Optimum Online blocking my Linksys router???

All this morning the internet was down. I have Optimimum Online and I use a Linksys router to split the internet connection between a two windows machines and two linux machines. On this morning I was able to see all the machines on the network, but no internet. I called Optimum Online and the guy asked me if I had a Linsys router connected and I responded with an "Gee...I don't know, what's that?" and he began to describe it. I told him I didn't see anything that fit that desciption. He also mentioned that he could see that my cable modem was active and he asked me how many computers I had hooked up, and I told him just the one. (I figured he just sees one machine from his end, the router). He started taking me through the troubleshooting procedure, but I was very spooked by all this so I told him I had to go.

At this point I unhooked the router, and hooked in one of my windows boxes in directly (Windows XP). This wasn't able to reach the internet either. I then tried the other windows machine (Windows 2000 Pro) and to my suprise, it worked. Now I was really confused. What, after a year and a half with this setup has caused it to stop working, and futhermore, what causes the cable modem to talk to this one machine and not the other? Does it make a difference that the MAC address the router was spoofing was the same address as the computer that is now able to talk to the cable modem? And what's with this guy asking me about a Linksys router? Can he see the machines on my network behind the router or is he just trying to bluff information out of me?

Any ideas or similar experiences, please post. Thanks in advance.

Reply to
Ken
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My guess is that they looked at the MAC address of the router and determined it was from Linksys. You could try spoofing the MAC address of one of the computers at the router (assuming the router has that capability) and that should foil their scans.

But if you're going to have them troubleshoot, you should hook it direct to the computer for the troubleshooting and then when all is well - attempt to re-institute you router LAN starting from a working situation.

Reply to
$Bill

I read somewhere that cable modem manufacturers are working with the cable companies to implement new snooping features into cable modems that are purchased in bulk by the cable companies. These new cable modems allow the cable companies to remotely tie into your LOCAL area network, to see what is on the other side of the cable modem. This is the first post I've seen from somebody complaining about it, though. If you are renting a cable modem from the cable company, you might consider buying your own from compusa or best buy or circuit city. I'd suggest a Motorola SB5100 or a Linksys BEFCMU10 (V3).

NOTE: I don't know if your cable modem is one of the new hacked versions that the cable companies demanded. But it sure sounds that way, especially if your modem is rented from the cable company, and you haven't had it very long. -Dave

Reply to
Dave C.

ALL cablemodems allow the cable company to see what is connected to the cablemodem. They, however, cannot see past a NAT box, like a home router, or a computer running Internet Connection Sharing, to see what lies beyond there.

My goodness. Is there no end to the misunderstanding you have of how this stuff works! There are no "hacked versions that the cable companies demanded." There may be reasons why someone would want to buy their own cablemodem, but this is not one of them.

This is how urban legends get started. Please. Please learn more about what you're talking about before you start spreading rumors like this as if they were fact -- or even possible.

Reply to
Warren

Likely you were talking to someone making just over minimum wage who's only previous contact with computers were the Apple IIc's at the high school he may not have even graduated from.

The system would know the MAC addresses of devices connected to the cablemodem. And they may be running a system that would require manual input to your customer records of any changes to that MAC address. However, if your router was spoofing the MAC address they have on file, you wouldn't need to do that.

Did you try simply rebooting (resetting) the router? Because they're limited in what they need to do, they don't need to be rebooted as often as your multi-tasking computer does, but they occasionally do need to be rebooted. (Heck, my microwave oven needed to be rebooted a few weeks ago!)

There may also have been issues on the network at the time you called. The person you spoke to is sitting in a call center someplace, perhaps in a different state, than the people running the network. Typically the net-ops have a way of notifying customer service when there is a problem, but at every ISP I've ever worked with, there are many ways that procedure can be broken, the desire of the minimum wage drone to even bother checking the latest information being one of them.

When problem arise, power-down all the computers, the router, and the cablemodem. Power-up the cablemodem, and let it sync before you power-up the router. Then let the router sync, and power-up the computers.

At this point if the one computer is working, but if the router that's cloning that same MAC address isn't, I would have to say the problem is most likely the router, and if resetting the router, and reconfiguring it doesn't work, then more information may be needed to troubleshoot.

Reply to
Warren

Well it's not exactly what he was doing or he would have said so. You left part of the sentence off:

"Does it make a difference that the MAC address the router was spoofing was the same address as the computer that is now able to talk to the cable modem? "

He asked if it makes a difference - he didn't state he was actually doing it. You may have inferred that's what he meant, but it's not worded well enough to be sure (esp if he meant is instead of was). The configuration at the time of his repartee with ISP is not obvious.

Reply to
$Bill

Trying to steal the thunder from Arnold, "Dave C." on Tue, 5 Oct 2004 17:38:24 -0400 spoke:

You need to read more reliable stuff.

Reply to
Never anonymous Bud

At the time I was troubleshooting with my ISP, I was (or was not) spoofing the MAC address of one of my PCs.

He also may have meant to say 'difference if' instead of 'difference that'. After reading thousands of post over the years, I don't trust inexplicit English and usually attempt to get it qualified (not to mention the fact that so many posters have English as their second language).

Henry - you're just too argumentative for me. ;)

Reply to
$Bill

BZZZT. Another reading-challenged responder.

The OP, Ken, wrote and you quoted

Why the hell would you then reply

when, obviously, that is exactly what the man told us he is doing???

cheers,

Henry

Reply to
Henry

BZZZT. Another reading-challenged responder.

The OP, Ken, wrote and you quoted

Why the hell would you then reply

???

cheers,

Henry

Reply to
Henry

snip

snip

Sorry, I didn't mean to kick off a grammar rodeo. I did in fact have the router spoofing the MAC address of the computer. I figure the reason why one single computer worked and not another is that when we signed up for Optimum Online, I had the one that is able to connect, so they probably have that MAC address on file. The spoofing of this MAC address by the router has worked until this point. I tried to reset and reconnecting everything several times and always came out with the same outcome.

How could they have blocked my router? Is it just this specific router maybe, or a class of Linksys routers? Is that how the guy knew I had one, because the morning it stopped working was the morning they applied some upgrade? Just some ideas that are running through my head.

I have a Linksys router, Model BEFSR41

Reply to
Ken

BZZZT. Another reading-challenged response.

Let's go through it slowly, shall we?

Yes.

No.

"the...MAC...address...the...router...was...spoofing"

Can't get much clearer than that.

"was...the...same...address...as...the...computer..."

It_was_the_same.

Huh? How could it have been better?

If he meant 'is', why would he have said 'was'?

'is'...present tense; now

'was'...past tense; at some time in the past

cheers,

Henry

Reply to
Henry

They don't know anything except the MAC address of the device directly connected to the cablemodem. Yes, they could have someone sit down and research a list of which MAC addresses are assigned to which manufacturer, and possibly they may be able to find out what products some manufacturers assign which parts of their pool to. And then someone could make judgments on which MAC addresses to block, BUT, that's a lot of work, and MAC address spoofing negates anything they gain from it. And since you *are* spoofing a MAC address, this whole imaginary possibility is moot. It doesn't apply.

If the computer with MAC address XX XX XX XX XX XX works, but the router doesn't work even when you're spoofing MAC address XX XX XX XX XX XX, then something is wrong with the router, not the ISP.

If resetting the router to factory defaults, and then reconfiguring it doesn't fix the problem, you could try updating the firmware to another (newer or older) version.

Reply to
Warren

One other thing you might try after cloning the appropriate mac address is the do a DHCP/release/renew on the router and then afterwards on each computer. Check to see if the router grabs a DHCP address. If it toesn't then try to set it manually and see if that makes a difference. You might have to get all the manual info from the Win2K computer that works when it's not behind the router. If that fails then perhaps the router either needs to be reset or is bad.

Reply to
Jbob

I reset the router to the factory defaults and then reconfigured and it did the trick, and now I'm back up and running. Thank you so much for all your responses.

Reply to
Ken

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