Cable RR & ISP RR connections.

[Bovon]

Just built my sister a machine running Windows 2000 Pro. I will ship it probably Tuesday of next week.

They do not have a copper wired telephone system...only cell.

They do have cable TV in the house, and will want to go online using Roadrunner if possible.

She knows zilch about such things, and the people at the Cable Company informed her that if she has Windows XP she does not need a copper wire telephone system in her house...which at present, she does not have.

Question...the machine will have Win2k Pro. What is the difference between Win2k Pro and Winxp so far as connection to a fiber optics setup is concerned?..,. If I understood her correctly, the Cable Company is informing her that in order to have Roadrunner without a hard wired, in-house telephone system...she must have Windows XP.

Just don't make a doodly bit of sense to me!!

[ThRoNkA]

Don't worry about the OS.
They use a modem much like cable and DSL that changes the signal to Ethernet Packets.

[Bovon]

Well... thats what I thought...but unless sis misunderstood something, they told her that she could not have cable connect (RR) without having a hard wired telephone system.

As if, the cable modem had to have the main type of twisted pair for the telephone unless the machine was running Winxp..

Does not make any sense to me...

[ThRoNkA]

They convert the signal from telephone to a box outside the house or in the garage to VoIP Digital Phone Service over Cable or Fiber - depending on service.

For Cable they just use the cable at channel 1000 -the special signal for cable internet and use a cable modem for the computer. Fiber optic just uses ONE box instead of two.

[Mntsnow]

What is the difference between Win2k Pro and Winxp so far as connection to a fiber optics setup is concerned?

Based upon the above statement........UNLESS......They use a Fiber Optic card instead of a standard 10/100 NIC for the computer and thus they might not have drivers for W2K for the fiber card.

So you might want to double check what kind of setup her broadband service provider uses.

[Bovon]

Thanks Mike,

I have told her what little I know about dialup, DSL and that cable connects will be similar to DSL...and she is to call their tech support or customer service to try and get a clarification. It could be she totally misunderstood them...or they misunderstood her. She is not computer literate, but does have a computer at work..so, she is learning.

On the outside chance that they are correct...and she heard right...and that she would need to have telephone service installed to have cable connects...would almost certainly be a driver type problem.

I will ship the machine to her this week, and possibly by next week end, we can get on the phone together and fire the thing up. Then, I will try again to get any specifics she may have gained...if she has called them..or, get the telephone number myself, and I will call to see what the problem may be.

The reason for this thread was to see if there was a situation with Roadrunner that actually required Winxp in order to have cable Internet service. That does not appear to be the case..

Thanks, and I will update this thread later..as I find out whats going on.