[brunodg]

Hi,

My ISP provided me a Cable Modem with both Ethernet and USB ports.
It's a Motorola SURFboard SB5100 Series.
Motorola doesn't provide USB Mac drivers for this modem. They are required for Windows.

I connected it to my computer using the provided USB cable and, for my surprise, MacOS X promptly recognized it as en2 network interface.
But for some reason I can't get a DHCP lease for it.
I’m able to connect to modem's configuration web page ( http://192.168.100.1/ ) configuring IPV4 manually and setting modem as router.
The USB connection is working for sure.

In Modem Configuration page i've found:
CPE USB MAC Address 00:15:2f:a7:2e:d9

But ifconfig reports:
en2: flags=8822<BROADCAST,SMART,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
ether 00:00:00:00:00:00
media: autoselect (<unknown type>)
supported media: none autoselect 10baseT/UTP <half-duplex> 10baseT/UTP <full-duplex> 100baseTX <half-duplex> 100baseTX <full-duplex>

That is, en2 MAC ADDRESS is null.
I tried to change en2 MAC using ifconfig en2 ether 00:15:2f:a7:2e:d9 but it simply doesn't work.
I'd appreciate any help you could give me!

[John Strung]

Why not connect using ethernet?

[brunodg]

Originally Posted by John Strung

Why not connect using ethernet?

I'm already using the ethernet port to connect another computer!

News: I was able to connect to the internet using the USB connection! MacOS X driver works!

[John Strung]

My guess is that the modem won't let you use both the ethernet port and the USB port at the same time. What you need is a cheap 4 port router. Connect the ethernet port of the modem to the WAN port of the router and the two computers to two of the numbered ports of the router.

[PappyAnn]

hey i own that modem and you can't use both at the same time ...get a router there like 25 bucks on ebay or get an airport bass station

[jay3ld]

our cable modems have a configuration page... Thats news to me.
exepct i cant configure anything there.
yea. i never could get them both to run.
Get a router like i did.
wasn't a cheap one but it covers everything i need for it. and network coping of files is sweet. 100 mpbs ethernet cables and i have my user folder copied over in about 10 mins.