Hi Ted
On Sunday 25 September 2005 14:30, Ted Harding wrote:
A friend of mine, whose phone is already on an NTL line, has just had a cable modem installed by NTL for broadband via an NTL cable. The leaves them with the NTL CD awaiting insertion into their computer to initiate the setup and establish the broadband connection. So far so good.
However, this comes with a contract (I don't have the full wording avaiable) on the lines of "By using the software you agree to ... "
Conversely, by not using the software, you do not agree with the terms and conditions attached to the afore mentioned "software".
By the way, my friend also has a Linux installation so theoretically could use this instead of the Win98 which the CD is provided for ans which they normally use. Is this likely to prove workable?
Unless any major changes have been made to the NTL infrastructure, the software is primarily responsible for registering the modem and setting up some default I.E. settings. Nothing that can not be done under Linux.
I had one of the first cable modems when NTL set up a broadband service and used Linux to register - Have never plugged a M$ enabled box directly in to their network.
It all seems a bit of a black hole, and I don't myself know enough about what goes on here to give any advice (other than having the same impression that the contract "gives too much away").
Either or both of accounts of reassuring experiences/horror stories will be welcome!
I see a number of suspect packets logged by the firewall and boa (a simple http server) from addresses owned by NTL - Some are assigned to customers, but a few are (I suspect) infrastructure boxen..
These two links have some more up to date info than I can provide: http://homepage.ntlworld.com/robin.d.h.walker/cmtips/register.html http://www.chetnet.co.uk/articles/index.php?page=index_v2&id=60&c=14
Regards, Paul.