Is initial Comcast setup on Linux possible without MS-Windows?

(Sorry about the multi-posting. I didn't think about posting the
question here until I has already asked in comp.dcom.modems.cable.)

Can anyone tell me the magic sequence to get my (new) Comcast Internet
service running under Linux without having to boot Windows and run the
"Self- Install" software? I do have Windows-98 installed on a spare
partition, but it's pretty unhappy with some of the hardware on my new
machine. I searched around on Google, but all I could find was reports
from people who had done their original setup from a Windows box.
Somebody out there must have found the magic incantation. I'd rather
not buy the self-install kit at all since it consists mostly of software
that won't be of any use to me beyond the initial installation.

At the moment, I can talk to the modem just fine at URL
http://192.168.100.1, and I'm waiting on the installation of a new cable
outlet to get the modem connected on that side. Once that's done I'll
need to get the modem's MAC address registered with Comcast and set up
my email and news accounts. That's the part I'm in the dark about. The
basic networking issues (DHCP, routing, firewall settings, etc.) are
not an issue for me.

Any pointers? Anybody??

--
Bob Nichols AT interaccess.com I am "rnichols"

Robert Nichols wrote:
> that won't be of any use to me beyond the initial installation.
>
> At the moment, I can talk to the modem just fine at URL
> http://192.168.100.1, and I'm waiting on the installation of a new cable
> outlet to get the modem connected on that side. Once that's done I'll
> need to get the modem's MAC address registered with Comcast and set up
> my email and news accounts. That's the part I'm in the dark about. The
> basic networking issues (DHCP, routing, firewall settings, etc.) are
> not an issue for me.
>
> Any pointers? Anybody??
>


Quite frankly, your best approach will be to call comcast's tech support and
have them step you through the magic proxy settings for the initial setup.
It's not even close to intuitive and I don't remember the details (even
assuming some addresses won't be different for your location....) Just
tell them that the installation software isn't working and you need help
with the proxy information for a manual configuration....

In article <Cb2dnc6e-J6tGl3dRVn-(E-Mail Removed)>,
Pat Crean <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
:Robert Nichols wrote:
:> that won't be of any use to me beyond the initial installation.
:>
:> At the moment, I can talk to the modem just fine at URL
:> http://192.168.100.1, and I'm waiting on the installation of a new cable
:> outlet to get the modem connected on that side. Once that's done I'll
:> need to get the modem's MAC address registered with Comcast and set up
:> my email and news accounts. That's the part I'm in the dark about. The
:> basic networking issues (DHCP, routing, firewall settings, etc.) are
:> not an issue for me.
:>
:> Any pointers? Anybody??
:>
:
:
:Quite frankly, your best approach will be to call comcast's tech support and
:have them step you through the magic proxy settings for the initial setup.
:It's not even close to intuitive and I don't remember the details (even
:assuming some addresses won't be different for your location....) Just
:tell them that the installation software isn't working and you need help
:with the proxy information for a manual configuration....

That's what I ended up doing. It appears that the procedure varies
among regions. In some areas it seems that a magical DNS just routes
everything to the SAS URL. Here, I had to get the proxy settings to
plug into my browser. The fact that I was running Linux was not an
issue at all, but the person at the help desk only knew about typing
data into fields in Internet Explorer ("Click on <xxx> and in field
<yyy> enter "zzz".), leaving it up to me to figure out what those
actions were actually accomplishing and how to do the same in Mozilla.
I'd have had the same problem under Windows if I were running any
browser other than IE. I had the person at the help desk do the modem
provisioning from their end since I was already talking to the person
who could do that.

It's all working now, and quite nicely. I downloaded the FC2
distribution DVD, and the data rate never dropped below the 3 Mb/s rate
cap.

--
Bob Nichols AT interaccess.com I am "rnichols"
(for the moment)

Robert Nichols <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message news:<c9t63d$mpb$(E-Mail Removed)>...
> In article <Cb2dnc6e-J6tGl3dRVn-(E-Mail Removed)>,
> Pat Crean <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
> :Robert Nichols wrote:
> :> that won't be of any use to me beyond the initial installation.
> :>
> :> At the moment, I can talk to the modem just fine at URL
> :> http://192.168.100.1, and I'm waiting on the installation of a new cable
> :> outlet to get the modem connected on that side. Once that's done I'll
> :> need to get the modem's MAC address registered with Comcast and set up
> :> my email and news accounts. That's the part I'm in the dark about. The
> :> basic networking issues (DHCP, routing, firewall settings, etc.) are
> :> not an issue for me.
> :>
> :> Any pointers? Anybody??
> :>
> :
> :
> :Quite frankly, your best approach will be to call comcast's tech support and
> :have them step you through the magic proxy settings for the initial setup.
> :It's not even close to intuitive and I don't remember the details (even
> :assuming some addresses won't be different for your location....) Just
> :tell them that the installation software isn't working and you need help
> :with the proxy information for a manual configuration....
>
> That's what I ended up doing. It appears that the procedure varies
> among regions. In some areas it seems that a magical DNS just routes
> everything to the SAS URL. Here, I had to get the proxy settings to
> plug into my browser. The fact that I was running Linux was not an
> issue at all, but the person at the help desk only knew about typing
> data into fields in Internet Explorer ("Click on <xxx> and in field
> <yyy> enter "zzz".), leaving it up to me to figure out what those
> actions were actually accomplishing and how to do the same in Mozilla.
> I'd have had the same problem under Windows if I were running any
> browser other than IE. I had the person at the help desk do the modem
> provisioning from their end since I was already talking to the person
> who could do that.

In Denver, you need to have DNS up and running. Comcast blocks
everything except to their signon site and the WWW requests gets an IP
address (SQUID?)server and a new port. (Sorry I don't remember which
ones now.) Of course the WWW signon site uses DNS names (not IP
numbers) so you can't signon unless you have DNS running.

Try tcpdump and look at the arp requests. That's how I figured out
everything was hooked up OK, I could see lots of arp requests on my
cable. When I went to their signon site none of their DNS names were
getting translated to IP numbers. Plus I had the unfortunate problem
of their server going down. I did get a very knowledgable tech
support person who had just finished a class in Linux. Between us we
got the system up and running.

I think they are using a DHCP server because I have swapped out my NIC
which changed the NIC number and I didn't have to re-register. I have
had my IP address for about 6 months now.

Good Luck
>
> It's all working now, and quite nicely. I downloaded the FC2
> distribution DVD, and the data rate never dropped below the 3 Mb/s rate
> cap.