PCCW direct connection to internet

[RJB]

I live in Hong Kong and my ISP is PCCW (netvigator). They provide a line into their router.
I have about 4 ports on this PCCW router. I have currently configured this so that one goes to my current computer - an Asus - , one to a tv box they provide, and one to my Buffalo wireless router.
If I connect the Pi to the Buffulo router it works fine and picks up and ip address. But if I connect it to the spare socket in the PCCW socket it does not. In fact if I steal the ethernet plug going in to the working Asus and put it into the Pi it still does not. I intend to use this Pi for evaluation on the Buffalo network so this is not causing me a problem at the moment. But I would love to know why I can't go straight in to the PCCW router.
Thanks

[FTrevorGowen]

A possibility is that the Buffalo wireless router is giving out IP addresses via DHCP (which the Pi needs) but the PCCW device uses some other method which the Asus is also configured to use. What OS is running on the Asus box?
Trev.

[RJB]

Thanks Trev. The Asus is running windows xp

[FTrevorGowen]

IIRC XP was the "last" version of Windows that could use what preceded DHCP which, I think, was called "bootp" (or similar). Since my previous post I've also thought of another possibility - some ISP's modems/routers only allow connections from "known" or a "restricted list" of MAC addresses. This go back to the time when (it was expected that) only one computer could be used (contractually) - its MAC address being passed to the ISP's system during the installation process. Hence many external routers can be set up to mimic the MAC address of the permitted computer thus allowing other devices to share the connection but appear as "one, permitted device". In your case that would mean that the Asus (and other devices) are "known and allowed" but the Pi's MAC address isn't.
Trev.

[RJB]

Looking at the MACs from the buffalo I see:

IP Address MAC Address Host Name Lease Period Status
192.168.11.2 00:0D:0B:CF:D1:AB xpcshuttle 46:50:27 Auto
192.168.11.3 00:19:E0:82:68:4D xpcblack 47:37:20 Auto
192.168.11.6 B8:27:EB:E8:28:4B raspberrypi 47:46:59 Auto

I know nothing about MACs but it does look very different from the pc Macs.
Perhaps this is the problem
From my point of view it is not serious as I have given the device a static IP and put it on the buffalo.
From a Hong Kong point of view this does give limited appeal for the Pi as, having one of the most expensive land costs in the world, the populace tend to live in small high rise flats with the dividing walls being concrete (not even breeze block) and a wired solution tends to be favoured and the use of "Homeplug" becoming the best solution.
I think perhaps the makers of the device might like to address this.
How do I raise it to there attention - I am new to this use of forums
Thanks
Richard

[FTrevorGowen]

Looking at the MACs from the buffalo I see:

IP Address MAC Address Host Name Lease Period Status
192.168.11.2 00:0D:0B:CF:D1:AB xpcshuttle 46:50:27 Auto
192.168.11.3 00:19:E0:82:68:4D xpcblack 47:37:20 Auto
192.168.11.6 B8:27:EB:E8:28:4B raspberrypi 47:46:59 Auto

I know nothing about MACs but it does look very different from the pc Macs.
Perhaps this is the problem
From my point of view it is not serious as I have given the device a static IP and put it on the buffalo.
From a Hong Kong point of view this does give limited appeal for the Pi as, having one of the most expensive land costs in the world, the populace tend to live in small high rise flats with the dividing walls being concrete (not even breeze block) and a wired solution tends to be favoured and the use of "Homeplug" becoming the best solution.
I think perhaps the makers of the device might like to address this.
How do I raise it to there attention - I am new to this use of forums
Thanks
Richard

Those MAC's are fine - in essence they're associated with the computer's ethernet port (chip) manufacturer/vendor/type. PC's do seem to begin with 00 (I've just checked ours), and my HP wireless printer begins with 64. The LAN IP addresses are from one of the local (ie. non-internet) subnets. I suspect that if you checked those provided by the PCCW device they might be on a different (local) subnet.
Trev.