Comcast and Routers/Switches

Qwest has pissed me off to the point of changing teams. However Comcast ahs some pretty stupid (read: good for them monetarily) policies regarding borrowing/renting their routers. $150/mo just to have 2-5 computers on their network while I pay for one pipe of bandwidth? HAHAHAHAHAHA!

So I plan on buying my own switch/router and wirelessly networking my house myself. However I want to make sure that other people are doing this and that Comcast has no way to see/stop what I'm doing.

I have 2 laptops and 1 desktop and plan on getting 1 wireless router/switch to service my whole house. I've done it before with Comcast (in CO) I just want to make sure it's still possible.

 

I'm on my Wi-Fi right now on a comcast line. The only thing they have is bandwith checks. If you start downloading a crap load of movies or music they will slow you down to a crawl. But I have 3 pcs, my PSP, 2 NDSs, X360, PS3 and wii all on the same wi fi with comcast. Never had any issues

 

It should work as long as you are only using 1 external ip address, so a router/firewall would do the trick. AFAIK, the extra money is to get additional ip addresses.

 

I run about 5 computers, 3 wired, and 2 wireless on my comcast account with linksys router. Been doing so for about 5 years, never been charged any more.

 

Just had to make sure. No worries then. Thanks.

Fast internet here I come.

 

Just pick up a Linksys WRT54G and you're good to go. Takes care of everything and they can't figure out how many computers are running in your network since the router/firewall will translate your internal addresses to the one external IP address Comcast gives you. It's pretty much impossible to determine what you're running at that point unless they walk into your house and see your router.

 

just wondering what is wrong with the Qwest stuff...
i work in the DSL development lab at Qwest, so maybe there is something to fix it..

 

The prob is that DSL sucks balls.

 

This. They only have 1.5Mbps to my house. And no plans to upgrade any time soon. I get upload speeds of 1.3Mbps so it's not a hardware issue. There just isn't bandwidth and I've started online gaming. Being the slowest guy on the server is killing my TF2 stats.

Later dudes.

 

I'll second the recommendation of the Linksys WRT54G.

Comcast will basically require you to install it to a single PC and if you have a technician do that part they will only hook up that one PC.

When you install he router, you will then need to "clone" the MAC address of the PC you had the service set up for.

If you every have any problems with the service (and you will), Comcast will make you revert to having that specific PC that you had at the install connected, and nothing else.

The internet service is pretty good, but Comcast's customer service is horrendous. It's Qwest-bad. Time Warner was 10x better than Comcast, and cost less too.

 

1.5Mbps should be great for gaming, but it's the latency that matters (i.e. "ping").

Do you really get upload speeds of 1.3M or did you mean download?

For a frame of reference, I used to run a Half-Life Server, a Half-Life Teamplay Server, a Conuter-Strike Server and an Unreal Tournament Server off of a 4xT1 setup, or 6M up/6M down. Later I ran just the HL and CS servers off of a 1M up/ 1M down SDSL line, with no problems and low latency.

Unless TF2 has turned into a godawful bandwidth hog, 1.5M is plenty. Is Qwest the line and service provider? You can choose your service provider, and that can make a huge difference in the performance of a DSL line.

 

I asked the tech when I had my comcast cable modem replaced and he said that as far as he knew they weren't requiring a specific mac address anymore. I didn't have to use mac address spoofing when I set up a relative's router on comcast earlier this year.

And yeah, I've been less than impressed with Comcast's customer service in the past, they've done some stupid stupid things, but the latest time I dealt with them it actually went ok.

 

For 1.5M download it would either be 896 or 640 upload, probably 896. Check what the modem is training at. And if you have one of the 2wire modems tell them it blew up in the lightning and get the actiontech one.

i didn't say that tho...

 

no problems with comcast here, works great (for me that is)

 

7M down FTW..soon to be 20M

 

comcast also offers 50 and 100m service, granted its more expensive but its there.

 

I've got the actiontec one.

I just ran the bandwidth test the other day and got ~1370 download. Ah, I see. I said upload. I meant download. Upload is 741. I'm running a ping of 87ms. This is as of 10:28pm.

 

How do I check what the modem is training at? That's a new term for me.

 

I reported Qwest to the BBB the other week. We were supposed to get 2 free months of service for upgrading the speed on our DSL line. 2 months went by, no bills, all good...then all of a sudden, no internet one day. I called up Qwest, they said I haven't paid my bill. I had people telling me to pay $180.00, $60.00, and then $120.00 to get my bill up to date. After telling them I wouldn't pay a penny, that they were going down the path of false advertising, and 3 different managers, they finally turned it back on.

So then, I get a bill for the first time after my 2 free months and it has a $25 re-activation fee attached to it. They wouldn't budge on that saying that I didn't pay my bill previously and I needed to pay that or my service would be turned off. I tried to explain that it was their billing departments fault. I finally had to speak with their corporate office just to get the $25 fee taken off, which should have never been on there in the first place.

I have heard other stories of Qwest's billing dept. and how much of a nightmare they are.

 

If you are a bit of a techie, I would recommend the wrt54gl model. It allows you to replace the firmware software with an open source that really opens up possibilities and options of this platform.

http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/What_is_DD-WRT?

I have tried the buffalo tech models that are supported by dd-wrt and have found them to be less than reliable. A bunch of other products are supported.

 

Tomato is a great one, too. Wireless boosting/overclocking FTW. :biggrin:

Here's a decent article.

 

As a corporate customer of Qwest, I can confirm that Qwest has their head buried firmly and deeply up their a**. Dealing with them has been nothing but a pain.

With the exception of their DNS guys. They have been prompt and on the ball.

 

Linksys Wireless-G...4 hard lines out plus 2 lap tops.

 

I'll try mine from home tonight. Here's mine at work...:biggrin:

 

That's a lot of tubes. Showoff.

 

They're probably bigger in diameter, too.

 

Mine at work :ugh:




I get faster intrawebz at home!

 

your work fails at the internet

 

interwebz!!!!

later in the day.

 

U of M < Boston Sci..



lol

 

I have Comcast Business Class, and they have been very easy to deal with the couple of times I've needed to call. When it was still Time Warner, going from Residential support to Business Class support was like night and day difference. As a network techie, I always hate the first words out of a script-reading CSR's mouth, "Right click My Computer, and go to the Properties..."

Stuart.

 

Oh noes! Well -- you guys do have more money.

 

@ home with Comcast with cheapo Netgear router. PS3 and two lappys going.

 

I pulled the trigger. I have 8MBps service from Comcast getting installed on Thursday between 8am and 1pm. 6-month intro rate of $35 that moves up to $62 after that. We don't use our TV so I don't get the bundled rate.

I bought a Surfboard modem at Best Buy along with my new laptop. W00t.

 

According to the website you can get the 50Mbps service for the low-low price of $150/mo. Not worth it for me.

 

Just a heads up, it isn't $150/month for Comcast Home Networking. It's your normal internet charge plus $5/month to rent the router. Which will be replaced free of charge if it goes bad. The $149.99 is just a one time install charge for the tech to set everything up. So I am not sure who told you it was $150/month, but they were mistaken.

 

I may have misread the site. Regardless I can network my home all by myself in about 30 minutes. Why would I pay some dude $150 to do that for me?

I have my Wireless Surfboard, now. Thursday morning everything should be awesome.

 

No, they don't really upgrade it for you, well, you get the smaller speed bumps, but not the promotional rates that they advertise. My connection has gone from 1mbs in 2001 to 4mbs (no speedboost) in 2008.