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by ayje

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Hi all
A family memeber asked me to set up a wired Linkys router. His ISP is Time Wanner. When I tried to setup the router, I could not connect to intertnet with none of the computers. When I connect the computer directly to pcx2500 moden provided by Time Wanner I am able to get online. Then it came to my mind that I read that time wanner moden hard code the Mac address of the first computer that initial setup the internet. This will prevent other computers or a router to get online. I tried to connect the other PC directly to the moden and it was not able to get online. Then, I made him call Time Wanner that they said they do not block people from sharing an internet connection and also they do not support linksys router. After that he spoke with them, He is able to get online with the second PC, but not with the first.
That tells me they in fact did something. According to time wanner he got only two choices. Increase his plan to $80.00 and $5 extra for wireless moden or plug one PC to RJ45 and the other one to the usb connector on the moden.
This does not make any sense to me.

I will call Time Wanner my self to see what they have to say

Any suggestion

4 replies

by churdoo

Generally, the modems that tie to MAC addy's do so at power up. So when you try to change the modem from the computer to the router, or change the modem from one computer to another, then you have to unplug the power from the modem (and the battery too if it has one) so that it will forget the MAC addy in its memory and bind to the new one.

Another possibility, depending on what model Linksys router you have, it may have MAC address spoofing. You can get the MAC address from the computer that works with the modem, and then enter it into the Linky router, and the linky will fool the modem into thinking it's the correct computer.

You should not have to up the plan to get this to work.

by deity_chooch

churdoo is spot on. Either Time Warner has set the modem to allow only a single CPE MAC address online (through a TFTP file), or they authorize each CPE MAC on their own. If the first case is correct, all you would need to do is plug the router into the modem and reboot the modem. If the second is the case, you would either have to call Time Warner with the router plugged in and have them authorize the MAC address of the router (beware: Linksys routers have a different MAC address than the one printed on the outside) or use the Linksys MAC spoofing to spoof the working CPE's MAC address.

Also, I have not heard of a working configuration in which the modem is connected with both cat5 and USB. I'd say use the cat5 100% of the time as USB requires software and doesn't always play nice. I've found that when the computer is connected to the modem, the computer sees the modem as an internal device and the modem then receives the public IP address, whereas with cat5 the modem simply passes the public IP address to the NIC card. In any case, I'm not sure the modem will work with both connected.

by ayje

I will keep it on mind. I'll advise when I am done.
Thx
AP

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