Comcast setup & cable modem fees

[scott at MIT.EDU (Scott R Ehrlich)]

Quoting 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.
>

I agree with this, too.   Just remember - careful if you want to set up 
your own
server for any reason.   Comcast, RCN, and Verizon won't be very happy 
with you
if they find out...

>
>> 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.
>

I like my Linksys box.

> -dsr-
>

Scott