Charter cable locking down their modems

[Claude Greiner]

Got charter Internet installed a few weeks ago at my cabin.

I opted for a regular modem , instead of a wireless router since charter charges an additional $39.99 plus $5 per month.

Never had a problem with the one time $39.99 charge, but the $5 per month seemed a little crazy, considering I could buy a wireless router for about $40/$50.

So anyways, I get my service installed and it works just fine connected to 1 computer. I hook up the router and can't it it to sync up.

I call charter and get the usual bs answer to contact the manufacture of my router, or pay for their wireless option which they support.

Several hours later , I found out charter is locking down their modems to a single MAC address.

To make a 3rd party router work, you have to spoof the MAC address in the router to match your computer.

I just think it's real sh!tty for charter to purposely do that to frustrate people to the point where they almost have to buy the wireless option from charter.

 

[stardust3]

From the router interface try dhcp release/renew, you may have to do it several times. Once it pulls an ip it should be ok.

I've had this issue many times with charters modems. It's a pain in the arse until I figured out how to make it pull an ip.

 

[wallyhts]

Insight did that to very annoying.

 

[primestar31]

Got charter Internet installed a few weeks ago at my cabin.

I opted for a regular modem , instead of a wireless router since charter charges an additional $39.99 plus $5 per month.

Never had a problem with the one time $39.99 charge, but the $5 per month seemed a little crazy, considering I could buy a wireless router for about $40/$50.

So anyways, I get my service installed and it works just fine connected to 1 computer. I hook up the router and can't it it to sync up.

I call charter and get the usual bs answer to contact the manufacture of my router, or pay for their wireless option which they support.

Several hours later , I found out charter is locking down their modems to a single MAC address.

To make a 3rd party router work, you have to spoof the MAC address in the router to match your computer.

I just think it's real sh!tty for charter to purposely do that to frustrate people to the point where they almost have to buy the wireless option from charter.

This has ALWAYS been true for Charter if you hook your pc to the modem as the first device. They didn't "just start doing this".

You should have hooked up the modem and router together as normal in the first place, and then they'd marry and be fine. If you do a full reset of the modem and router while hooked together, they'll sync and be fine after that. If it's one of Charters modems and you can't access the modem setup page, you'll have to call them and have them do a reset from their end.

 

[bigjohnok]

shadiness

 

[mdavej]

Have had Charter for years and many of my own modems and routers. Never rented anything from Charter and never had a problem. What's so hard about pressing the clone button? How is this shady?