how do i hook up my cable modem to beos 5??

Connect the cable modem to BeOS? Now *that* would require one interesting cable!

Dude, connect your cable modem to the *computer*.

Assuming you've got a BeOS-compatible network adapter (NIC) installed in your computer:

Step 1:

Locate the RJ-45 jack on the back of your cable modem.

Step 2:

Locate the RJ-45 jack on the back of your computer.

Step 3:

Plug one end of a network cable (UTP Ethernet) into the RJ-45 jack on the back of the cable modem.

Step 4:

Plug the other end of the network cable into the RJ-45 jack on the back of your computer.

It's that simple.

andrew,

i see where you were going (i think craig was trying to ask how to connect the cable modem to the computer), but technically speaking, when you're using a cable modem with beos, beos IS connected to the cable modem, although the connection isn't entirely a physical one. the protocol stack connects the cable modem hardware to the beos software (remember the osi model? physical layer connected to the data link layer, data link layer connected to the network layer, network layer connected to the transport layer...).

still, that really would be an interesting cable.

--the greeb!

If you don't have a nic card you can hooh-up through the USB port. Some say its fast data transfer some say its slower than a nic card

LoozerBaby:

Are you able to get a cable modem to work under BeOS via USB? If so, I (and many others, I'm sure) would love to know how you did it!

You might want to try this yourself before suggesting it.

There's a reason I didn't mention USB--USB cable modem connections are *not* natively supported under BeOS. It's possible to add this functionality to BeOS, but I haven't heard of any third party who has made this possible. If anyone's added USB cable modem support to BeOS, it's news to me.

USB connections should probably be avoided with cable modems in general anyway--especially if you're a cross-platform user (like most BeOS users). For a start, this isn't supported under BeOS (and many other platforms as well!), some chipset manufacturer's USB implementations (I won't name names) are either kinda dodgy or aren't properly supported, the theoretical maximum throughput offered by USB 1.1 is 1.5Mb/s (this bandwidth is shared by all devices on the high speed channel), which may or may not slow your cable connection (mine is capped at 1.5Mb/s, so it probably wouldn't affect throughput much in my case, but if you're getting much better than 1.5Mb/s from your broadband provider, a USB 1.1 connection might things down a bit), etc.

A few additional notes about BeOS and cable modems:

Most DSL and cable modems will work correctly if you have a supported Ethernet network card. Again, internal modem cards and USB are not supported (although I have heard of people who have gotten internal modem card to work).

Ensure that your ISP isn't using PPPoE (PPP Over Ethernet) or some other unsupported protocol.

If you *have* to run special connection software, you are almost certainly using a protocol BeOS can't handle. The trouble is, customer service reps will invariably tell you that you HAVE to run special ISP-provided software even when you don't. (In many cases, the software is nothing more than a setup wizard that sets your network configuration to use DHCP, TCP/IP, etc. and sets Internet Explorer's home page to the ISP's Web site.) For example, AT&T Broadband reps have told me several times that I HAVE to use their special software when all their software did was enter or verify Windows network settings--something you could easily do manually.

If you use a standard Ethernet connection to a cable/DSL modem with no extra software, you should be fine. Open BeOS' Network Preferences and enter exactly what the ISP suggests or mirror your settings from another OS.

Craig,

Does any of this information answer your question? I've been using cable Internet service with BeOS for about a year now and it really is surprisingly simple to set up.

What's really cool is that you can set it up from scratch and never have to reboot the computer! Just click the Restart Network button in Network preferences. Another cool thing is that instead of using Streams or some other common TCP/IP stack, Be Inc. actually wrote their stack from the ground up, optimizing it for performance.

One possible (but unlikely) gotcha:

Some ISPs require that your box respond to a host name request before a DHCP request is granted. This host name request function is a relatively new and optional part of DHCP and isn't supported by some DHCP clients. Unfortunately, the DHCP client included with BeOS does not support this feature and I;m not aware of any other DHCP clients for BeOS. This may not affect you at all, but it's good to know in case you have a problem getting DHCP to work. If all else fails, you can capture the configuration information using another OS and then manually configure your network settings in BeOS without using DHCP.

Another cable internet BeOS tip: don't turn on the FTP or Telnet services unless you're actually using them! BeOS does not support things like user-level permissions or other security features common to many multi-user platforms, like System V, Solaris, and BSD. Also, there's no way to restrict access to specific subdirectories using the bundled FTP service.

BeOS is fantastic for surfing the 'net. Opera 3.60 for BeOS is highly recommended.