RCN cable-modem wins with Linux

[richb at pioneer.ci.net (Rich Braun)]

As a member of IEEE, I get their monthly journal IEEE Spectrum.  Over
the weekend, I spotted their article about 2-way cable modem
technology.  It resembles Ethernet (actually, token ring) somewhat,
but this article illustrated one of the key differences: with upstream
data going out on a different frequency than downstream, collision
detection is not the same.

It made for a fascinating read; I posted my summary to ne.internet.services.

It also helped me to understand one of the vexing problems faced by
RCN as it wrings out the bugs in its Somerville network.  In response
to my posted suggestion about tweaking my installation to use PPP for
the upstream while they figure out the problem, RCN's cable-modem
engineer Bryan Laird shared a little of his Linux expertise.

I was very happy to find someone who knows Linux tucked that deep inside
the organization.

-rich
P.S.  If you're on the RCN network and have a lot of packet-loss problems,
take his suggestion:  set up a modem, have your Linux box dial into the
Erol's service, and configure routing to go out the ppp0:0 interface
(IP aliased to your Ethernet address).  Email me if you need more info.
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