NTL CM

[bids]

Getting me NTL cable modem set up next Tuesday (over from ISDN) and looking at the responses from the other NTL thread looks like I'm in for some serious bandwidth

Couple of questions for you lot already on though.

What firewall software are you running (if any) ?
(Heard Norton was pretty good, but any other (shareware ?) ones worth a look ?)

What about connecting a LAN to it ?
Is the Microsoft ICS stable or any other product worth looking at (Have eval. of Winroute). (Connected to a duel ethernet card Win98 box, and want to share with a W2K box, Mandrake Linux 7.1 box). What is performance like running internet (FPS) games through LAN ?

Any problems/pitfalls to look out for with above.

Cheers in advance.

 

[Perplex]

Right, here we go:

At the moment (until friday 5th Jan) I am using a "temporary" set up for my NTL cable modem. Basically, I plugged it into the TV wire, and got them to reg it. Drawback is that is disconnects frequently, but even on this temp set up, I was getting 103k/sec off ftp.sunsite.org.uk. Not bad for a 512k connections

I personally don't use any firewall software for day-to-day running. Only time I ever up my firewall is when I get some grief on IRC. I used different ones in the past, but I just use Conceal PC Firewall. Beware tho, you really need to know about UDP, TCP, ports, etc or else you'll be a little lost with it.

LAN: Well, when it's installed properly (Jan 5th) I'll just stick an extra network card in my machine and use ICS. A mate of mine has it set up like this and works fine. One interesting thing I want to play with, is the "built in DHCP server" inside the Motorola 4100-USB cablemodem I got. The way it appears to work is assign the NIC an internal IP (32 available, from 192.168.100.1 to 192.168.100.32). The manual for the modem says that you can plug the cablemodem directly into a hub, and viola, it will assign IP's to up to 31 other PC's connected to the hub. NTL claim this won't work. One way to find out

Not sure about playing FPS's through the via the LAN to CableModem, but, as long as the PC running ICS is not being stressed in the CPU department, it should be no probs. Add a max of 10ms to the ping for LAN'd machines.

Pitfalls: NTL's GAY GAY GAY GAY web caching. Everything is cached on NTL (http/80 anyway). SO, I have probs on some sites. I am sometimes forced to dialup via my analogue modem to access 2 certain sites. Am I gonna call NTL up and complain and pay 50p a minute to do so? Nah, can't be arsed

All the best, and welcome to broadband

 

[old.Luap2]

On my Adsl line I use ZoneAlarm Pro. It's $39.99 but I think it's worth it. I tried Norton and it's crap. It's ok if your just surfing but If you use anything that use a range of ports it just can't cope. http://www.zonealarm.com

 

[bids]

Thanks for the replies chaps

Perp - couple more questions to do with your response.

I have the Motorola SB4100 too - the DHCP part sounds interesting. Am I right in what you are saying - that 32 IP addresses are assigned to the CM by NTL, and one is assigned to the attached NIC ? (This seems like a lot for one location - or am I being stupid ?). These addresses are NAT'ed at the NTL end ?

The techie from NTL told me that plugging into a hub/switch isn't supported, although he didn't say it wouldn't work - let me know if you give this a try. He also said the USB port on the CM isn't supported nor W2K - bit crap - but should run ok as a gateway on my Win98 box. Might give all these a try when I'm comfortable with it.

Finally, didn't realise that web is proxied through NTL.
Which types of sites do you have problems with (hopefully not BW ?)?

Luap2 - that ZoneAlarm looks cool too - gonna give it a try.

Thanks for the advice lads.

 

[Perplex]

Originally posted by bids
Am I right in what you are saying - that 32 IP addresses are assigned to the CM by NTL, and one is assigned to the attached NIC ? (This seems like a lot for one location - or am I being stupid ?). These addresses are NAT'ed at the NTL end ?

Nope. If it works as it should, NTL supply you with one "real world" ip address, which is assigned to your cablemodem. Your cablemodem, then assigns up to 32 "internal" IP addresses to PC's connected to it/hub. It then acts as a router, using simple NAT. In case you're not sure, "internal" ip's are an excluded range of IP's for use on internal LAN's...127.0.0.0 for example, is a reserved range. So is 192.168.0.0

Originally posted by bids
The techie from NTL told me that plugging into a hub/switch isn't supported, although he didn't say it wouldn't work - let me know if you give this a try. He also said the USB port on the CM isn't supported nor W2K - bit crap - but should run ok as a gateway on my Win98 box. Might give all these a try when I'm comfortable with it.

Sure, I'll let you know how it goes. Worst case scenario is that I just slap a 2nd NIC in and use ICS or some other proxy software.

Originally posted by bids
Finally, didn't realise that web is proxied through NTL.
Which types of sites do you have problems with (hopefully not BW ?)?

lol. Funny you should mention BW Well, earlier today for example, I couldn't access the main site @ www.barrysworld.com. All it was doing was giving me a green screen, then pausing. No text, no piccies, no pretty stuff. I connected via analogue modem to Jolt (I think) and it worked fine. I telnet'd to a *nix box and lynxd in fine.

So, it must have been NTL's fault Seems fine now though.


Also, FYI and future reference, when you are connected to the NTL network, they have a "server status" page, that also has reports of current problems. http://www.ntl-isp.ntl.com/lookup/default.asp. If you trawl through some of the old service messages on it, there are some about various proxy servers buggering up like:

Inktomi Cache in Camridge
Customers in Cambridge and the surrounding area, will be experiencing slow browsing speeds, due to a fault on a cache server[/B]

[Edited by Perplex on 05-01-01 at 03:10]

 

[Perplex]

Now I'm really angry.

Net Tech came round today to sort out the probs with my CM. First symptom was a low dBmV on the downstream (-3) so he upped it, and it got to 5dBmV.

Problem solved? no way.

The downstream Signal to Noise ratio idles nicely at about 35dB, then every 15 seconds or so it drops to 17, then back up to 35.

The reason? Shitty cabling. They now have to come and rewire the entire street. I did make sure tho that they do my cable first (utter wankers)

<<ANGER>>

 

[Ono]

As with all Broadband installations you have to suffer the pain before the pleasure.

Most BTOpenworld peeps did, so too must you young Jedi.

 

[Perplex]

heh, slight update...and a lesson in how to deal with NTL.

Right, as I said, they need to replace the cabling inthe street for a different grade cabling.

Well, they told me this was gonna take 5 weeks. So, I told them on saturday that if it's gonna take 5 weeks, they can:

come take their set top box,
cancel all our subscriptions,
come take their cable modem,
remove all the wiring from our house,
poly-filler and paint up the wholes left from the wall sockets...or i'll throw it all in the bin.
that I'll take ADSL instead, and all my mates in this area that are waiting to see how my experiences of CM goes, would be advised to get ADSL instead too.

They called me at 9am today saying..."heaheha...we'll be there in 2 days to replace the defective cabling sir"

NTL, I tip my hat to you. Nice to see a company that still bows to customer pressure, like the good old days

 

[old.TUG]

I am impressed

 

[Testin da Cable]

you did good Perplex but it's sad innit? seems the only way to get something done by a company [lately] is to threaten the hell out of 'em, and then hope they'll get off their behinds.

-tdc

 

[Perplex]

Aye, it is sad TDC. All I'm hoping is that they set the "akward customer" flag on my account, so any time I call up from now on, the operator I'm dealing with gets a flashing message on the screen saying "DO NOT MESS WITH THIS CUSTOMER" along with some klaxon sirens and flashing lights.

oh yeah baby, power

 

[bids]

Well, I'm now up and running with NTL cable - and it rocks bigtime !

My experience wasn't without problems though. Cabling guys arrived at 9:30am and were finished by 10. I asked what happens next, and ot a "dunno mate - I only do the cabling".
This then meant my first call to NTL. What a bloody nightmare. Took 20 minutes to get through, and then got transferred. Ten minutes later I speak to someone who tells me that my ethernet address has been logged, and that all I have to do is use the details from the welcome pack. "What welcome pack ?" I reply. "Oh sorry sir, you should have recieved one - simply go to this address on your browser and everything should work". Me attempts this, and gets another screen asking for serial numbers - shit - another call to NTL required. After forty minutes on hold, and noting Perplex's experience, I ring their head office, and lay into some customer services guy. "Sorry sir, this has never happened before" - ,yeah right ! Anyways, after saying that if I do not gt a response within the hour I will junk all my NTL services (including TV/phone) I get a call from some chap ten minutes later, and I'm up and running.

Upshot is absolutely blistering speed (downloads at 70+ kbps, pings to BW servers of 20-30 (at 7:30pm !) and Napster downloads in one to two minutes. - all for £20 per month !).

If you have to call NTL support though, good luck - as per Perplex's experience, lay it on thick and you'll get a result.

Also got it working over my LAN using Winroute (piss easy to set up - just set the gateway on the clients to the connected PC), using the inbuilt firwall too.

Cheers for the responses lads - been bloody useful in getting this going.

 

[Perplex]

hooray! Glad to see a fellow customer sticking it to NTL good 'n hard To be honest, I rather like NTL. When you look at who the competition is, they make NTL look very good. They are offering a service, which imho is better than *DSL, at half the cost BT are charging. Can't go far wrong with that huh

They'll be here tommorrow morning to replace all the cabling from our house to the street box. Fingers crossed (I shall not hold my breath, because I like living and have little faith in NTL to fix it on this visit) all shall be working fine when I get home from my exam tommorrow afternoon.

Watch this space, for I believe a rant will be in order tommorrow afternoon

 

[Perplex]

Now I'm really f*cking angry. Engineers came out (4 of them) and replaced all the cabling from our house, to the MUX.

Did it make a difference? A bit...but it still drops from 35dB SnR to 17dB then back up again. Another engineer scheduled to come out (they haven't called me to let me know when yet).

Now their claim is that someone in my street/area has done a DIY job on their TV service (to add another TV to the box, extend the cable, etc) and the resulting bodge job is allowing noise into the lines.

I'm well fucking angry

 

[old.MrFragem]

Bids was told by NTL:
Sorry sir, this has never happened before"

Well, exactly the same happened to me when I got NTL cable installed last Summer, including the need to make the two telephone calls to get set up. Funny isn't it that when you have a complaint, so often companies use that line! I eventually got the Welcome Pack about two weeks after I was up and running.

I've had some problems with poor connections to some locations in the early months. Running trace routes showed that the great majority of these were due to NTL routers. All my complaints to NTL about this were totally unanswered. I've noticed a considerable improvement lately however and the usual Sunday evening slowdown is now largely absent. I read somewhere that NTL did some upgrading of its equipment a short time ago. If so, it's worked. Cable is great!

The firewall I use is ZoneAlarm. Luap2 said it costs $39.99 but that's only for commercial and multi-users using Zone Alarm Pro. Home users can download the standard Zone Alarm for free. http://www.zonealarm.com/zonealarm.htm

[Edited by MrFragem on 11-01-01 at 15:01]

 

[bids]

Although I'm well impressed with the performance of the cable connection, it seems as though web browsing performance can be variable. Although ping to game servers and performance is fine, at the w/end web browsing seems really slow (relative - still kicks against ISDN).

Anyone else get this (Perplex ?) ?

Is it simply because of traffic volume (to the DNS servers ?). Would using alternative DNS servers help ?

Anything else I can do to improve this ?

Cheers in advance.

 

[old.AnDy^GUN^]

Try this N.T.L. site, they may have some info for you.

On the rare occasions my cable modem stays up, my web surfing is constantly fast, but im one of the pioneers in my area so over subscription is not an issue yet.

http://www.ntl-isp.ntl.com/lookup/default.asp

Best of luck.

 

[bids]

Third one down looks like the prob - thanks for that mate - I'll keep my beedies on that site !

 

[old.hardgraph]

I've had my NTL cable modem since September, now ranked 150 for quarter in ngstats, get ping of 30 on uk servers, downloads of 80 kilobytes sec and the best part - NTL havent billed me for it, not once, five months of free cable modem whooooo.

Downside- NTL have routing problems, there langley one went down two weeks ago resulting in a ping of 400 for three days. Had some probs with NTL, luckily i read the faqs on the website so i knew more than the women on the phone, told her i wanted to register an ethernet address she did this and got it wrong, called a day later re-register up and running 20 mins later.
Work collegue had similar problems when trying to register, NTL bloke claimed there something or other server was down and wouldnt be up for 2 days, collegue called again 2 days later and got the same story. I called 20 mins later possing as my collegue told them i wanted to register an address guy claimed the server wasnt working, asked to speak to a supervisor - 20 mins later the modem was active. My suggestion when dealing with NTL- know what your'e talking about, dont give up until they give you a firm answer, always ask for a reference/log number and be polite.
BTW my collegue doesnt pay for his cm either

On the firewall front you definetely need one, my machine gets port scanned at least twice a night.


[Edited by hardgraph on 22-01-01 at 23:03]