Two (or more) PC's with one cable modem?

May 12 10:17 UTC 1998

Does anyone know how I can get more than one computer to use my cable modem?
When I talked to Media One, the sales rep was more than happy to tell me that
I could do it, but the techs who installed it and the customer service people
told me that they don't support home networks, pretty much sayting that if
I wanted to hook up more pc's, I'd have to rent more modems from them, and
pay another $39.95 a month for the second pc. I've been told by a friend who
sets up networks for the local schools that I could use some kind of a proxy
server program, but I've tried 4 or 5 different ones with no luck. Both pc's
are running Win95 OSR2, with LinkSys EtherPCI LANCard II nics. They hook to
a LinkSys 5-port "Network in a Box" hub. Currently, the two pc's communicate
happily with each other (or other computers that are plugged into the hub),
but only one can use the cable modem. When it was installed, the techs took
the network address of the card in the main pc, "tying" the cable modem to
that card. The cable modem will work with that card in any other system, but
not with any other cards. Personally, I'd like to drive to Media One's office
and beat someone with the modem and tell them where to stick it. Any
suggestions?

response 2 of 18:

May 12 18:45 UTC 1998

I've used one such program briefly, and it worked fine.  Basically, what you
want is firewall software, and you usually have to pay for it.  

How does the cable modem work?  Does it connect to an existing network card?
Does it plug into a slot?

response 4 of 18:

May 13 00:26 UTC 1998

I think I've seen the software mentioned in #1, in a recent PCComputing issue.
Yes the cable modem does use a typical 10/100BaseT nic. I've got it plugged
into the hub, but only one pc can use it, that's where I'm having the
problems. The way it seems to work is similar to a large LAN. Opening up the
Network Neighbourhood shows me all the other computers hooked up on Media
One's system (at least the ones that use M$ networking protocols). The really
odd thing is that some of the other pc's can see some of the other workgroups
in the entire network, but can't access them. I'm hoping to find a cheap way
of doing this, yet without having to get another modem (or more). 

response 6 of 18:

May 15 09:46 UTC 1998

I discovered today that LANCity (the company that makes Mediaone's cable
modems), has other models that *DO* support up to 16 users. Of course,
Mediaone won't tell you about those _until_ you mail their boneheaded
sysadmins the specs of their own equipment. (Similar to what I've been doing
with the specs of their cable boxes.) Mediaone has recently disabled file and
print sharing over their network, due to the large number of morons who get
the Mediaone service so they can connect to AOL 50 times faster complaining
that others on the network could access their pc's because they're too stupid
to, 1: own a pc, 2: figure out how to disable file and print sharing on their
own fragging computers when they don't need it enabled in the first damn
place. Mediaond claims that this is for their own security reasons, not those
of their customers. It's getting to the point where I'd love to waltz into
their office and beat whoever runs the circus that they call an ISP with a
three-day old roadkill raccoon. Of course, they now say that they _may_ offer
networking via their cable modems as part of a "commercial" package in the
future, that of course, will cost extra. I'm really wondering if ISDN would
be a better alternative. Maybe Ameritekh (yes I spell it with a "k") will get
better after their merger with SBC. 
Thanks for the info. Just a few questions, 1: how much RAM should I use in
the linux box? I have a 5x86-133 that currently runs 8MB, with a chance to
acquire 16MB soon. Will 24MB be enough or too much? 2: How much HDD space do
I need? The 5x86 currently has a 540MB HDD. 3: Where can I get a copy of
linux, or should I look for another OS like FreeBSD? 4: how do I set up the
server? (I know next to nothing about linux/unix/etc.).

response 8 of 18:

May 18 02:51 UTC 1998

Last I heard ( and that was a while back ) the Media One cable modems were
not supported in Linux.  It would be nice if it was.  Anyone know if this has
happened yet?

response 10 of 18:

May 18 10:55 UTC 1998

Right.  The problem isn't hardwore *or* software, but the support budget is
limited, and if you use Linux you are probably the sort of geek that can
support yourself anyway.

response 12 of 18:

May 20 01:44 UTC 1998

Like I said, a long time ago.  At the time it was the Linux people who said
it was not supported.  No one had gotteen around to figuring a way to send
upstream through on dev and recieve with another dev.  They also hadn't
managed to get the internals of the cablemodem yet.  Pretty hard to write a
driver for an empty black box.  
I'm glad to hear that things are better now.

response 14 of 18:

May 23 12:07 UTC 1998

Go for it.  The major bottlneck in "Internet everywhere" is going to be the
availability of techies, so if you can set up Linux as your own personal
router and perhaps a personal mail host, you too could make major $$$ as a
packet wrangler in the future.

response 16 of 18:

Jun 9 21:09 UTC 1998

----=Update=----
It Works!
Special thanks go to my buds Spinal and darkcube for giving me a copy of
Debian/GNU Linux 2.0, installing it, and giving me a crash-course intro to
Linux. After trying 4 or 5 other proxy or IP-routing programs, I decided the
best bet was Linux. I've tested all the protocols, HTTP, FTP, Telnet, and
everything works, even Quake2. I found that Debian comes with it's own
webserver, Apache. That's up and running as well. I'm all bouncy-happy n'
stuff. I think I'll have to put a "how-to" up on the server for others who
find that they want to share their cablemodems.

response 18 of 18:

Jul 16 18:03 UTC 1998

Congrats!  I'm going to do the same thing in the fall with an ADSL
link.  The cable modems here are still one way.