Whelp the CatMan made the plunge...from DSL to...Cable

Post by **YeOldeStonecat** » Thu Dec 22, 2005 10:42 am

Yup..jumped over to the dark side...after many many years of using bandwidth from my favorite old ISP, which I've been with since 33.6 dial up modems just came out...I jumped, and went to...Comcast cable.

I had a bridged business DSL account, lived pretty far from the CO, (14,500')...so had a benchmarked 640 down and 370 up. No port blocking, could run whatever I wanted, and very low latency. But...with cable getting so cheap now, decided to try Comcast.

Bought my own 5120 modem, plugged it in last night, got that limited IP address from Comcast which wanted to do the registration thing and provision the modem. Not wanting to install any of that sofware on any of my PCs...I called this morning, within a minute got a live person, read him my modem type, MAC, serial number...and in about 5 minutes he had it provisioned, and I got a legit IP address.

Just redid my RV0 router, servers DNS forwarding, and benchmarked it..hitting 6100 down, 340 up. Not bad!

Must admin, I was wary about how Comcast support would be...but I gotta give them a 2 thumbs up!

And thanks to Wee for his input on modems and all that stuff. 2 thumbs up to you!

thepieman · Post by **thepieman** » Thu Dec 22, 2005 11:03 am

Don't you lose your support by buying your own Cable modem? I know here in NYC Roadrunner you save the 5.00 per month rental but you lose their support if you have a problem.

Pie

Post by **YeOldeStonecat** » Thu Dec 22, 2005 11:12 am

thepieman wrote:Don't you lose your support by buying your own Cable modem? I know here in NYC Roadrunner you save the 5.00 per month rental but you lose their support if you have a problem.

Pie

Didn't appear to, I told him I bought my own modem, just needed to provision it. As long as it's a model on their list of supported/compatible modems, I don't see why they shouldn't support it. $45 bucks on ebay, I come out ahead in no time.

Post by **YeOldeStonecat** » Thu Dec 22, 2005 11:14 am

Speaking of which..are you guys on RR down there static? Or dynamic? That office I setup down there, the DynDNS ceased due to no further updates/changes, so might have to setup a static dns service.

Mactron · Post by **Mactron** » Thu Dec 22, 2005 11:15 am

YeOldeStonecat wrote:and benchmarked it..hitting 6100 down, 340 up. Not bad!

Pretty great I'd say

Go with what works in your area. Congrats.

BaJaBoy · Post by **BaJaBoy** » Thu Dec 22, 2005 11:19 am

Hows your pings Cat ?

YARDofSTUF · Post by **YARDofSTUF** » Thu Dec 22, 2005 11:37 am

Ya comcast is pretty good up here. I rent my modem from comcast, turning in my latest RCA for a 5120 from them soon.

PIE: You still get Comcast support if you buy a modem, but if it seems to be the problem, comcast wont do anyhting about it if its not theirs.

Compared to SBC and Dell(home users) Comcast is great for phone support right now, they even help with router issues if its simple and they know the router.

wee96 · Post by **wee96** » Thu Dec 22, 2005 12:12 pm

No problem

Glad its working ok for you, and we arent "the dark side"

wee96 · Post by **wee96** » Thu Dec 22, 2005 12:13 pm

Cat, your ip wont change unless you change MAC addresses on the router connected to the modem. The modem latches onto that MAC, and your basically stuck with that ip until you change the mac or the device. Its technically DHCP, since theres a lease, but it doesnt change.

Lefty · Post by **Lefty** » Thu Dec 22, 2005 12:15 pm

Good to here Comcast is a good company, they are in the process of buying my cable company which will finalize early next year.

wee96 · Post by **wee96** » Thu Dec 22, 2005 12:15 pm

http://192.168.100.1/signal.html

Take a screenie of that for me Cat if you will, so I can check out your signal/SnR/Qam.

thepieman · Post by **thepieman** » Thu Dec 22, 2005 12:16 pm

YeOldeStonecat wrote:Speaking of which..are you guys on RR down there static? Or dynamic? That office I setup down there, the DynDNS ceased due to no further updates/changes, so might have to setup a static dns service.

Dynamic here..static is like 400-700 bucks on RR

Pie

YARDofSTUF · Post by **YARDofSTUF** » Thu Dec 22, 2005 12:20 pm

wee96 wrote:Cat, your ip wont change unless you change MAC addresses on the router connected to the modem. The modem latches onto that MAC, and your basically stuck with that ip until you change the mac or the device. Its technically DHCP, since theres a lease, but it doesnt change.

I've switched up the MAC on the router(cloning) a few times, the change seems temporary.

koldchillah · Post by **koldchillah** » Thu Dec 22, 2005 12:21 pm

thepieman wrote:Dynamic here..static is like 400-700 bucks on RR

Pie

Thats sucks.. I just have to add $15/month to make my RR static. It's basically just a DHCP reservation from their end.

thepieman · Post by **thepieman** » Thu Dec 22, 2005 12:22 pm

koldchillah wrote:Thats sucks.. I just have to add $15/month to make my RR static. It's basically just a DHCP reservation from their end.

I have a commercial account. I didn't even know that they would do that for Residential customers. First I heard of it.

Pie

wee96 · Post by **wee96** » Thu Dec 22, 2005 12:24 pm

YARDofSTUF wrote:I've switched up the MAC on the router(cloning) a few times, the change seems temporary.

Huh? You changed the MAC, and got a different ip but your saying it went back to the other one over time or ?

YARDofSTUF · Post by **YARDofSTUF** » Thu Dec 22, 2005 12:35 pm

wee96 wrote:Huh? You changed the MAC, and got a different ip but your saying it went back to the other one over time or ?

Yup I've had the same IP since AT&T went DOCSIS, comcast bought the service and I've had 3 different Modems, still the same IP.

Change the modem, or the mac addy clone in the router and it moves to a different one, then back to the original after a little time, I guess until its next renewal point? Dunno, but it works.

Post by **YeOldeStonecat** » Thu Dec 22, 2005 12:45 pm

wee96 wrote:Cat, your ip wont change unless you change MAC addresses on the router connected to the modem. The modem latches onto that MAC, and your basically stuck with that ip until you change the mac or the device. Its technically DHCP, since theres a lease, but it doesnt change.

Good to know...since I do change now 'n then (routers, NICs, blah blah just out of bordem)

Post by **YeOldeStonecat** » Thu Dec 22, 2005 12:45 pm

wee96 wrote:http://192.168.100.1/signal.html

Take a screenie of that for me Cat if you will, so I can check out your signal/SnR/Qam.

Will do when I get home tonight or tomorrow morning.

Post by **YeOldeStonecat** » Thu Dec 22, 2005 3:47 pm

BaJaBoy wrote:Hows your pings Cat ?

Tested on 3x of my regular servers that play '42 on this morning...pings seemed exact same as my DSL...straight 60's to these 3x servers, 2x in the UK, 1x on the east coast here somewhere I think...or maybe Texas...I forget.

Haven't played online at night (prime time) yet...so I'll see there.

Lefty · Post by **Lefty** » Thu Dec 22, 2005 3:55 pm

Post by **YeOldeStonecat** » Thu Dec 22, 2005 4:29 pm

Lefty wrote:Lefty hooking up Cat's cable

wee96 · Post by **wee96** » Thu Dec 22, 2005 5:00 pm

YoS, thats not what happens anywhere else, thats an interesting one. The system basically assigns that ip to that mac, and after a long period of inactivity from it itll clear and go back in the pool for someone else new to pluck.

YARDofSTUF · Post by **YARDofSTUF** » Thu Dec 22, 2005 5:04 pm

wee96 wrote:YoS, thats not what happens anywhere else, thats an interesting one. The system basically assigns that ip to that mac, and after a long period of inactivity from it itll clear and go back in the pool for someone else new to pluck.

Ya I wouldnt expect it to be the norm, with stonecat so close, once he changes a card or the router I guess I can see if its only me.

Shinobi · Post by **Shinobi** » Thu Dec 22, 2005 5:05 pm

Location Location Location...

If you switch to Comcast down in my neck of the woods.. you would be shooting back to xDSL in no time.

Shinobi

Post by **YeOldeStonecat** » Thu Dec 22, 2005 5:10 pm

wee96 wrote:http://192.168.100.1/signal.html

Take a screenie of that for me Cat if you will, so I can check out your signal/SnR/Qam.

Frequency 603000000 Hz
Signal to Noise Ratio 33 dB
QAM 256
Network Access Control Object ON
Power Level 3 dBmV
The Downstream Power Level reading is a snapshot taken at the time this page was requested. Please Reload/Refresh this Page for a new reading
Upstream Value
Channel ID 1
Frequency 21584000 Hz
Ranging Service ID 4347
Symbol Rate 3.200 Msym/s
Power Level 47 dBmV

wee96 · Post by **wee96** » Thu Dec 22, 2005 5:16 pm

Signal levels are well within tolerance, good

Post by **YeOldeStonecat** » Thu Dec 22, 2005 6:17 pm

Dorking around with the dual WAN features of the RV082 router...have my DSL plugged into WAN 2 port, with cable in WAN 1. Setting up load balancing, sure enough I can't push it enough, speed tests naturally don't change..but I did get some traffic to spill over to the DSL connection.

Then I fiddled around with the auto failover. I'd unplug my cable...all traffic would jump to the DSL connection without a hiccup..I kept surfing fresh material without a pause. And visa versa.

YARDofSTUF · Post by **YARDofSTUF** » Thu Dec 22, 2005 6:21 pm

So they only have a few DNS IPs for everyone in one area?

Post by **YeOldeStonecat** » Thu Dec 22, 2005 6:22 pm

YARDofSTUF wrote:So they only have a few DNS IPs for everyone in one area?

Those 68.87 ones the same for you? I don't run DHCP from my router anyways, my LAN uses its own DNS from my SBS server. But I'd imagine any Comcast clients in at least a 4-6 state area use those same servers.

YARDofSTUF · Post by **YARDofSTUF** » Thu Dec 22, 2005 6:23 pm

yup same 2 DNS IPs over here.

Post by **YeOldeStonecat** » Thu Dec 22, 2005 6:33 pm

Huh...yet you have a totally different IP block than mine...even the first octet.

YARDofSTUF · Post by **YARDofSTUF** » Thu Dec 22, 2005 6:35 pm

YeOldeStonecat wrote:Huh...yet you have a totally different IP block than mine...even the first octet.

Yup!

wee96 · Post by **wee96** » Thu Dec 22, 2005 7:12 pm

There are several IP pools per area, makes sense.

Randy · Post by **Randy** » Thu Dec 22, 2005 9:45 pm

sweet I think i saw a link> that with comcast you can also watch tv or sports events free. :2cool:

CableDude · Post by **CableDude** » Thu Dec 22, 2005 10:09 pm

YeOldeStonecat wrote:

I see your NOD32 icon thar!

Joint Chiefs of Staff · Thu Dec 22, 2005 10:11 pm

Just passing by

knightmare · Post by **knightmare** » Thu Dec 22, 2005 11:41 pm

Here, each node has a maximum of 250 people. Depending upon your node, how many people are on it etc., will affect your speed also.

knightmare · Post by **knightmare** » Thu Dec 22, 2005 11:45 pm

YARDofSTUF wrote:Yup I've had the same IP since AT&T went DOCSIS, comcast bought the service and I've had 3 different Modems, still the same IP.

Change the modem, or the mac addy clone in the router and it moves to a different one, then back to the original after a little time, I guess until its next renewal point? Dunno, but it works.

At&T here, and you are right. I keep getting the same IP after changing nic cards, redoing the router, I have tried everything. Even try to unplug everything when the IP lease expires.. still same IP.

Post by **Philip** » Fri Dec 23, 2005 12:22 am

I use the SB 5100, on RR down here in Tampa:

Downstream Value
Frequency 645000000 Hz Locked
Signal to Noise Ratio 38 dB
Power Level 8 dBmV The Downstream Power Level reading is a snapshot taken at the time this page was requested. Please Reload/Refresh this Page for a new reading

Upstream Value
Channel ID 3
Frequency 33008000 Hz Ranged

Power Level 54 dBmV