Could I just buy a cable modem?

machinewars · Post by **machinewars** » Fri Dec 13, 2002 12:46 am

I have Time Warner cable in NC and have been a subscriber to RoadRunner cable for a few years. I always see cable modems for sale and I'm not sure how this works. Can anyone just buy a cable modem and get high speed internet access for free?

Casper · Post by **Casper** » Fri Dec 13, 2002 2:48 am

You cant

MadDoctor · Post by **MadDoctor** » Fri Dec 13, 2002 10:57 am

Originally posted by machinewars
Can anyone just buy a cable modem and get high speed internet access for free?

I wish. It would save me $50/month if I could.

machinewars · Post by **machinewars** » Fri Dec 13, 2002 3:10 pm

Why do they sell them?

MadDoctor · Post by **MadDoctor** » Fri Dec 13, 2002 4:43 pm

Anyone can buy a cable modem and attach it to their cable wire and then to their computer. However… if your cable company hasn’t enabled Internet access to the modem, it’ll just sit there doing nothing. It needs a signal from the cable company that allows it to give you Internet access. That signal will usually run you about $50/month.

*edit*

Renting a modem means I pay the cable company $5.00 a month and if it ever needs replacing or brakes, they do it for free (not really… I’m paying $5.00 a month for that service). The guy next door has cable but he doesn’t want to pay rent for a modem. He wants to own his modem so he goes to anyone of several places that sell them. If he screws his up or if it doesn't work... it's up to him to buy a new one or trouble shoot his broken modem. Different choices for different people.

nov0798 · Post by **nov0798** » Sat Dec 21, 2002 2:15 pm

without the isp configuring your MAC address you cannot get the internet

illestdynasty · Post by **illestdynasty** » Sat Dec 21, 2002 11:36 pm

If the ISP supports the cable modem, all you have to do is give them the MAC address of the purchased modem and have them activate it. They will sent it a config file upon its first boot up and update the modem's firmware if needed.

So yeah, u can I own my SB4200...

nov0798 · Post by **nov0798** » Sun Dec 22, 2002 1:03 pm

the original question was;
can i just buy a cable modem and hook it to the cable and get internet. the answer is NO you cannot without subscribing to the isp.

DaveM · Post by **DaveM** » Tue Dec 24, 2002 6:50 am

Did he just ask something like....
"Can I go out and buy any old car and drive real fast....without buying any gasoline to put into the gas tank?"

LOL

You need to subscribe to your ISP for your Purchased modem to be provisioned with the service from your ISP, on the cable network.

Axman · Post by **Axman** » Fri Dec 27, 2002 9:49 am

When I moved into my new apt. there was a cable wire sticking out of the wall so I thought "maybe they didnt turn it off" and sure enough it worked i got tv and when i hooked up my modem there it was- got my ip and everything ----- now heres the catch when you connect to the cable network their server grabs your mac addy and gives you an IP , you can use it UNTIL the co. does a sweep of their servers to see what IPs are not asigned to a paying accounts , when that happens BANG your connection is off , now u can use another cable modem and do the same thing all u need is a diff. mac addy . Now i wish there was an easy way to change the mac addy of the modem but there isnt the only way is to reprogram the chip inside and the equipment that is needed is about $600 (cheapest)

Kip Patterson · Post by **Kip Patterson** » Fri Dec 27, 2002 10:48 am

Seems like this thread has gone on long enough.

Inappropriate for this forum.

Kip Patterson

Moderator

SG Broadband Community

Could I just buy a cable modem?

Could I just buy a cable modem?

Uh, NO

Re: Could I just buy a cable modem?

ou can until they catch on ;-)