[TWC] TWC Disabling WiFi Routers in NYC/Brooklyn!!!

[TWC] TWC Disabling WiFi Routers in NYC/Brooklyn!!!
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bdouble @ 28th Oct 07:22PM:
[TWC] TWC Disabling WiFi Routers in NYC/Brooklyn!!!

Have had TWC for nearly 3 years in my current location. Reasonably good service, only one period of a few days outage over that time...

Anyway, recently went on vacation for a week, and when I came back my internet was dead.

After some investigation, I realized that my wifi router wasn't picking up a DHCP IP address. Cable modem connected directly to my mac, everything worked great - but with the router in the picture, no go. Checked cables and router setup, everything is fine - so, suddenly this router (with a config that had been stable and untouched for a year plus) is dead! Support calls ensue, and I realize that they are intentionally disabling DHCP support for certain MAC addresses. In plainspeak, they are disabling certain devices from working with their internet service, intentionally!

I.e. they don't want you using that WiFi router you got at Best Buy. They want you to buy one from them and charge you extra each month...

They flat out denied this on the phone.

But it's true, as soon as I set up my router to spoof my mac's ethernet MAC address, router is up and working fine - it gets a DHCP IP address without any problems.

WTF? At least if you're going to do this, don't lie to me about it on the phone! I wouldn't have spent an hour reflashing my router to see if I could "fix" something that wasn't ever broken.

Thanks to a great router software (dd-wrt.com), and some tech knowledge, I can make this work in spite of TWC's stupid restrictions. Novice users will probably think their routers are broken and maybe even sign up for extra monthly charges they don't need...

So even though my connection is back up, I'm gonna find a new ISP that doesn't want to charge you extra to set up a wifi network in your house. Screw you, TWC.
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Racerbob @ 28th Oct 07:31PM:
Re: [TWC] TWC Disabling WiFi Routers in NYC/Brooklyn!!!

I don't believe that TW is doing this. There would be a major outcry and news story in this regard at this website if they were. At any rate, you may wish to post this story here...

»Road Runner
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hobgoblin @ 28th Oct 10:04PM:
Re: [TWC] TWC Disabling WiFi Routers in NYC/Brooklyn!!!

I don't think I have read so much nonsense in all my life. There are millions of wireless routers out there connected to RR services.

Hob
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anon @ 29th Oct 12:50AM:
Re: [TWC] TWC Disabling WiFi Routers in NYC/Brooklyn!!!

Modems by default on TWC (and most cable ISPs) store one MAC address of the first device connected to them after power up. After that, only that device can use the modem unless the modem is power cycled.

So it sounds like someone messed with your connection and directly connected your Mac to the modem and power cycled the modem while you were gone.
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bdouble @ 29th Oct 06:10PM:
Re: [TWC] TWC Disabling WiFi Routers in NYC/Brooklyn!!!

I did lots of modem power cycles as I switched back and forth.

Perhaps it's not intentional by TWC, but they are not serving DHCP to my wireless router's native MAC address, period. (It's a linksys WRT54G, running dd-wrt.)

Keep in mind this was a router that worked with the same config for quite some time. It suddenly stopped working. I did a thorough troubleshooting to make sure it's not cables, MAC caches, etc. etc. It doesn't work, except when it does - it works only so long as I set the router up to spoof my mac's MAC. When I turn this off and show my native MAC to the modem, DHCP is non-functional. I've tried to set up static routes by mimicking the DHCP configs I get when spoofing or directly connected, but that does not work either.

I'm willing to believe it may be unintentional, but it's there.
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