Insane cable co

Hi all,

I just moved to a city located outside of Sacramento CA. I ordered a cable modem from the local cable co and they came out and hooked it up ASAP. After they left a brought out my Linksys wireless router so I can share my cable modem with my other 3 computers including 1 laptop. I then found out that the cable co does not allow ANY routers on their system. Sure enough when I plugged in my router my cable modem did not work. After doing a lot of research I found out that I can clone my MAC address to fool the cable modem into thinking that my router is really my main computer. So everything works great now. Has anybody heard of cable companies not allowing router on their system. Now get this, When I called them up to ask how I am expected to set up my home network they said I could use a plain old hub and then they would charge my an additional $18.95 a month for each additional computer in my house. They must by on drugs or something if they think people are going to stand for that. I am still considering switching to DSL when it becomes available in a few months. Is there any clear benefit of DSL over a cable modem?
I really don't want to give this crazy cable co. any more business than I have to.

Thanks
Stephen