the practice to the
bitter end probably got tired of chronic support calls from customers
where nothing worked after changing the hardware.

One problem at a time, agreed.

Can I change my mind? Since you already have the router and wireless,
you could probably setup the wireless part in advance. Same with the
WAN setup on the router. Just DHCP is fine. After you get the cable
modem running with a directly connected computah, power everything
off, wait a little will for things to reset, and then plug in the
router. It should work without additional tweaking.

Virgin, and I believe it's a general thing, has zero support for
Linux.

The Linux community generally takes care of itself. More interesting
is that they only support what they sell, which means that calling
Virgin for help with a store bought wireless router is going to be a
problem. Anyway, even the most ardent Linux zealot runs WINE or some
other emulator for such ocassions.

Maybe the right thing to do to push things forward would be
doing as you said and making the guy to do it, although I can
imagine they'd just repeat "sorry, it's in the terms & conditions,
we do only Mac and Windows".

Expediency has its benifits. Did you notice that Virgin apparently
offered a customer install plan for less money? You seem qualified to
do your own install. However, since you're paying for the install,
you might was well watch the installer earn their pay. There's quite
a bit more to installing a cable modem than just plug-n-play. The
line levels need to be checked, splitters or directional couplers may
need to be installed, some cable run, terminators where necessary, and
the usual performance checks. Locally, if the customer has a Mac or
Linux, the installer will drag out their PC, which they use for
testing anyway, and do the setup with it.

Be it as it may, I don't have the
patience to see somebody struggling to do a dirt, half-finished job
when I can do it myself.

You could have opted for a self-install. As for the lack of patience,
I think you might find it entertaining if not educational. I don't do
much cable work, but the local telco installers are more than happy to
disgorge a wealth of cool information, such as test numbers, test web
sites, organizational detail, procedures, expansion plans, system
topology, and such. Some of my best espionage was done by playing
intelligent, but uninformed, and letting the installer fill in the
gaps.

Something that worries me is that I received a letter from Virgin
where they provide the codes to set the cable modem up, including
an extra code for Vista...I don't get why would Vista need this
extra thing. Bah.

MS decided to change the way DHCP works in Vista. It was a minor
change, but it broke many DHCP servers.
<http://support.microsoft.com/kb/928233>

PS.Since BT had the brilliant idea of locking their routers up,
I'll have to flash it before proceeding. If anything
unusual/interesting arises I'll write back so maybe somebody finds
it useful.

There is a point where a new wireless router might be less work. Good
luck.


--
Jeff Liebermann jeffl@xxxxxxxxxx
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558
.

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