Conference nlfdc::linux-users

    I am a Highway1 subscriber. Basically, they use DHCP to assign the IP
    address. The cable modem has an AUI connector and may be connected
    either to 10baseT or thin wire. They also have a way to verify the Mac
    address on your ethernet card. 
    
    I found that the customer service people who take your order do not
    know very much. When I ordered the service, I was told they only do
    10baseT eventhough their Director of Broadband Communications told me
    they could do either. Since I already had a thin-wire network in my 
    house, I was told that the only way they could install the system was
    to sell me another ethernet card. When the installer arrived, looked at
    my system, told me he would cancel the charge for the ehternet card
    (actually $49.95 for a 3Comm PCI card). So, in this case, you have the
    order takers who don't have a clue about what they are doing.
    
    
    I did have occasion to contact customer service when I apparently lost
    service. They are very good at following up. The first service outage 
    simply required rebooting the cable modem. The second was an actual
    cable outage. In this latter case, customer service called me back and
    sent email to see if I had my service restored.
    
    

    That's very helpful. Thanks!
    
    I'm curious about how you have that connected to your local LAN. Did I
    understand correctly that you have all of your machines _and_ the cable
    modem connected as peers on the same thinwire circuit?
    
    I did manage to find the dhcpcd package and it _looks_ like it shouldn't
    be a problem on Linux.
    
    -Tom

    >I'm curious about how you have that connected to your local LAN. Did I
    >understand correctly that you have all of your machines _and_ the
    >cable modem connected as peers on the same thinwire circuit?
    Yes. Currently I have 3 nodes on my network, my Windows 95 system, my
    wife's system, and the Cable Modem. The Alpha Linux system will
    occasionally sit on the lan. One of the security issues is that I 
    use print and file sharing so my wife and I can share the printer and
    that I can download software for her. 
    
    Here is a response I received to my query on the BLU discussion list:
    >Subject: Re: Does Linux support DHCP
    >Date: Mon, 27 Jan 1997 12:47:57 -0500
    >From: Adam Holt <[email protected]>
     
    >yes, when Continental Cablevision first started its highway1.com cable
    >modem rollout 4-6 months ago, there was some USENET talk about a
    >successful and easy Linux implementation.  Look in www.dejanews.com and
    >you should find it.
     

    Great! Sounds easier than I thought. Thanks again, Jerry.
    

    
    What's the cost of this from them? I heard it was like $50/month just
    for the Highway1 connection.
    
    

    RE: .-1
    
    It's $60/month. If you also have cable TV service, it's $50/month (in
    addition to your normal cable fees). Compared to $30-$50/month for a
    second phone line and a 28.8K connection with busy signals, line noise,
    and disconnects, that's not bad for a permanent 1500K line. A lot
    cheaper and faster than ISDN. It's shared bandwidth, but it's unlikely
    that 50 or more people in your neighborhood are also going to be using
    that bandwidth at the same time.
    
    I decided not to do it right away because they wouldn't even talk about
    installing it unless it was on Windows 95. The rep I talked to said
    that their field people only knew how to deal with that and they
    weren't satisfied with just laying the wire and letting me do the OS
    setup myself. I guess they didn't have enough technical support in
    place to handle the customers who didn't RTFM.
    
    That was a few months ago, though. Your mileage may vary.
    
    -Tom