Comcast Cable

[wdlove]

I current have Earthlink DSL and my wife uses wireless connection. Had thought about Verizon until I heard Laura Ingraham discuss all the problems she had with them. It took her celebrity of national radio to get her problem solved. Still she spent hours on phone calls. I greatly respect her opinion. She has and recommends Comcast.

My wife called today. They have a deal $45/mo after 3 months. Installation $49. Digital TV $20/mo, then the first 3 months $19.95/mo.
They also recommended a specialist to come in and set up your system. She contacted a Mac specialist that advertises on our local radio station, the charge is $119/hr or possibly a flat fee.

What is everyone's thought on Comcast Cable?

[Xacttech]

Thats crazy!

I have earthlink DSL, and today I switched to Comcast Cable modem...

I had the 1.3mbs DSl, and my comcast benchmarks 3.6mbs so I'm quite happy with my change :)

[Macmaniac]

I have Comcast cable, and we installed our modem ourselves, its pretty simple. All you have to do is put a Y splitter in your current connection, run the cable they give you off the splitter to the modem. Plug the ethernet cable into the modem and then into the computer. It comes with some software to help you get started. You don't need a technician to install the cable modem, as for digital cable I don't know, I don't have it.

[Nicky G]

I love my ~3.2 Mbit Comcast connection. When I used DSL I had reliability issues, but you know, it really differs depending on your locality (same goes for cable, even Comcast -- some areas are better than others).

[applebum]

I current have Earthlink DSL and my wife uses wireless connection. Had thought about Verizon until I heard Laura Ingraham discuss all the problems she had with them. It took her celebrity of national radio to get her problem solved. Still she spent hours on phone calls. I greatly respect her opinion. She has and recommends Comcast.

My wife called today. They have a deal $45/mo after 3 months. Installation $49. Digital TV $20/mo, then the first 3 months $19.95/mo.
They also recommended a specialist to come in and set up your system. She contacted a Mac specialist that advertises on our local radio station, the charge is $119/hr or possibly a flat fee.

What is everyone's thought on Comcast Cable?

I have Comcast and they are great. I recently had to change out the modem and all I had to do was plug the new one in and it was working - didn't even take any software. There was no installation charge where I am if you did it yourself. Macmaniac is right - the self install kit comes with everything you could need. Split the cable (with the splitter they give you) run one to your tv and one to your modem. Ethernet from your modem to your router (you do have a router right?). Ethernet from your router to your Mac. Very fast. I recommend you rent the modem ($3 per month here). If anything goes wrong with it, you take it back and they give you a new one. If I was totally broke, I would get rid of almost everything else before getting rid of the cable modem. :p

[Westside guy]

I am quite happy with my Comcast internet; however their tech support is horrendous. They apparently hired a bunch of low-cost boneheads that have no technical knowledge, and so can only follow scripts ("okay, now open Outlook Express... what, you're on a Mac? Is that Windows 98 or XP?") if you need to call in. Fortunately I don't usually need to contact them, and the cable internet connection (here in the Pacific Northwest anyway) has been acceptably reliable - only a couple reasonably short outages in the last several months.

[jxyama]

i bought a modem and self-installation package from radioshack, i think.

just plugged everything in and it was running in no time. no cable guy to wait for or pay for...

i wish it was a bit cheaper but it's fine for now, splitting with two other roommates...

[poopyhead]

I used to have dishnetwork and earthlink dsl
when I moved comcast was all that the apt complex allowed, I was pissed
until I got Comcast
the cable kicks ass compared to dishnetwork (no outages)
and the cable modem has been much better
consistently high speeds
no need to reset the modem 2 to 3 times a day
and it is very easy to set up by yourself
comcast will also set up your modem and computer for free or at least they used to

please check with you local service provider
the comments above refer to the atlanta area only
your service may vary

[Flowbee]

Another happy Comcast customer here.

[ftaok]

I current have Earthlink DSL and my wife uses wireless connection. Had thought about Verizon until I heard Laura Ingraham discuss all the problems she had with them. It took her celebrity of national radio to get her problem solved. Still she spent hours on phone calls. I greatly respect her opinion. She has and recommends Comcast.

My wife called today. They have a deal $45/mo after 3 months. Installation $49. Digital TV $20/mo, then the first 3 months $19.95/mo.
They also recommended a specialist to come in and set up your system. She contacted a Mac specialist that advertises on our local radio station, the charge is $119/hr or possibly a flat fee.

What is everyone's thought on Comcast Cable?I was lucky. At my current house, we had the option to go with either RCN or Comcast for cable and internet. At the time, RCN had 3Mbps while Comcast was at 1.5Mbps. We chose RCN because it was faster and cheaper. Haven't had any problems.

In defence of Verizon. I set my dad up with Verizon. It did take a little time, but eventually it got worked out. The problem was that my dad's house came up on their system as being OK in terms of wiring and such. However, the set-up program couldn't get onto their network to set up an account. It took about a week (because I couldn't be at my dad's house all week to be on his PC) to fix. The price is right $35/month, which is cheaper than both cable options.

In case anyone is interested in getting broadband. If you purchase broadband through Dell, you can get a $75 or $100 rebate. No system purchase necessary.

[ExoticFish]

i don't have comcast here in north east Ohio but i had Time Warner digital cable and road runner until i moved. when i moved i switched to dish network and SBC DSL and have been quite happy. my cable modem speed was *rated* at 3 Mb/s but i never saw it, and during the evening when i was online to most the speeds were not very reliable. so far with my DSL the speed as always been the same and i've had no problems with it at all and although it's only a 1Mb/s it feels just as fast as my cable modem except half the price. i also really like dish (except when the have fights with channels that i watch, just don't do it again or you'll be swimmin wid da fishes see?).

my $.02

[OutThere]

I personally prefer DSL, in that I think that it is more 'future ready', since there have been some major advancements in DSL technology recently, and some serious speed bumps, whereas cable has been at 10Mbps max for a long time, but then if you want the internet now, cable offers much faster speeds for less. I prefer the "guaranteed bandwidth" of DSL. With DSL you might get lower guaranteed speeds, but you will never notice a slowdown if people in your neighbourhood are getting online. Most of the time there will be a 10 mbps connection to the neighbourhood, with basically what is a network connecting everyone in the neighbourhood to the central line. This can be a gift if you don't have many people around you, like my friend who pays for standard cable, and gets a highly reliable 10mbps all the time. Playing online games his ping is 15-20 ms :eek:. At my school we have 3 T1 lines, coming in, and I have gotten speeds downloading in Safari from 16 bytes (!!) per second from every server around, for a long period of time, to 1 Megabyte per second. (Safari displayed 1.0M). I don't know how it's really possible to get that kind of speed with only three T1s, but it happened. (And was très cool). DSL comes straight from the ISP, so you will only find a slow down when the ISPs massive OC-12 or 24 gets bogged down (very rarely...). I guess we will see with the coming technology, but I am happy to have DSL, and everyone who has broadband should feel really grateful. There is one thing that I would love to try someday, and that is to get a really good connection (T1, 15 mbps DSL, something powerful) and run a network between my house and all my nearest neighbours. That would be the peak of internet Shangri-La. Or I could move to Japan and get 100 mbps internet for 100 and month. :mad:

[Le Big Mac]

Another happy Comcast customer here.

I had them set up my mom without the "install pack" or whatever it was. I forget the deal, but it was similar to what they're offering you. No problems.

Well, one problem, but I forget exactly what it was. I think that the installer script runs only on PCs. For her mac, I had to call them to get the IP add'y, or something. Or maybe to set up her user name initially (it wouldn't take the password). I forget, because it was over a year ago, and it didn't take too long to fix. She's had no problems since. Physical installation is even easier. If you have a coax jack, plug into that, then run the cat-5 cable from teh cable modem to your computer.

[wdlove]

OutThere761 what type and how soon are you looking at upgrades to DSL?

Also won't cable also continue to upgrade?

I'm looking at the increase speed and decrease cost.

How much of a problem is there with the cable being slow? I live in the city of Boston.

They recommended a technician to assist with the wireless setup and connection of the 2 computers and E.Mail.

[blue&whiteman]

cable companies all over seem to be getting much faster. my connection shown here is only 39 a month. it screams 24/7 pretty much.

[blue&whiteman]

wanted to add that mine is not comcast. its a canadian company called cogeco. they are based out of montreal. fast fast fast. I have gotten just over 600k at times. highest ever was about 624k/sec I think. upload has gotten as high as 78k/sec at times and averages about 45-50k. not a screaming upstream but the download stream makes up for it and then some. I hardly upload anyway.

[Flowbee]

How much of a problem is there with the cable being slow? I live in the city of Boston.

They recommended a technician to assist with the wireless setup and connection of the 2 computers and E.Mail.

I live in the San Francisco Bay Area and haven't experienced any noticeable slow-downs using Comcast Internet (even during 'peak' hours). We did have a couple of outages this past winter due to high winds, but they usually just lasted a couple of hours.

I had free basic installation, which meant that the technician delivered the modem, installed the splitter, ran the cable to the modem and made sure it was receiving signal. Then he left an install disk and booklet. If you understand how your wireless router works, and how to set up a POP email account in your mail program, you shouldn't have any problems setting things up yourself.

[blue&whiteman]

I live in the San Francisco Bay Area and haven't experienced any noticeable slow-downs using Comcast Internet (even during 'peak' hours). We did have a couple of outages this past winter due to high winds, but they usually just lasted a couple of hours.

I had free basic installation, which meant that the technician delivered the modem, installed the splitter, ran the cable to the modem and made sure it was receiving signal. Then he left an install disk and booklet. If you understand how your wireless router works, and how to set up a POP email account in your mail program, you shouldn't have any problems setting things up yourself.

my install was the same but cost 20$

[krimson]

i've been with Earthlink (changed to Covad DSL service recently after a stint with ELNK/Charter Pipeline) for years and years, if Comcast were available in my area, i'd switch over in a heartbeat. My GF lives in their service area and her service kicks ass. The setup should be easy enough for anyone moderately competent with cabling.

[applemacdude]

Another happy comcast customer here, they even sent me a $40 dollar gift certificate for amazon.com for being their customer....which i used to buy RTCW and a Rammstein DVD

[OutThere]

OutThere761 what type and how soon are you looking at upgrades to DSL?

Also won't cable also continue to upgrade?

I'm looking at the increase speed and decrease cost.

How much of a problem is there with the cable being slow? I live in the city of Boston.

They recommended a technician to assist with the wireless setup and connection of the 2 computers and E.Mail.

You should be fine with cable in Boston, the cable companies have it figured out, and right now cable is definitely the best deal. If I were in your situation, I would go with the cable. I would expect some big speed bumps for DSL within the next 8 or so years. My only reason for feeling that DSL has more potential is that since cable's early years it has only gone from Slow -> 10Mbps, whereas DSL has gone from Slow -> 3Mbps -> 9 Mbps -> (Not yet out) 54 Mbps.

Go with the cable, you won't be let down. Anything over 512 kbps is fine these days.

In regard to the technician - Technicians really take the worry out of setting up a network, but they can be really costly. Sometimes there will be fees of up to 200 USD for a technician. A technician will give you a fast, clean installation, and a feeling of security; it can be really stressful to have something not work! I would say that if you don't feel 105% confident that you can set everything up, and you don't know anyone who can, then you should definitely go with a installation plan.

Hope that this helps, and I hope that you enjoy whatever you finally decide to do! :)

[blue&whiteman]

I did that same online test of my connection at my local mac dealer and got almost 10mbit. they have a service from my same isp and its called cogeco pro. 10mbit down 1mb up for 65$ canadian per month. not bad. maybe I will get that some day.

[question fear]

i have comcast in boston, and they were fairly easy to set up, but as someone said earlier they are pretty bad about mac support on the installer. if you know anyone who's fairly computer savvy, buy them dinner and have them call tech support and set up the installation manually. then you wont need to worry about getting it set and you'll save some $$.


oh...and an actual quote from comcast tech support: "'What version of Windows are you running?' 'Mac OS X.2.6' 'Ok. Go to the start menu with the little windows symbol...'"

[davecuse]

I had Time Warner for Digital Cable and Cable Modem when i was in college, did the self install and we had some problems with the modem dropping it's signal, and the guides in the digital cable were a little slow to show up.

The cable guy came over and changed some of the modulations on the lines running into the apt, and I never had a problem afterward. In closing I think it's worth paying for the install, just don't let them touch your computer with any software, you don't need it. Unless they use some type of network authentication, which cable usually doesn't (mainly a DSL thing).

[jsw]

Sorry - just saw this thread.

I have Comcast and live in the Boston area. Set-up was a breeze. Called to give them the MAC address of the cable modem (I think - it's been about 8 months since I moved and had to set things up, but I remember it being simple).

No need for a technician. Shouldn't take more than 15 minutes to get it going.

Best of luck!

[wdlove]

Another happy comcast customer here, they even sent me a $40 dollar gift certificate for amazon.com for being their customer....which i used to buy RTCW and a Rammstein DVD

That sounds great, what was the situation that they sent you the $40 gift certificate?

The $29.95 for the first months sounds pretty good.

Going by the comments of OutThere761, I'm leaning toward having a Mac specialist do the install. Several things have been very frustrating. Just this week I spent over 3 hours on the phone with Microsoft, due to a wireless issue and office.

[Macpoops]

Going through any other company for DSL you have to get them to then call the local phone company. Then the local phone company works on the actual line. Thats what takes forever. It may be cheaper buy your service gets delayed because of this. Sure you may be paying Earthlink but the inturn have to pay Verizon(or whoever). Your better off paying your phone company for it rather then Earthlink or whoever

[Westside guy]

Going through any other company for DSL you have to get them to then call the local phone company. Then the local phone company works on the actual line. Thats what takes forever. It may be cheaper buy your service gets delayed because of this. Sure you may be paying Earthlink but the inturn have to pay Verizon(or whoever). Your better off paying your phone company for it rather then Earthlink or whoever

It certainly is cheaper, but it's not always the right choice. If all you do is Web browsing and e-mail then most certainly it doesn't matter. But with other applications it might get more complicated.

I don't know if Qwest still does this, but at least up until recently they would rotate the DHCP addresses of customer DSL lines (up here in Washington state anyway) every 15 minutes or so. The reason was they didn't want you to try to run any sort of server on your low-cost DSL line. That's perfectly understandable; but it also means you can't run an SSH session that lasts longer than the DHCP lease time. I work from home one day a week, and I have SSH logins open to several of our department servers all day - not to mention when I have to connect in the evenings to deal with problems. This DHCP rotation policy means I basically can't even consider Qwest DSL as an option.

(Note that I'm a Comcast cable user so I fortunately have a workable alternative)

[wdlove]

I just visited Best Buy yesterday. They have a special this week regarding Comcast Cable. You can purchase the cable router at the store fro $79.95 plus tax. Then you get a $20 mail in rebate, once you have your service then will get a $60 rebate. So the mode is free except for tax. There is still the $29.95 for the first three months. After that it's $42.95/month, because of no rental fee for the modem. Best buy also give the purchaser a $25 gift card to there store. I'm wondering what Best Buy gets for this promotion. In addition Comcast will give a three month subscription to Rhapsody free, but it doesn't work on the Mac.

[applemacdude]

That sounds great, what was the situation that they sent you the $40 gift certificate?


.


Just out of kindness i guess