Using TV Cable to connect to the internet?

[johnjohn320]

My sister told me that a friend of hers and the friend's husband had somehow rigged their computer to connect to the internet through their tv cable. (It's always on, like the TV, so they just open up IE and go). They said it was blazing fast, and wasn't costing them a pretty penny because it was the same thing as their Cable TV company. Anyone know about the legality of this, and, more importantly ( hehe) how to do it?

 

[KingHam]

Never heard of a cable modem?

KingHam

 

[KameLeon]

Wtf? Hacked cable modem service?
Well, I also thought he was reffering to cable modems..but


<< They said it was blazing fast, and wasn't costing them a pretty penny >>

 

[Viper GTS]

It's called cable internet access, &amp; all you have to do is call your cable company &amp; ask for it.

Otherwise it's illegal as hell.

Viper GTS

 

[Pyxis]

Of course it's not legal.

 

[prodigy]

Sweet

 

[eakers]

if you have a cable modem and a network card its possible
but im not sure exactly how.

*kat. <-- the boy does it to move the cable modem from one room to another but they pay for the service to begin with

 

[beer]

This doesn't make any sense.
What would you plug the cable into?
Obviously a cable modem; what kind did they use?

 

[Thom]

are you referring to a cable modem?

or my local cable tv company does set top boxes for surfing and emailing but not much else...


if they are using ie sounds like you mean a cable modem... if they're getting it free i wanna know the provider...

 

[zippy]

Great...now people are stealing cable internet access let alone cable TV...juuuuust wonderful. It sounds like they are using some kind of black box for cable modems...I've never heard of this before.

Well, unless their cable provider gives cable internet access free with their cable TV or they ARE paying for it- then it is definately illegal!

 

[erub]

uhh, maybe by a pretty penny he means it is cheap..like $39.95 a month

 

[Cheapster]

Hmmm..new one on me. I know it can be the other way around, pay for cable modem and get cable for free, and yes that's illegal too.

 

[ltk007]

$5 says her friend's husband said it was free so she wouldn't bitch about the cost

 

[AlphaIVT]

how can that be?

when i got mines installed, the guy had to call up the cable company to accept the cable modem and stuff, they need inside verifications. maybe your sister's friends got those connections.

 

[Cheapster]

ltk007 may be on to something here. Probably has the bill going to his work and she keeps bragging that it's cheap! LOL

 

[Fingers]

yeah there probably is some truth to that.

 

[Valhalla1]

obviously we need some clarification here.. like, is this just regular cable modem service you are asking about, like you've never heard of it? or is this some rigged cable-stealing operation that you'd like to get in on?

 

[Fishead]

I believe TV cable is only one way ,you are only recieveing a signal you can't send anything as opposed to Internet cable which is set up for 2 way communication.
Fishead }-}}}'>

 

[johnjohn320]

OK, I'm not sure exactly how they did it, but yes I HAVE heard of cable modems and cable internet access and this didn't sound like that. It sounded like they figured out some way to hook their computer (maybe using a cable modem I dunno) into the same cable outlet that you would plug your tv into, and they use that for online purposes.

 

[TonyG]

All cable modems that I know of use the same coaxial cable line and plug as the TV.

 

[erub]

Ask for their email address - if it is at home.com (@home), or rr.com (Roadrunner) you know that they are paying for it . Unless they have some sort of inside connection, which is always possible.

 

[RossMAN]

It sounded like they figured out some way to hook their computer (maybe using a cable modem I dunno) into the same cable outlet that you would plug your tv into, and they use that for online purposes.

It sounds like they have a cable splitter which allows the TV and cable modem to share one cable outlet.

Cable internet is blazing fast, doesn't use your phone line and usually costs around $39.95 per month.

Call your local cable company and get hooked up!

 

[casimec]

Or he someone there works for the cable Co and they get it for free.

 

[Soybomb]

Oh you can indeed steal cable modem serivce, but the person who you ripped the mac address from is gonna be mighty angry when they can't surf....

 

[element]

Each cable modem has a unique MAC (media access control) address. You can't easily change that. More likely they meant it is inexpensive. No one said they were getting it for free. They said it wasn't costing them a pretty penny, not that it wasn't costing them a penny. Big difference, a litle misleading and vague description of their service. I have cable modem access and yeah it is fast. Great for online gaming too.