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Please Help: High Speed Connection for Mac?

gusanitoverde

gusanitoverde

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jun 12, 2003
283
0
Northern California
Please Help: High Speed Connection for Mac?

I had been though a nightmare trying to browse the Internet with my Mac G4. (I have a dial up connection).
I am currently paying MSN ($9 Dollars for 10 Hours a month).
I am paying $30.00 to Verizon for my phone line (which I don’t use but to connect to the internet). I feel that I am throwing this money to the trash. I think I could sum up this money and pay a High Speed Internet to connect, but I have the following problems:

1. I considered connecting through DSL, but it is required for me to have a phone connection. (Back to those $30.00 thrown in the trash, plus the DSL fee)
2. The only compatible with Mac provider that I have is Comcast ($42.00 a month ‘cable service’ but they charge me an extra $10.00 because I am not a “cable TV user.” ( I might as well go for DSL and keep my phone line)
3. I have cellular service, but I don’t know how convenient it is to cancel my house phone and use the cell as a primary phone instead of the house phone. I have a hint that I may be able to make phone calls though the Internet, but I may not receive calls. (Am I wrong on this?)

Any comments, suggestions or ideas anyone?
 
So you're paying a total of $39 per month for your phone + internet, but you don't have cable.

By going with cable, you'll pay $52 dollars per month for no phone line, but you get cable internet AND cable.

At an additional $13, its a steal. Seriously, did you expect to pay nothing extra for a high speed connection?

Also, using your mobile phone as your main phone is very do-able. Lots of new condominiums being sold don't come with phone jacks, and will charge you extra to add a telephone jack (around $20-25 per phone jack) because they know that many people only use their mobile phone in order to save money. I'll do the same thing when I'm out of school and live on my own. I did this a year ago while at school.

Also, in Finland (the most technologically advanced country when it comes to portable technology like mobile phones and laptops -- think Nokia and Ericcson for a second), new homes built in Finland do not come with phone jacks because the average age of 1st time mobile phone owners is 10 years of age. This means that 3rd and 4th grade kids get their first mobile phones, on average. Some are even younger. :eek:

North Americans are just generally behind in this respect. It doesn't mean that YOU have to be behind. ;)
 
I have dropped all land line connections to my apartment.
I now have a T-mobile cell with a plan that saves me money as compared to my landline.
I dropped my dial up years ago and now have high-speed access through my Airport card and the local T-mobile Hotspots .
I pay $40 a month for my phone, with 600 any time minuets, free long distance, and unlimited nights (9:00PM) and weekends. I can also use my phone most anywhere in the world ($1 dollar per min for the connivance, but still cool.) I pay $20 a month for unlimited wireless access as an add-on to my T-mobile phone.

I am saving cash and gained good quality data communication services, but I have lost quality of sound on my phone. The landline is clearer. I worry about my day time phone usage, though I haven’t maxed out yet. I don’t use the internet often, and I do my homework at coffee shops, so it works well with my life style.
 
I live in a small town. There is not a lot of choice here for communication. Our provider is PrairieWave and they offer discounts for using multiple services. I am not sure if other companies offer this. I have a landline, cable tv, and cable internet. They give me $10 savings a month for all 3 services. Local phone service is $17.95 a month, so basically you might as well take it. I think I pay around $70 a month, not including long distance and I take long distance through them at a dime a min anytime day and night.

I am one of the few out there that does not have a cell. I wish I did for traveling, but in the town I live reception is poor so you are still forced to have a landline if you want voice quality. Also, when I was younger I messed up with some credit cards and it seems some cell providers are big on contracts and if you have anything negative in your credit history they will not approve you. I always pay my bills now, but worry about old things showing up so I am kinda out for now.
 
All high speed internet providers that use DHCP or PPPoE are Mac OS X compatible as long as they use ethernet for both upstream and downstream via their modem. That's regardless of whether they claim to support the Mac or not.

If you boot into Mac OS 9 or earlier, you will need to get PPPoE software or an ethernet router. If you use PPPoE on the Classic environment in X, you use the Mac OS X networking to establish the PPPoE connection.

For high speed internet providers that use 56k modem upstream you will need the $75 shareware IP Netrouter to establish the phone connection to work simultaneously with the ethernet connection downstream.

pre-Mac OS 8.6 use an ethernet router to establish DHCP or PPPoE connections. Static IPs work better for pre-Mac OS 8.6.

The one exception to this mess is ISPs that require using specific USB only high speed modems like certain Alcatel USB modems that have no ethernet option, and satellite transmitters that work the same way.

Visit http://www.dslreports.com/

You'll find you have more than one option in Los Angeles.
 
Originally posted by gopher
....

If you boot into Mac OS 9 or earlier, you will need to get PPPoE software or an ethernet router. If you use PPPoE on the Classic environment in X, you use the Mac OS X networking to establish the PPPoE connection.
Click to expand...
To be clear, you only need extra software for PPPoE. If your ISP uses DHCP, then you need no additional software.
Originally posted by gopher
pre-Mac OS 8.6 use an ethernet router to establish DHCP or PPPoE connections. Static IPs work better for pre-Mac OS 8.6.
Click to expand...
Static IPs work better for everything. Having said that, DHCP works fine in MacOS 8.5.

I have no idea where gopher is getting his information, but it is wrong.
 
Our cable TV and internet service is bundled together for $83 a month. We get 2000/256kbps internet service and digital cable with HBO. I doubt that Comcast offers the same for $52 a month.

Here's what I would do in your situation:

If you don't use your phone line much I would look for another phone plan without unlimited local calling. It's probably a lot less than $30/month. Then get DSL with it. If you can't get that plan, go with the cable internet for $52 a month. Looks like that's the best deal...

And remember, just because an ISP says they're not Mac compatible doesn't mean they aren't. Plus, you could always plug the modem into a home router ($40 or less, if you can find a sale), and plug that into your Mac.
 
One clarification, if you are using Mac OS X, you do not need extra software for PPPoE.
 
Originally posted by Abstract
So you're paying a total of $39 per month for your phone + internet, but you don't have cable.

By going with cable, you'll pay $52 dollars per month for no phone line, but you get cable internet AND cable.
Click to expand...

Actually no. For $52 he gets Internet only. They charge $42 for the Internet IF you are a cable customer, if not, you have to pay an additional $10 to get Internet and you do NOT have cable.
 
The Internet is based upon the IP Protocol. Virtually every OS supports IP. OS X, Solaris, AIX, Windows, linsux, BSD, HP-UX, Tru-64, VMS, etc.

Some of those have other protocols that are used, and they are not IP based. One such example would be AppleTalk. Microsoft has the one they got from Lantastic Netbeui/Netbios. They did modify it so it will work over IP though, but not off the bat. There are others, but these two are beside the point.

When a provider says that they do not support an OS, it is because they want you to put their bloat ware on your machine. If they don't offer it for a particular OS, they do not support that OS on their network. Support and it not working are two totally different things. I use Solaris on a Sun system at home a lot; RR doesn’t support it. They don't need to as the cable modem offers an Ethernet connection, so I just plugged that into my existing network and off I went. Before using a cable modem I did dial-up, I never installed their software on any machine, I used a Cisco router and a modem. When it sees traffic that was destined for a device not on the network, it would dial-up my ISP and then I had Internet access, all machines did. I had this before Internet Connection Sharing programs even existed. I also had a second modem on it and it would dial-in to work.

What you need to look for. First, you need to verify what equipment is required to get Internet. Typically it's a modem of some sort, you will want to make sure that it offers an Ethernet connection. If it offers a USB connection, you will most likely run into some problems. This requires a driver to work and it usually more hassle then it is worth. Quite a few peecee users have had problems with these. The peecee companies created USB and they have problems with compatibility. USB forget about it, Ethernet go for it. The second thing to look for is if you need to use their software. If you need to signup online using their software, you will have a problem, or if you need their software to authenticate to gain access to the Internet. Both of those are remote problems at best. Chances are you will not need to use the software at all, just makes sure the equipment gives you Ethernet. You may have to pay extra and upgrade it, do that and get a router that has a firewall from an electronics store. This will allow you to create your own network and protect it from the Internet.

So do your homework see if you know anyone that has the same service and see what they think of it, what equipment they have and if they need to use the software (most likely the answer is no.) One last point about the software, most dial-up ISP's want you to use the software even though it is usually built-in to the OS.
 
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