I need a doctor for broadband

Question

I have no interest in music nor do I save more than a very modest collection of photos, thus I've been comfortable with running Panther on my PC3 600 MHz iBook. But recently, Comcast became available in my area and I do have a very large interest in shedding dial-up for broadband. I checked it out and was stunned to learn that Comcast requires a minimum of Tiger, Firefox 2 or Safari 2.
Have I got this right? Is it true I'll have to upgrade to 10.4? Is 10.4 worth the expenditure? Should I sell my wife's car and buy a MacBook or a set of tires for my car?

Answer 1

Well now, on this 15" with Panther, I have comcast working with an Apple Extreme WiFi as I type this. The 17" is hooked to it by ethernet. My daughter with her iBook sometimes comes over and uses it WiFi like I do with this one... she has Tiger. I have an old G3 in the den that has 10.1 and it can get on the 'high-speed' through the ethernet when I run the wire to it, the old Firefox is the browser, not the new one.
So, I would say that that requirement of comcast is false. (Except to be able to get to their web-site and pay your bill, or get web-mail... here you will need an up-to-date browser... I use Camino, it works wonderful with Panther)
Please note though that comcast does upgrades to their systems every so often and things change. Like once I could only have one computer on at a time, not two. Only one computer can be set to get their e-mail, if you change it, then the other one is blocked... until changed back. Password doesn't seem to matter, as of now, they have my main computers ID (or something like that) and it comes in without a password.
I was a bit ticked when only one computer could be on at a time, but with WiFi and the signal carrying to others in the neighborhood, I can see why they did it. Now with WPA on the WiFi, I can have multiple at the same time. They are all my computers and I am paying for there 'home' service... so!
But, no, you do not need Tiger, I even think Classic could get on with the right browser, even if all the security features are not in the older browsers.
Remember, you will have to get the service set-up by wired 'ethernet'... once it is, then WiFi should be able to be used. (With the name/password for the WPA)
It's better to set it up with one at comcast on the phone, as even if you have all the ID's and Passwords entered in, they have to do something on their end to allow you onto their server with it. I believe they should of had it all set for when I did my end, but it wasn't, they seem to had to confirm it was me doing it, perhaps something to do with paying the bill and 'actually' getting the service. (They are very security conscious... sometimes to being an annoyance.)