The day

[ksmith]

I now have cable internet, which does seem faster than DSL. No thanks to the installer, who said off the bat that he hated installations involving Macs. He must have spent an hour trying to install via the Comcast disk, poking through the Mac menus, calling his own tech support. He felt that the issue with the iMac was a faulty cable connection, since the Link light wouldn't come on when he inserted the line. So he tried working with the iBook, but didn't get anywhere with that either. Finally, he gave up and set up the system using my dayjob laptop, which is a PC. I probably shouldn't have let him off the hook, but I could tell he was running late, and I had to get to the hospital. So I signed off that everything was fine, and sent him on his way.

Came home this evening. Got online with the PC, and Googled "Mac Comcast". The first page contained links to complaints about how Comcast doesn't work with Macs without lots of massaging. On the second page, I found a link to a page on the Comcast.net website describing how to set up Comcast on a Mac with OSX.

I followed the instructions. A minute or so later, I was online. With the iMac.

The TV works fine, except that I can't control the volume with the Comcast remote. I need to use the remote that came with the set, a mid-late '80s RCA. Not a major issue. Apparently mid-late 80s RCAs had a number of such issues.

I have two phone lines, one in the office and a main house line. These have apparently been reversed. If you call the main house number, the office phone rings. If you call the office number, the main house phone rings.

The security system still works, though on which number, I don't know. Haven't tried the fax yet. If the fax works, I may not bother to get things switched back. The main house phone is a cordless, so it's easy enough to keep a handset in my office.

One nice thing is tat I no longer have a very long cat5 cable and a phone line trailing from the back bedroom down the hall into my office. I needed to do that because that was where the phone jack for the office phone was located. The cable guy installed a phone jack in my office, so I was able to get rid of the tripping hazards.

We'll see how this works out.

Comments

[phantomminuet.livejournal.com]

I followed the instructions. A minute or so later, I was online. With the iMac.

Well done! **applause**

And is there anything more annoying than having perfectly good old tech that won't work together with brand spanking new tech?

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

The annoying thing about the Comcast installation disc is that it automatically opens IE as the browser, which in the case of a Mac is IE for the Mac, which hasn't been upgraded in 5-6 years and frankly sucks.

I didn't need the installation disc. I did have to figure out that two of the steps on the Comcast help page were out of order. DHCP does not come up as a choice for me on the TCP/IP page unless I have already deselected to *not* use PPPoE, which is on another tab. In the instructions, you select DHCP, then deselect PPPoE. I needed to do it the other way 'round.

[lmarley.livejournal.com]

Well, now, this is funny. I lost a whole hour of work yesterday while a Comcast tech came here to screw up our system. It took him only a few mintues to screw it up, of course--most of the hour was me putting it back together. Grrrr. And we still don't have HD.

I love this: the tech said, "Could your husband get a new box and put it in?" Geez. So, mr. tech person, your job is . . . ???

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

My guy installed for Comcast, but along with the Comcast logo, he had another logo on his truck, so I think we're talking subcontractor. Who hates Macs.

If he'd known about that page, he'd have been out about an hour or more earlier.

[pbray.livejournal.com]

So I take it you've joined the ranks of the work from home crowd?

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

Part of the time. I try to get into the office in the morning.

I thought I'd hate it, but sometimes it's nice to be able to answer emails at 11 at night. Sick and sad, but nice.

[chris-gerrib.livejournal.com]

I always recommend people get a Linksys router (about $80) to connect to high-speed. That way you don't have to futz with PC settings. (One just turns on DHCP and goes.)

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

I know other folks with Macs who have used Linksys routers, but if you read the Linksys box, it doesn't mention Mac compatibility.

So I took a deep breath and bought an Airport Extreme Base Station and
cards for the iBook and iMac. When I have some spare time--likely after I turn in the revised page proofs--I will set up my wireless network.