How does the cable modem differ from an ADSL modem?
The primary difference is that the cable modem is “dumb”, it is more accurate to call it an ethernet bridge. It turns all customer connections into a single ethernet segment, much like a hub or switch would in a LAN. As a result, the IP address your computer has is live and not filtered in any way. The cable modem actually doesn’t need to know anything about your IP address, too. An ADSL modem is closer to a router in terms of operation. It has some understanding of IP, and routes packets into a PPP connection with the ISP. The IP address your computer has is private, and gets translated by the ADSL modem into the live address. The pros and cons are fairly simple: Cable modems are unobtrusive, and offer no security to your computer. ADSL modems do manipulate your traffic, get in the way, and offer some security to your computer. Also, availability is limited with cable modems, since they depend on being near Saturn’s Cable TV network, which is considerably smaller in coverage than Tele
