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Internet Help

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Your Mac's Specs
PowerBook G4 17-inch with 1.67 GHz processor and 1.5 GB memory (Mac OS X vs 10.4.2)
I currently have AOL service and run on dial-up, but I'm looking to switch to something much faster. I was thinking about Comcast even though it is costly, considering my college student budget. Anyways, I have some questions that I hope someone can answer for me because I am finding out that I know very little about computers or the internet.

1. Is Comcast a good choice or am I better off going with some other high-speed internet service?

2. What is the difference between a wireless card/adaptor, a network card, and an ethernet card/adaptor?

3. Which wireless card would one recommend- the 802.11b or 802.11g? And any recommendations as to where I could get a good one would be great, as Comcast charges about $80.00 for their mac 802.11b card.

4. And any general advice on setting up a high-speed internet connection for my powerbook would be great.

THANK YOU for your time and any help you can send my way. (Also, have a great New Years!)
 
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I can answer your second question.

A Wireless card is a piece of hardware that enables you to pick up a wireless signal (so it has a receiver built-in) as well as make a network connection (i.e., get an IP-Address and communicate with a router).

A Network card could be anything that connects to a network. It's not a specific technology.

An ethernet card is the same as a wireless card, just without the wireless - in other words, this card needs to be hardwired with the router using an ethernet cable. These cables are standard and also called network cables.

You have to decide whether you want a wireless environment in your home or not. As a student, I guess you don't need wireless in your apartment if the budget is an issue.

Your powrbook is bound to have a wireless card, but it also definitely has a normal ethernet card. You can find the port on the side/back with a symbol like this: <--->

To check whether you have a wireless card, go to the Apple Menu (the blue apple top left), About this Mac, More Info Button, and scroll down the left list and check under "Network" for an entry that says "Airport Card". If it's there, you have wireless.

Now to set up a high speed connection at home or in your apartment, you'll need the modem provided by your service provider. You can hook that up directly to your Powerbook with an ethernet cable, which your ISP can provide (free if it's a good provider).
If you want more than one computer to go online at a time, you'll need a router, too. This makes an internal network for your apartment, and then manages the internet connection for all computers.

modem ----> router -------> computers

After connecting the cable and starting up your mac, the internet connection will be configured. Ready to go. Sweet, right :).
Your ISP may have specific instructions. But Macs do all the setting up on their own compared to some windows version in many cases.
 

eric


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i have comcast high speed.

i would think that location may have some bearing, but in my particular experience comcast is rock solid and customer service and tech calls are always top-notch.

on a side note, as i understand it, comcast does their research and does not enter an area just to sell it off again. typically once an area goes comcast, it stays comcast. it was nice for me, since before i had comcast i had on average about one provider each year for 5-7 years i've been in this area in the south suburbs of minneapolis.

edit:
i just noticed that you were from around my neck of the woods!
were are you from? (generally if you don't want to say the exact city).

and by the way, welcome to the forums!
 

bobtomay

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15" MBP '06 2.33 C2D 4GB 10.7; 13" MBA '14 1.8 i7 8GB 10.11; 21" iMac '13 2.9 i5 8GB 10.11; 6S
For high speed internet you really only have 3 choices as to type of service- the phone company, cable or satellite. And with the phone company and cable they almost always have very good pricing for new subscribers at least for the first year.

Satellite: shouldn't be considered unless you are in an area with no other options. Max speed is slower than the phone company service and they limit your access, because they only have a certain amount of bandwidth available on their satellite(s) (they use the same satelites they use for broadcasting TV and this is their primary revenue). If you go over their limit in a certain time period they will slow your access down to a crawl.
I have Comcast also, but not really, they sold this area to Time Warner about a year ago, but still same service. Typically it is priced between your phone company and the cable company.

Phone company: this is what your hear called DSL or ADSL service and it is delivered through your phone lines. It is also not available without phone service no matter who you subscribe with. Your local phone company provides this service. Any other providers in your area which advertise providing of this service lease their access from the phone company as they own the hardware, the switching stations, the phone lines, etc. by which the service is delivered to your house.

My personal opinion for this service is to go direct to the phone company, not to one of the secondary providers. If you have issues that are not related to the hardware or lines on your property, then you are relying on their contact back to the phone company for resolution.

For most DSL is adequate. The sites on the internet limit their upload to us to about 800K max speed and DSL will handle this speed. This is where I recommend most people start with high speed that are still use to dial up service and it is where most of us that have had high speed since it first became available started out. It is also typically less expensive than cable.

Cable: can deliver bandwidth 4-8 times higher than DSL. Most customers will never use this additional bandwidth and it generally is more expensive than DSL. It is good for households that have multiple computers accessing and downloading files simultaneously. For just browsing the internet, multiple computers will be just fine on DSL. If like me, you want full speed downloads of very large files (say 100+MB) from multiple sites simultaneously, then cable is really the only way to go.
Just a note: Downloading multiple files from a single site you will not see additional speed. Whatever bandwidth they provide (200, 500 or 800; these are typical) will be split between the files you are downloading and DSL can still handle this bandwidth.


Next thing would be to google review of providers in your area to read what people are saying about the consistency of delivery and tech support when you need it. Or take the one year special discount from the phone company, then when it is up, switch to cable and take their one year discount. Once you have had the speed of cable and come to rely on it, will be tough to downgrade no matter the issues you have. Just spent 2 years to find a resolution with comcast on a problem which is a whole other story.

eric, they occassionally sell, but a company that can afford to buy out a comcast area is going to be another major player - they sold off my area to Time Warner about a year ago.
 
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Another good resource is www.broadbandreports.com. There are reviews on that site of specific providers in specific areas, plus the forums there are top-notch. People are very eager to share their experiences, good and bad.

Here in the suburbs of a large midwestern city, I started out with @home cable internet service from Continental Cablevision, who became MediaOne, whose operations here were bought out by AT&T, who shut down the broadband service for two weeks when @home went bankrupt, and was then bought out by Comcast. Since the Comcast buyout of my service area (in about 2003) the service has been really good and I wouldn't change a thing.

I know people who have had mixed experiences with both Comcast and our local DSL/Phone company (formerly Ameritech, then SBC, now AT&T), but personally I like the speed cable gives me.

--c
 
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I have experience with both Comcast in California and Oceanic cable in Hawaii. Lucky enough to have had two solid providers.

Kudos, you're definitely on the right track. A good highspeed provider will complete the Mac experience.
 
OP
GREENapple
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edit:
i just noticed that you were from around my neck of the woods!
were are you from? (generally if you don't want to say the exact city).

and by the way, welcome to the forums!

I'm from Brooklyn Park, but drive to Minneapolis just about everyday for school.

By the way, thank you to everyone for their help, I really appreciate it.
 
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Phone company: this is what your hear called DSL or ADSL service and it is delivered through your phone lines. It is also not available without phone service no matter who you subscribe with. Your local phone company provides this service. Any other providers in your area which advertise providing of this service lease their access from the phone company as they own the hardware, the switching stations, the phone lines, etc. by which the service is delivered to your house.

My personal opinion for this service is to go direct to the phone company, not to one of the secondary providers. If you have issues that are not related to the hardware or lines on your property, then you are relying on their contact back to the phone company for resolution.

For most DSL is adequate. The sites on the internet limit their upload to us to about 800K max speed and DSL will handle this speed. This is where I recommend most people start with high speed that are still use to dial up service and it is where most of us that have had high speed since it first became available started out. It is also typically less expensive than cable

I would disagree there. I always went through a 3rd party, bypassing the teleco, and got much better service, better pricing and faster speeds. The only things that can limit your DSL speeds are A: Distance from the nearst drop or B: The provider. In my experience the teleco offered lower speeds at a higher price, whereas the 3rd parties offered faster speeds for a lower price. The bit about having to have the 3rd party work with the teleco is not a negative, it is in fact a positive. The one time I had an issue and Covad was ALL OVER PacBell/AT&T to get it fixed. Much better than me having to deal with the teleco.

For DSL I would recommend Covad or Speakeasy.
 
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Well im in Coon Rapids and I love Qwest DSL. They have like a 26.99 a month thing going on now and aslong as you arent doing nuts downloads you will never need the highest speeds of cable.
 

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