Cable Modems 
Frequently Asked
Questions
About Cable Modems
Cable modem is a high-speed, always connected Internet service provided by your local cable company. Cable modem installations are estimated to be over 7 million in North America and it is growing at a steady pace. Digital Subscriber Line and Satellite are two additional choices for high-speed access. The cable service that I am most familiar with is Road Runner. At the core, Road Runner uses an all-optical broadband IP data network but it combines with a local hybrid fiber-coaxial (HFC) infrastructure. The fiber optical portion is extended to distribution hubs near your home. Coaxial cable is used from the hub to your home. The cable television channels and cable modem access come in over the same coaxial cable. This line is split at your home for connection to the set top box for the cable television programming and to a cable modem for the Internet connection. The cable modem has a second connection, which is ethernet. The ethernet connector can either be plugged into an ethernet card in you PC or can be attached to a proxy device or PC running proxy services for sharing the Internet connection. Our home uses a PC with two ethernet cards running Internet sharing software. We use a home network to share files, printing and Internet access.
Connecting Your Computer
For connection to the cable modem there must be an Ethernet card
installed in the PC. The cable company will normally provide
as well as install an Ethernet card but many computers today
are sold with network cards pre-installed (or offer the option).
This is becoming more common as these high-speed services grow.
The network card is then configured to get its IP address from
the cable modem service provider. I have requested to get a static
address but this option is not available at this time. They do
offer a USB connected cable modem as well as an internal cable
modem card for the PC but the external modem offers more flexibility.
Once your PC is properly wired and configured you will always
be connected. What this means is that when you turn on your PC
and open a browser then you are online. The e-mail is configured
in a program such as Microsoft Outlook, Outlook Express, Netscape's
mail or any of the many programs able to use POP3. The cable
provider will provide the incoming and outgoing mail settings
as well as basic instructions.
Diagnostic Tools
Since the Internet uses the protocol TCPIP it is good to know a few diagnostic tools you can use. There are some tools built into the Windows operating system and two are especially useful. winipcfg-To check the current status of TCPIP on a 95, 98 or ME machine you can type in "winipcfg" from a command prompt (In Windows 2000 or XP it is ipconfig). It also lets you release and renew an address when testing. Type "winipcfg /?" at a command prompt for more information. ping-The "ping" command is a simple command used to test to see if another host will respond. Type "ping <IP address>". Type " ping /?" at a command prompt for more information.
Speed and Reliability
The speed of a cable modem varies slightly but for the most part
I have noticed speeds above one megabit per second. Bottlenecks
sometimes occur at the far end that can also limit your speed.
At this writing, I did a test download from a reliable site and
achieved speeds on average of 1328 kilobits/second. By comparison,
the fastest a dial-up modem can go is 56 kilobits/second. Streaming
video that cater to the high-speed service customers are becoming
more popular and are a great place to see some great old television
programs and movies.
Cable modem speeds are ideal for watching streaming video from the Internet. These high-speed services also make it ideal to make voice and video calls over the Internet.
Cable modem service is very reliable and stable. Customer satisfaction has been noted to be above 90%.
Availability and Price
Many areas have already been upgraded to provide cable modem
service. Cablemodem.net has a comprehensive listing of providers.
Click on the link to check for your local cable provider.
New Technology Home - Services/Cable Modem Service Providers
Cable modem service is typically priced from $30 to $50 a month, which includes the cable modem rental. The service includes unlimited Internet access as well as multiple e-mail addresses.
This guide was written by Raymond Melnik, a Telecommunications Specialist and Systems Engineer who has been certified in Northern Telecom, Cisco, Microsoft and Novell.
