[techtalk] Cablemodems

[Beverly Guillermo]

> First off, the cable for the floppy drive was gone. (my brother's
> doing, I think). Then, the hard drive isn't recognized, even after
> fixing it in the BIOS to the exact specifications of the drive itself
> (checked all the heads, cylinders, etc. from Western Digital's site).
> Got a cable, and the floppy is still having issues (yes, I tried the
> ribbon in all sorts of configurations). It's also not seeing the
> CD-ROM I installed. So basically, since I've been working off and on

=)  It's probably cheaper to scrap the 486 I see.

> >The first thing I recommend is asking for a static IP address and then
you
> >don't really have to worry about setting up your DHCP daemon (which is
> >really trivial to setup but it's one less step to do).  The only way
> >I know how to get one is telling the Cable company that you've got a
win31
> >box that you're connecting and you need the static IP address.
>
> Alas, I am going to be given a dynamic IP. Read it in the service
> agreement. I don't know if they'll let me get a static one, but I
> will try.

It can work with a dynamic IP address, you just have to get DHCP daemon to
work with it and you'll be all set.  All you have to do is write in either
your network scripts or /etc/rc.d/rc.local something like this:

dhcpcd -h <Hostname for your computer>

The hostname will be assigned to you by Mediaone.

> Ok. I'm assuming this will all work if I used Linux to dial-up to my
> current provider as well, yes? I may try and test it out that way
> before we enter the cable modem arena.

Yes, it also works with dialup connections. =)

> >Also, if you're setting up your network to stay on the Cablemodem 24/7,
> >you need to make sure security is tight on your Gateway.  Unless you're
> >running servers (such as ftp, Apache, etc), I'd recommend not installing
> >any of those programs on your machine.  I disabled all of them on my
> >gateway.
>
> Alas, I did put Apache on, though not FTP. I may reinstall and remove
> it, though. Don't want to get caught serving web pages from the home
> 'puter by the cable modem company!

It's fine as long as you keep up with the security concerning Apache and
make sure that all your incoming services are patched up as well.  Look
at your /etc/inetd.conf (I think =) and check to see what services are being
activated and then update them to the recent versions.

Good luck. =)

Beverly


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