Bought a new laptop Saturday and tried to get our home networking router
(installed by Comcast) to recognize it by calling tech help line. The
result was losing all Internet access on all the computers until about an
hour ago.

New laptop runs on Vista, but that wasn't the problem. I actually like
Vista.

The problem was the total incompetence of Comcast's technical helpline via
telephone.

Long story which I won't go into, but finally a couple of knowledgable
people showed up and got everything up and running better than ever.

BTW .... I heard a rumor that Apple is going to get out of the business.
Macs will be no longer.

Eisboch

Eisboch wrote:
Bought a new laptop Saturday and tried to get our home networking router
(installed by Comcast) to recognize it by calling tech help line. The
result was losing all Internet access on all the computers until about
an hour ago.

New laptop runs on Vista, but that wasn't the problem. I actually like
Vista.

The problem was the total incompetence of Comcast's technical helpline
via telephone.

Long story which I won't go into, but finally a couple of knowledgable
people showed up and got everything up and running better than ever.

BTW .... I heard a rumor that Apple is going to get out of the
business. Macs will be no longer.

Eisboch


Who did you hear that rumor from? Your guys at Comcast?

What brand router do you have? It shouldn't really require much if any
specific setup, or are you referring to the "cable modem"?

"Boater" wrote in message
...
Eisboch wrote:
Bought a new laptop Saturday and tried to get our home networking router
(installed by Comcast) to recognize it by calling tech help line. The
result was losing all Internet access on all the computers until about an
hour ago.

New laptop runs on Vista, but that wasn't the problem. I actually like
Vista.

The problem was the total incompetence of Comcast's technical helpline
via telephone.

Long story which I won't go into, but finally a couple of knowledgable
people showed up and got everything up and running better than ever.

BTW .... I heard a rumor that Apple is going to get out of the business.
Macs will be no longer.

Eisboch


Who did you hear that rumor from? Your guys at Comcast?

What brand router do you have? It shouldn't really require much if any
specific setup, or are you referring to the "cable modem"?


I don't know what we had before as a router. It was setup in a strange way.
Rather than using WEP or the newer secure network system (forget what they
call it), it was "unsecured" but invisible to all but the specific
computers that were registered to log on to it. The only computers that
could connect were those that were registered through Comcast to use it.
It wasn't a problem before. When Mrs.E. bought a new computer we simply
called up Comcast and they remotely added it to the registered list.

The problems started Saturday when I tried to add this new machine. The
telephone guy initially said, "No problem, then proceeded to completely shut
down our Internet access remotely and couldn't get it back up. Then, we
went through the "next tier" of help within 48 hours, etc., (which never
happened) then a home visit this morning between 8am and 11am to "upgrade"
our equipment (which has worked perfectly for several years) ... and nobody
showed up. This is all with numerous and increasingly frustrating calls to
Comcast's help service which has been going on since Saturday.

Believe it or not, here's how it got fixed. Around 1pm this afternoon
(after waiting all morning for the Comcast no show) I happened to take a
ride to the store 2 miles from my house. In the parking lot were two
Comcast trucks parked side by side and the drivers having a smoke and
chatting. I drove up and asked them if either one had a service call
scheduled at our address. They didn't, but asked what the problem was. I
briefly explained, they told me to lead the way, came over to the house,
installed a new router, programmed it and made sure all of our computers (5)
could log on and work.

The guys (and gals) that "do" the work are great.
The telephone help people are total losers. They lie too, and I can prove
it.

Oh. The rumor. Yep, it was one of the Comcast guys who was very
knowledgable regarding Vista.
He said that Vista and a current Mac OS (forget the name) are basically
built on the same platform.
He told us that it was done for compatibility issues because Mac will be
getting out of the business.

I didn't ask him anymore because I was overjoyed to have our Internet access
back.

Eisboch

Boater wrote:
Eisboch wrote:
Bought a new laptop Saturday and tried to get our home networking
router (installed by Comcast) to recognize it by calling tech help
line. The result was losing all Internet access on all the computers
until about an hour ago.

New laptop runs on Vista, but that wasn't the problem. I actually
like Vista.

The problem was the total incompetence of Comcast's technical helpline
via telephone.

Long story which I won't go into, but finally a couple of knowledgable
people showed up and got everything up and running better than ever.

BTW .... I heard a rumor that Apple is going to get out of the
business. Macs will be no longer.

Eisboch


Who did you hear that rumor from? Your guys at Comcast?

What brand router do you have? It shouldn't really require much if any
specific setup, or are you referring to the "cable modem"?


You should've just called Harry he can fix anything.

"BAR" wrote in message
...


You should've just called Harry he can fix anything.


Anybody should. Heck, I am far from a computer expert, but I successfully
installed and setup a wireless home network system for my son at his
Beachouse. All you have to do is carefully follow the instructions.

Our system was dependent on Comcast. *That* was the problem.

Eisboch

On Tue, 30 Dec 2008 16:59:19 -0500, "Eisboch"
wrote:

Oh. The rumor. Yep, it was one of the Comcast guys who was very
knowledgable regarding Vista.
He said that Vista and a current Mac OS (forget the name) are basically
built on the same platform.
He told us that it was done for compatibility issues because Mac will be
getting out of the business.

I didn't ask him anymore because I was overjoyed to have our Internet access
back.

Eisboch

Good thing he knew more about modems and routers than OS and hardware
platforms.

There's no reason to believe Apple will get out of the hardware
business. It'd take away from the cultural market position they've
established and decrement the value of their brand.

jps

Eisboch wrote:

"Boater" wrote in message
...
Eisboch wrote:
Bought a new laptop Saturday and tried to get our home networking
router (installed by Comcast) to recognize it by calling tech help
line. The result was losing all Internet access on all the
computers until about an hour ago.

New laptop runs on Vista, but that wasn't the problem. I actually
like Vista.

The problem was the total incompetence of Comcast's technical
helpline via telephone.

Long story which I won't go into, but finally a couple of
knowledgable people showed up and got everything up and running
better than ever.

BTW .... I heard a rumor that Apple is going to get out of the
business. Macs will be no longer.

Eisboch


Who did you hear that rumor from? Your guys at Comcast?

What brand router do you have? It shouldn't really require much if any
specific setup, or are you referring to the "cable modem"?


I don't know what we had before as a router. It was setup in a strange
way. Rather than using WEP or the newer secure network system (forget
what they call it), it was "unsecured" but invisible to all but the
specific computers that were registered to log on to it. The only
computers that could connect were those that were registered through
Comcast to use it. It wasn't a problem before. When Mrs.E. bought a new
computer we simply called up Comcast and they remotely added it to the
registered list.

The problems started Saturday when I tried to add this new machine. The
telephone guy initially said, "No problem, then proceeded to completely
shut down our Internet access remotely and couldn't get it back up.
Then, we went through the "next tier" of help within 48 hours, etc.,
(which never happened) then a home visit this morning between 8am and
11am to "upgrade" our equipment (which has worked perfectly for several
years) ... and nobody showed up. This is all with numerous and
increasingly frustrating calls to Comcast's help service which has been
going on since Saturday.

Believe it or not, here's how it got fixed. Around 1pm this afternoon
(after waiting all morning for the Comcast no show) I happened to take
a ride to the store 2 miles from my house. In the parking lot were two
Comcast trucks parked side by side and the drivers having a smoke and
chatting. I drove up and asked them if either one had a service call
scheduled at our address. They didn't, but asked what the problem
was. I briefly explained, they told me to lead the way, came over to
the house, installed a new router, programmed it and made sure all of
our computers (5) could log on and work.

The guys (and gals) that "do" the work are great.
The telephone help people are total losers. They lie too, and I can
prove it.

Oh. The rumor. Yep, it was one of the Comcast guys who was very
knowledgable regarding Vista.
He said that Vista and a current Mac OS (forget the name) are
basically built on the same platform.
He told us that it was done for compatibility issues because Mac will be
getting out of the business.

I didn't ask him anymore because I was overjoyed to have our Internet
access back.

Eisboch


The Comcast phone service for internet is pretty miserable, but I have
been pleased by the two guys in trucks who answer the service calls in
our immediate area. Your Comcast guy's Mac-PC story is going nowhere.

"Boater" wrote in message
...


The Comcast phone service for internet is pretty miserable, but I have
been pleased by the two guys in trucks who answer the service calls in our
immediate area. Your Comcast guy's Mac-PC story is going nowhere.

I have no way of knowing. Like I said, it was a rumor.

Eisboch

Eisboch wrote:

"Boater" wrote in message
...


The Comcast phone service for internet is pretty miserable, but I have
been pleased by the two guys in trucks who answer the service calls in
our immediate area. Your Comcast guy's Mac-PC story is going nowhere.

I have no way of knowing. Like I said, it was a rumor.

Eisboch


Wait..."Reggie" will find some bit of fluff out there on the internet
that says Apple's world is coming to an end. Y-A-W-N.

On Tue, 30 Dec 2008 16:29:43 -0500, "Eisboch"
wrote:

BTW .... I heard a rumor that Apple is going to get out of the business.
Macs will be no longer.

That seems to be going around - something about VISTA and Leopard or
whatever Apple calls it are built around the same platform or using
the same operating architecture or something. They mentioned it on
CNBC last week when I was listening and I was only half paying
attention.

Also heard Apple will be introducing a iPhone Nano.

Don't know myself - doesn't seem to make sense to me.