[lug] comcast and multiple IPs

[Neal McBurnett]

I agree with Chip, and noted the option of putting stuff behind a
single firewall in my initial post.

As I recall, AT&T and Comcast have always made it clear to me that
they charge a bit extra, not for multiple computers but for multiple
IP addrs.  In this day and age, extra IP addrs are correlated with
extra headaches at their end (support or spam or whatever).  Not a big
deal to me to use NAT behind a router.  Just interesting to see that
it took them a long time to enforce this.

Cheers,

Neal McBurnett                 http://bcn.boulder.co.us/~neal/
Signed and/or sealed mail encouraged.  GPG/PGP Keyid: 2C9EBA60

On Wed, Jun 09, 2004 at 07:36:17AM -0600, Chip Atkinson wrote:
> I got the same letter myself.  One of the four options that they list is
> 
> "Purchase your own router from a retail location and connect it yourself,
> which will allow you to have multiple devices connected to the internet,
> but still use only one IP address"
> 
> While I don't know everything about networking and was reminded of that
> fact recently, I don't believe that an extra IP assignment from a DHCP
> server on comcast would cost that much in processing on their end.
> 
> Oh, I bet the reason may be that their equipment throttles bandwidth based
> on IP address, and the limitation is not on the cables.
> 
> It's not a big deal though.  It's their playground, and if I don't like
> it, I can always go back to the modem. (as if!)
> 
> Chip
> 
>  On Tue, 8 Jun 2004, D. Stimits wrote:
> 
> > ...
> > > Oh, on another note, one of my co-workers called Comcast and asked them
> > > if they were only allowing one PC or one IP address per household.
> > > Nobody could answer his question.
> > >
> >
> >
> > They very distinctly said one PC. There were astounded when I told them
> > we'd paid for 5 email addresses (we paid for 5 IP's) and they were not
> > ALL being used from one machine. While I have phrased it at times as 5
> > email addresses, during installation and prior conversations it was
> > DEFINITELY 5 independent IP addresses. But those terms change without
> > notice monthly, and when they do, Comcast throws out the records of
> > prior deals (I mean this literally, not figuratively, any deal older
> > than 2 months is purged from their system). It may depend on who you
> > ask, but I brought it all the way up to the manager there at the time,
> > he claims a lot of things that were not true. The word that comes to
> > mind is something like "hogwash". Apparently they are pushing to gain
> > new "optional features" that people can pay more from, as well as trying
> > to remove more than one IP from each household as a newer policy.
> >
> > D. Stimits, stimits AT comcast DOT net