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Free Cable Modem From The Shack
Linuxathome writes: "I spent over $100 recently at a local Radio Shack (Columbia, Md.) and they gave me a free RCA cable modem with no strings attached (at least, to the best of my knowledge). Actually, it wasn't quite free, I still had to pay the 5% tax on it. Comcast has some deal with the Shack to push as much hardware as possible in hopes that the consumer will order the cable broadband service. At least I won't have to rent the equipment. I wonder how Comcast can actually make money this way? Especially since the Shack consumer has absolutely no obligation to buy the service. They can't even guarantee the buyer lives in an area where Comcast is providing service. Time to figure if this bad boy acts nice with a linux router." Soon we will be buried in "free" hardware and AOL CDs. Has anyone else encountered this giveaway? Is there any use more clever than signing up for cable Internet service? (And can you examine data which passes through it without violating an implied agreement? ;) )
Here is the REAL Deal. The way it is suppose to work is if you purchase $100 worth of stuff at Radio Shack, they will give you a cable modem free with a 1 year subscription to Comcast Cable Modem service. Now supposedly it is under the constraint that you purchase a 1 year subscription at Radio Shack, but it seems that no one informed Radio Shack that this is how it works. Instead 90% of the Radio Shacks are just giving you the mode free with the purchase of $100.
Origionally a lot of us (meaning Anandteckers), assumed that the management never told the workers at Radio Shack how things work with this deal, but after seeing how widespread this was, the new concensus is that Management goofed. There is a copy of the ACTUAL deal/promo floating around on the net somewhere, but I don't remember offhand and really don't feal like looking it up right now (hey its Christmas weekend).
Good luck to all those who get in on this, like I mentioned its about a 90% chance that you will not have to sign into a 1 year deal. If they ask you to, just go to the other Radio Shack that's 2 miles down the road :)
Nothing says "High Fidelity" like Realistic. True audiophiles like myself are always shopping at The Shack to purchase the latest in equalizers and DSP devices to provide the warmth that you can't get anymore now that everything has gone digital. It is absolutely absurd to go out and buy some stripped down box for $1,500 when you can have all the latest in 5 channel simulated theatre and multiple hall settings.
I've got this friend who spent close to 2 G's on some Nadcomm thing that he was all proud of. I went over to his house to check the thing out and he pops the cover with a flourish. I take a look and... there isn't a damn thing in it! Couple tiny boards and like three freaking wires connecting it all together! Compare this to my Optimus reciever (yeah, it's a bit snooty for my tastes, too) which is so packed with electronic goodness that you couldn't squeeze a paper clip into the thing and only cost me $299!
Anyway, I hide my skepticism and tell him to fire it up. Guess what? He can't because the freakin' thing doesn't have an amplifier and the one he wants is out of stock! Two thousand dollars and it doesn't even fucking do anything!
So the next week I went back to The Shack and bought a project box, a coupla RCA plugs, some A/B toggles, and a dual gang pot. I throw it all together and show my friend my sweet contraption that does the same thing as his but not only cost less than $100, it doesn't even need to be plugged in! I figure he'd feel like a fool and take his box back for a refund, but he just looked at me and shook his head like I was some kind of moron. I just don't get it...
My RCA Digital Cablemodem works fine with:
Single machine (win9x, winNT, win2k, linux), or
Linux as NAT router to hub, or
Win2k with WinRoute as NAT router to hub, or
Dedicated linux-based VPN-tunneling NAT router to switch.
I'm sure other schemes will do just fine for you.
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