Time Warner Cable tech do this a lot because it is easier and quicker than installing/configuring a NIC . . I usually undo it and connect via the NIC since it takes almost all the USB Bandwidth
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Bizarre Occurence
OK, here goes. Maybe this isnt too bizarre, but I've never seen anything like it.
A desktop PC's hardware profile shows no indication of the existence of a NIC card. There is no ethernet receptacle on the back of the tower/cpu and no ethernet cable connection at all. There is only a USB connection to a Motorola cabe modem from the cable company.
The PC does have an Internet connection, though.
I don't get it:
1.) The cable modem is acting as an ethernet NIC too?
2.) How come the PC has no NIC card in the first place? Or is there a NIC card, but instead of an ethernet interface it uses a USB connection?? (Sounds ridiculous)
If I disconnect the USB cable, the hardware profile drops the Motorola SB5120 Cable Modem line item and I lose Internet access, of course.
Am I making any sense at all?? Or should I put down my crack pipe???
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Answers
Sorry, a misunderstanding.... The Motorola thingy has a USB interface (instead of ethernet?), right. A modern desktop PC w/o an ethernet port seems odd, though. A NIC is short for Network Interface Card, I believe, so anything used for networking might possibly be called a "NIC". Usually, however, it's like PCBONEZ says, that an ethernet unit = NIC.
If the setup works, don't fix it. If it gives problems, add a NIC to the desktop and use the ethernet interface on the modem instead of USB (if there is one).
/RID
Thanks, folks, for all your input.
I guess the way to look at it is to realize that the cable modem does not care how the data from the computer is brought to it. Once it receives the data, whether through Ethernet-encapsulated frames or a USB data stream, the modem is going to strip/de-encapsulate the packet anyway and re-encapsulate into the cable modem's WAN protocol. which is basically ATM with some added overhead.
Up until yesterday, I had never seen a cable modem with a USB interface that is meant to support a network connection. We are conditioned to think of USB connections as those that support peripheral devices (printers, scanners, etc), since that is its common use.
One thing that still remains a msytery of sorts is that, with 2 computer interfaces on the modem -- ethernet and USB, two PCs can connect at once and obtain 2 different IP addresses from the ISP! Now, that really is strange because the cable ISP is assigning public/global addresses, not private/1918 addresses, which cost them money and are indeed precious commodities these days.
2 IPs with one modem is no mystery to me -- even with a single Ethernet port on my DSL modem! I can attach a splitter to the modem, attach two cables -- one to the router and one directly to a computer, and thus get 2 IP's. Not all DSL modems have this capability to give 2 IPs, but some better ones do.
By the way, I'm not sure what you mean when you say one IP address can support 253 computers.
If you're talking about a PAT overload situation, the TCP and UDP port numbers are 16 bits in length, so you can, theoretically, have 65,536 devices sharing one public address. In reality, though, it's more like 4,000. After that, the PAT table becomes too unmanagable and loads down the translation device.
Are you talking about something else?
Typical home network uses a router to share Internet connection. The type of router meant for home use gives each computer on the network its own IP. E.g. if router's IP is 192.168.2.1, it can assign IPs from 192.168.2.2 to 192.168.2.254, for up to 254-2+1=253 computers.
By "standard" IP address, i mean a dynamic or static IP address given by your ISP. Yes it's global/public in that it's unique in the world & no two computers in the world can have that same IP address at the same time. http://en.wikipedia.org/wi
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by: simpswrPosted on 2006-10-07 at 13:36:18ID: 17683569
Not too unusual to connect a Modem via usb cable . . it can act as a network card with the right software.
Look in Device Manager to see if the NIC has been disabled and in Network Connections to see the USB Connection.