Red Alert To Optimum Online Users

[larmstrong]

OK SO I WAS ON INTERNET ALL MORNING, HAVE OPTIMUM ONLINE, 2 COMPUTERS HOOKED WITH LINKSYS BFR41, BEEN GREAT FOR A YEAR, WELL I TOOK THE DOG OUT FOR A FEW HOURS CAME BACK AND WHAM, CANT GET ON INTERNET, SO I CHECKED ALL IP STATUS EVERYTHING WAS GOOD, THEN RESET MODEM AND ROUTER, IPS WERE GIVEN OUT, AND STILL NO INTERNET( I FOUND THIS WIERD BECAUSE ISP GAVE MY ROUTER AN IP) SO I TRIED HOOKING UP THE MODEM DIRECTLY TO NIC ON DESK TOP AND IT WORKED, SO I FIGURED MUST BE THE ROUTER, HOW WRONG I WAS. SINCE I HAVE 2 NICS IN LAP TOP I SAID F IT AND I WILL SHARE CONNECTION UNTIL ROUTER WAS FIXED, WELL SAME THING HAPPENED WITH LAP TOP AS WITH ROUTER, ALL THE CORRECT IPS WERE GIVEN OUT BUT STILL NO INTERNET, I STARTED THINKING TO MYSELF, COULD OPTIMUM ONLINE CHANGED THERE SYSTEM IN 2 HOURS TO USE MAC ADDRESS TO GRANT ACCESS, SO I GOT THE MAC FROM THE NIC THAT WAS WORKING, CLONED IT WITH MY LOVELY LINKSYS AND THEN CHANGED THE NIC OUT OF DESK TOP, I AM HAPPY TO SAY, BOTH COMPUTERS ARE BACK ON LINE, WHAT I DONT GET IS HOW DID THEY DO THIS IN A 2 HOUR WINDOW AND WHY? CABLEVISION OWNS THE WIZ AND THE WIZ SELLS THE ROUTERS, SO WHY WOULD CABLE VISION CHANGE THEIR POLICIES ON THIS, I KNOW ITS FOR THE ALMIGHTY BUCK, BUT TO BE HONEST WITH YOU I LIKED THE ABILITY TO GET A NEW IP ANYTIME I WANTED IT THRU CHANGEING MY MAC, WHAT I REALLY DONT GET THO IS WHY DID THEY CHOOSE THIS ONE MAC ADDRESS OUT OF ALL OF THE ONES I USED, WHY DID THEY NOT CHOOSE THE MAC THAT I HAVE BEEN USING FOR THE LAST MONTH, HOW DO THEY KNOW THAT MY NIC DIDNT DIE AND I REPLACED? O WELL THOUGHT I WOULD LET THE WORLD KNOW

SORRY IT WAS SO LONG

[DaveM]

AT&T in the Seattle area did this several weeks ago.
They had a web link you could go to choose the MAC address [*edit* of the MAC addresses that were registered as being the ones that have been in use at your home, that previously had aquired IP addresses through DHCP] you wanted to be your permanent mac, then it configured your account by pressing another link and required you to reboot your modem.

I chose the NIC in my main PC and then cloned the MAC from that PC to my router. That way when a technician comes over, if I ever need one, I can remove the router and have a direct connection to my PC, with the correct MAC address. As they require now for service.

Also, I can remove my router for my own testing when my connection has problems and have the correct NIC residing in the PC closest to my Modem.

[larmstrong]

welll out of curiosity i called cablevision, i told them the truth about masking my mac and they told me no problem, and that the issue was a local problem that had been resolved, i havent tried to switch it back yet but i still find it wierd that only one mac address would let me on line but i could still pull an ip with other nics, what kind of temporary problem would cause this issue, sounds a little fishy to me but then again i am no expert, if any thoughts are out there on what could cause this let me know please

[qball15j]

Comcast made the change about a month ago to using MAC address. hmmm may have been longer than that but I can't exactly remember. In their eyes it's more money, in the user's eyes it's more of pain.