[PLUG] Ubuntu And Comcast Digital Cable?

[Larry Brigman]

On 11 Feb 2007 14:35:07 -0800, Russell Senior <russell at personaltelco.net> wrote:
> >>>>> "m0gely" == m0gely  <m0gely at telestream.com> writes:
>
> Keith> Comcast looks for a specific MAC address for one machine on the
> Keith> customer end.
>
> m0gely> It's the modem's MAC, not the machine behind it.
>
> I have seen cases where a box was plugged directly into the cable
> modem, and then we wanted to plug in a wireless router or firewall or
> something in between (these were not PTP installs, I hasten to add).
> No workie until we used the silly router firmware to pretend to have
> the first box's MAC address.  Then it worked.  That sounds like
> Comcast looking for the machine's MAC rather than the modem's.
>

This is not just Comcast,  I have the same exact problem with Verizon both on
DSL and again on Fios.  The answer I get back from Verizon is that the
device needs
to do a DHCP release of the address prior to allowing a new one to be assigned.

Most SOHO router/firewalls devices don't allow this type of
interaction so the only
recourse is to leave the device off for the at least the duration of
one DHCP lease cycle
before trying to place a new device on-line.  A pain, yes; but it is
typically simpler than
trying to clone the old mac address forever.