Virgin (ex NTL) Broadband with Linux - how to set up?
My brother-in-law has a new computer with Ubuntu 9.10 installed in it, we put it together here at my house and it connected to the internet with no problems via my router here - just plugged the RJ45 in and it worked. So, basically, it's networking must be configured about right. Now he's back home and wants to connect to the internet via an NTL cable modem (now Virgin Media). The cable modem model number is NTL 250 - Model E08c007. When the RJ45 from the cable modem is plugged into his old Windows machine it works, when it's plugged into his new Ubuntu machine it doesn't work. Can anyone tell me how to get this to work? Is it a question of telling NTL/Virgin that there's a new machine (with a new MAC address) connected or does the Cable Modem expect authentication across the ethernet cable, or what? -- Chris Green
On 19-Feb-10 09:45:39, Chris G wrote:
My brother-in-law has a new computer with Ubuntu 9.10 installed in it, we put it together here at my house and it connected to the internet with no problems via my router here - just plugged the RJ45 in and it worked. So, basically, it's networking must be configured about right.
Now he's back home and wants to connect to the internet via an NTL cable modem (now Virgin Media). The cable modem model number is NTL 250 - Model E08c007. When the RJ45 from the cable modem is plugged into his old Windows machine it works, when it's plugged into his new Ubuntu machine it doesn't work.
Can anyone tell me how to get this to work? Is it a question of telling NTL/Virgin that there's a new machine (with a new MAC address) connected or does the Cable Modem expect authentication across the ethernet cable, or what?
-- Chris Green
This reminds me of a very similar situation when I once helped a friend who was also on Virgin. Initially there was only one PC in use. Then they wanted to connect more than one. The ISP required any machine connected to their cable to be registered, and there was a limit on the number (I think two but not sure now). Also, going through the registration was a real pain. I solved it my buying a router which had one WAN socket which could be connected to the NTL cable modem, and four LAN sockets. Then up to four machines could be connected to the router's LAN sockets, and the router assigned local IP addresses to the connected machines. Then it was only necessary to register the IP of the router's WAN side with Virgin, a one-off operation, and all worked nicely. This was a Peak "High Speed SOHO 1 WAN 4 LAN Broadband Router" (quoted from the box), but I'm sure there are many equivalents! Ted. -------------------------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <Ted.Harding@manchester.ac.uk> Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861 Date: 19-Feb-10 Time: 10:13:16 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------
On 19/02/10 09:45, Chris G wrote:
Can anyone tell me how to get this to work? Is it a question of telling NTL/Virgin that there's a new machine (with a new MAC address) connected or does the Cable Modem expect authentication across the ethernet cable, or what
Assuming you're right, and assuming he has the login details for NTL/Virgin, then this always used to be quite easy. If memory serves, after the cable modem is turned on, for about a minute or so (maybe more?), it goes into a mode that allows any unregistered MAC address to be given a DHCP address. The official instructions always used to be turn off the computer and the modem, turn the modem on, then turn the PC on, although I always just forced the PC to perform a DHCP request; unplugging the network cable and plugging it back in ought to do that on any modern distro, and if the cable is directly from the PC to the modem it'll probably happen just from turning off the modem. Once the network is up, you try to access the internet from a browser, which proxies your connection to an NTL login page, where you log in, fill in a couple of details, and it sets up your account to accept your new MAC address (I think you could have 5 registered so the old Windows one should still work). Then reboot the modem and restart the PC's networking again, and you should be online. It's probably all changed now though! Hope this helps in some way anyway. -- Mark Rogers // More Solutions Ltd (Peterborough Office) // 0844 251 1450 Registered in England (0456 0902) @ 13 Clarke Rd, Milton Keynes, MK1 1LG
On Fri, 19 Feb 2010 10:36:29 +0000 Mark Rogers <mark@quarella.co.uk> wrote:
If memory serves, after the cable modem is turned on, for about a minute or so (maybe more?), it goes into a mode that allows any unregistered MAC address to be given a DHCP address. The official instructions always used to be turn off the computer and the modem, turn the modem on, then turn the PC on, although I always just forced the PC to perform a DHCP request; unplugging the network cable and plugging it back in ought to do that on any modern distro, and if the cable is directly from the PC to the modem it'll probably happen just from turning off the modem.
Once the network is up, you try to access the internet from a browser, which proxies your connection to an NTL login page, where you log in, fill in a couple of details, and it sets up your account to accept your new MAC address (I think you could have 5 registered so the old Windows one should still work). Then reboot the modem and restart the PC's networking again, and you should be online.
So referring to Ted's post, if you put a router between the PC and the NTL cable modem and have that router set up in such as way as it will request the address for the cable side with DHCP but run it's own DHCP server (rather than proxying) for the LAN side the effect will be to register the MAC address of the router with Virgin Media and then anything sitting behind that router will work. The same would not work with a switch or bridge. Steve.
Back in the days when I was living in a house with NTL, we had to turn the cable modem off and leave it off for ~3 mins (though we used to make it 5), so that it would pick up the change in MAC address (whether it was a new PC or router) when it was restarted. No idea whether that still applies. Peter.
On Fri, Feb 19, 2010 at 11:01:55AM +0000, samwise wrote:
Back in the days when I was living in a house with NTL, we had to turn the cable modem off and leave it off for ~3 mins (though we used to make it 5), so that it would pick up the change in MAC address (whether it was a new PC or router) when it was restarted. No idea whether that still applies.
Yes, I think that's it, b-i-l hadn't remembered that this was necessary when connecting a new computer. -- Chris Green
On 19-Feb-10 10:57:48, Steve Fosdick wrote:
On Fri, 19 Feb 2010 10:36:29 +0000 Mark Rogers <mark@quarella.co.uk> wrote:
If memory serves, after the cable modem is turned on, for about a minute or so (maybe more?), it goes into a mode that allows any unregistered MAC address to be given a DHCP address. The official instructions always used to be turn off the computer and the modem, turn the modem on, then turn the PC on, although I always just forced the PC to perform a DHCP request; unplugging the network cable and plugging it back in ought to do that on any modern distro, and if the cable is directly from the PC to the modem it'll probably happen just from turning off the modem.
Once the network is up, you try to access the internet from a browser, which proxies your connection to an NTL login page, where you log in, fill in a couple of details, and it sets up your account to accept your new MAC address (I think you could have 5 registered so the old Windows one should still work). Then reboot the modem and restart the PC's networking again, and you should be online.
So referring to Ted's post, if you put a router between the PC and the NTL cable modem and have that router set up in such as way as it will request the address for the cable side with DHCP but run it's own DHCP server (rather than proxying) for the LAN side the effect will be to register the MAC address of the router with Virgin Media and then anything sitting behind that router will work.
The same would not work with a switch or bridge. Steve.
Yes, that's exactly how it was done. That was over 5 years ago, and I was a bit hazy about details when I first posted. However, I've now located the PDF for the router. You first have to register the router's MAC address with Virgin (once and for all), and then you can plug whatever you like into the LAN side. Ted. -------------------------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <Ted.Harding@manchester.ac.uk> Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861 Date: 19-Feb-10 Time: 11:15:03 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------
(Ted Harding) wrote:
On 19-Feb-10 10:57:48, Steve Fosdick wrote:
On Fri, 19 Feb 2010 10:36:29 +0000 Mark Rogers <mark@quarella.co.uk> wrote:
If memory serves, after the cable modem is turned on, for about a minute or so (maybe more?), it goes into a mode that allows any unregistered MAC address to be given a DHCP address. The official instructions always used to be turn off the computer and the modem, turn the modem on, then turn the PC on, although I always just forced the PC to perform a DHCP request; unplugging the network cable and plugging it back in ought to do that on any modern distro, and if the cable is directly from the PC to the modem it'll probably happen just from turning off the modem.
Once the network is up, you try to access the internet from a browser, which proxies your connection to an NTL login page, where you log in, fill in a couple of details, and it sets up your account to accept your new MAC address (I think you could have 5 registered so the old Windows one should still work). Then reboot the modem and restart the PC's networking again, and you should be online. So referring to Ted's post, if you put a router between the PC and the NTL cable modem and have that router set up in such as way as it will request the address for the cable side with DHCP but run it's own DHCP server (rather than proxying) for the LAN side the effect will be to register the MAC address of the router with Virgin Media and then anything sitting behind that router will work.
The same would not work with a switch or bridge. Steve.
Yes, that's exactly how it was done. That was over 5 years ago, and I was a bit hazy about details when I first posted. However, I've now located the PDF for the router. You first have to register the router's MAC address with Virgin (once and for all), and then you can plug whatever you like into the LAN side.
The last time I did this, which was a while ago but within the last year, I stuck a new router in with no problems. I turned it all off for a few mins (inc. NTL cable modem), turned back on (modem first, wait a few mins, then router) and it renegotiated everything and just worked. AFAIK, it's been donkey's years since one had to go to a web page and register etc. The info so far is spot on; in order to have multiple devices internally, one needs a router. Currently I'm using a netgear wireless router with 1 WAN port (to the NTL cable modem) and 4 LAN ports in addition to wireless (can't remember the model, sorry). Set router to use DHCP as client on the WAN, and to provide DHCP as server on the LAN. NTL cable has been a good service here where I live for the 12 years I've been here, and it runs at 50meg now, which is top. Cheers, Laurie. -- --------------------------------------------------------------------- Laurie Brown laurie@brownowl.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------
On 19 Feb 2010, at 11:15, (Ted Harding) <Ted.Harding@manchester.ac.uk> wrote:
On 19-Feb-10 10:57:48, Steve Fosdick wrote:
On Fri, 19 Feb 2010 10:36:29 +0000 Mark Rogers <mark@quarella.co.uk> wrote:
If memory serves, after the cable modem is turned on, for about a minute or so (maybe more?), it goes into a mode that allows any unregistered MAC address to be given a DHCP address. The official instructions always used to be turn off the computer and the modem, turn the modem on, then turn the PC on, although I always just forced the PC to perform a DHCP request; unplugging the network cable and plugging it back in ought to do that on any modern distro, and if the cable is directly from the PC to the modem it'll probably happen just from turning off the modem.
Once the network is up, you try to access the internet from a browser, which proxies your connection to an NTL login page, where you log in, fill in a couple of details, and it sets up your account to accept your new MAC address (I think you could have 5 registered so the old Windows one should still work). Then reboot the modem and restart the PC's networking again, and you should be online.
So referring to Ted's post, if you put a router between the PC and the NTL cable modem and have that router set up in such as way as it will request the address for the cable side with DHCP but run it's own DHCP server (rather than proxying) for the LAN side the effect will be to register the MAC address of the router with Virgin Media and then anything sitting behind that router will work.
The same would not work with a switch or bridge. Steve.
Yes, that's exactly how it was done. That was over 5 years ago, and I was a bit hazy about details when I first posted. However, I've now located the PDF for the router. You first have to register the router's MAC address with Virgin (once and for all), and then you can plug whatever you like into the LAN
I've been using Virgin/NTL for 6 years and have never had to register my mac address with them in this way even though I have changed routers a few times. All I have to do is turn off the modem and then plug it into the new device and restore the power and it recognises the new MAC address and lets me connect. Perhaps I am just lucky ;) -- David Reynolds david@reynoldsfamily.org.uk
participants (7)
-
Chris G -
David Reynolds -
Laurie Brown -
Mark Rogers -
samwise -
Steve Fosdick -
Ted.Harding＠manchester.ac.uk