[Sophus]

My girlfriend is visiting a friend living in New Jersey this easter. She has brought her iBook and iSight with her. The friend has Comcast high speed internet at home. It would be nice if she could use the cable connection and do iChat while staying there (sure cuts down on my phone bill).

Anyway, she tried to borrow the the ethernet cable running from her friends computer and popped it in to her iBook. She got no connection to the internet. She also tried to reboot. (Come to think of it, I believe the TCP/IP settings may have DNS entries for her home connection and "search domains" set to her home internet service provider. Otherwise, it is set to DHCP. Could this be the problem?).

I am not familiar with the Comcast high speed internet. Does she need to install any proprietary software, configure a connection (PPOE or something) or any other special stuff to obtain a connection or is it standard "plug and play" DHCP configured TCP/IP?

If not standard DHCP, what steps would she have to take in order to establish a connection over the Comcasts internet service?

Please, any help is appreciated, since calling my 'talkative' girlfriend trans atlantic is far to expensive on a daily basis...

Sophus

(updated, turns out it was comcast and not AOL broadband)

[tRr]

I don't use Comcast, but I checked around their site and found this:

http://faq.comcast.net/faq/answer.js...ubcategory=Mac

Seems like it's regular DHCP, but I'd just e-mail this over to her so she can follow the instructions.

I would also definitely think leaving the DNS servers would cause problems, since I'm assuming those override anything that is sent out during the DHCP.

[Sophus]

Originally posted by tRr:
I don't use Comcast, but I checked around their site and found this:

http://faq.comcast.net/faq/answer.js...ubcategory=Mac

Seems like it's regular DHCP, but I'd just e-mail this over to her so she can follow the instructions.

I would also definitely think leaving the DNS servers would cause problems, since I'm assuming those override anything that is sent out during the DHCP.

Thank you very much! I will e-mail her the instructions and we will see how it works out.

[SVass]

I am a current user of Comcast broadband and am aware of several deficiencies/problems with their service. I have hooked up a number of computers including two ibooks to their service. The first thing to do is UNPLUG the cable modem from Comcast from ac power and go have a cup of coffee. Then connect your ibook, plug the cable modem back in and restart your ibook.

This forces the cable modem to reset itself and allows your mac to connect to the internet. Comcast uses a cable modem that requires resets anytime it gets nervous. As I live in an area that has power dropouts once a week, I have to go through this procedure often.
sam

[hudson1]

The first thing to do is UNPLUG the cable modem from Comcast from ac power and go have a cup of coffee. Then connect your ibook, plug the cable modem back in and restart your ibook.

This is pretty standard procedure for any cable internet service provider unless you have a router between the modem and computer. The reason is basically that the ISP can only deal with one MAC address on a line. Changing the computer obviously changes the MAC address that the modem sees. Only turning off the modem and them back on allows it to recognize the new MAC address. You probably don't have to turn off or reboot the computer, though.

[Sophus]

Thank you very much for your help guys!

I guided her through network settings over the phone. As you predicted, the cable modem had to be restarted before she could get on the net. After the restart, we made contact instantly and it worked beautifully, both chatting over video and voice only. So much more fun to be able to videochat for free, rather than being on the phone, feeling the phone bill grow by every minute spent.

Ichat worked flawlessly which I find amazing, considering all the hours my friends and I have spent tinkering with AIM and MSN messenger without success. Just wish that there was a compatible PC counterpart, working as well as iChat, since most of my friends use PeeCees (poor guys, they don't know what they are missing).

Again, thanks everyone!

Sophus

[CatOne]

Originally posted by SVass:
I am a current user of Comcast broadband and am aware of several deficiencies/problems with their service. I have hooked up a number of computers including two ibooks to their service. The first thing to do is UNPLUG the cable modem from Comcast from ac power and go have a cup of coffee. Then connect your ibook, plug the cable modem back in and restart your ibook.

This forces the cable modem to reset itself and allows your mac to connect to the internet. Comcast uses a cable modem that requires resets anytime it gets nervous. As I live in an area that has power dropouts once a week, I have to go through this procedure often.
sam

Somebody has a bit of a flair for the dramatic. You only need to unplug the cable modem for a second or so -- just reboot it.

When the cable modem starts up, it looks at the MAC address of the attached machine and routes traffic to it. That's how TCP/IP works -- the endpoint is the MAC address of your computer. If you change the MAC address, the packets won't know where to go.

So you reboot the cable modem when you plug in another machine. OR... you spend $50 on a cheapie Linksys router (or, plug in an Airport and go wireless), which can do the routing, and then you can use as many machines as you want from the same connection, no unplug-replug necessary.

Don't call the service crap, just because you don't understand what you're doing.