Most @Home Customers Still Connected -- For Now

Mansing writes: "There may be hope after all, according to this update from the Washington Post" In short, a reprieve for many @Home customers, with negotiations ongoing between @Home and the major cable companies with which its service is offered -- watch for updates here. (AT&T broadband customers, though, will be moving to another service -- AT&T dropped out of the negotiations to keep @Home for their customers, and say that switching current customers to a new network will take about 2 weeks.)

Comments

Re-connect how-to

[Mark Bainter]

I posted this in reply to the how-to in the other thread, but seems I might be better served to post it here or many people might not see it.

FWICT, the best way to get your service re-established goes like this:

-kill your dhcp client. Wipe your leases.
-re-init your cable modem:
(Unplug it, wait 20-30 seconds and plug it in)
-Wait for it to sync up. If it doesn't, keep trying.
-Once it resyncs, run:
tcpdump -i eth0 -lf dst port 68
This should list the dhcp replies going out
on your subnet. If you don't see them,
something is still not right. Try re-initing
your cable modem again.
-Start your dhcpclient

This should get you setup. Remember, if you're like me and were on a static number and blocking dhcp traffic you'll need to alter your firewall rule(s).

Comcast Jumpstart - Comcast's @Home Replacement?

[instinctdesign]

I posted this in the last @Home discussion, but that was after about 450 posts so it basically got lost, so here it is again.

I actually just had a chat with a Comcast rep at a local technology show and it looks like that if your running Comcast@Home you might be in for a significantly better ride than the other providers have partnered with.

Comcast has been working on their own broadband cable network for a bit of time now, partly anticipating the demise of @Home as well as the issues rising out of the severe limitations that @Home put on commercial deals that Comcast wanted to pursue. Originally planned to launch in April 2002, the Comcast network, currently codenamed 'JumpStart', has been pushed forward to a potential launch January 1st 2002, assuming everything goes well. Due to the accelerated timetable there may be glitches in the initial rollout, but frankly intermittently buggy cable (assuming it will be fixed in the near future) is better than dialup in my opinion.

You will however lose your @Home email account as well as any stored messages or address book so back them up as soon as possible. Comcast will provide email services once their network is up and running. What the final name of the program I can't attest to, jumpstart.net .org and .com all seem to be taken, so its hard to say what your email address could end up being.

Obviously this is all from one source, though a Comcast representative, its best to avoid taking all this to heart until there is a final formal announcement as to their plans. I do know that Comcast@Home is up and running as of mid-day today. For how long... who is to say.