If you're a Comcast residential broadband customer and want to share your Internet connection with more than one computer, the company's new wireless Home Networking is designed to eliminate the hassle.
Premium service costs $65.95 a month, $20 more than the standard fee. Customers get wireless networking hardware, faster downloads, access for up to five computers and 24-hour tech support for networking - a new level of help for Comcast.
After a test in Virginia, Comcast is offering the service in Baltimore, Harford, Howard and Anne Arundel counties. Officials said the company plans a nationwide rollout in the fall.
The $100 installation fee includes a technician's visit to install a Comcast-branded, Linksys wireless gateway - a combination cable modem, wireless access point and router. Comcast will configure a base PC (which connects with a standard cable) and one computer or game console with a wireless network adapter. Adding a third computer at installation costs $50; adding four or five costs $100. The fee includes wireless network adapters.
Customers later can add PCs with their own adapters without paying an extra installation fee.
Home Networking customers will have a maximum download speed of 2.5 megabits per second, compared with 1.5 mbps for regular customers.
Better news is that upload speeds for all customers have been doubled, from 128 kbps to 256 kbps. If you routinely transfer large files to a work computer or upload photos to an Internet picture-sharing service, this is a welcome improvement.
Comcast's wireless hardware conforms to the IEEE 802.11b standard, which has a maximum throughput of 11 mbps (internal speed between computers on a home network). Over the next few years the industry will switch to a 54-mbps standard, which Comcast might support in the future, officials said.
The debut of Comcast Home Networking won't affect service or pricing for customers who set up their own home networks.
For the already-networked, it's hard to see much benefit other than faster downloads. But for users who don't know how to set up a network and don't want the hassle of maintaining it, the premium price buys everything.
