RCN vs Mediaone cable modem experiences?

[Derek Atkins]

	1) RCN IP addresses are quazi-static -- lease times are
practically infinite, and rarely, if ever, change.  I've not been
renumbered since I got the service a few months ago

	2) RCN hostnames are static.  Indeed, the hostname is R____
where ____ is your cablemodem serial number.  It wont change, even if
you do get renumbered.  It may be hard to type, but it's always
going to be there.

-derek

"Charles C. Bennett, Jr." <ccb at kukla.tiac.net> writes:

> 
> 
> Hi Seth -
> 
>    I got an RCN cable modem installed this week.  I think I'll be
> giving it back.  Their DHCP server appears to use a very short lease
> period and hands out hostnames that look like this: r93aag000892.
> This means that I can't reasonably expect to be able to telnet to
> my machine from on the road and I'll no longer be able to continue
> to host some of the mailing lists that I host from this machine.
> If you're doing client-only stuff, the RCN modem appears to work
> as advertised.  As soon as you try to get back into your system from
> somewhere outside the house you need to go to a dynamic DNS service
> like tzo.com and set up a permanent name.
> 
>    The MediaOne service (at least in Cambridge), while not providing a
> static IP addr at least provides a stable name in the DNS namespace.
> This allows them to look the other way on the "NO SERVERS!" mandate
> unless you become a bandwidth pig.  I'm not likely to go with MediaOne
> because they keep squeezing the cable lineup...
> 
>    Looks like it's time to write a letter to Mr. V Chip about
> legislation clarifying open access to cable systems for ISP's.  Cable
> modems would be great if you could only get a reasonable company
> working the other end.
> 
> ccb
> 
> 
> ---
> Charles C. Bennett, Jr.				VA Linux Systems
> Systems Engineer,				1382 Bordeaux Dr.
> US Northeast Region				Sunnyvale, CA 94089
> +1 617 543-6513					+1 888-LINUX-4U
> ccb at acm.org					www.valinux.com
> 
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-- 
       Derek Atkins, SB '93 MIT EE, SM '95 MIT Media Laboratory
       Member, MIT Student Information Processing Board  (SIPB)
       URL: http://web.mit.edu/warlord/    PP-ASEL-IA     N1NWH
       warlord at MIT.EDU                        PGP key available
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