Non-Surfboard cable modem on Telewest

[Durzel]

Bit of a long shot but here goes..

Has anyone got any experience of using a non-Surfboard cable modem on Telewests network?

Being Cisco certified and in need of a decent firewall/small hub at home I've been putting up with a utterly pants Netgear router (which resets itself every time you add a new port, etc) so wanted to try a Cisco UBR cable modem instead which comes with a 4-port hub and IOS Firewall feature set built in.

I can't see any reason why this technically wouldn't work as its fully DOCSIS 1.1 compliant.. the only obstacle I can imagine is if somehow BY locks the network down to some sort of ID from the Surfboard cable modem itself (don't confuse with the "allowed access" MAC addresses for PCs registered on Self Care).

Anyone had any success at all with non-Surfboard cable modems on Blueyonder?

 

[Durzel]

Hmmm.

Upon further research I don't think it would be possible since the Surfboard WAN MAC address is registered with Blueyonder, which is the only device they will permit to download the config file which grants access. I guess you just wouldn't get an IP address either from the DHCP server on their own UBR.

Bugger.

Anyone here a Telewest engineer who could update my WAN MAC address for a crate of beer?

 

[Mellow]

You can add your own extra MAC addresses when you log into the Blueyonder home page.

 

[Durzel]

That's MAC addresses for hardware connecting through the cable modem, not for the cable modem WAN port itself (the port which connects to the coaxial cable).

 

[Mellow]

So how do you look up your own WAN MAC?

 

[Athan]

The "Cisco UBR cable modem" can't set custom MACs ?

-Ath

 

[Durzel]

Not on the cable WAN interface.. it's apparently a security feature of it. I guess there must be some sort of gentlemens agreement between equipment manufacturers and ISPs to stop people from doing this because there's no reason at all the command shouldn't work - it's explicitly not available.

You can do MAC cloning on the inside ethernet ports, but that's no real use.

 

[Flippant Desires]

my gut feeling is that a non-SB modem wouldn't work.

months ago your access to BY was via a registered PC MAC address, but now you can connect any PC without having to register the MAC address. which must (surely) mean they're using another value, maybe the modem's MAC address or serial number etc.

another modem would also be un-supported I think. Imagine you had a problem connecting, the on-call support or field engineer may not know the modem you're using.

 

[Xavier]

Of the last few cable routers I've tested, all have had the option to alter the WAN mac... I can't understand why Cisco would lock it out... Maybe there's a way of changing it via a terminal connection if the HTTP interface doesn't offer it?

Are they really paying so much attention to the behavior of devices on their network that you couldn't just register the Cisco's external MAC as a PC MAC address? Or do you have to use a router with your bb package?

 

[Xavier]

You can do MAC cloning on the inside ethernet ports, but that's no real use.

How about putting a single PC onto the cable line, registering it as standalone, then cloning its mac at the router and using that as the web-facing adapter address?

 

[Flippant Desires]

How about putting a single PC onto the cable line, registering it as standalone, then cloning its mac at the router and using that as the web-facing adapter address?

You don't need to register MAC with BY (telewest) anymore, just plug the PC in. Remember this is not the PC MAC or cloning PC MAC - it's the MAC of the modem itself.

 

[Xavier]

*penny drops*

 

[Whipped]

Why not keep your surfboard plugged in and connect your new Cisco router to it then everything else to the Cisco. Sure, it's an extra hop, but it shouldn't make to much difference.

 

[Will]

I'm pretty sure there is an available hack...you'd be amazed what hacks exist for cable modems.

Though don't blame me if they cut off your services. Clicky. I realise this is a link to the theory of uncapping, but if you poke around, you might dig something up.

 

[Durzel]

There was a working hack for uncapping the Surfboards that worked about a year ago, involved spoofing the DHCP server IP on your PC. When you rebooted the cable modem it would pull a config file off of it and use it instead of the legit one. There is more to it than that but I'm not going to reveal any more for obvious reasons!

As far as I know BY fixed that via a firmware update (forced to modems) which stopped it allowing configs to be read from the internal Ethernet port, but it may still work....

I'm not interested in uncapping my modem though.

Anyway, to bring some closure to this I have found out through conversations with both Telewest and Blueyonder (I work with TW at work) that it is basically impossible unless you can get the coaxial MAC address registered on their equipment.

I ended up just getting a PIX 501 firewall instead, which also has a 4 port switch on the back. Not ideal, but does the job a different way.