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3. Regular Cable Modem ISPs

If you think you have the card recognized you have to now look at the entry for your ISP. I have sorted the information according to a provider because setups are mostly ISP specific.

3.1 MediaOne Express

MediaOne Express is a Internet cable service provided by MediaOne. The hardware setup consists of a cable modem produced by LanCity or General Instruments which plugs into an ethernet card using a 10BaseT (UTP-45) cable. Assignment of IP addresses and other networking information is done using DHCP which stands for Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol. The only thing you need to do is read the DHCP mini-HOWTO and configure your system appropriately. There is no other necessary configuration. DHCP mini-HOWTO can be found at http://metalab.unc.edu/LDP/HOWTO/mini/DHCP.html

Information about MediaOne Service can be found at http://www.mediaone.com.

3.2 @Home

@Home uses a similar setup to MediaOne. However, there are a few fundamental differences, outlined by contributors. Since @Home spans different geographic locations you might get assigned different kind of equipment and have slightly different kind of setups.

Before you try anything, go to control panel, network, and properties for your network card. Write down all of the information. You will need it later.

TCI, the company that runs @Home issues a Etherlink III 3c509b NIC for all of their customers. What TCI does not tell you is that when they install your ethernet card, it is in PnP mode. Now in Slakware, if you uncomment the proper line for this card, everything will appear to be working fine. There will be no system problems, but the 'PC' light on your CyberSURFR modem will never turn on. If you are using Slakware, and are having this problem, reboot in DOS and skip the next paragraph.

In RedHat 5, your system will have some trouble autodetecting the card. If you try to pass the paramaters manually, the system will hang. This should be obvious that your card is not setup properly. Before wasting anymore time, reboot in DOS (This is a must because as of 12/25/97, there is no utility written for Linux to turn off PnP and turn on ISA.)

TCI does not give out a utility disk for your ethernet card, so you must download the utility from one of 3Com's sites. Here is a link to 3COM's page for driver download.

http://support.3com.com/infodeli/tools/nic/index.htm

Once you have downloaded your driver files you will need to run them and disable the PNP mode of your network card.

What you've now done will make your ethernet card 'broken' in Windows 95. You'll need to go to Control Panel, Network, and remove the network card and the adapter. Reboot your computer, and again go back to control panel. Go to add/remove new hardware, and have it autodetect. It will automatically setup the correct i/o address for you. You will most likely need to reboot again. Now you should be in Windows 95, with the 'PC' light on your cable modem on. You will also notice that none of your internet applications seem to work, you can't ping, and you can't resolve DNS. You now must go back to control panels, network, and click on properties for your network card (not the adapter). Re-enter all the data you wrote down, and reboot.

With a little luck, your ethernet card should be working in Windows 95, and ready to rock in Linux.

If you live Hampton Roads, VA or Phoenix, AZ you should read a little note from Mark Solomon

With the @home service in Hampton Roads, VA, it is absolutly neccessary to run dhcpcd-0.70 (or higher) that supports the "-h" option to specify the hostname of your computer. Without this switch the @home dhcpcd server will not assign addresses.

More information on setting up dhcpcd-0.70 and @Home service with Intel Ether Express cards can be found at http://www.monmouth.com/~jay/Linux/

Notes for Baltimore, MD and Colleyville,TX:

In Baltimore subscribers are issued Intel Ether Express Pro 10 nics and a static IP number.

Notes for Milpitas, CA, USA (Joe Byrne byrne@well.com):

@Home service assignes 3Com 509b cards. IP addresses assigned statically.

Information about @Home Service can be found at http://www.home.com.

3.3 RoadRunner

RoadRunner is an Internet cable service provided by Excalibur Group (Time Warner). The hardware setup consists of a cable modem produced by Motorola and Toshiba which plugs into an ethernet card using a 10BaseT (UTP-45) cable. From what I can gather RR uses DHCP for IP assignment. In order to set up Linux to use DHCP you need to read the DHCP mini-HOWTO and configure your system appropriately. DHCP mini-HOWTO can be found at http://metalab.unc.edu/LDP/HOWTO/mini/DHCP.html

If this doesn't work out for you you should check out http://www.math.uakron.edu/RoadRunner/ for Akron, Ohio and http://people.qualcomm.com/karn/rr/index.html for San Diego, California. It might help solve your problem.

Another good site is http://www.vortech.net/rrlinux/.

Information about RoadRunner Service can be found at http://www.rr.com.

3.4 Rogers Wave

The hardware setup consists of a cable modem produced by LanCity which plugs into an ethernet card using a 10BaseT (UTP-45) cable.

When the cable modem is installed by Rogers Wave technicians you are assigned a static IP address. They should also provide you with information on your subnet mask, router (gateway) numbers and DNS numbers.

Other information about Rogers Wave Service can be found at http://www.rogerswave.ca.

3.5 Sunflower Cablevision

This information is provided by Andrew Novick:

"I recently saw your cable modem howto and I have an addition. Sunflower Cable is a company stricly in Lawrence KS, however we have a rather large Linux community because of the University of Kansas. On our local LUG mailing list, we are starting to get more and more questions on how to configure their linux machine for the cable modem. It is just regular static addressing, and the modem is made by Zenith."

To configure your Linux box make sure you get all the pertinent information from the Cablevision tech support or use these.

Have all those numbers written down before you proceed. To register, visit

http://www.sunflower.com

To register in the lawrence.ks.us domain contact Stephen Spencer at

gladiatr@artorius.sunflower.com

Under RedHat use Control Panel and Network Configuration to put in these numbers. Just say Add Interface, Device type=Ethernet, Device name=eth0 (this is zero not O in eth0) then fill out all the fields. Then click activate.

In Slackware type netconfig. When you are finished reboot and you should be up and running.

If this doesn't work make sure you do network card troubleshooting from the beginning of this document.

3.6 Jones Intercable

This information is provided by Bob Kimble:

Jones Internet Cable supplies a Hybrid cable modem that connects to your machine / network via 10BaseT ethernet. They provide you with a static IP address for your machine, and another static IP address for the modem. The modem acts as a gateway to their network. Your IP address and the modem IP address are on the same network and have the same network mask (in my case 255.255.255.0 -- 24 bits). They also provide two DNS IP addresses which you enter into your configuration. I just entered the numbers when I installed Red Hat Linux 5 and it worked like a champ from the beginning. Since then I have configured my Linux machine to enable IP masquerading and domain name services, and it now acts as a router for my entire private network. My other machines are connected via a private network using the addresses 192.168.0.x. They are running Windows 95, Windows NT (Intel and Alpha) and OS/2. My Linux machine has two IP addresses -- the one from the cable company and one from the 192.168.0.x private network. Everything works like a champ. All six machines can browse the web simultaneously. My kids are even able to connect to their favorite game site, "The Realm" from Sierra.

3.7 GTE Worldwind

This information is provided by Mike Hughes:

The information you provided for Rogers Wave works for GTE WorldWind cable modem services also. However, GTE's service is EXTREMELY slow, barely faster than ISDN. more information at

http://www.psilord.com

3.8 SpeedChoice, Phoenix, Arizona

According to Micah peenchee@asu.edu:

Just thought I'd let you know that in my area (Phoenix, AZ, usa) there is a company called speedchoice that provides cable modem service. The service uses a hybrid cable modem and the set up is almost identical to that of Jones intercable described in the howto. See Jones Cable. For any other issues mail Micah.

3.9 Cedar Falls Cybernet, Iowa

This information is provided thanks to Joe Breu breu@cfu.net

We are an ISP in Cedar Falls, Iowa that uses the Zenith HomeWorks Universal over our own Hybrid Fiber/Coax system. Our system uses no proprietary connection software and is straight TCP/IP connections. We do use DHCP, but will offer static IP addresses to customers requesting them because they cannot use DHCP.

3.10 Telstra Bigpond Cable, Australia

This information is provided by Geoff Conway gconway@vic.bigpond.net.au

Disclaimer:

The information contained herein is in no way the responsibility of Big Pond Cable, Telstra Multimedia, Telstra, IBM Global Services Australia or any related company. Any loss or consequential damage associated with the attempted installation of the Big Pond Cable Linux software is the PERSONAL responsibility of whomsoever follows these instructions.

Big Pond Cable does not currently support Linux - so do not report faults to them regarding any aspect of the Linux installation and/or operation.

Big Pond Cable Linux Installation Notes. V 1.1 (12/03/98)

Change Note 1.1 12/3/98 - Corrected spelling of dhcpcd & rrdhcpcd

Linux is not officially supported by Big Pond Cable. However, the TMM cable infrastructure does allow Linux to be used - with the appropriate login client. The following installation notes should allow you to install the Linux software without too many difficulties.

The full client distribution of rrclientd was obtained from:

ftp://ftp.vortech.net/pub/rrlinux/rrclientd-1.3.tar.gz

I am running RedHat version 5 of Linux - but the documentation indicates that it will work with other releases.

Note that there is also more information in the rrclientd release than is documented here.

Procedure:

Problems

If you don't setup the PATH properly - then the login will fail with GSS_API complaints about non-supported checksum type.

If you don't make the needed changes to krb5.conf you'll also get a similar error.

If you are using your PC to dual/triple boot between W95/NT/Linux - the PC's CMOS clock will be altered by Linux - giving continual Kerberos errors if you try & login using NT. You need to login using Win95 first (which will fix the CMOS clock settings), then you can get in via NT.

Make sure you setup you PC time/timezone correctly in Linux. Note also that the /var/log/messages timestamps are a bit strange :) (possibly referenced to GMT)

3.11 Fibertel, Buenos Aires, Argentina

This information is provided by Pablo Godel

My name is Pablo Godel and want report that I'm using the cable service of Fibertel in Buenos Aires, Argentina and it works perfectly with Linux.

They gave me a static IP. The brand of the cablemodem is COM21 and the model is ComPort.

I connect it to the nic properly, configured in Linux and it worked perfectly.

More information about Fibertel can be found at http://www.fibertel.com.ar

3.12 Videotron (Videon), Canada

I don't have much information about Videotron except the fact that they use DHCP for the assignment of IP addresses and other networking information. Just read the DHCP mini-HOWTO (http://metalab.unc.edu/LDP/HOWTO/mini/DHCP.html) and configure your system appropriately. There is no other necessary configuration. Also important thing to note is that the Ethernet card that Videotron distributes is a NE2000 compatible PCI card for which you need to use

ne2k-pci driver

Additional information from Philip Gwyn (gwynp@artware.qc.ca):

They use Motorola CyberSURFR (sic) modems. This will give you an ethernet NIC when you sign up. They gave me a TMC NE2000 PCI clone, which Linux recognises as a "RealTek RTL-8029". It couldn't configure it propperly however, until I downloaded the manufacturer's driver disk and changed the media type to "auto-config".

While they can't guarantee to get it working with Linux, they will do a bit of hand holding so it works. Many of the tech-support have Linux-clues, as it were, even asking questions like "what kernel are you running?" "do you have the latest version of dhcpcd?". When their DHCP server broke, they even suggested I delete the cache files in /etc/dhcpcd to start over from zero, as it were. This worked.

Additional information from Mihai Petre (mihaip@videotron.ca):

Yes they are using DHCP for the tcp settings. They have also included dhcpcd on their ftp server at ( ftp://ftp.videotron.ca/pub/linux/). You can also try posting your problems on news.powersurfr.com newsgroup videon.linux.

Their only limitation regarding making a server is a 1 Gig upload limit and a 6 Gig download limit.

Information about Videotron can be found at http://www.videotron.ca

3.13 Telekabel (Teleweb), Austria

According to Andreas Kostyrka:

Information about Telekabel can be found at http://www.telekabel.at/

3.14 Tebecai, Netherlands

According to Frodo Looijaard:

Tebecai is yet another provider which uses a LANcity cable modem connected to a 10BaseT ethernet card. DHCP is used for configuration (see the DHCP mini-HOWTO at http://metalab.unc.edu/LDP/HOWTO/mini/DHCP.html). A step-by-step guide to install the cable modem under Linux can be found at http://huizen.dds.nl/~frodol/

(in dutch), but it is really very straightforward. You must only remember that your IP-address is not visible from the Internet (it is on the private 10.x.y.z subnet), so you can not setup a publicly available server.

Information about Tebecai can be found at http://www.tebenet.nl (in dutch only).

3.15 A2000, Netherlands

This information is provided by Johan List J.A.List@speed.A2000.nl:

Basically the way to go is the same as with Tebecai. A2000 provides cable internet access by means of a LANCity cable modem, connected to an 10BaseT ethernet card. This also works well for the "Vortex/Boomerang" cards by 3COM (I've got a 3COM Boomerang Fast Etherlink XL 10/100Mb TX Ethernet Adapter), providing you compile the Vortex/Boomerang drivers. (See the Linux Ethernet-HOWTO)

Setting up access can be done with DHCP (See the DHCP-Mini-HOWTO). A Dutch guide to setting up Internet access for A2000 is available at http://agvk.a2000.nl/LINUX/index.html.

Contrary to Tebecai, your IP-number *is* visible from the Internet, so take your precautions regarding security and safety when setting up a Linux machine using A2000 Internet access!!

3.16 Shaw Cable, Canada

According to Peng F. Mok pmok@shaw.wave.ca:

I recently signed up for a cable modem service from Shaw Cable here in Canada, which they have christened `Shaw Wave'. They also appear to have another service called `Shaw@Home' which they are using in some locations. Shaw has been upgrading their cable network for about a year and a half now, and now offer cable-modem service to a number of locations across Canada. Information about the `Shaw Wave' service can be found at http://www.shaw.wave.ca while information about the `Shaw@Home' service can be found at http://shaw.home.com General information about Shaw Cable can be found at http://www.shaw.ca

I thought I'd just drop you a line to inform you that your DHCP mini-HOWTO, (http://metalab.unc.edu/LDP/HOWTO/mini/DHCP.html) was very useful in helping me set up Linux to work with my cable-modem service, and that you might want to add `Shaw Wave' (and perhaps `Shaw@Home') to your Cable-Modem mini-HOWTO as another entry explaining how to set up Linux with the service. I don't have specific information on the `Shaw@Home' service yet, but from conversations I've had with Shaw technical support it seems that `Shaw@Home' is a partnership with `@Home' and involves the same features and setup procedure as that already described for `@Home' in the Cable-Modem mini-HOWTO document.

In both services Shaw Cable techs will come over and bring you two pieces of hardware -- a Motorola CyberSURFR cable-modem and either a 3Com EtherLink III 16-Bit ISA 3C509B-TPO NIC or an EtherLink XL PCI 3C900-TPO NIC. You have your choice of either an ISA or a PCI card depending on your needs, and these models only have the RJ-45 (UTP) connectors. The ISA cards come with PnP-mode enabled by default, so it may be necessary to boot into DOS, disable PnP operation, and configure the card to some base I/O address and IRQ setting which are available. Once this is done Linux should have no problems detecting the NIC at boot-time. I'm not sure about what needs to be done in the case of a PCI card since I don't currently have a PC which supports either PCI or PnP.

Note from another user:

Shaw now also issues SMC PCI ethernet cards. They give these out without boxes or manuals. I found out that these are the SMC EtherPower PCI RJ45 card (model 8432T). They use the DEC 21041 chip so the tulip ethernet driver is needed for it.

If you need to set up your POP3 mailboxes you can do that at following URL:

https://profile.home.net/Users/menu.htm

and you can login and setup the POP3 mailboxes that way.

Oh, and for the record, Shaw's technical support is horrendous. The best place to go for information is the athome.users-unix newsgroup (which is not even mentioned by any of the documentation) or please consult http://www.ee.ualberta.ca/~pmok/linux/

3.17 Cogeco Cable, Canada

This information is provided thanks to Terry O'Grady togrady@cgocable.net

I have a Cable Modem through a company called Cogeco Cable located in various parts of Canada. They are part of the "Wave" system which includes Rogers Cable and Shaw Cable. The technical setup is different for each provider though. They supplied me with a D-Link ethernet card (the version of that has changed since then but I believe are still using D-Link) and a Zenith modem. The Ip setup is easy since they use DHCP so all I did was install the dhcp daemon (http://metalab.unc.edu/LDP/HOWTO/mini/DHCP.html) and that was that. If you like you can list my e-mail address togrady@cgocable.net for anyone with questions.

3.18 Optimum Online, New York and Connecticut

This information is provided by Seth Greenfield ( islesfan@nassau.cv.net):

Optimum Online uses DHCP, and rrclientd in Linux, by John Clark. Check out http://www.netaxis.com/~wharris/optimum/index.html for instructions on how to set up your service with Linux.

Tell people who had private ips who have public ips now to change their /etc/resolv.conf to look like this... domain nassau.cv.net (or optonline.net depenind on the users mood) nameserver 167.206.112.3 nameserver 167.206.112.4 Other Than that its the same setup procedure note: the rrclientd software will work if you tell it dce-server and you specify the domain as optonline.net

3.19 Singapore Cable Vision, Singapore

This information is provided by Jieyao ( jieyao@letterbox.com):

SCV provides Motorola Cybersurfer modem connected to the network card via UTP cable. The IP setup is easy since they use DHCP so all you need to do is install the dhcp daemon (http://metalab.unc.edu/LDP/HOWTO/mini/DHCP.html). If you can't make access the first time, turn the modem off then on again.

3.20 Cable Wanadoo, France

This information is provided by Jerome SAUTRET ( Jerome.Sautret@wanadoo.fr):

I just read your Cable Modem HOWTO. I live in France, and I use Cable Wanadoo, the cable service of France Telecom, which is the main telecom operator in France. It is available in a few cities in France at the moment, like Angers and Metz. This service provides a dynamic IP address via DHCP. It uses a COM 21 modem plugged in a 10BaseT Ethernet card. The IP setup is easy just read the DHCP mini HOWTO (http://metalab.unc.edu/LDP/HOWTO/mini/DHCP.html).

3.21 Prime Cable Expressnet, Las Vegas, NV

This information is provided by jedi jedi@penguin.lcvm.com:

They use the Com21 which can either be connected directly to your 10baseT input or inserted into the downlink input on your router. Static IPs are available for $10 per month and the usual address assignment is through DHCP ( http://metalab.unc.edu/LDP/HOWTO/mini/DHCP.html )

More information can be obtained from http://penguin.lvcm.com

3.22 TVD, Belgium

This information is provided by Pierre-Yves Keldermans pykeldermans@usa.net:

At home, my cable-TV company is "TVD", it is the first company to offer internet on the cable in Belgium.

Hardware : LanCity cable modem & 10-Base-T NIC ( DLink ISA if you buy it from TVD )

Config : DHCP ( http://metalab.unc.edu/LDP/HOWTO/mini/DHCP.html )

Prices :

Speed :

>From TVD's mirror site : up to 250Kbytes/sec, very nice ( and YES, they have some Linux mirrors like redhat ... :-) ) >From internet : variable but rather good if the remote server isn't overloaded.

For more info : http://www.tvd.be and http://www.tvd.net

3.23 Telenet Vlaanderen, Belgium

This information provided by Karel Goderis (karel.goderis@pandora.be):

  Operator: Telenet Vlaanderen   - Operational in flemish speaking (northern) part of Belgium

  Hardware: Motorola CyberSURFR Wave Cable Modem using an RJ-45 Ethernet crosscable to a PC

Software: Standard config is Windoze + Modified Netscape for newbie installations, although Linux i386 support is there under the form of mirrored redhat.com software on the internal ftp servers  

IP Setup: DHCP address assignment (http://metalab.unc.edu/LDP/HOWTO/mini/DHCP.html) , single address only. Outgoing : all ports accepted, except mandatory use of Netscape Proxy on port 8080, and thus port 80 blocked. Incoming : ports 0-1024 blocked, but re-allocation of ports on Linux works fine.

  Pricing: one-off installation : BF 10000 (+-$ 250) + BF 3000 ($75) deposit for the cable modem (+$25 for Ethernet NIC if not present in pc) monthly rental       : BF 1500 ($40)

  Services: redhat.com netscape.com mirrors, quake I and II servers, proxy, mail relay and pop account (4 aliases) and the other usual stuff you need to survive on the net.

Caveats: Telenet states that you can download 300Mbytes/month, but this rule is not enforced unless there is a obvious abuse (i.e. you download 300Mbytes/*day* ;-) )  

More info at http://www.pandora.be/ or http://www.telenet.be/

3.24 Total-Web, United States

This information is provided by iota (iota@inaxx.net):            

I work for Convergence.com, a cable internet company who provides the network monitoring, technical support, and advice to cable providers (who, in turn, provide the internet service to their customers). Most of our markets are through Cablevision, one of the more popular cable providers in the eastern US. The service name that they operate their cable internet service under is "Total-Web". Customers are provided with a static IP; simply set this up like you would any other ethernet device under Linux. The modems we use are LanCity LCP's and COM21 ComPort's, but these devices should be transparent to your computer.

Total-Web is available in limited areas, including: Miami Beach, FL; Gwinnett County and Roswell, GA; Cookeville, Lebanon, and Columbia, TN; and many other test markets.

3.25 CyberCable, Paris, France

This information is provided by David Monniaux:

CyberCable gives you an ethernet card if you need one. It is a cheap NE2000 clone, ISA-Pnp or PCI I think. They only know how to set up the stuff for Windows, but reports from other people say that they let you use their access with other systems, provided you do the software setup yourself.

They use DHCP (http://metalab.unc.edu/LDP/HOWTO/mini/DHCP.html). DHCPcd in RedHat worked immediately. In RedHat's netcfg, this means selecting "DHCP configuration". There are still some problems sometimes: DHCP outputs some error messages, but things still work afterwards generally (?). This seems related to rebooting; it looks like the cable system doesn't reallocate the line for one minute after reboot.

CyberCable's web site is at http://www.cybercable.fr.

3.26 StjärnTV, Stockholm Sweden

This information is provided by Fredrik Staxaeng ( fstx@algorithmica.se ) :

StjärnTV sells a Bay Networks Versalar Cable Modem 100, and they include a NetGear ethernet card in the initial fee. Just set your interface to DHCP (http://metalab.unc.edu/LDP/HOWTO/mini/DHCP.html). Info about their service is available at http://www.starport.se


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