[BBLISA] comcast ... again

[David Allan]

I didn't realize you even had the option to have Comcast manage your LAN. 
I have the basic Comcast home package which gives me one public, 
non-static IP which is my firewall doing NAT, behind which I have as many 
devices as I want.  I would not let Comcast manage my network, nor use any 
Comcast provided device connected to anything other than a firewall, as I 
doubt (as your friend has experienced) that they have either the skill or 
the interest to do it properly.  I'd go with your idea of plugging another 
router into the Comcast device, and turn off NAT on the Comcast device.

FWIW, I work at home and have worked as a network engineer, so I'm highly 
intolerant of bad connectivity, and Comcast has generally not pissed me 
off over the ~8 years I've had them.

Dave

On Tue, 19 Oct 2010, Edward Ned Harvey wrote:

> 
> 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.
> 
> 
>