The NTL modem remembers the last MAC address used. Depending on whether you have the Surfboard one or the newer NTL100 model you may or may not have a diagnostics page. If you do, it will show you.

As for getting the mac addie - Xavier's post says it all

STBs need to be registered. As part of the registration process you type in a bunch of info from the welcome letter and that activates it.

The procedures may have changed since I last did an NTL BB install for a friend using an STB, for the non-STB stuff it's much easier, just release IP, turn off the CM, plug in the connection you want to use (and ONLY that one), leave it for 10..15 mins, turn it back on again. Much better than years ago where you sometimes had to leave it off overnight.

As for 'configuring' the MAC address of the STB/CM itself - you cant change it. It is however printed on the label of the CM at the very least, and possibly also on the STB although I can't remember.

The CM doesn't care about the MAC addie of the client any longer these days, a few years ago it did and it was a total pain. Now as said it just knows how many IP address(es) it has leased out, which is generally 1 but you can have 2 if you subscribe to xbox live.

STBs are activated against a MAC of the network card used when you register your box for broadband with the NTL main system. I did end up spoofing the MAC addie of the original PC used to register with into the router in that case. Either way - it will work

If you plug in a Computer with a MAC address NTL doesn't recognise into the STB, it should take you to the NTL yuck-green pages (and only them) asking you to 'register your new computer' - as far as I can tell you can add as many registered computers here as you want (I had 5 - including, finally, the routers MAC address).

Sometimes it doesn't like going to the setup pages. Pull the plug on the STB for a while and plug it back in with the comp on. After the STB 'RANGES' and you open a browser window on the computer it should go to the NTL pages.

If you plug in a Computer with a MAC address NTL doesn't recognise into the STB' date=' it should take you to the NTL yuck-green pages (and only them) asking you to 'register your new computer' - as far as I can tell you can add as many registered computers here as you want (I had 5 - including, finally, the routers MAC address).

Sometimes it doesn't like going to the setup pages. Pull the plug on the STB for a while and plug it back in with the comp on. After the STB 'RANGES' and you open a browser window on the computer it should go to the NTL pages.[/quote']

You learn something new everyday.

I still have NTL BB which is actually pretty competitive now given the measly download limits often imposed by other ISP's like BT. I get 2Gb speed with 1Gb download per day. Does me and i've 2 laptops and 2 pcs on it.

Virtually no other people in the area have NTL BB because of the cabling issue and poor reliability a few years back so no issues over contention either (I concealed my NTL cables completely below floors/behind walls etc when it was put in. Hassle for the installer but I did most of the work and he's was happy enough).

Dumped the Cable TV service a year ago. That last STB OS upgrade was nice to look at but appalling to use not to mention the frequent crashing.

Now have Sky+. Easier to use, vitually no crashes, better picture quality and dolby digital surround capability is great. Can even get RTE on it now and the upgrade to 160Gb HDD was a piece of **** too. A must have if you have kids. Happy days.

Still use the ntl cable for terrestrial tv to other sets in the house and the FM service for all my tuners/hifis.

How did you get on with this? I know from previous experiance that swapping from the usb connection to an ethernet connection with NTL requires you to run the setup cd again as part of the setup asks you how you have connected it to your computer and makes the necessary changes. A pain I know, but it will work this way.

Once you have done this buy a linksys wrt54g. Thats the model number. Its a four port wireless router and I cant recommend it enough.

If your internet is working on ethernet by doing the above, when you get the router home, sdtick the cd in and follow the instructions. It will gather all the settings for your internet connection and ask you toplug in the router. It will then upload the configuration to the router automatically meaning you dont need to know anything about setting it up.

This in my opinion is the simplest way to fix your non working bb connection and share your connection.

Just a little update.... I got back online, ethernet rather than USB, over the weekend

Took a bit of fiddling and as thegavsters said, turns out the only way to fix it was to re-install my BB..... next step is to go and get a router!! Got my laptop set up now in preparation

Good to hear

Just a little update.... I got back online, ethernet rather than USB, over the weekend

Took a bit of fiddling and as thegavsters said, turns out the only way to fix it was to re-install my BB..... next step is to go and get a router!! Got my laptop set up now in preparation

No problem. I have had ntl broadband for two years and in that time have managed to fix anything it throws at me.