[lug] comcast and multiple IPs

[Mr Viggy]

A couple people I work with got the same letter.  They all (I have DSL) 
came to the conclusion that this is a scare tactic by Comcast.

Basically, if you have a firewall that also does NAT, you *are* only 
getting one IP address from them.  There's no real way they can tell 
that you have multiple computers.  It looked like Comcast was offering 
some wireless modem thingy, and that *would* count the wireless 
connections that you used.  But, if you don't have that (or can disable 
it) then you should be okay.

The suggestion at work was to get yourself a firewall that does NAT, and 
put all your computers behind that.  Mine happens to be a Slackware 
Linux box in my basement!

:-)

Viggy

Neal McBurnett wrote:

> Interesting - after almost 4 years of using comcast/AT&T At Home, they
> seem to have gotten around to counting IP addresses.  They just sent a
> letter saying I may be using more dynamic addresses than I'm allowed.
> If I don't pay $5/mo for each extra address, they'll start limiting me
> to one address by June 22.  They alternatively suggest using the
> devices one at a time (rather than simultaneously), putting everything
> behind a single firewall, or signing up for homenetworking.comcast.net
> 
> The latter supports 5 computers (windows only), is $52.95/mo and
> provides a download speed of 4.0Mbps, upload Speed of 384Kbps
> (compared to my existing $43/mo service with maximum download speed:
> 3.0Mbps, maximum upload speed: 256Kbps).  It provides "Wireless
> Connections" by default.  No mention of wireless security.
> 
> It sure can take a while for the auditing and billing capabilities of
> bandwidth providers to catch up to the policies. I remember 1995-1998
> in Portland using an ISDN line 24x7, despite a nominal limit of
> something like 40 hrs/week, since they didn't have their
> infrastructure in gear.
> 
> Ahh well, it's been a nice ride, but time to reconfigure....
> 
> Neal McBurnett                 http://bcn.boulder.co.us/~neal/
> Signed and/or sealed mail encouraged.  GPG/PGP Keyid: 2C9EBA60
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