[ubuntu-uk] Configuring Virgin cable modem

[David King]

A friend of mine has Virgin media cable broadband, and there is an 
ethernet connection that comes from the cable TV box. However, it has an 
ethernet to USB adapter on the end that plugs into the PC. Her PC is 
running Windows XP. When I tried the ethernet cable plugged into the 
ethernet socket of the PC, it would not work.

You might need to use an ethernet to USB connector to get it to work 
with Ubuntu, especially if it worked before on USB.

I used to be have the same connection (when it was called ntl), and when 
setting it up for ethernet, the MAC address of the ethernet card had to 
be registered with ntl. This meant connecting to the PC, and logging in 
to a special page before internet access came online. But if I put the 
cable into another PC, it would take about 4 hours for the system to 
recognise that the MAC address was different.

So maybe this time with your Virgin Media cable connection it has picked 
up the MAC address of the XP PC, so it will not recognise the one in the 
Ubuntu PC. If you used the same ethernet card in the Ubuntu PC it would 
probably work.

The way I got round it in the end, was to use a dedicated PC for the 
ethernet connection which acted as a router. It was an old 200 MHz PC 
with 2 ethernet cards. You can buy cable modem routers, which is what 
you would need, unless you want to build a router from an old PC, there 
are dedicated Linux distros for that.

The advantage of having a router is that from the router you can attach 
a network hub, and to the hub you can connect as many PCs as you like, 
all then sharing the same internet connection without having to unplug 
anything to change the connection from one PC to another.

If you do buy a dedicated router, make sure it is a router for cable 
broadband, not for ADSL, i.e. it is an ethernet router without any modem.

You can see an example at
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/BROADBAND-ROUTER-FOR-xDSL-CABLE-MODEM-BNIB_W0QQitemZ220306160469QQihZ012QQcategoryZ101270QQssPageNameZWD1VQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem


David King




dianne reuby wrote:
> When I installed Ubuntu two years ago, it picked up my ntl/Virgin 
> cable modem immediately. The modem was using a USB connection.
>
> Last week the gas company dug up the pavement and managed to break my 
> Virgin cable and, as the Virgin engineers found today, also concrete 
> over the break. While they're waiting for their colleague with the 
> pneumatic drill to visit, they've set up a temporary connection and 
> also given us a new modem as ours was very old. However it only has 
> ethernet connections - this is working fine on my husbands XP, but not 
> on Ubuntu (8.10 installed or 8.04 LiveCD). My ethernet controller is  
> Realtek RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+
>
> I've tried to configure using the terminal PPPoE instructions (sudo 
> pppoeconf), but I get:
>
> "Sorry, I scanned 2 interfaces, but the Access
> Concentrator of your provider did not respond. Please
> check your network and modem cables. Another reason 
> for the scan failure may also be another running pppoe
> process which controls the modem."
>
> The two interfaces it lists are eth0 and pan0.
>
> The Network Connections icon shows "Requesting network address from 
> wired network" then "No network connection". I'm sure the ethernet 
> cable is OK as a light comes on when it's plugged in, and Ubuntu keeps 
> trying to connect.
>
> I've got two entries on the network connections - Auto Ethernet which 
> has no MAC info - "Connect automatically" is ticked. The second entry 
> is Auto eth0 where the MAC info is different from modem. "Connect 
> automatically" and "System setting" are both ticked on this one. Both 
> are set to Automatic DHCP. Trying to edit MAC info on these simply 
> creates another entry with no MAC address.
>
> Virgin of course don't support Linux (or Firefox!) - they could only 
> tell me that the PC should pick up the IP address from the modem, it's 
> not assigned.
>
> And we don't even use gas ...
>
> If anyone can give me info on solving this I'd be grateful. I'm 
> running 8.10.
>
> TIA
> Dianne
>
>