Cable Modems

[D. Hugh Redelmeier]

| From: Mike Kallies <mike.kallies-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w at public.gmane.org>

| About 10 months ago, this cable provider told him that his recent
| Internet problems were because his Motorola Surfboard modem was no
| longer supported.  Not only this, they added that it was likely the
| *cause* of his problem and they couldn't help him unless he replaced
| it.

I think that there are several modems called "Motorola Surfboard".
Which one do you mean?

I am too lazy to look up the details, but I think my Motorola
SurfBoard 5100 is DOCSIS 2.0.  In any case, it is slower than current
modems -- it supports fewer streams or some buzzword like that.

In theory, to replace this modem, I have to buy it from Rogers.  They
refuse to "provision" modems from another source, even of the same
brand.  And Rogers charges more for that modem than Hookbag.ca, for
example.

Techsavvy will support and provision specific models of 3rd party
modems, I understand.  And this is on the very same last mile.  Some
are models that Rogers won't sell.  Once you've gotten that done, you
can use it on Rogers, with Rogers as your ISP.  Note: just buying from
Techsavvy isn't enough, you have to also have gotten it working under
Techsavvy.  This doesn't make sense to me so there must be something I
don't understand or got wrong.  Perhaps it is some part of
provisioning that matters (firmware update?).

Rogers wouldn't sell me one without WiFi when I last checked (a while
ago).  I want one without WiFi -- that should be cheaper and simpler.

| 10 months later, with strange upstream packet loss problems, and not
| wanting to shell out full price for a "supported" modem, which would
| probably make no difference, he grabbed an SMC modem with DOCSIS 3.0
| off Craigslist.
| 
| Plugging it in... he found that his Internet connection was a lot faster...
| 
| ... 4-8x faster than he paid for.
| ... and from a different ISP!
| 
| 
| This raises a few questions:
| 1.  How is the modem linked to the ISP?

By some kind of serial number (think of MAC)?  Registered with Rogers
infrastructure?  That's part of what is covered by the term
"provisioning".

| 2.  Why is he getting free-ish Internet from this third party provider?

The old owner is being billed for it?  Even if he doesn't pay?

Beware: the old "owner" might not have actually owned the modem.  Then
the ISP might come after you to get it back (the system knows where
you are).  Or they might just blacklist the serial number.  Again, I'm
making some of this up.

| 3.  Does the seemingly repaired packet loss issue with the SMC modem
| mean that the cable problem *was* the modem?

Who knows.  It sure is evidence, but it isn't proof (in my mind).

--
The Toronto Linux Users Group.      Meetings: http://gtalug.org/
TLUG requests: Linux topics, No HTML, wrap text below 80 columns
How to UNSUBSCRIBE: http://gtalug.org/wiki/Mailing_lists