Rob Browning writes: > Now my question, since I don't know too much about cable modems, is > what's the chance that I could get one of these (by letting them > install it for Win95 on a useless partition) and then set it up under > Debian? I know they're using Motorola cable modems that connect to > your machine via an ethernet card, and I know that you get a dynamic > IP whenever you initially fire up your computer and click their "start > button", but that's the extent of my knowledge. Mainly I don't know > if they've got some proprietary way to configure the connection.
The chance is probably pretty good. I currently have Shaw wave's cable modem access. Hookup is almost trivial. Shaw supports windows/mac installations but for linux 'you're on your own' No big deal. I installed the 10baseT 10Mb/sec ethernet card and created a kernel with the appropriate ne2000 driver. They installed the cable connection, plugged in the cable modem and tested the connection with one of their laptops. When they were done and satisfied that it was working I plugged the cable modem into my ethernet card and started the dhcpcd client program (the cable ethernet card is eth0) The client program basically did all the rest for me (did ifconfig etc for the DHCP protocol IP numbers) Setup was extremely painless. (which was a wonderful surprise) The only thing I had to deal with after was to unhook the automatic update of /etc/resolv.conf when the ethernet link is brought up. (the dhcp client wants to clobber that file all the time with my providers nameserver info... I run my own nameserver so I'd like to keep it ;) As long as your cable modem provider uses DHCP protocol and you can plug it into your ethernet card with a 10baseT connector you should be all set. The Linux setup is basically just like any other ethernet connection when the system is up and running -- as far as Linux is concerned it's an ethernet network connection... it doesn't 'see' the cable modem at all. HTH, Bernt. -- Bernt T. Hansen - Norang Consulting Incorporated --- [EMAIL PROTECTED] Computer Systems/ - 235 Bellamy Road N., Scarborough - phone: (416)431-6216 Analyst - Ontario, Canada M1J-2L7 ---------- fax: (416)431-2617 PGP Public Key fingerprint = CB 99 EC 07 DE F8 D5 8D 59 99 A5 E7 7E 7A 8C 9C -------- PS. Now the sad part... We're moving soon... out of the service area of Shaw Cable... I'm going to have internet withdrawal for sure.... I've had this wonderful cable modem access since February and I'm addicted ;) Dialup access sucks compared to this. Bth. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
