|
Cable modems are finally in vogue. Several National and many local
service providers are now offering cable modems. These modems can offer
fantastic bandwidth, from about 1MB/s to 10MB/s. Most of the national
providers offer a single solution for internet, telephone, and cable TV.
Depending on your area and provider(s), these package deals can offer cost
savings on purchasing them separately. Don't expect one bill though, your
telephone bill may come separately. You can also select your favorite long
distance carrier. The time is right to buy a cable modem.
Cable and the future. Point to point broadband technologies like DSL
are easier to upgrade than loop technologies like cable. Still, a recent
article promises to increase existing fiber bandwidth by a factor of 100.
As the market flourishes, the potential will increase. Too early to tell,
but the time for cable is now.
COMCAST Users Beware. The documentation supplied with the COMCAST
cable modem installation kit and their technical support is a little bit
lacking. The tech support representatives were very kind, but not very
proactive. I'm sure their training tells them the users can find
everything in the manual. To save yourself a lot of aggravation, force
feed them these things when you call technical support to get your service up
and running:
1. Give them your Cable Modem MAC address (White sticker on modem.
2. Ask them for your computer Host Name.
3. Write down your username and password.
4. Get them to tell you the DNS servers and gateway IPs.
5. The @home website can be found on www.excite.com,
you'll need your username and password for this site. On the website, you
can setup your email accounts and additional services. | 