[Cialug] Mediacom DesMoines

[Matt]

Be very careful using dyndns with a cable provider.  When Charter cable 
first put their AMAZING(!!!) 500kbps cable internet service in for a 
large chunk of their service area (in upper-east Tennessee), I signed 
up.  I got a dyndns subdomain (because they were the only game in town 
if you wanted dynamic DNS service at that time) and I immediately 
started learning everything I could about running a Linux web server and 
a personal IRC server. Everything was fine for about 2 months, when I 
came home to no internet access.

Turns out that hidden in their wall of text AUP/ToS there are specific 
rules prohibiting you from running ANY type of server, and they noted in 
their cancellation letter that I had pointed two domain names 
(subdomains, really) at their IP addresses.  That life lesson turned me 
into a diehard DSL user (at least, as soon as DSL became available... 
several years later).  As a general rule, DSL services will let you do 
pretty much anything you want (except, obviously, for illegal ventures) 
with whatever bandwidth you can squeeze out of those two copper wires.  
Cable companies get touchy when you use too much of the shared 
neighborhood bandwidth, or as in my case open a couple of ports that 
they are afraid MIGHT generate incoming traffic.

If you just want to have an ssh port available to you while you're away 
from home, you'll (probably... hopefully?) be OK.  If you open port 80 
or any other ports associated with web, email, IRC, ftp, or any number 
of other bandwidth-sensitive services, your cable company may just shut 
you off.  If they don't do that, they very likely will pitch you a nasty 
email about how you need to upgrade to their business-class offering if 
you wish to point domain names at THEIR (Angry CAPS!!) IPs.  I put up 
with DSL for the better part of the last decade because the cable 
internet ToS hasn't changed one bit (except that they added that you 
can't use your full bandwidth "excessively" -- a concept that means 
whatever they wish it to mean at the time they decide to apply it) since 
they first started offering cable internet.  Luckily, where I live now I 
can get 75/20Mbps fiber-to-home internet, which basically combines the 
speed and low latency of cable internet with the ToS of DSL.

Sorry if this came off as a rant.  I just wanted to drive home the fact 
that cable companies can be very strict about their terms of service, 
even when they aren't getting their bandwidth used.

-- Matt (N0BOX)

On 2/13/2017 5:39 PM, Adam Hill wrote:
>> after you grab a DHCP address for your firewall box or router, set it as
> static
>
> In my experience your DHCP addressed IP will stick for equally as long as
> this setup unless you somehow wipe out your DHCP lease, change hardware, or
> something along those lines.
>
> Hardware changes or periods of being offline (and someone else stealing
> your previously leased IP) are the things that'll change your IP AFAIK.
>
> RE Dyndns: Pretty sure CloudFlare does free DNS with dyndns support?
> Haven't used it since I'm using namecheap's dyndns; lots of domain
> registrars provide dyndns for free now.  Just write up a ddclient.conf and
> leave it running.
>
> On Mon, Feb 13, 2017 at 4:17 PM L. V. Lammert <lvl at omnitec.net> wrote:
>
>> On Mon, 13 Feb 2017, chris rheinherren wrote:
>>
>>> Mediacom only gives static's to Commercial customers. If it's a
>> residential
>>> account then they wont be able to have a static IP.
>>>
>> Same deal with Charter here in St. Louis. I did find out something tha
>> might be beneficial - after you grab a DHCP address for your firewall box
>> or router, set it as static - been using the same IP for many years.
>>
>> Also figured out the routing standard for the Charter network - if your IP
>> is n.n.n.n, the gateway is usually n.n.n.1.
>>
>> IOW, the Charter network doesn't care that you have a DIFFERENT DHCP
>> address after reboot/reset, only that you are using a valid one. Could be
>> the same for Mediacom?
>>
>>          Lee
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