does cable internet come with basic cable in the line?

[Maximus96]

my dsl is awful slow for some reason all of a sudden and my contract should be up pretty soon. i'm looking at comcast cable for the bay area, CA. i'm curious if the cable line that feeds the cable modem carries basic cable signals. anybody know?

 

[Megatomic]

Yes, it does. I use a splitter from the cable line going to my modem and feed it into my TV card as well. I watch cable TV while surfing the web frequently.

 

[Machine350]

Yeah it all comes through the same line. I also use a splitter so I get internet and cable tv through the same jack.

 

[new2AMD]

do you mean carry it by default? or is it capable of it?

 

[Maximus96]

i'm not a current cable tv subscriber. If i get cable internet, I will get cable tv as well? comcast's site saids that i'll have to pay ~$12 extra for internet if i don't already have cable. subscribing to their basic cable is $17/month. if the cable internet comes with basic cable, then i rather pay $12/month extra instead.

 

[Maximus96]

Originally posted by: new2AMD
do you mean carry it by default? or is it capable of it?

i mean by default.

also, does anybody know the speed of comcast cable in the bay area, CA? all i saw on their site is that its faster than 786k dsl...

nevermind, i see that its 3m down/256k up

 

[Machine350]

Every company is different, but for the most part, you only get what you pay for. However, where I live you get a discount if you subscribe to both cable and internet, so I get basic cable pretty much free.

 

[Megatomic]

Same here. And AFAIK, Cox (my local cable provider and ISP) doesn't have a way to cut off basic cable TV while your cable internet is in service. I guess they might have a filter that they can put on the line but I've never heard of it being done. I'd think that Cox and Comcast would be quite similar in that regards.

 

[zephyrprime]

It's different for every company. For a while though, I was able to get HBO and some premium channels for free while other channels were blocked. Pretty weird isn't it?

 

[Tazanator]

depends on installer, My internet feed thru cable had Tv also, 3 months later pick up stopped guy climbed ladder and put a filter - no more TV till I paid for it.

 

[new2AMD]

Originally posted by: zephyrprime
It's different for every company. For a while though, I was able to get HBO and some premium channels for free while other channels were blocked. Pretty weird isn't it?

that could also vary on wether or not someone came out and turned it off at the pole or not

 

[XBoxLPU]

Better see if you can read reviews or get people's opinions about your area

Comcast can go down often

You may want to look for other DSL providers, surely in the Bay area there is one offering 1.5 or 3 down

 

[Matthias99]

Originally posted by: Tazanator
depends on installer, My internet feed thru cable had Tv also, 3 months later pick up stopped guy climbed ladder and put a filter - no more TV till I paid for it.

As noted, it depends on the cable company's policies and whether or not the installer is (in)competent.

You can filter out the "TV" part of the signal from the line hooked into the computer -- in fact, this is generally beneficial in terms of getting a cleaner signal for the cable modem -- but not all cable companies will do this.

 

[piasabird]

Cable uses different frequencies for the different channels of TV. Only one or maybe two channels is used for Internet. It has a fast download speed and a slower upload speed normally. Many Cable providers have tiers of service with differing speeds. In my area I can select from 3 different tiers of service with 3 different speeds. Both upload and download speeds are given separately.

The TV Channels are just in a different frequency.

All the Cable Internet guys really do is set up your cable based on the NIC of your Cable modem and maybe the Hardware address of the primary Computer. Most Cable people aren't that smart. Unless you talk to an actual installer it will probably be like talking to a brick wall. Salesmen can give you a quote of a price or something but they are not technicians. Generally a cable internet outfit doesnt have any network support. I told my outfit that I was managing my own network and they game me a self install kit. It is not that difficult.

In some highly populated areas you also get lags in the Cable Modem Speed so make sure and talk to some people who use it in your area like your neighbors or something.

If you have had cable TV a long time there may be some damage or line interference on the Cable. Everything gets old sooner or later. They just tack up the cable to the hous sometimes pinching the cable and ruining the shielding effect.

 

[Maximus96]

how does one setup cable with a self-install kit? comcast offers it for free, but wouldn't they need to mess with the wires on the pole? my parents never had cable tv during the 15 years we lived in this house, there is no cable jack anywere inside.

 

[MrChad]

Self install kit assumes that your house is already wired for cable.

 

[sswingle]

We get the local access channel and QVC. Funny they should give us that for free...