A friend of a friend has a Mac so old Comcast told him he can't get online, does anyone have anything newer than 2000....an used Mac for sale cheap so he can get online thanks.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Michele,

How old of Mac is it? Model Name/#?

I have a PowerMac 7500 (circa 1995) and a Performa 5500 (circa 1997) Connected to Comcast.

I may have an old G3 iMac available soon. Nothing fancy but it will probably be cheap enough. OS 9 is on it now, may be able to squeeze OS X if I can find some extra RAM laying around.

Thanks to both of you I will let her know!!!!

You never said what she was running. I stated what old ones I was able to run to to see if hers was maybe not too old as Comcast may not know. It is still possible what she has may be useable until she can get a newer one.

My suspicion is that Comcast is trying to get her to use their CD. Can anyone think of why most any Mac with Ethernet and some sort of TCP/IP couldn't just plug lin to the cable modem via Ethernet?

IPv4 (what's commonly used on the Internet) is IPv4 - I don't care how "old" the computer is or what kind it is. Comcast is, as usual, showing their lack of technical ability.

It may be that somethings won't work, like particular web sites, in an old browser, but basic network connectivity should work fine.

I asked her the model no. but she didn't know.

Since this is your friend, perhaps you could take a look if the person lives near enough. If the person does not even know what computer model he/she has it could be very difficult to help such a person utilize a computer to get connected.

I've been runing TCP/IP on Macs for about fifteen years. My IIci with OS 8 and Open Transport worked fine. The only reason older Macs won't work with some providers is the use of USB connections instead of Ethernet.

Customer computer Model and OS version allow specific instructions to be generated.

Also, questions for Comcast include:

0. Ethernet or USB? -- USB may require special drivers. Don't use it if you can avoid it.
0.1 If Ethernet, is a crossover cable required?
0.2 If USB, what drivers are required?

1. DHCP or PPoE?
1.1 If DHCP, is a specific host identifier required and what is the MAC address timeout?
1.2. If PPoE, what username and password?

For ordinary consumer DSL or cable, this is all the information really required to set up a client system.

She found him a 7200 heh that's an upgrade!? anyways Comcast still won't hook it up!

Michelle,

See me at the meeting tomorrow!

My SE/30 can't use Comcast -- it doesn't have USB or Ethernet, or a CD device for their "install disk"

My Beige G3 minitower works fine with Comcast.

It seems to me that your friend's Mac must be *REALLY OLD* if it can't even get on the internet!! The only way that could happen is if there is no way to hook up an Ethernet Connection and I seriously doubt that!!

We have an old PowerMac 8500/180 (PowerPC 604E) from 1995. It gets on the Internet just fine. What she may need is is an ethernet adapter. Some of the older Macs had AUI type ethernet ports and you needed an Ehternet Transceiver/Adapter in order to hook up an RJ45 cable. Problem is I don't think they make them anymore so you'd have to look around (maybe eBay) to see if you can dig one up. Unfortunately, I just threw out 10 - 15 of them about a year and 1/2 ago. If it's an older Mac that takes NuBUS cards, you may be able to find an Ehternet NuBUS card around somewhere too. You'll just have to look.

[EDIT] Oops... didn't see some of the previous posts. Jack and Donna are both right, but they're thinking along the same lines I am. It seems to me that the COMCAST guys are either too lazy or just too stupid to do it, rather than it being any type of technical problem [/EDIT]

Dave let me know when/where to pick it up. I will pass it onto her. I am so sorry it's taken so long to get back to you. michelek@mac.com

Dave, Cheryl says it's ok for you to contact her just email me for her email I don't want to post it here thanks!!!

From Cheryl:

Just a note to say I bought a Mac for Bill on eBay yesterday, so we can finally stop fussing with this, I HOPE.

Michele,

If the one they bought doesn't work out, let me know.