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?

18 responses total.

I recall seeing a mention of a $19.95 software that lets you share a single
modem between two networked Win95 pcs.  Not sure where I saw that, Byte
magazine?

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?

You could also do NAT (network address translation).  Most of the ~$500 ISDN
routers will support that.  I would assume there's probably also software that
will support it, but I have no idea what software that would be or where you
would get it.

NAT is the most transparent way of doing this.

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). 

Okay, than you can do it.  What you need to do is to get a linux box,
and set it up as a firewall.  (See the firewall-HOWTO)  Then, you put
two NICs in it, one for the cable modem, one for the lan, and turn it
on.  Voila, instant network on the internet. (BTW, Linux firewalling
does that NAT stuff steve was talking about, or a reasonable fax
thereof.)

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.).

Update: we've got two pc's running via a win95 proxy server. It took a few
tries to hammer out configuration errors, but it's flying along now. We're
using WinProxy 2.1r1c, for anyone who wants to know. In fact, I'm telnetting
to Grex right now via the cable modem! :) I'll keep the linux idea on hold
in case we have any problems. I think we'll set it up on the 5x86-133, and
have that as our dedicated NT server.

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?

don't believe what the cable company says. Try searching the net for more info
on using other OS's with a cable modem. They (media one) will say that they
just support Mac, Win95, and NT, but I've found info from several sites that
outling setting them up under OS/2, WfW, Unix, etc. Now, why shouldn't a cble
modem work with a network-native OS like Linux? Because the people that run
media one's internet service and install it wouldn't know a NIC from a
pop-tart. 

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.

Are these cable modems two way or just download?  How much is service monthly?
Would it work as a web server connection?

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.

what drivers? The cable modem uses a standard ISA or PCI NIC. The only ones
you'd probably need drivers for are the ones that plug directly into an
internal slot. Winproxy is a good program, but the $299 price is a little
steep. They do have a "lite" version that supports up to 3 users, but it also
has other limitations that the pro version doesn't. And, with all the damned
@#$%@#&&!!! problems I've been having with Win95 (BSOD's on *install*), I'm
ready to plunk down the $40-50 for a Red Hat Linux CD & book.

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.

Ah, I was refering to the internal "Surfboard" version.  At the time the linux
guys were finding it difiicult to get the internals from ??? those guys...

----=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.

What kind of cable modem is that?
Yeah, linux is cool.

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

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