On Wed, 2003-11-19 at 13:24, Preston Crawford wrote:
> > So I take it you made no progress and/or didn't get my message
> > before you went home- sorry about that.
>
> I didn't get your message, no. Did you email me?
Well, I'm pretty *sure* it was you...yeah, I remember the composure-
maybe the antispam got it. No biggie; I was just hoping to catch you
before you get home.
> And no. I didn't make any progress.
>
> First, Comcast told me they'd create the account manually since
> they'd screwed up and cancelled the account. Then I was told that
> they couldn't do that and I'd have to register. So we brought my
> wife's work laptop home and tried to register and the registration
> server was down. I called Tech support again. They said the
> registration server wasn't down and that it must be my modem.
> I said "whatever" and gave up. Woke up this morning and my modem
> had quit working period. Blinking lights. Then it started working
> again. I tried to register through Linux (since my wife was at work) and suddenly found a set of settings that worked. I got to the registration page *somehow* and found the registration server was still down. Called tech support again. Tech support confirms the registration server is down (weird, the last guy said it WASN'T down). He starts a ticket to get my account created manually (hey, I thought they couldn't do that - what a horrible company - great communication)!
> Great. Suddenly the modem stops working again.
Well, there may not be any point in doing it, but if your next
cable-ISP has a similar registration system, try this instead:
Find some kind of non-laptop PC that the Linux-friendly NIC will fit
into, and register it under Windows. Yeah, I know...touching that stuff
my it smolder to the touch, but it rarely breaks out in flame. :) Get
it registered that way, and that exact same MAC address, burnt into the
card, will respond under Linux when you boot it up, and all will be
well.
Insight's got this; others do, too.
> Needless to say my wife and I are getting the ball rolling on
> leaving Comcast for all of our services. That's started today.
> I need a modem to bridge the gap.
Good hunting!
> I know about the pros of serial external modems, I just need
> to make sure they'll work under Fedora. I found a Creative Modem
> Blaster for $60 at Office Depot. They say it's serial. Do you
> know if it's any good? Anyone? The standard, as far as I know,
> is USR. But I'm not sure if they have an external USR that does
> serial and not USB.
Yeah, just about any _serial_ modem is going to work, even if it
doesn't act like an answering machine, deal with call waiting, or wash
your dog for you. Don't bother with the USB; that could entail a bunch
of tinkering that isn't warranted here. As long as you can get at least
3K of bandwidth, at least you'll be able to connect and possibly getting
a better deal on cable/DSL service by searching online.
Nope, 3K isn't 300K, but it's enough to get connected. (I know,
V.whatever modems pretend to give you more, but can you really tell, now
that you've been on cable?) :>
If you're looking for fast, get that serial modem locally. If you
can wait a couple of days, get the one from CompGeeks.
Good Luck!
--
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Brian FahrlÃnder Researcher, Conservative, and Technomad
Evansville, IN http://Fahrlander.net
ICQ 5119262
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