Help! Can't get NTL CM working.

O

old.mutley

Guest
I'm really hoping someone can help on this one.
On Tuesday, an NTL engineer fitted the cable modem line, and seemed to do a really good job. Tested the signal - Aok.
I fitted the cable modem (the new Teryon job) to my 3Com NIC, phoned in the MAC address, and went through the autoregistration process. Everything great thus far.

Having done all the setup stuff, I can't access the web. I use both IE and Netscape, and can't get either to work. By the way, I'm using Windows 98 SE (sorry!), for the moment.
The only page I can access is the autoregistration site. I spoke with a tech support guy today who assures me that the transparent proxy is fine, and there are no service problems in the Reading area.
The odd thing is that I can open a DOS window and successfully ping any web server, which tells me that the gateway setting is correct, and DNS is working. So, WHY CAN'T I BROWSE!!??
Even worse, I can't do any internet gaming. For example, I tried AHL - I could get alist of available servers, but couldn't authenicate against WON.

Any ideas?
 
O

old.GateKeeper

Guest
have U put in DNS servers ok??? - are U running DHCP on that NIC??

GAteKeeper
 
B

bids

Guest
Yeah - Gatekeeper is right - deffo souonds like your DNS servers 'aint specified.
 
M

Moving Target

Guest
Hmm, im in the Reading area too and I have no problems with my cable
 
O

old.mutley

Guest
Hmmm, I thought I had tried setting DNS on my NIC.
Can someone explain to me the exact settings I need for TCP on my NIC?

I tried the connection on my laptop as well - no joy.

Moving Target - I'm interested to hear that you have no problems in Reading. Can you tell me what kind of service you are getting from your cable modem. Are there many outages, or does the transparent proxy fail at all?

NTL tech support guy told me the service was fine. But he also gave me some rubbish about doing a 'Communications Refresh' in Windows, which he must have just made up.

What gets me is this - if I can ping servers from DOS (e.g. ping http://www.sun.com), and I get round-trip packet results, including the IP address, doesn't that mean that the DNS settings are correct?

I reinstalled my NIC, Netscape, and Windows 98 last night - no effect.

AGH!
 
B

bids

Guest
If you can ping http://www.sun.com in DOS, then yes it would appear your DNS are fine, and all the NIC settings.

It could be sommet to do with the IE/Netscape connection properties. In Control Panel, Internet Options, click on Connections. There shouldn't be any dial-up connections. In the Connect via LAN options, set this to 'Automatically Detect Settings' (might be slightly different on yours as I'm using W2K, but you get the idea).

Let us know if this helps - or anyone tell me if I'm talking complete bollox ;) (This is how my NTL is set up and it works fine ;)
 
O

old.mutley

Guest
It looks like I *may* have found the answer - it seems likely anyway:

The IP address I'm being given is in the range 213.10x.xxx.248 to 213.10x.xxx.253

I have just found out that this is a temporary pre-registration address that NTL give you. It expires every half an hour. It gives you a very limited service which enables you to access the autoreg site basically.

Something has got screwed with the registration process because on restarting my modem, its supposed to download a new cm config file, with the new DHCP, gateway and DNS server settings.

This explains why basically no windows apps can access the net, and possibly why the only thing I can do is ping from DOS.

I finally managed to get hold of a tech support engineer on the cable modem line (who, incidentally, phoned me back, after the phone line dropped - he phoned my home, spoke to my wife to get my work number and phoned me there : to say I was surprised would be an understatement).
Anyway, he confirmed that I shouldn't have that IP address, and is currently routing (excuse the pun) around the network checking that my MAC address is registered in the relevant routers.

So, watch this space : I'll let you all know what happens (it will have to wait till tonight, as I'm at work at the moment, worse luck!).

By the way, I can highly recommend visiting this site for loads of stuff able cable modem issues for NTL and Telewest (its where I found this stuff out):

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/robin.d.h.walker/cmtips.html

Later!
 
M

Moving Target

Guest
The biggest trouble I have had is when my connection went completely dead. That was a problem at NTL though.
 
O

old.mutley

Guest
Good news!
Its fixed.

The problem was that I had the wrong IP adress - pre-registration.

BAsically your modem downloads a file called prereg.cm which restricts the service.

Once completed your modem *should* download a new file called either silver.cm or bronze.cm depending on whether or not you have the 64k or 512k service (mines the 512k).

Basically my Terajet modem was not downloading this new file.
To get it to reset I did the following:
- Switch on modem
- Wait till lights indicate line connection (no pc on at this time).
- Switch off modem.
- Remove coax
- Switch on modem, wait till modem shows no cable connection (no light).
- Switch off modem and reconnect the coax.
- Switch modem back on, and this time you should find that the connectin and registration process takes some time - 15 minutes maybe.

Once the lights have stopped flashing, boot your PC, and away you go.

How much of this did I get from NTL? None at all. All figured out from web sites and intuition, although the bit about removing the coax was something that occured to me after talking to one of the tech guys.

AHL here I come ;)
 

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