Re: [SLUG] cable modem

From: Bob Foxworth (rfoxwor1@tampabay.rr.com)
Date: Thu Jul 14 2005 - 22:45:12 EDT


> > I got caught in this upgrade a couple of years ago when my
> > connection disappeared. They tried to delete my then static IP* and
> > the modem couldn't be brought back to life. The fix was for them to
> > give me a new modem but I was down for a day. The new modem
> > is a ZyXel. It has 4 RJ45 ports (can support multiple lan IPs)
> > and a row of big green LEDs on the front. It's been pretty
> > dependable. The old modem was a Motorola, newer than the
> > old gray fat ones, it was about the size of a paperback book.
> > The Motorola's have a MAC starting with 08:00:3E btw.
> >
> When I moved to the SOHO service they installed the ZyXel at my
> home. The SOHO and commercial service appears to operate in
> a different part of the cable than the regular home service does.
>
> The ZyXel has been quite reliable to date.
> --
> Chuck Hast

I can confirm that about the SOHO service, to this extent - when
I was in the regular joe luser subscriber service, I put a sniffer on
the
public ethernet side of my CM. I could see hundreds of ARP
messages from the gateways, looking for various IPs in their
respective /24 ranges. They were typically from24.x.y.1 or 65.x.y.1 and
each appeared subnetted as a /24. There were as many as 13 of these
subnets on my regional PHY "net". Now, I never could see any of
the replies to the ARPs (unless it was for my own IP) and I
could never see any of the other users' traffic. That's on the ethernet
side. (Who knows what goodies lurk on the coax side??)

Anyway this gives an idea of the congestion you face with one of
these connections. Even if it is not visible at layer 3, it is there
at layers 1 and 2. When I renewed with my new static SOHO-type IP,
all that ARP noise disappeared. It's as I am on my own subnet, indeed I
am
with a /29 in fact, which I pay for. The contention for bandwidth has
effectively disappeared, tho I sometimes see apparent congestion at the
edge routers (using graphing ping tools) which is time-of-day-dependent.
But I don't spend a _lot_ of time looking at this.

Not only that but you get a different help-desk number to call and
the people there are knowledgeable.

- Bob

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