[BBLISA] comcast ... again

[Edward Ned Harvey]

Because of recent conversations on this list about comcast versus world, I
feel compelled to tell this story:

 

I have a friend, who is very computer proficient.  He called me up to talk
about an IP address conflict on his home network.  He told me he has
comcast, and he has access to login to the comcast router, and the router is
configured to give out IP addresses via DHCP, and the dynamic range is from
192.168.0.10 to 192.168.0.14.  So they only give you 5 IP addresses, and if
you try to connect a 6th computer, you can't.  You get an IP conflict, and
somebody gets booted off the network.

 

I told him, "Well, why don't you just change the dynamic range?"  He said
you can't.  He said he spent hours on the phone with comcast, and they told
him "Call netgear."  I couldn't believe him.  So he initiated a screen
sharing session, and showed me.  We considered flashing a nonstandard
firmware onto the comcast router ... which seemed risky ...  I suggested
maybe looking up the factory reset for the router.  He said he already did
that, and it just resets to Comcast factory condition.

 

He's got a home server, a printer, two laptops, and two desktops.  He can't
use them all at the same time.  Nevermind, god forbid, he should have
anything like vonage, or a PDA, or a couple of teenage children with
computers.

 

We concluded there's only one possible solution:  He needs to buy another
router, and hook the outside of his new router to the inside of the comcast
router.

 

We concluded there is one, and precisely one, possible reason for comcast to
be stingy with the 192.168.x.x IP addresses.  They're just being d**ks and
there is no other possible explanation.

 

Oh - Get this - While all his other computers and stuff were on, and his
laptop had an IP conflict which was preventing him from starting his screen
sharing session ...  I suggested that he just assign himself a static IP
address, 192.168.0.15.  He did this.  He could ping the gateway.  But he
could not ping outside the gateway.  So in addition to the dynamic range
being pathetically small, they also apply a filter to prevent you from using
any static IP outside of the dynamic range.  D**ks.

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