NTL Digital box

Got NTL Digital (finally) installed today :)

I wasn't in when it got installed, so I just had a poke around the connections at the back of the box, and noticed theres an ethernet connection :o Its a Samsung box, if it makes any difference, and I was wondering what it was for :D

Being male, I haven't read the manual yet, so it is probably all described in there. I'm quite pleased with it so far. The Samsung box is actually quite attractive in comparison to older boxes I've seen, I pheared I would be getting the same, but alls well :)

However, just had a massive arguement with my mother. She accused me of "breaking" it. All I was doing was showing her around the digital services, such as BBCi weather reports etc., went back to Planet Earth that was currently being broadcast on Beeb 2, and the player crashes. Apparently its all my fault, and I need to stop fiddling with things? Set-top box didnt respond to any commands from remote or buttons on the player, so a good old "yank the power cord out and hope" method was called upon, and it did. Shame it didn't happen to her, infact, I hope it still does, I will keep my method of fixing it a secret from her :D

I digress as usual, whats the ethernet used for guys? Is it just like an inbuilt cable modem that I could use instead of my ntl:home 100 jobbie?

The box has a inbuilt cable modem. If you have a pc in the same room as the set top box you could connect you using that. I think the Samsung inbuilt cable modem has a low max bit rate (think ~4mbit) where the stand alone cable modem has a lot higher (I think the ntl:250 ~50mbit). Those figures are from memory, which has been pretty shonkey recently, I did read that people who got to the NTL 10mbit service has to get a stand alone cable modem if they had previously connect via the set top box

Pretty sure its a max 1meg service through STB. So not really for everyone.

I think the old Pace boxes were max. 1 Mbps - although I'm pretty sure the Samsungs won't reach 10Mbps, maybe something around 4Mbps?

W.

Hehe, and its hit or miss wether you get a new box or a old one, it took me quite a while to get my cable modem replaced... they like to recycle. Im still on a pace box though, aside from the occasional glitch and slow menu's its okay.

Im on what looks like a newer Samsung box, newer than that of the ones pictured in the brochures and what not. I'd heard menu scrolling was a pain but this is virtually instant, probably the same if not faster than my girlfriends Sky service :D

:( perhaps this one ought to reach its peak and accidentally die hehe :)