I guess I go against the grain here; I love my @home cable. Sure it's had its problems, but no more so than my old dial up ISP. I also run an IMAC and like it because of its faster speed and superior graphics; however, there's a lot of things I can't get on the net since it is dominated by the IBM compatibles. The MAC is a lot faster than a Pentium III but it does have its limitations. Oh, by the way, I put a splitter on the cable hookup and run one line to the modem and one line to a TV. I get cable TV for free, incl. HBO, Showtime, Cinemax, Encore and all the channels you get on extended basic. I think its a good deal because I got rid of a 2nd phone line and dial up ISP ($44 toal) and picked up the @home service for $42 total, incl. internet and cable TV. I think I'm ahead of the game here.

 

One thing most people don't know about cable connections is that they are potentially much less secure than dial-up lines and you can become a target for hackers. I'd recommend installing a firewall software, there are free or low cost ones to download, or you could buy something like Norton Personal Firewall. I have discovered a quite large number of suspect communication attempts since i installed mine. It's most often a two-stage approach, first you must have downloaded something infected with a back-door, then they can use that from automated software that check for the possibility to enter and do harm. If you want to be safe you should have both virus checking and firewall software installed.

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by lvs2k:
[B]Oh, by the way, I put a splitter on the cable hookup and run one line to the modem and one line to a TV.

 

I've got it covered, too. Direct TV satellite, broadcast TV and cable. It's great!