[SWLUG] Any experience with NTL cable modems and Linux?

[Foeh Mannay]

Hi, Neil.

I work for ntl and I use my cablemodem to connect up my Red Hat 7.3 PC.

Forget the USB, it's pointless. Go for ethernet every time. The support for 
USB connection through cablemodem on Linux is somewhere between flaky and 
non-existent, whereas you can't go wrong with ethernet really.

It's true about pump not working properly from what I've heard - however since 
my distros have always come with dhcpcd set up by default it's never bothered 
me.

Connect it all up using ethernet, and run ifconfig to check your IP address. 
It should start with either 62, 80, 81 or 213. It should end in something 
between 248 and 253. If so, you're ready to start. If not, try power cycling 
the modem, making sure the ethernet card is installed properly and set to 
DHCP, all the usual rubbish.

Open up your favourite web browser and point it at 
https://autoreg.autoregister.net/ - then follow the instructions to register 
your service. You might get the last page fail to load combined with the 
modem lights flashing all over the place - that's just the modem rebooting to 
complete registration.

You then have to release and renew your DHCP lease - I believe the command is 
"dhcpcd -dk" to release your IP and just "dhcpcd eth0" to try to get an IP 
again.

You should then be online then. Be aware though that there are some fairly 
major works going on with the databases at the moment so you won't be able to 
register - should be working again midday Monday, assuming all goes to plan.

Oh yeah, and make sure the sync & rdy lights are on steady before the engineer 
leaves. These two lights show the cablemodem has locked on to the signal on 
the ntl side of things and without them being solid you're going nowhere!

Foeh.