Quest for broadband... considering Comcast Cable ISP

[XeonTux]

I recently moved (to Johnsburg IL) and was unpleasantly suprised to find DSL is unavailable. I guess I assumed too much. For the time being I have dialup. While I have put up with dialup for years, it is absolutely unbearable now as I only connect between 28.8k to 36k. My USR Sportster serial used to consistantly connect at 54666 where I used to live.

I've considered wireless from DLS, supposedly the best wireless ISP in the country, but: 1) it is only 1.6mBps right now and they plan to upgrade my tower in the next 2 months for 10mBps... at which point I would have to spend another $100 to upgrade my equipment if I sign up for 1.6 now. 2) It's fscking expensive, with $250 install and $50-65 per month. If they didn't have an anti-server AUP it would have been more attractive..

A Comcast sales guy stopped by the other day, announcing $22.95 per month service with free install, no contract, and the first month free to try. I forgot to ask if the cable modem was included too, but anyway it sounds very appealing and I am seriously considering it.

From what I can tell I shouldn't have problems with it plugged into a linux box *after* the initial install. I checked their system requirements page and noticed I could use my Mac G3, but I also remember reading somewhere that the NIC's MAC address is programmed into the cable modem during the install and it is a pain to get comcast to make the changes required to use another NIC. Since I am not planning to turn my mac into a firewall I think I'd be better off having a x86 box ready for the install. I'd prefer not to use my good box, and since I've done some downsizing in the last year the only other candidate is a P166 with 128MB I could throw 98se onto temporarily. For some reason the comcast system requirements page lists 300MHz minimum. While I can see no reason why the P166 would not be fast enough, perhaps someone here is more familiar with their install process and can tell me if they would bitch about this setup.

 

[gunrunnerjohn]

I don't know about your local area, since Comcast has purchased a bunch of companies, all with unique networks. I'm in the Phila area, and there is nothing about my Comcast broadband that limits what I connect to it. The ONLY thing that's required is that the MAC address of the DOCSIS cable modem is configured by Comcast. I happened to buy my Toshiba PCX1100U modem because it was a better deal than renting theirs. I gave them the MAC address, waited until they programmed it into the system, and started surfing. I've connected all sorts of things to my modem without any issue, it's plug-n-play.

 

[Kashan]

I worked for an ISP that was bought by Comcast in Michigan, and had it for several years out there.

Comcast does NOT provision the nic cards mac address, they just provision the cable modem. In our work lab, we had Mandrake, BeOS, mac OS 10 9.3, all running. If it has a TCP/Ip connection in the OS you can get it to work with a cable modem. They just wont touch the unix box.

The reason for the system requirements, is for peeps dont run a 286 on the network and then call and scream at the reps on the phone because there system is running slow. If it has a nic card, it will work. I had my 75Mhz running linux just fine on mine.

Personally, I avoid comcast at all cost just because of the way they treated there employees and customers. Check out that deal, read the entire fine print, thats probably some crap service like 1Kb up/1Kb down and only for the first 3 months and then its going to go up to about 49.99 a month for 3Mb/128Kb (thats what it was when I left which was approximately 2 years ago)

For a modem, its gonna be about $10 a month for a modem rental, or you can purchase your own. Every few months you can get a toshiba modem from alot of retail stores for free after a mail in rebate. I have seen it at least 5 differnet times, usually around $59.99 with a $59.99 mail in rebate.

I loved Comcast service before they changed the speeds in Detroit, I paid $39.95 ($10 discount for having Cable TV) for 3 Megs down 1.5megs up. Ill take cable any day over DSL.

 

[PowerEngineer]

I've just gone through the cable modem regsitration process with Comcast this week (after my account was mysteriously cancelled). When I told them that I was connecting through a router, they had me remove it so that they set me up for the fixed IP address for used by their registration site from one of my PCs. Once I was connected (and already hung up the phone), I realized I hadn't put the router back in. I can confirm that (at least in the Northwest) you need to clone the MAC address of the PC you used for registration into your router (or whatever) in order to make the connection with Comcast.

I also agree with Kashan that you better read the fine print. Normal rates out here are ~$60/month (renting modem) with a $10 rebate if you are also a cable TV subscriber. Makes me nostalgic for the days of @Home, when I was paying $40/month. There's really not enough competition in broadband to prevent cable and DSL providers from gouging us! :|

 

[Garion]

Originally posted by: PowerEngineer
I've just gone through the cable modem regsitration process with Comcast this week (after my account was mysteriously cancelled). When I told them that I was connecting through a router, they had me remove it so that they set me up for the fixed IP address for used by their registration site from one of my PCs. Once I was connected (and already hung up the phone), I realized I hadn't put the router back in. I can confirm that (at least in the Northwest) you need to clone the MAC address of the PC you used for registration into your router (or whatever) in order to make the connection with Comcast.

I also agree with Kashan that you better read the fine print. Normal rates out here are ~$60/month (renting modem) with a $10 rebate if you are also a cable TV subscriber. Makes me nostalgic for the days of @Home, when I was paying $40/month. There's really not enough competition in broadband to prevent cable and DSL providers from gouging us! :|

That's odd - I live in Seattle and don't have the same experience. I've plugged multiple PC's and a couple of routers into my cable modem and have never had a problem with any of them getting service. From what I can see, they don't care about the MAC address of the PC on the far side of the cable modem.

- G

 

[PowerEngineer]

That's odd - I live in Seattle and don't have the same experience. I've plugged multiple PC's and a couple of routers into my cable modem and have never had a problem with any of them getting service. From what I can see, they don't care about the MAC address of the PC on the far side of the cable modem.

- G

I'm not completely surprised, as I've read other posts that suggest Comcast isn't relying on MAC addresses in other areas. I do remember that @Home required a specific computer name and MAC address to get started. I installed my router after @Home had given way to ATT&T, and didn't have to worry about the MAC address at the time. About three weeks after being "converted" over to Comcast, I lost my connection; I discovered by trial and error that I needed to clone that MAC address I had orginially used with @Home into my router to get back my Comcast connection. And now, as I described earlier, I needed to load the MAC address of my newer machine into the router after reregistering the modem with it. Definitely a YMMV! (I'm in Vancouver, WA.)

 

[KarenMarie]

I am on my fifth year with comcast. I remember when they were @home owned by excite. MUCH better. I was paying $30.00 per month and got min 3 mb d/l and amost 2mb u/p.

Then they were sold and I am not paying $60.00 per month to be capped at 1.5 down and 128k up. Solid service, never a problem, but i miss the low cost and high speeds.

I still have my old modem. It is DOCSIS compliant, but for some reason, comcast doenst like it anymore. And they had tried to insist that i get the modem they liked and for almost two weeks i was running my linksys when they swore i was not online and they did not support the linksys
But they did eventually provision my modem and the needed the mac address off it.

I never understood why ppl liked DSL over cable.

 

[gunrunnerjohn]

Well, I thought that Comcast had increased everyone to 256kbit/up speeds, it's happened here in the Phila area. They're supposed to be giving everyone 3mbit/down speeds soon, so maybe your "slow" 1.5mbit/down speed won't be a problem for long.

 

[Matthias99]

In a recent Consumer Reports survey, Comcast had above-average rates, and the best "technical" ranking (speed and quality of service, lack of downtime, etc.) -- but came in dead last with customer service and perceived value. My experience bears this out -- I had to have a technician out twice before my cable modem worked, but it's been absolutely flawless since then. No outages, no random speed drops that I've noticed.

I pay $45 a month, since I also get cable from them (it's be $60 otherwise), and my speeds seem very good. I get more than 128k up, so I would surmise I'm on a 3Mbit/256Kbit line. They also offer a "business"-level service in my area, which costs more but gives you significantly more bandwidth.

Edit: Sorry, that's in the Boston area, in case you're trying to compare.

 

[gunrunnerjohn]

Originally posted by: Matthias99
In a recent Consumer Reports survey, Comcast had above-average rates, and the best "technical" ranking (speed and quality of service, lack of downtime, etc.) -- but came in dead last with customer service and perceived value. My experience bears this out -- I had to have a technician out twice before my cable modem worked, but it's been absolutely flawless since then. No outages, no random speed drops that I've noticed. I pay $45 a month, since I also get cable from them (it's be $60 otherwise), and my speeds seem very good. I get more than 128k up, so I would surmise I'm on a 3Mbit/256Kbit line. They also offer a "business"-level service in my area, which costs more but gives you significantly more bandwidth. Edit: Sorry, that's in the Boston area, in case you're trying to compare.

I get around 250kbits upstream, so that matches what they advertise. I just did a test and got 1705kbits downstream, and I think it's supposed to be 1800k right now. I'd like to see the 3mbit happen soon, I won't complain.

 

[gunrunnerjohn]

Originally posted by: Matthias99
In a recent Consumer Reports survey, Comcast had above-average rates, and the best "technical" ranking (speed and quality of service, lack of downtime, etc.) -- but came in dead last with customer service and perceived value. My experience bears this out -- I had to have a technician out twice before my cable modem worked, but it's been absolutely flawless since then. No outages, no random speed drops that I've noticed. I pay $45 a month, since I also get cable from them (it's be $60 otherwise), and my speeds seem very good. I get more than 128k up, so I would surmise I'm on a 3Mbit/256Kbit line. They also offer a "business"-level service in my area, which costs more but gives you significantly more bandwidth. Edit: Sorry, that's in the Boston area, in case you're trying to compare.

I get around 250kbits upstream, so that matches what they advertise. I just did a test and got 1705kbits downstream, and I think it's supposed to be 1800k right now. I'd like to see the 3mbit happen soon, I won't complain.

 

[Matthias99]

Tried a couple different tests:

2.6Mbps downstream(!) (bandwidthplace.com/speedtest/)

1.8Mbps downstream, 277kbps upstream(!) (several speakeasy.net speed tests)

1.8-1.9Mbps downstream (http://www.pcpitstop.com/internet/Bandwidth.asp)

I've definitely clocked downloads from places like Microsoft (man, they have a *lot* of bandwidth over there...) at over 300KB/sec (2.4Mbps), so I must be on a 3Mbit/256Kbit or so (maybe 384Kbps up, but it rarely if ever gets over 30KBps).

So... yeah. Get Comcast if you're up in MA.

 

[XeonTux]

Thanks for all the discussion guys.

The $22.95 is supposed to be for a full year, BTW.

I might call tomorrow and setup an install appointment.