New Cable Modem

[Lex]

Guys, got my first 2 way cable modem, a little help. It's a Motorola Surfboard, has a USB port, a coax connection, a cat5 lan connection, and a power cord.

Am I going to be able to run this thing right off my router? What do I need to do?

Give me startup instructions please. no drivers installed for the modem or isp software. Make it easy for me, lol.


Is the USB how the thing exchanges date with the PC, and the lan port goes to my router?

Thanks,
Lex

[JonMarsh]

Not much experience with cable modem's, other than my girlfriend's Viacom/AT&T setup. It only has a Ethernet/lan connection, which normally goes to the PC. Setup is done by a CDROM supplied by the ISP. USB is an alternative connection to the PC, instead of the ethernet, I expect, as with other USB modems. What do the instructions say?

It wouldn't surprise me if you'd be better off setting up the modem first on one PC, then configuring for your router once you've got that going.

Me, I'm a DSL guy myself, but the principle's the same- I could have gotten a USB or ethernet interface modem; went with the ethernet, since that connection on the PC's can then be used for the router.

Regards,

Jon




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[Kevin P]

You can connect the modem to your computer with either the USB or ethernet cable. Since you have a router you'd use the ethernet. There will be a procedure to register the modem with the ISP, call yours to find out what it is. They may need the serial # and MAC address of your modem, and possibly the MAC address of your router as well. There may be a website you have to access to register the modem.

Once you're online, the router should be able to get an IP address from the modem via DHCP, unless your ISP provides a fixed IP.

If they don't care about the MAC address of the router or the NIC in your computer, you can set up the modem initially connected directly to the computer, then move it to the router once you've confirmed it works properly.

KJP




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