Note: this is an old and obsolete document that I haven't updated in years. It is here for historical reference only. -PRK July 2009

Road Runner Cities

This is a list of the cities with Road Runner systems, the type of modem, login protocol (formerly) used in each, and whether there is any active blocking of ports or protocols in user traffic.

In October, 1999, the San Diego Road Runner management announced that they would phase out the login protocol, effective immediately. Similar policies appear to be going into effect in other cities. Since the original purpose of this page was to aid Road Runner users in finding the appropriate login software for their system, it has largely served its purpose and I am not updating it as frequently as before. Nevertheless, if you have additions and/or corrections, please  mail me

There are (were) at least three distinct login protocols in use by Road Runner systems. The Toshiba protocol is the one used here in San Diego, and I wrote rrlogin.c for it. This is the only one with which I have personal experience. A second protocol, reportedly based on Kerberos, was developed by HP; this one is reportedly being phased out. The third protocol is known as the Road Runner Manager protocol, and it appears to be replacing the HP-developed protocol and is being used in new systems. Here is a client developed for this protocol by Jackson. [link broken]

The cities marked "Media One" were acquisitions of Media One systems. The only such system I know anything about is the one in Boston; that system reportedly requires no login protocol, but it does hardwire your Ethernet MAC address into the cable modem.

Road Runner uses several different types of cable modems. Here are the ones I know about:

  1. Motorola CyberSURFR
  2. US Robotics CMX
  3. Toshiba PCX-101
  4. GI SURFboard
City Cable Modem Login protocol Ports blocked?
Los Angeles CA several, including LanCity LCP Media One 137-139, removed on request
Orange CA US Robotics CMX RR Manager
San Diego CA CyberSURFR Toshiba No
Tampa FL CyberSURFR Toshiba Yes - FTP, HTTP, etc. Non-standard downstream ports can be used
Orlando FL Toshiba RR Manager - not required
Atlanta GA Media One
Oahu HI RR Manager
Wichita KS GI SURFboard RR Manager
Boston MA Media One
Portland ME Toshiba - not required none
Ann Arbor/Detroit MI Media One
Charlotte NC CyberSURFR Wave RR Manager none known
Greensboro NC Toshiba RR Manager none known
Kansas City, MO Toshiba RR Manager -not required (beta test)
Salem/Concord/Nashua NH Media One
Albany NY (Troy/Saratoga) Toshiba PCX1000, others none required
Rochester NY CyberSURFR Wave RR Manager
Southern Tier NY (Binghamton Corning 
Elmira Norwich)		 RR Manager
Syracuse NY (Oswego/Ithaca) CyberSURFR none required 25 (SMTP)
Columbus OH CyberSURFR RR Manager none known
Northeast OH RR Manager
Bend OR CyberSURFR
Edmund, OK GI SURFboard RR Manager none known
Memphis, TN CyberSURFR Toshiba SMTP, possibly others
Austin TX CyberSURFR NONE(!)/RR Manager (uncertain)
El Paso TX Toshiba PCX-101 Toshiba
Houston TX PCX1000 none required
San Antonio TX Toshiba PCX-1000 RR Manager (not required)
Fairfax VA CyberSURFR/Toshiba PCX-1000? RR Manager none known
Here is a link to the national Road Runner list of available cities. It may be more up to date than this table.

Last modified: 21 Nov 1999