I use ppp dial up from home now, but I wanted to get a faster connection. I was looking at using a cable modem, provided by my local cable company. Of course, they said "do you run Windows 95 or higher" and I run Slackware 9.1. Immediately, the tech. said you have to run windows or Mac to use a cable modem. I know this is not true.

I was wondering, how do you set up a cable modem in Slackware? Is it easy? I would just do it myself, if I could find out how.

Thanks.

EST

Get a compatible network card and you should have no problems.

Yep, just set up your machine to use DHCP and you'll be up and running. Make sure they let you (I know, it's your computer, they shouldn't have to "let you" do anything, but they often try to make you do this or that) connect the machine to the cablemodem using cat5 cable and not usb.

They are full of *stuff* when they say you have to be running windows or Mac. Like tricky and evil_Tak said, you just need to setup your NIC for DHCP.

An interesting side-note to this. When I had my cable modem installed (AT&T now Bresnan), the technician came to my house, and brought with him the software CD that they supposedly "need" to install on Windows. What he did, he went in my browser settings and manually typed in a proxy configuration ( I watched the whole time). and it went to the account settings, and we proceeded to set up my account info (username, password, blah blah blah). Then when he was done, he just removed the proxy settings.
I asked him about it and he said he just does that so we don't have to install any crap on my system. Cool

I think it's interesting. When you talk to those technicians, don't tell them what OS you have. Most of them don't know anything about Linux, but all the cable modem configuration is done through a browser anyway.

I've had them out to my house a number of times when I was having line trouble (the whole neighborhood was having trouble but they always assumed I was an idiot and checked the modem). Whenever I scheduled them to come out, I never told them what I was running and when they arrived, I just brought up Netscape and they could access the modem through that.

Ditto to everything others have said, and to add to that, if Windows is required then why do they try to sell people routers to connect mutiple computes? Routers don't run Windows.

Otherwise get a machine with windows on it ( like a friends laptop ) and let them install ( they will actually inspect the network properties to verify it works, thats why they want windows to avoid liability on their part ). After they complete the installation, and leave, connect your slackware system to it. They can't tell the difference.

No, they said: "do you run Windows 95 or higher"...yes he does.

The techs saying that they need Windows is because they know very little about Linux and how to use it - think of it from their point of view, they'd have to train technicians (costing a lot of money) to help setup cable modems for a small minority of customers, it doesn't make much commercial sense.

Having said that, I'm on Slackware 9.0 surfing the net using a cable modem, at various times connected by USB and ethernet using DHCPCD; I've not had them knocking on my door demanding I use WIndows.

The only trouble I can forsee is that you may need to use Windows to register the modem, but it depends on your ISP.

Just do some digging and research into it, as with everything Linux you're sure to find a solution.

Best luck,

Sam Black

I use to work for a Cable Company.

1. They ask you to run Windows cause their techs are not trained with Linux.
2. Their online or phone support are not trained with Linux.
3. Their sales people are stupid, they only read what is given to them. Most are not computer illiterate and don't know what Linux is. That's why they think you have to run Windows, cause that's all their support and technicians will support officially, and even that is limited to basic Windows troubleshooting to only get you online and IE and usually one mail client like Express.

There is no registering of the modem. Only the mac address and that is provisioned when the tech installs or brings it out to install. Nothing more unless you use a USB instead of NIC in which you will have to install drivers in which most don't make for Linux. That's why if you connect via Ethernet and the ethernet works, 100% of the time your cable modem will work.

Regards.

LOL!

trickykid: my cable company (ntl) you have to register the modem/account - the technician comes out to install the modem and cable, the customer has to install and register the modem themselves. Just different customer service I suppose.

I'm not sure if it works with every USB cable modem, but the kernel module CDCEther allowed my USB modem to work just fine - no need for drivers.

Best Regards,

Sam Black

Does registering apply only to USB cable modems?
With mine (Ethernet cable modem) it registers the MAC address of the router or NIC and takes roughly 10 seconds to do so... afterward I can use it fine.

Funny... Rogers Cable doesn't try to sell routers. They try and sell extra IP addresses. For $10/month extra, they will oh-so-generously give you a second IP address so that you can have TWO computers surfing at the same time! What a deal, eh?

Right, selling extra IP addresses is just creating another profit center for them. With a router and NAT built into it, they have absolutely no way of knowing if you have one computer or 10 computers connected.

I installed a nice Dlink router and have my slackware, 2 windoze desktop, 1 laptop ( via wireless ) and my Replay ( via wireless ) connected to the internet.

Occationally I see by my logs that Time Warner does scans to check for security risks related to spammers, but otherwise they can't know what I have connected.