Wednesday June 09, 2004 Adventures in Home Networking
When I first moved into my house in Thornton, the only available option for broadband Internet access was Sprint Broadband. ATT Broadband didn't offer high speed Internet access in my neighborhood and DSL was just a dream around here. Since I really needed broadband access (it was the early VPN days here at Sun) I went with Sprint.
A couple years ago, Sprint announced that they were no longer provisionning new customers. This really concerned me despite repeated statements by Sprint that they weren't planning to cut off service to their subscribers. I had looked at different options in my neighborhood. After much thought, I decided to move over to Comcast HSI.
The real trigger though was the cost of my phone line. I had already moved to MCI in order to save cost, but I still thought that I could do better. So I decided to give Vonage a try. After trips to Circuit City and other electronics and computer stores, I had all of the gear I needed, including a brand new cable modem, a Comcast self install kit and that precious Vonage box (Actually a Motorolla device, but why be too picky here...)
The Comcast self install kit was a disappointment. I went ahead, hooked up everything, called the phone number provided to register my modem and get registration and access information.
That's when the trouble started.
After many calls, modem rebooting, plenty of hold time, I finally talked to a knowledgeable person at Comcast who discovered that there was a filter on my cable line. This prevented 2 way communications and didn't allow the modem to lock and synchronize with the MSO. I got an appointment for later this week, and we will see then if this will take care of the problem. I guess that makes the Comcast kit a "not-so-self-install" kit.
Not all is lost though. I decided to hook up the Vonage device on my current Sprint Broadband connection. I must say that I have been very much impressed with the quality of the calls that I made. I have attended multiple conference calls and called a few people through Vonage. You can't really beat the price too. $30 a month for unlimited local and long distance calls to the US and Canada for a residential line.
I guess that I'll see what happens once I get Comcast to remove that filter. Hopefully, the technician should be coming in on Friday morning to remove the filter and complete the installation. I'll report back afterwards. -- Fred ( Jun 09 2004, 01:13:41 PM MDT ) Permalink