Question about cable modems...

ZENGHOST

ZENGHOST

Joined
Jan 21, 2002
Messages
3,834
Okay, I don't know if this is going to be a stupid question or not, but I've got broadband from Time Warner RoadRunner and I've always wondered if I could just go out and buy a second cable modem from CompUSA or someplace and just plug it into a different cable jack in the house and have it work. Does anyone know if this will work? I've been asking people for years and I've heard both yes and no. I would ask the cable company, but they have told me such stupid things in the past and are so inconsistent with their responses that they're probably the least reliable source. I don't feel like spending the 50 to 80 bucks on a modem to test out the theory. Thanks.
 
I would think it would have to; the broadband signal is being sent to your house and there should only be one wire coming from the pole to your house, so all the outlets should be charged.

I'd by the modem and keep the receipt... If it don't work, take it back.

Are you trying to get a second computer on the internet? If so, get a network hub. Easy as pie to hook up (with Windows XP). Just need another CATV cable to hook the second (or 3rd, 4th...) computer up. You could go wireless, but I tried to get one of those working for a friend a couple weeks ago and couldn't get it.
 
I work for Time Warner as an installer technician.

Easy answer: At first no, it will not work, but yes it can work.

We supply you with the cable modem that has a unique customer serial number and mac address. This is entered into our system and allows the modem to log into our servers, providing you with the RR Service.

If you buy your own cable modem, all you would need to do would be to call in to our Level 3 Technician department(our computer and RR guru's) and they could add your unique mac address for the one you purchased to work with our system.

I dont believe there is a discount for using your own modem. The only plus side is that you would not have to turn our modem back into us if you ever moved or cancelled service.

Hope this answered your question.

Andy
 
I say go wireless. I'm a complete idiot when it comes to computers but I've got my laptop working flawlessly using a Microsoft wireless setup. I probably should have gone with Linksys but the fellow that built my computer recommended MS.

This has worked in both the homes I lived in recently.

My .02.

Win
 
Andy Overby, i believe he means to use it on a seperate computer. Zenghost, if this is what you mean, it will not work. Even if you had two modems from the company (avoiding the problem that andy states, which you would encounter if you were only using 1 at a time or to replace the expensive ISP modem) it wouldn't work.

what you need is either a switch, hub, or router. I recommend you do as Win Heger says and get a router. Linksys is good: good products and good tech support without waiting hours. Dlink, in my experience, is horrible. the equipment may be decent sometimes, but finding their tech support number and trying to get through is nearly impossible. then the help you get is useless. blah blah blah just go to your local Best Buy or equivalent and look for a router and talk to him about Wifi.

If its possible I would go wired versus wireless, if not go ahead with wifi. A router that is wireless will most likely also function as a wired one, so it's a good idea to get for example, a Linksys WRT54G. it's not that much more expensive over a wired one and the difference is worth the money to have as an option.

good luck!
 
Zenghost,

You have email heading your way. :)
 
K.V. Collucci said:
Zenghost,

You have email heading your way. :)
Click to expand...
Email replied--thanks, Ken.

I guess I should have been a little clearer about the reason for my question. I actually have a wireless router in place right now but I am building a new computer right now and for the first time I will have two desktop computers in the house. I can easily set up the new computer next to the old one and just plug in to my router/switch, but I want to put the computer in my room, which is on the opposite side of the house from where my cable modem is currently set up. I prefer the stability and "security" of a wired connection and my wireless rarely maintains its connection from here to my room so I was hoping that I could just plug in another modem into the cable jack in my room.

Andy--if I understand you correctly, you guys use MAC filtering and I could use my own modem if I called in with the new MAC address, but I assume that they will only let me list one MAC at a time? That's more help than my idiot friends that work for the cable company could tell me. And the technician that installed the cable modem for me (they refused to let me do it myself) told me that I could only use the modem on the jack they installed it on--I know for a fact that is not true since I moved it almost immediately after she left but is there a reason why she told me that or was she just ignorant?

Thanks for the response, guys--looks like I have to think of a more "creative" way to tackle the problem.
 
I don't think it'll work. The way i understand it is that dsl runs through the normal copper cables or whatever they use as the old phone lines. They just split and piggyback the data stuff on top of the phone stuff. So since you're already using half the line for the first modem you can't use it for a second modem.

It is however true that you can use your modem on any jack in the house with the registered phone line. They just switch something on that'll allow you to use the phone line for adsl. Although you can probably use just 1 modem at a time.

The way i see it you have 3 options. Create a wired network and run a network cable to your room.

Create a wireless network so you don't have to run a cable through. Just get a good wireless access point and a card in your pc. Security is no problem as long as you set it up properly. You also have the option of using cables when you need to for faster transfer.

Third option is to get a second phone line installed in your bedroom.

Man i sure hope i'm right about this.
 
As I understand it the problem is you can't have two computers talking over the same cable connection at the same time -- just as you couldn't have two on the same phone line at the same time -- and since cable is constantly connected it's not so easy to hang up with one computer and dialup with the other. I don't know, maybe there's some way you could switch between two different computers if you only use one at a time, but even if you could do that setting up a LAN seems a better solution. Even if you never want to be on the net with both computers at once you'll want to transfer files between them. It's not expensive especially since you already have a router.
 
Sorry about that Cougar (and everyone else). Not much cable connections here in the UK. I automatically read it as cable...as in cable=wire sort of thing. So scrap what i said before.

If it's for cable i'm not sure then. But considering how cable works then it should theoretically be possible. Just like the TV channels the internet part of the upstream and downstream only takes a small piece of the available bandwidth and in fact the cable doesn't really know the difference between TV channels and the internet part. So in theory you could just put another cable modem in another cable jack. But it would have to be sorted out with your provider first 'cos cable depends on the cable modem termination system on provider's side.

Edited to add: I have found out that it is in fact possible to do what you are trying to do. However, it all depends on the provider's policy of doing so and how much they'll charge you to do it. Certain cable companies actually do installations of multiple modems within the house.
 
Zenghost,

The reason the tech said that you needed to leave the modem at that location, is that we split the incomming signal in your cable box with a two way, one to the modem and one to the cable tv services on the rest of the jacks in your house. A two way splitter only has 3.5 db of signal loss, versus the higher signal loss on splitters with more ports. This just insures that you have good signal level at the modem wall jack. We recommend that you leave it there, because if you connect at another wall jack, say on a 4-way splitter after that 2-way, you have lost nearly 10 db of signal. This can cause problems and by telling you to not move it, it may prevent some service calls in the future. The tech should have informed you that we will come out and change things around outside if you ever change locations. Im not sure if you system charges for that service, as fees vary from here to there.

As with using your own modem at the same time as ours, Im not so sure that you will be able to convince them to do that. Since basically you would be pulling double the bandwith. But yes, we do use MAC filtering to distinguish the connection.

Cougar Allen-
There would be no problem with more than one modem on the connection. As long as the signal levels are good at the modem, it would work without any problems.

Take care,
Andy
 
Im not so sure it would work. If you got them to change the MAC address over to the new modem, the old modem wouldnt work and you would still only have one connection. Secondly they could easily have set their authentication server to only allow you 1 session at a time, so even if you could have two connections down the same line and you could have two MAC addresses registered with them their authentication server could refuse to allow you another connection unless you used another account or hung up the first

Wouldnt like to say either way, IMHO it would be a lot easier and more certain to run a cable to the other machine or extend your WLAN to cover that area
 
This isn't rocket science but for most of us, networking is just plain voodoo. Once you have a physical connection thru your isp to the internet, cable or dsl, all you need to add additional computers to your "private" home network is a router, wired or wireless. The only thing about wireless is that out of the box it should work, but be totally unsecured. In other words, anyone with a wireless card in their computer could get onto your network and upload or download kiddy porn, inviting the Fed's to your house!

You can have up to 254 computers on your network, but it would be dog slow if you did. The router sets up a private network on your side, and receives an ip address on the cable/dsl side. It does the translation.

Hank :cool:
 
If you have a router, and a wireless access point, plug the access point into the router and then put a wireless card in the new computer. If I understand what you have, that is.

I set up this kind of thing all the time at work, if you can post some more details of how your network is set up, I can get it all working for you.

The things I need to know are:

Does your cable connection need to have some kind of software running on your computer? It probably says something about PPPOE.

Does your old, first computer have an IP address like 192.168.?.? or 10.?.?.? Or does it have some other range like 64.216.blah.blah. The reason I ask is I want to see if it's set up to do NAT already.

Is your wireless access point just an access point, or is it also a router? It'll probably say so on the box somewhere.

Post some details and I'm sure we can get it working.
 
bladefixation2 said:
Im not so sure it would work. If you got them to change the MAC address over to the new modem, the old modem wouldnt work and you would still only have one connection.
Click to expand...
It would work. If you pay for two services. I have two cable modems in my house. One is my personal, and the other is paid for by my job. Both are fed by the same line.
 
it might work if it was the same computer, but not a different one. it wont recognize your IP address. you would need to concact roadrunner and get another line, i dont think it changes the bill.
 
set up a router, either wired or wireless, wired being easiest to make work, but due to routing the cables wireless might be less of a hassle for you, and yes you can use multiple computers on a cable internet connection with a router... many of my friends do it for five or more pc's to game on, unfortunately cable isn't in my area for an internet connection, I can go dial-up, DSL(which I have) or WiFi, yea we have wireless internet service here too and I could also go satallite.

hope this helps
 
Point44 said:
What about using the powerline network adapters sort of thing?

It runs a network through your existing electrical wiring. This way you won't have cables around the house.

Powerline Network Adapter
Click to expand...
You know--I first saw the powerline stuff when it first came out but didn't need it at the time so I never thought about it again--interesting suggestion, I'll have to look into that one. Anyone have any experience with Powerline Networking?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top