On Dec 30, 6:13*pm, Boater wrote:
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.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

That's odd, I don't know of anybody who doesn't like Comcast phone.