From owner-freebsd-questions Fri Oct 10 17:24:27 1997 Return-Path: Received: (from root@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.7/8.8.7) id RAA19974 for questions-outgoing; Fri, 10 Oct 1997 17:24:27 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-questions) Received: from freebie.lemis.com (gregl1.lnk.telstra.net [139.130.136.133]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.7/8.8.7) with ESMTP id RAA19966 for ; Fri, 10 Oct 1997 17:24:22 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from grog@freebie.lemis.com) Received: (from grog@localhost) by freebie.lemis.com (8.8.7/8.8.5) id JAA10764; Sat, 11 Oct 1997 09:54:12 +0930 (CST) Message-ID: <19971011095412.25340@lemis.com> Date: Sat, 11 Oct 1997 09:54:12 +0930 From: Greg Lehey To: Doug White Cc: Silent Bob , freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Cable Modems References: <343E1EE3.9E5DE558@home.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Mailer: Mutt 0.84e In-Reply-To: ; from Doug White on Fri, Oct 10, 1997 at 09:38:20AM -0700 Organisation: LEMIS, PO Box 460, Echunga SA 5153, Australia Phone: +61-8-8388-8250 Fax: +61-8-8388-8250 Mobile: +61-41-739-7062 WWW-Home-Page: http://www.lemis.com/~grog Fight-Spam-Now: http://www.cauce.org Sender: owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk On Fri, Oct 10, 1997 at 09:38:20AM -0700, Doug White wrote: > On Fri, 10 Oct 1997, Silent Bob wrote: > >> I'm have read about FreeBSD and love every word about it, and I am also >> looking forward to recieving the CD. However, my concern is that my >> connection to the Internet id through a Cable Modem, and although >> capable of high speeds is not always supported by all systems. I am no >> networking expert but I know it works just like a constant connection to >> a LAN and that my ISP is COX Cable and that there server uses a >> Firewall(proxy server). Any information would be of great help because >> niether my ISP or my System Administrator will help. > > This depends on what cable modem you have and how restrictive the firewall > is. AFAIK, all cable modems are implemented through a interface box that > kicks out a Ethernet connection. From there it's a matter of getting a > supported Ethernet card. If you've read the Handbook then you know which > cards are supported, you just need to check that with your system. If > it's supported, then no problem. If not, you'll need to change it, which > is quite simple. (I don't think the cable boxes are particular about > which Ethernet card they plug into, just as long as the media types > match up.) > > For getting past the proxy server, it's a matter of instructing your > programs (netscape et. al.) to route queries through it. To amplify on this: a lot of these "Works only with Windows with (foo) and (bar) and (baz)" instructions that you sometimes see boil down to the fact that this is the only way people have been able to get it to run. FreeBSD has extremely flexible networking, and I'd be surprised if it were not possible to get it to run. The amount of effort you need to get it to run is a different matter. It depends mainly on what information your cable supplier can give you. Frequently they don't know the information themselves. In this case, though, I'd assume that there won't be too many problems. Greg