Re: Cable Modem and Routing

[Adam Tauno Williams <adam@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

>>I just had a cable modem installed. I would like to connect it to my  Linux
>>Server (RH 7.0) and route my other PC's through it. I spent 4 hours last
>>night trying to set up routing with no luck. I could see the routes on
>>the server, but I could not ping the ISP from my PC. So...
>Is Linux installed on the same PC as the cablem modem was connected too?
>Some (all?  Is this a DOCSIS thing?) Cable inet provides use the MAC of
>the ethernet card,  if you switch ethernet cards it may stop working.
>>1. Should I be routing or masquerading?
>Masq.  But without any fancy stuff you should be able to ping from the 
>box directly connected to the cable modem.  Does the interface come up? 
>Is the IP the same as if you were connected under windows/from the 
>windows box.  Run winipcfg in win9x and see what the interface looks
>like when it's functioning.  If your ISP uses DHCP you can run 
>"/sbin/pump -i eth0 --status" as root to see if anything coughed up. 
>(assuming the cable  modem is attached to eth0).  Some provides use weird
>things like PPPoe (will work under Linux with a little wrestling) or 
>even "PPTP over ATM cell" (I have no idea how the hell that works), just
>because a more  complicated solution must be better.

Who' oyour cable provider.  There is lots of information on uselessnet about
using cable modems under Linux.
 
>>2. Has anyone else tried this?
>Not me (DSL!), but yes.

If you get it working let us know how it goes.  Do you use it for anything other
than surfing/downloading, specifically interactive apps like ssh, X, telnet
(muds)?  Our SOHO users who have cable modems report VERY irratic performance
with interactive applications.  Performance is great and then it suddenly browns
out to the point that a key stroke takes 15~30 seconds to show up in a telnet
session, and then after a few minutes the performance comes back.  People using
dial-up ISP's, or DSL (me), don't see similair behaviour. 

Systems and Network Administrator
Morrison Industries
1825 Monroe Ave NW.
Grand Rapids, MI. 49505