ISPs from the AOL era

Friday, June 29, 2007 by Dave Winer.

Quickly, I thought this morning I'd install the Comcast self-install network interface that arrived via UPS yesterday. Well, the first part went quickly, I got connected, but then it wanted me to download an installation kit, which once downloaded on my Mac (it came in as an hqx, so they clearly understood it was a Mac) wouldn't run because it required Internet Explorer. I imagine that's a big support headache for them.  

No problem for me, I just launched Parallels, but it couldn't find the cable modem, so I'm stuck, which is probably okay, because I don't really want to install anything to get my second ISP connection in the house. I have six computers, so only one is going to get anything installed on it. And the clue that I didn't want to do it was the requirement that you disable all anti-virus software. Uh huh. Yeah, and why exactly should I do that? 

They also require that you get a comcast.net mail address. 

When do you think buying Internet connectivity will get you that and only that. 

PS: Don Cook, a Mac user, called Comcast, they set it up on their end, and that was that. I figured that's all we had to do. I'll call them tomorrow.