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Apr
29
Comcastic!
Filed Under internet
My Comcastic — could that end up being a swear word one of these days — home network is back up to full strength after a little experimentation.
Here’s a tip for people with the Netgear wireless router that seems to give everyone so many problems. It requires obtaining another router — I already had one from my DSL days just waiting to go back into service, so I didn’t have to put down any money.
Since the Comcast supplied router seems to have issues getting to certain parts of the internet — I could get to Google properties to search, but couldn’t get out of Google and I could get into my ChristopherHedges.com domain but other areas wouldn’t load — I decided to experiment with solutions since we haven’t had a cable guy out yet to look at it.
Comcast contractors did bury the cable at the house today, so kudos to them for doing that before we grade the yard for grass seed. A tech is supposed to come out later on to fix the problem. I suspect he or she will just need to swap out the Netgear wireless router since that’s where the problem is.
My first plan was to directly connect to the ARRIS cable / telephony modem located in the depths of the basement to see if it would work. I plugged in my computer and had to download software to be able to get out onto Comcast’s system. I didn’t want to do that since I don’t plan to use comcast’s email address and have been using the wireless with my laptop. I also don’t want to have to directly connect to wires since I enjoy sitting with the laptop in the family room or in the kitchen. Wires limit flexibility. And, like many other people, I don’t know my cable company account number since my wife handles the bills.
I decided to take the path of least resistance which lead to the solution to the Comcast wireless home networking router problem.
I plugged my alternate wireless internet router into the Comcast Netgear router to see if it would work. Indeed, the trusty old router worked where as the sparkly new Comcastic version is still failing to get out into the greater internet beyond Google, Blogger and ChristopherHedges.com. Not that those aren’t bad destinations, but it felt like I was living on a small island and running out of interesting things to look at online.
It’s not the best solution in the world, but until we get a new box (or the tech does something to fix it — I’ve tried power cycling and resetting the router with no differences in results) having the alternate wireless router in place seems to be doing the trick. If you need wireless access and can’t wait for a tech to show to swap out the box, try getting a cheap wireless router from your local discount or big box store and plugging it into your ailing Comcast wireless router.
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5 Responses to “Comcastic!”
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Quite an adventure! Glad to see you’ve returned! I can’t stand Comcast, that’s why I canceled them last year. My internet constantly had issues as well as my phone and cable TV (I had the ‘triple play — but after a year you pay’ package). Now I use a Sprint remote wireless modem that hooks up to the laptop and accesses Sprint’s towers anywhere I go, whether in the car or inside of a coffee shop. We no longer have television, you can imagine how much reading I’ve accomplished in the last year! It’s been interesting. Anyhoo, welcome back!
P.S. You seem to be far more “blog-savvy” than I. I get all of my news and blogs via RSS feeds to Mozilla Thunderbird. The news shows up fine throughout the day, but blog posts haven’t been showing up, even though I have the RSS feeds. I didn’t know you had posted this afternoon until I stopped by the site to check for myself. I wonder why it is not registering with Thunderbird? Any ideas?
Hi Dan,
How do you like Sprint’s service? Is it worth the cost?
We had cable before and ended up going with satellite for television. We also had the good old telco and DSL for about $15/month. It never had any issues — we ordered the service, plugged in the modem and filters, and away we when. I didn’t even load up the telco’s software.
Comcast has already had some issues.
The cable phone goes out when it gets around 0 degrees F. I don’t really use the phone much — I rely more on my cell phone — so it isn’t a huge issue. (We could almost get rid of the regular phone line because we hardly ever use it).
The internet router got messed up. I haven’t checked it out because I’m using my alternative method to get the wifi to work using my own router.
And, the digital cable box failed. We have a new one — delivered today — so I can watch “Carrier” on WTTW using On Demand.
I don’t think the cable company is as stable and hardy as the regular phone company that had to build systems that could withstand nuclear war, etc. When we had the regular phone, it only went out during the great snow storm of 1998 when trees snapped and power was out for days — and the service only went out after a significant period of not having power.
Hi Dan,
As far as the RSS reader not picking up new posts, it might have something to do with the settings. Maybe it only checks a certain number of times a day?
I’ve been using Bloglines for my RSS feeds.
Are you using my Feedburner feed or the site’s feed for your reader?
I have no idea which feed I’m using. I just clicked subscribe in a reader I think. I like Sprint, it occasionally has a brain freeze and I have to reconnect, but otherwise it’s ok. It’s probably just my reader. They certainly don’t make telecommunications like they used to!