Comcast Cable and Internet Access

[Christina]

I'm going to my mom's tomorrow and supposedly there are a lot of unsecured wireless networks that I might be able to pick up from her porch, but I also know that she's having Comcast cable and internet access installed on Wednesday. Does anyone know if there is a way to temporarily hook my laptop up to that in addition to their computer? I guarantee that unless it's absolutely necessary and the cable guy installs it for her, she isn't going to have a hub or a wireless connection. She doesn't know what they are. At the moment she uses dial-up.

[MrFungus420]

Get her a router. That will make it easier for you to get online when there, and a router acts like a hardware firewall. It will give her an extra layer of security.

[Christina]

It took me 3 years to convince her to use email. I'm only going to be there for a week and it's not worth the headache. This way she just has the cable guy to blame if something goes wrong. Even if there's no wireless for my laptop I can use hers when I need to.

[A Dead Relative]

I talked my old landlord into hooking up a wireless router. Every time something went wrong with his internet he was blaming me or the router. I don't know how many times I had to prove to him it wasn't me or the router, but the MSN internet or the antique DSL modem.

Speaking of using other people's wireless connections. The people next door to us have a wireless router, but they have it secured. I really really wish I knew how to hack into routers, or I could talk them into letting me hook up to it. I swear, I didn't get a signal that strong, when I had my own wireless router.

To save myself money, I haven't had internet at home for a while. Instead, I find WiFi hot spots, around town. My favorite places are libraries.

[Christina]

All I could pick up were secured networks while I was there so I was stuck using a 26K dialup line. Painful didn't begin to describe it. I tried to watch a youtube video and after 25 minutes only about 10% of it was downloaded so I gave up.

[Lisa0315]

Oh, Lord! 26K???

[Christina]

Yeah. I had to play 3 or 4 games of solitaire before any pages with photos on them would open. It was torture, which is why I'm all backed up on PMs to reply to. It was hard enough to check my dog thread, never mind reading any of the others.

[BigEvil]

I move around alot, so I got a Sprint wireless account. Plug a little gizmo into a usb port and I can get internet anywhere I can get a phone signal. Its good or bad depending on strenght of signal. Might not be a good solution for everyone but it works well for me.

[A Dead Relative]

Christina, you don't realize how fast internet is, now, until you have to sit through that.
__________

I loved my Sprint Wireless card. I even got a wireless router, from Sprint, that the card plugged into, so I could run my other computers off of it. When I moved to podunk Iowa, the signal was pretty weak, but with the help of a television satellite dish I got a better signal.

Unfortunately, the phone signal was also pretty weak, for Nextel, so we ended up going to US Cellular. And I have been using free WiFi hot spots, ever since.

The wireless router for the wireless card was really nice, because I could have my own WiFi hot spot wherever I went, as long as I could plug the router in. A power inverter in the car would work wonders, for this one.

[Christina]

I've been thinking that all day. I can't believe that I used to be able to deal with something so frustratingly slow, but I guess you have to when it's the only choice. They aren't going to believe it when they finally get it installed.

[crazyfingers]

MrFungus420 suggested that you get her a router.

That's the ticket. Mother can still direct connect to it if that's what she wants but it's there for when Christina is there. They couldn't be simpler to plug in.

How often are you there Christina? Is it worth $80 to you? (or less. It's been a while since I replace my router.)

[Christina]

I'm already home and hopefully I won't have to go again for a couple of years. It isn't that the money isn't worth it - it's the headaches I'll get when they call and blame me every time something completely unrelated goes wrong. By the next time I go they'll have a high speed line anyway.

[MrFungus420]

I've been thinking that all day. I can't believe that I used to be able to deal with something so frustratingly slow, but I guess you have to when it's the only choice. They aren't going to believe it when they finally get it installed.

<snicker>

I remember 300 baud modems.

I can read faster than that, significantly faster.

/derail

[MrFungus420]

I'm already home and hopefully I won't have to go again for a couple of years. It isn't that the money isn't worth it - it's the headaches I'll get when they call and blame me every time something completely unrelated goes wrong. By the next time I go they'll have a high speed line anyway.

Hmmm...if you don't mind being a little....duplicitious:

Get them the router, connect their 'puter directly, and just tell them that it is a firewall.

It isn't exactly lying...

[Christina]

I'm not flying 3,000 miles again just to mess with their cable connection when I get there. My problem has been solved - I'm back home again. By the next time that I visit they'll have a high speed connection and I can use their computer. I don't visit very often.