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Posted by Elmo P. Shagnasty on April 14, 2006, 5:40 pm
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> >DOCSIS is DOCSIS, period.
>
> That would have been my impression, but I've never done this before.
> Who's your cable company?
WOW.
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Posted by Timothy Daniels on April 14, 2006, 5:57 pm
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"Elmo P. Shagnasty" wrote:
> I've called my cable company a couple times as I've switched out cable
> modems, and all they ask for is the MAC address. Period. They don't
> care about brand name or model number.
>
> DOCSIS is DOCSIS, period.
That may vary with the ISP. In my area (S. Cal), Comcast
wants to know the brand and model no. so they can verify
that it's on their extensive list of approved equipment. I
guess they don't trust a manufacturer's declaration of
DOCSIS compliance, or more likely, they don't trust a
customer's claim that his/her modem is DOCSIS compliant.
But that may also vary whether you speak to a technician
or a front office rep. The technician didn't seem to care
and he took my word that the modem was DOCSIS 2.0
compliant The front office rep wanted to know the make
and model no., but when she couldn't find it, she just agreed
with me that if the manufacturer said that it was DOCSIS 2.0
compliant it was OK. I suspect also that since the MAC nos.
are assigned to manufacturers in blocks, the MAC no. may
tell the ISP the make and model.
Anyway, withing a couple minutes of the tech taking down
the MAC no., the modem was functioning.
*TimDaniels*
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Posted by lars on April 14, 2006, 7:33 pm
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> I've called my cable company a couple times as I've switched out cable
> modems, and all they ask for is the MAC address. Period. They don't
> care about brand name or model number.
That is because from the MAC they can tell all they need to know.. maker..
and maybe even model....
hell.. I can at least look up the maker now....
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Posted by $Bill on April 14, 2006, 8:18 pm
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> Elmo P. Shagnasty wrote:
>
>
>>I've called my cable company a couple times as I've switched out cable
>>modems, and all they ask for is the MAC address. Period. They don't
>>care about brand name or model number.
>
>
>
> That is because from the MAC they can tell all they need to know.. maker..
> and maybe even model....
Once you have the MAC address, you can query the modem via SNTP and determine
just exactly what it is. So I doubt they need any more than the MAC address
to do the provisioning. Asking for the make/model is just giving them info
they're about to find out on their own shortly.
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Posted by Eric on April 14, 2006, 9:43 pm
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I've called my cable company a couple times as I've switched out cable
modems, and all they ask for is the MAC address. Period. They don't
care about brand name or model number.
DOCSIS is DOCSIS, period."
Well, sort of. Yes, there are minimum standard things that all DOCSIS
ceritified modems have to do. And, yes, most cable companies have a
generic provisioning file that can be used by any modem. However, there
are a whole slew of vendor-specific options that can be implemented
(anyone remember the RCA DCM105 e-mail light? It could be activiated by
the .cm file and an SNMP trap). Most of the time, it has to do with
port blocking and snmp traps, but just about anything can be done and
labeled "vendor specific." We once had a problem that only affected 1
brand of modem, because someone at corporate added a bunch of blocked
ports to the config files and all 2000+ of this model decided to quit
working one Saturday morning. The modems in question could only handle
blocking a few ports, so they just locked up.
The other big problem is when there is a firmware upgrade. This is a
flag set in the .cm file telling the modem that a new version is
available, and the release ID. The ID is compared to the firmware in
the modem, and if they don't match, the modem will retrieve the new
file. If you got the wrong type of modem, even a different make from
the same vendor, you stand a very high likelyhood of trashing your
modem.
Now, there are a few other ways to determine the manufacturer of a
cablemodem. One is to use the MAC address
(http://coffer.com/mac_find/). Theoretically, one could determine the
manufacturer and product by decoding the assigned MAC address and
passing that info on to the provisioning system.
It is also possible to read the make and model number from an SNMP
browser, and pass it along to the provisioning system. While this would
be very cool, it would require another server to be maintained, and
there is the very real possibility of having a MIB report back an OEM
instead of the real manufacturer (I recall this happening with Zyxel
modem/routers, which reported a totally different modem and would have
made them useless as a modem/router had we provisioned them using the
other modem's config).
But, why bother? It is much more accurate and reliable to get a human
in the loop to read off the model number on the box and get it to the
billing system, which then will pass it on to the provisioning system.
Agent_C Wrote: "The reason I'm asking, is that I'm planning to
replace the RCA modem
Roadrunner provided with a Linksys WCG200."
I can't speak for TW Roadrunner, but with Comcast, this modem will not
work without Comcast's firmware (which is not available unless you go
with the home networking option). The reason is because the retail
version of the software will not pass on a second DHCP request for the
router, and will attempt to route using the CM's internal address. They
do say " While Comcast will support this modem's connectivity to the
Internet, please direct any issues with the router or wireless Internet
functionality to the vendor." It will provision, but that's all you'll
be able to do (at least as of last summer). Again, this is on Comcast's
network. You should really check with TW before you buy it, unless you
know you can return it.
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