Hi Photogenic Memory,
Thanks for the post! Great questions! Let me try to answer some of them...
- No, home routers don't use BGP or need it. Only routers that have at least two Internet connections need BGP, in general. With a home router, you only have one route (a default route to your ISP).
- Your router is actually a router as it is routing between two networks - your home network and the network going to your ISP. This is really a very simple job for a router and that is why we all have such small routers at home that can do a ton of stuff like NAT, routing, firewall, wireless, and more.
- Your cable modem is really more of a media translator, taking the Ethernet LAN and turning it into "cable". If I recall, it is the Ethernet MAC on the local LAN side of the switch that is authenticated by the ISP.
- My recommnedation to be able to get more insight into your cable connection would be to look for a "smarter" & more manageable cable modem. I have an old Motorola but even it tracks errors, has SNMP, a web interface, configurable MAC, etc. I am sure that these days there are much smarter cable modems that might give you what you are looking for.

Thanks for reading my TechRepublic articles!

Anyone else have cable modem help to offer?

-David Davis
www.TrainSignalTraining.com
www.HappyRouter.com