EThernet on back of Cable Box?

[andy6581]

What's the ethernet port on the back of my Telewest box for?

[TimJBart]

err....connecting to your pc?

and i can see this being moved pretty soon

[andy6581]

Sorry - I'm only a newbie :(

So what do i do once i've plugged it into a network card??

[TimJBart]

didnt telewest give u any information on this?

umm, mine goes from the box straight into my network card...and the data coaxial cable goes into the back of the box too from the cable outside (u probably knew that bit)

thats about it i think

[freesiteuk]

I've been wondering this too, when I got Blueyonder installed I expected that they would connect the other end of the ethernet cable to the port in the back of the set-top box, but instead I got a Motorola cable modem.

So what purpose does that ethernet port on the back of the Pace set-top boxes have? I thought these boxes had a cable modem built-in?

[andy6581]

I got blueyonder installed and that's exactly what i thought they's use,


So.. Does anyone know what it does???????????????

[Greenstead]

Interesting questions. I also thought the Pace box was already prepared to plug your ethernet link into (of course you must subscribe to their cable modem service first).

I want to change from our 56Kb tel modem to the cable modem service so we can have 'always on 512Kb' service. So I am going to find out all about it.

I guess the DVD forum isn't really the place for this subject.
btw theres a whole load of info on this broadband stuff at the nthellworld User Forum (www.nthellworld.com) - its a good forum for all things NTL, good and bad.

[Bapapapa]

My mate plugs his cable set-top box straight into his USB port for NTL broadband (512).

[Lagerlout]

We've got ntl broadband, so I know a little about this one. You can either connect with an RJ45 (ethernet) cable or the USB and both will work happily. The reason the RJ45 is there is in case you have multiple machines, so you can add it to your LAN. Otherwise the connection could only be used if the machine directly linked to it was always turned on.
Ours is currently on USB, but about to move to RJ45 (moved house this weekend so had no time to run the cables round yet).

[pjweston]

The following applies to NTL, but I suspect that the reasoning also applies to Telewest:

The digital STBs originally specified by NTL contain cable modems which support the - European - DAVIC cable modem standard. When NTL took over C&W's cable business, they found that they had inherited a large number of STBs containing cable modems supporting the competing - US - DOCSIS standard. For whatever reason, NTL decided to standardise their cable modem network on the DOCSIS standard. This instantly rendered a large proportion of their STB cable modems useless and has meant that customers in the original NTL areas have to use separate stand-alone DOCSIS-compatible cable modems.

[kippa2k1]

But what happens when NTL finally standardise THE STB's and we get the famous CR3 software release (sometime this month I believe)

[pjweston]

AFAIK the cable modems in the original NTL STBs are incompatible with DOCSIS at the hardware level; no firmware upgrade will be able to fix this. If that is indeed the case then NTL can hardly afford to replace tens of thousands of perfectly serviceable STBs to 'fix' the problem. I suspect that customers in original NTL areas will continue to use separate cable modems for some time yet. :)

[kippa2k1]

NTL are apparantly going to give everyone a "standard" STB which is basicly the ex CWC one