Does Comcast use PPPoE?

[canoner]

Does anyone know if Comcast cable internet service use PPPoE or not. Is there a way I can figure it out?

 

[Lord Evermore]

They don't. They may or may not use MAC address registration in your area. (AT&T did when they were our ISP, when Comcast took over they seemed to stop doing it.) The MAC registration requires that you tell Comcast the MAC of whichever computer or router is being connected to the cable modem. If they don't use it anymore, then you can connect anything. If they do, then you either have to call them anytime you switch machines, or always use a router, or use the cloning capability of some OSes and routers to always fake the same MAC.

The only way to figure it out would be to ask them (if you don't have service yet) or to see if your system has PPPoE configured on it when they installed it.

 

[Goosemaster]

THey use DHCP...sometimes they also check MAC Addresses. Can easily be overcome by unplugging the modem for a few minutes if you need to plug another pc into the modem...

Get a router and mirror the MAC address on it.

 

[canoner]

Yeah, I got a router and cloned the MAC. It works great.

 

[Lord Evermore]

Unplugging the devices doesn't get around them checking MAC addresses. If they're only allowing a certain MAC to be used, then it's always going to fail using a different one. Unplugging devices only works if they don't actually require you to register a MAC address, in which case it's just clearing the modem's memory so that the MAC will be updated to the new device.

 

[Goosemaster]

Originally posted by: Lord Evermore
Unplugging the devices doesn't get around them checking MAC addresses. If they're only allowing a certain MAC to be used, then it's always going to fail using a different one. Unplugging devices only works if they don't actually require you to register a MAC address, in which case it's just clearing the modem's memory so that the MAC will be updated to the new device.

Actually I believe it does check MAC addresses, but only WHILE MODEM IS ON. After you unplug, and the connection is losit seems to wrok fine.

 

[canoner]

I found out that Comcast does check MAC address. the connection is bind to the MAC of the modem. The MAC of LAN card is also checked, but Comcast allows you to register multiple MAC, but use one only at a time. No problem for me. I cloned the MAC to the router.

 

[jbritt1234]

I have Comcast. As long as I reset the router, I can use any PC I wan't plugged directly into the cable modem. I've probably used at least 10 different NIC's (different times).

Maybe their setup varied in different parts of the country?