Ethernet modem

Hi,

What exactly is an ethernet modem? I pretty ok with this sort of thing - I
know what a modem is/does and the same of a router - I have used both
myself.

A friend of mine has a Motorola (I think) 'Surf Board' on NTL's Cable modem
service. Is has an ethernet interface to a single computer, but Windows
reports it as a PPP interface.

How does the connection authentication work in this situation on NTL - is it
configured at the PC end, or at the Surf Board end??

What we're ultimately trying to achieve is to replace the single computer
with a NAT box, but still connected to the Surf Board. Is that going to
work?

TIA

Rupert

Rupert wrote:
> Hi,
>
> What exactly is an ethernet modem? I pretty ok with this sort of
> thing - I know what a modem is/does and the same of a router - I
> have used both myself.
>
> A friend of mine has a Motorola (I think) 'Surf Board' on NTL's
> Cable modem service. Is has an ethernet interface to a single
> computer, but Windows reports it as a PPP interface.
>
> How does the connection authentication work in this situation on
> NTL - is it configured at the PC end, or at the Surf Board end??
>
> What we're ultimately trying to achieve is to replace the single
> computer with a NAT box, but still connected to the Surf Board. Is
> that going to work?
>
> TIA
>
> Rupert

Simple answer, yes.........

Authentication is performed (among other things) on the unique MAC address
of the network card you've currently got in the PC connected to the
Surfboard cable modem.

If you're going to use a router or another PC as this NAT box, then the
cable modem will 'see' a different MAC address, and will not allow network
access.

However, this is not a major problem, as you can either:

1) Clone the original MAC address - most routers have an option to do this.
2) (NTL only) Power cycle the cable modem once you've swapped the machines.
3) (blueyonder only) Register the new MAC address with the ISP.

More info here:
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/robin.d...tips/swap.html

I strongly recommend the use of a router, to avoid relying (and putting
load) on a given PC. Some good broadband routers for cable can be found
here:
www.itchest.co.uk/bbrouters.aspx

Cheers, Benedict.

--
Add the 'co' to reply
www.itchest.co.uk
Tel: 0870 162 0840

"Rupert" <newsgroups@R_e-M-o-V=e_white-lightning.co.uk> wrote in message
news:40351b59$0$60106$(E-Mail Removed) ...
> Hi,
>
> What exactly is an ethernet modem? I pretty ok with this sort of thing - I
> know what a modem is/does and the same of a router - I have used both
> myself.
>
> A friend of mine has a Motorola (I think) 'Surf Board' on NTL's Cable
modem
> service. Is has an ethernet interface to a single computer, but Windows
> reports it as a PPP interface.
>
> How does the connection authentication work in this situation on NTL - is
it
> configured at the PC end, or at the Surf Board end??
>
> What we're ultimately trying to achieve is to replace the single computer
> with a NAT box, but still connected to the Surf Board. Is that going to
> work?
>
> TIA
>
> Rupert
>
>