Comcast setup & cable modem fees

[dsr at tao.merseine.nu]

On Mon, Mar 20, 2006 at 01:12:50PM -0500, Doug wrote:
> Comcast wants to do it all for $99/month.  I was clicking through
> their online order page, and they had two fees I had questions about. 
> The first was a cable modem for $99.  Is that a good deal, bad deal,
> or what? 

You can:

- buy a modem from a third party.
- buy a modem from Comcast.
- rent a modem from Comcast -- in which case, any problems with
  it are their problems. That's my preference.


> The second was a software installation fee of $150 for 2-5
> computers.  Right now I have DSL from Verizon with a router box that
> does DHCP.  All the computers in the house have no trouble connecting
> to it.  In an ideal world, a cable Internet connection would also be a
> DHCP server, and no software needs to be installed.  Can this software
> install be avoided?  Just trying to avoid $250 worth of initial fees.

The cable connection provides one DHCP address. Buy a cheap
hardware firewall/router for $20 and that will redistribute
NATed DHCP addresses to the other machines.

-dsr-

-- 
"People place their hand on the Bible and swear to uphold the Constitution; they don't put their hand on the Constitution and swear to uphold the Bible."
   -- Jamin Raskin