Switching to MediaOne

[mcmanus at AppliedTheory.com (Patrick McManus)]

[Rich Braun: Wed, Jun 28, 2000 at 11:01:55PM -0400]
> Derek Martin wrote:
> > Most probably, yes.  MediaOne hands out IP addresses only to known MAC
> > addresses, AFAIK.  At least they did when I got my CM.
> 
> Thanks for the feedback.  I also got a couple of other private replies.
> My question remains this:  assuming I don't have DHCP-client working
> on the old Linux box, will this work?  Will the cable-modem recognize
> my Linux PC even if it hasn't requested a DHCP lease?
> 

the cable-modem won't care, but there's no other way to get your IP
than with DHCP. Statically configuring for indefinite periods of time
would be a very bad idea.


> Secondary question: if MediaOne renumbers my IP address in the future,
> is there any way (short of calling them, or getting some form of DHCP
> client up and running with the hard-wired MAC address) to find out
> what the new address is?
> 

and more imporantly than you finding out what the new one is, is the
issue of you finding out that the old one is not valid.. otherwise you're
very likely to continue to use an IP that has been legitimately
reassigned via dhcp to another user. theoretically bad
news. (realistically you only get renumbered when segments split, so
the new box with your old number would be on a differently routed (and
legitimate) segment and you'd pretty much be blackholed, so the damage
is mitigated)

nonetheless, the terms of service are very clear about it being a DHCP
driven service and you need to be able to live by the terms of the
leases acquired that way.

> know, went out of the Linux distribution business a long time ago (WGS,
> or something like that).  Experience has taught me that the libc and
> everything else is just plain too old to do much with.  I have an Adaptec

if you're running an old libc-5 system, I'm sure you'll receive lots
of advice to just copy the data off this box and put on a more modern
installation. Even if just for security reasons if you're going to put
the box on net. (and firewalls aren't security cure-alls..)

-P
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