comcast my company requires me to get comcast. i'm not entirely pleased with my dsl. but i'm not real motivated to change. sigh. so i called to order. 30 minutes later i'm told $45/mo. wait. this web page says $20/mo plus a free modem. you have to order it online. oh thanks for nothing. so i ordered it online. a few days later the self install kit arrived. i hooked it up. no joy. under os x the install told me i entered the wrong password. wtf? os x has a special system dialog that doesn't go away unless you cancel or enter the correct password. under xp it said no connectivity. power light on. receive light steady flash. send light dark. online light dark. not good. i have been assigned an ip address. and i can ping the router. but that's as far as the packets go. no dns. so call comcast. 30 minutes later jeff helps me. or tries to. jeff has a southern accent but talks really fast. i have never heard this combination before and i kept asking him to repeat stuff. he needed to verify that i'm actually the account holder. and needed my account number or the amount of my last bill. i pay this bill online. so i had to boot my computer and log in to my bank. good thing i have dsl. he said oh your account is for cable tv only. i'll get you someone in billing. 30 minutes later i'm talking to bill. of billing. har har. bill's very quiet. doesn't say much but i can hear him typing. he also needs to verify i'm the account holder. i had logged out of my bank. but i remembered $16.08. heh. he pointed out that there's no personal information in my account. i'm thinking that's a good thing. he suggests i call them and add some. so that i can just hand over my social security number to get "in". as if. i elected to write down my account number on a business card. which i will keep with the modem. it also has the 888 number for comcast. good to have this info around /before/ the isp goes down. anywho, he says we're good to go. but it'll take 10 minutes for the changes to percolate through the system. 2 hours later no joy. 30 minutes later i'm talking to ted. ted wants my account number. heh. timmer smart. he also wants the mac address of the modem. it's a long string of tiny little numbers on a sticker on the modem. garrett's here buzzing around like an annoying fruit fly. so i send him crawling across my desk to get my readers off the shelf. courage, i tell myself. anywho, ted says he can't see the modem. so he's going to have to send a cable guy. great. last cable guy fell off the pole and knocked the power meter clean off the wall smashing it into a gazillion pieces. two days later. cable guy shows up. wants the modem. fixes the squirrel chew. says i'm all set. ha ha. i won't let him leave until the modem syncs inside the house. apparently this can take 5 minutes. sheehs. bad news if you lose sync during an online game. whatever. this is work's baby.  ¶ 9:02 AM