New Internet Provider

After looking at all the options and pricing, I finally decided to use Comcast. They sent me a big box of cabling and a wireless gateway. Has anyone here used one of these before. it connects to a provided splitter that feeds the catv and the gateway. It has an Ethernet jack and is supposed to have wifi connectivity. My question is does it have to be either or or? I need hardwire for my home phone and pc, but my laptop is wifi ready. can I use both? It says it can feed my phone as well. Just wondering. I have got the coax and may go under the house to run it this weekend.

You can use WIFI and direct connect.

I don't have comcast, we have a local phone company thats not one if the big companies. They installed all of that for us but I have had to troubleshoot a few times. From what I have seen its fairly straightforward. Just follow the instructions and call the help line. You should be fine. IIRC the phone line plugs into one box that has a coax cable to the TV then another cat 5 jack that goes to the wireless transmitter. Other than adding a password that should be it. Our phone company has always been good to have a phone number to call in case you need help.

Thanks, I'll see about setting it up this weekend.

We are officially dumping CenturyLink.  Anything is better than them.  Good luck with your new service.

A problem I had with CenturyLink's new DSL modem was that it would not work with my router. I had to connect my printer by cable and just did away with my original router.

WC

I hope you find a decent provider. Comcast is the only one that would tell what the prices after the intro rates were. I hate having to give up clear.

Decent provider?? Good luck.

Bill Cahill wrote:Decent provider?? Good luck.

Sadly I don't think the big name brands have good service. I hear too much from them. We are lucky as we don't have to deal with that. We have one of the old fashioned telephone cooperatives. They are not connected to any of the places like comcast,bell, they are a independent locally based entity. We get wireless internet, home phone, and TV for a package deal less than some folks cell bill. I think the entire bill on every thing is less than 150 bucks a month. I know folks who pay almost double that for a single phone. As far as cell phones we use the tracker phones and buy minutes. My cell probably is less than 25 bucks a year.

The service i am leaving is unlimited home and mobile internet and telephone service for $56 a month.

What it sounds they provided you with is a modem wireless router combination. They are convient but usually the router section will fail before the modem section and then you are left with only a modem. If I didn't have a digital phone through Time Warner, I could get a modem router combination but it's not worth the extra costs and not worth it in the event one section would fail, I'd have to wait a week before it could be replaced. If you want wireless internet, you are honestly better off buying a nice 50.00 wireless router that will last for many years.

Well, the "wireless gateway" they sent is an Arris TG862G/CT. they are charging $3/mo to rent it. I have looked for a used one on Ebay, but there are several sales with unanswered questions concerning Comcast's unwillingness to provide service to a gateway that had not been turned in at the end of the rental period. Clear had a service that would vet a device using it's MAC number. I don't know how to do that with cocmast.

The gateway (modem/router) that CenturyLink provided ( and tried to charge me for) would not work with my printer. It is still complete junk. It locks up and I have to reboot it. They tell me that the problem is that I am "in the country." They don't charge any less giving me horrible service. I hope you have better luck.

WC

So do I. Hope to have it up this weekend.

I have two more days with CenturyLink and two more days with Dish TV. Good riddance, I say! Dish TV decided to go on the fritz last night during "NCIS" an absolutely unforgiveable sin. By the time someone in Bangledesh reprogrammed "something" we had TV again, but they lost our local channels. Our local power company is installing a fibre optics network providing phone, internet and TV much like Willy was talking about. LOCAL technicians and LOCAL folks to talk to if we have a problem. We are going to sign up for it and have it installed in the Spring. The providers of "tech" need to get their house in order. The Internet is sneaking up on them and their customer base is shrinking, particularly with the Millennials. There is absolutely no excuse for providing such junk equipment and poor service for the money they charge.

WC

You said it. Local!

I cleaned up and put in new coax yesterday, eliminating a lot of open connections and old materials. Brought it all up yesterday afternoon and set the laptop to work on it's wifi. It works pretty nice and the OOMA unit came right up with it.