Re: Insight Broadband

[Herbie Herbert <technowombat@yahoo.com>]

Well, I got my Insight connection yesterday, and even though I had said on the phone, and it was
written on my order sheet that I use Linux, the guy handed me the standard Mac/Win CD, and of
course I got the non-routable private IP when I tried to connect.

Tried the web registration didn't work. Called customer report, confused the first level support
and was told I would have to talk to a level 2 tech, who would call me back within 24 hours.
Boredom and an old windows install resulted in me setting it all up with their install CD, and
pulling the NIC and putting it into my linux box before they called me back. When they did call me
back thusly was the explanation.

A 'non-authorized' MAC address (on your NIC) will get an unrouteable IP. This will allow you to
reach their website and register your machine. You can enter your account and registration number,
verify your details, and hit the magic Next button to finalise your install.

However at this point, Insight try and insert proxy settings into your browser, so you can
register an email account, and finish the install. If you don't register your email account you
don't get a connection it seems. These inserted proxy settings are designed for IE. and will not
work under linux, though perhaps you could enter them manually. 

Once you've completed this step your machine (Windows) will reboot, and you'll come up and DHCP a
real IP address, and no longer require proxy settings in your browser.

According to the Level 2 tech, the only time you need the proxy settings are in the setting up of
the account, after that you can even change your MAC address etc. from the online pages. I haven't
tried this as I'm happy it works already.

So it looks like for linux installs you have two choices:

1. Try and get the proxy settings from Insight and insert them at the appropriate stage.
2. Request the cable tech brings a laptop with him, setup using that, then switch MAC addresses.
Or borrow Windows machine from some other source (when will they do a Knoppix style windows for
these occasions?)

herbie

--- Chad Fendt <eldon_perry@yahoo.com> wrote:
> 
> --- mike808 <mike808@users.sourceforge.net> wrote:
> > > I have to set my browser (galeon) to use the http
> > proxy
> > > sas.r31.insightbb.com:8000 with the exception
> > *.r31.insightbb.com.
> > 
> > This should be something you set in the browser
> > settings.
> > 
> > In Mozilla, this is in:
> > Edit>Preferences>Advanced>Proxies
> > and setup the "Manual proxy configuration" for HTTP
> > and the exception.
> > You probably also want to add in localhost, and
> > 127.0.0.1.
> > 
> > The exception is so that you don't proxy requests to
> > their proxy farm
> > servers themselves. You may want to run your own
> > privoxy (fka JunkBuster
> > or GuideScope) locally, and also block ads and/or
> > tracking cookies
> > issued with "webbug" images. But modern browsers
> > (except IE) have the
> > ability to manage cookies and images much better
> > than in the past.
> > 
> > And the reason they want you to use their package
> > for setup is probably
> > because they have IE setup to pull an Automatic
> > Proxy Configuration URL
> > which sets this up in IE. Mozilla also has a similar
> > feature (but
> > different format, of course, so they probably didn't
> > do any more work
> > than was needed to get IE to run properly). I don't
> > know about Galeon
> > having an auto-proxy setup file/URL. Same for Opera
> > or Konqueror.
> > 
> > Mike/
> > 
> If I set my browser to use the http proxy:
> sas.r31.insightbb.com, port 8000 
> with the exception:
> .r31.insightbb.com
> Most sites lead to an error page that says:
> "You have tried to access a page that you are not
> authorized to display and were stopped by the SAS 
> Proxy." and it tells me to contact customer care
> (who won't help me). Trying to go to mail.yahoo.com
> and google.com still lead to the page that says I 
> cannot currently access the internet. Clicking
> though on this page says that my internet account
> is active.
> If I put in the ip address for google I get 
> the "You have tried to access ..." message.
> 
> Now if I disable the proxy settings, I can visit 
> most pages just fine.  google.com and mail.yahoo.com
> lead to the "you cannot currently access the internet"
> page as before.  But putting in the ip for google 
> allows me to visit the page without problem.
> 
> Sounds like a DNS problem, right? Any ideas?
> -Chad



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