XP Pro and Cable Modem

[no one]

Has anyone had any experience connecting their computer to the USB port on
their cable modem? I have always used the ethernet port and now I have a
laptop that I am trying to connect to the cable modem with the USB port. The
laptop is a Compaq Presario 1600, running WinXP Pro, that don't have an
ethernet connection.

The problem that I am having is that according to the modem instructions,
when I attached the modem with the USB cable, the found new hardware wizard
was supposed to start and then I would have gone through the process of
installing with the supplied CD. Well, the found new hardware wizard didn't
start, I tried running it manually (rt click my comp, properties, hardware,
run hardware wizard) and it doesn't find the modem. Then it asks if I want
to choose it from a list and I choose modems, it searches and don't find any
plug & play modems, asks to choose from a list (not on list), choose have a
disk and at this point I can pick every file on the cd and it tells me that
the specified location does not contain information about your hardware. It
seems that the file it is looking for is Setup Information (*.inf). In file
name, after I click browse, it shows autorun.inf and on the cd it has an
autorun but when I choose that one it tells me the same thing.

According to the info I am getting from the modem manufacturers website, it
should be installing USB drivers. At this point, I don't know what to do
next. If I disconnect the USB cable, a popup tells me USB device not
recognized, that seems to me that when it was connected, it was recognized.

The modem is a motorola cable modem, model sb4220 and I am running xp pro.
If anyone has any advice, I would appreciate it. TIA

 

[Guest]

You don't need a driver for cable modems. It's not really a modem in the telephone sense, so looking for a driver in the modem list is useless. You'd be better off networking the laptop to your desktop since usb connections to cable modems are tricky.

 

[no one]

What would the best way to network to desktop since the laptop doesn't have
a ethernet connection, USB? Other? TIA

You don't need a driver for cable modems. It's not really a modem in the

telephone sense, so looking for a driver in the modem list is useless. You'd
be better off networking the laptop to your desktop since usb connections to
cable modems are tricky.

 

[CS]

You can purchase a PCMCIA Ethernet card for your laptop for less than
$50.00 US. That would certainly be a better way than to try to hook
the laptop to your desktop via a parallel or serial cable. The card
adaptor would also allow you to hook your cable modem directly to the
laptop. Go here for some prices:

http://shopping.yahoo.com/p_d-link-pcmcia-ethernet-card_network-adapter_1990314570

 

[no one]

CS: At the present time I don't have the extra 50 or so to go purchase one.
Right now, I would just like to get connected to the internet to update
windows and my antivirus. I do have the windows update cd but there were
problems with some of the updates and it told me to visit the update site.
So if anyone has any suggestions as to why windows is not finding the modem,
I would appreciate them. According to motorola's users guide, xp should have
found it. TIA