"Could you hit 'Start', 'Run', 'winipcfg' and reboot?"
Written: Dec 15 '00 (Updated Dec 15 '00)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Potentially speedy web surfing and file downloads.
Cons: Friendly, inept tech support-- perhaps you didn't hear me run through that list of hoops I jumped with the last Optimum Online representative?.
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| elegiac's Full Review: Cablevision Optimum Online (CT/NY) |
Tired of waiting for web pages to load? Bored to tears when you download a file that's over 1MB in size? DSL not available in your area? Optimum Online offers cable internet access for $39.95/month, plus the purchase of a cable modem.
Always on, bleeding fast internet access-- now there's something dial-up users can sink their teeth into. Bandwidth that won't roll over and die the next time a pop-up window appears. The potential to grab files at up to 350kb/second or higher, depending on traffic. Usenet newsgroups and POP3/SMTP e-mail services, too. Service is available to PC users (Pentium or greater, Windows 9.x/NT 4.0/2000) and Mac users (PowerPC 601, OS 7.6.1 or higher). You'll also need to have CD-ROM drive and an installed network interface card with an RJ-45 plug.
I unfortunately can't tell you anything about ease of installation. There's a bit of a story involved here-- my parents wanted to get a computer. I put one together for them late last summer, complete with now defunct free ISP clients-- Stef and I made a trip to Long Island just to drop the thing off.
Dial-up service was apparently too slow for my parents, as one of my sisters decided to sign them up with Optimum Online. She paid through the nose for a network interface card, rather than simply wait for me to mail her one. My intrepid sister then decided to open up the case and install said network interface card sans electrostatic discharge strap. Oh, and with a magnetic screwdriver. Can anyone say "bye bye computer"?
Now, to truly top things off, she felt so guilty about breaking the computer that I'd put together for my parents that she bought them a Gateway. I suppose that if you have no problem spending the money for a brand new Gateway that you won't bat an eye at a $299 cable modem, either. Didn't even call me to ask me to fix the other machine, either-- incidentally, it's just fine now. A few more hours in the recovery room and it'll be all set to be my wife's new computer.
So. With a new Gateway in hand, already preconfigured with a network interface card, she obtained an Optimum Online approved cable modem. Said cable modem includes a configuration CD which will set up e-mail and newsgroup clients for you, along with registering the cable modem with Optimum Online. At least, one should be able to register the cable modem with Optimum Online, provided that the service is running.
My sister attempted to register my parents' hardware two days in a row, with no success. Internet access didn't appear to be hindered in any fashion, so neither of my parents bothered to try the hardware registration.
Let's jump ahead a week-- when spouse, newborn, and myself were visiting my parents. My father tried to show me some website he'd bookmarked, but ended up with Internet Explorer's marvelous default "The page you are looking for is currently unavailable. The Web site might be experiencing technical difficulties, or you may need to adjust your browser settings." Tried another site-- same thing. Tried Yahoo!- no luck.
So. I checked Control Panel> Network> to see if Windows 98 had spontaneously dropped the TCP/IP stack. Not this time. Both the dial-up adapter and network adapter had TCP/IP bound to them. The properties for TCP/IP were set to disable DNS, no default gateway, use DHCP for WINS resolution, and obtain an IP address automatically. Running winipcfg showed that the network interface card hooked up to the cable modem was set to a private network IP address-- 192.168.0.5, with a subnet mask of 255.255.255.0-- nothing that should work with an ISP at all. Releasing and renewing the network interface card merely brought up the same IP and subnet.
At this point, I decided to call up Optimum Online's tech support. After a brief ten minutes, a very perky technical support representative answered the phone. I mentioned to her what I'd encountered-- and was told that I should check the Network applet in the Control Panel-- was TCP/IP bound to the network interface? Could I perhaps hit Start> Run> winipcfg and see what IP address the network interface card might display? Perhaps I could hit Release and then Renew?
Yes, I had just tried that myself. I did it again, since perhaps the miracle of technical support personnel might make all the difference in what results winipcfg might show. Right. Still the same private network IP address. I then asked if I should perhaps remove TCP/IP, reboot the machine, reinstall the protocol stack, and try the winipcfg bit again. Or perhaps I could uninstall the network interface card drivers, reinstall the drivers, and try it again. Or perhaps I could reinstall Windows 98SE because I'd used the 32X automatic cup holder one too many times. The technical support representative settled on uninstalling the TCP/IP stack.
So. I uninstalled TCP/IP, rebooted the machine, reinstalled TCP/IP, turned the machine off, unplugged the cable modem, waited ten seconds, plugged the modem back in, waited for all the lights to turn on, and then rebooted the machine. Same results with winipcfg.
I then removed the dial-up and network adapters, removed Windows Networking, rebooted the machine, and reinstalled them. Surprise! Same results. At this point, the technical support representative said she'd look into things on her end and get back to me.
A few hours later, she called back-- Optimum Online had a policy of turning off unregistered cable modems which they'd just started to enforce-- all she had to do was register the modem on her end. I gave her the modem's Media Access Control number, which she then said she'd registered. Cable access still didn't function, nor could she see my parents' machine on their network. We then ran through the same bit of uninstall, reboot, reinstall, turn off, unplug, replug, restart, winipcfg, release, renew, repeat as necessary until it becomes completely apparent that the results are not changing one bloody bit. Technical support representative then decided to once again check into things on her end.
I tried the same uninstall/reinstall game a few more times. Fingered the Gateway OEM System Recovery CDs. Started looking for a hammer. Gave up on said path several hours later still, and called Optimum Online yet again.
This time, I was blessed with a fifteen minute wait, and a surly technical support representative. I went over everything I'd tried and everything that the other technical support representative had tried, with the vain hope of not having to do it all over again-- not a chance! Not only was it requested that I do the uninstall-reinstall-reboot-unplug-restart-winipcfg-release-renew routine, but in addition, could I unplug the piece of CAT 5 cable that connects the computer to the modem and switch the ends around? Does any of this hocus-pocus sound like it should work? (I'll give you a hint-- it doesn't matter which end of the CAT 5 cable you have plugged in to the modem or to the computer.) Then I was put on hold for twenty minutes.
All righty. A mere steam-blowing twenty minutes later, Captain Surly returned to the phone. Turns out the other technical support representative hadn't actually registered the cable modem. Cable modem was now registered. Whoop-de-doo, the thing did in fact work now-- now that they'd fixed things on their end.
Optimum Online called me the following day to check on the connection-- they were even kind enough to knock a week off of my parents' next bill. Why on earth you'd need to register your cable modem if you're paying for an account with Optimum Online is entirely beyond me.
File downloads can be very fast-- I managed to grab three Linux distributions at 125-350kb/second, the smallest of them weighing in at 187MB. Simultaneously, too. Not something to try over a dial-up line. Web surfing speed is sorely limited by traffic, though-- just try checking that Yahoo! e-mail account during normal business hours-- no noticeable difference between cable access and dial-up. A busy website is a busy website is a busy website, and viewing web pages will reflect that whether you've got bandwidth to throw away, or a really pokey 2400bps modem. If a server is busy, it's busy.
I cannot stress enough the importance of implementing some sort of security measure with an always on internet connection. Windows computers are very appealing targets. If you're using a Windows machine, try out Zone Labs' excellent freeware ZoneAlarm (http://www.zonelabs.com/). Should you want protection that may crash and appear to still function while actually doing nothing to guard your computer, check out BlackICE Defender.
If you've got the spare dollars to spend, want to speed up your file downloads, and live on Long Island or Connecticut, you might want to try out Optimum Online.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
elegiac
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Member: Gregory Chin
Reviews written: 70
Trusted by: 414 members
About Me:
My family operates a computer services business. Bit of hardware, bit of webstuff. Kooky, no?
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