changing internet service provider

[joycenalex]

i'm going to be changing my ISP on 12/20/03. while earthlink has been fine, i will be able to go to wideopenwest(wowway.com) and get a faster modem AND cable tv connection for only $15 more then i'm paying for the second phone line and the earthlink service. does anyone have advice on how to make this switch as painless as possible? also, should i install a firewall in addition to the norton system works? thanks in advance.

[CatDad]

The first thing that I would do is make sure that you have all of the settings that you will need prior to the switch. Things like email and any connection type settings.

Are you going from a dial up to DSL, or just changing to/from dial-up, or to/from DSL.

The reason that I ask is that the rest of my answer will differ depending on what you are changing.

I will try to check back and see if you have answerd, and hopefully to able to give better advice.

[joycenalex]

according to their wows' website, it's a cable connection, i need 32MB Ram, 110MB free hard drive space, ethernet/USB and it's 300kbps. according to my computer systems, i'm using windows 98, have 192 RAM and 15361MB free space and my current dial up is 56K. i'm really ignorant about the hardware part of the computer, i know how to turn it on, where the floppy and cd drive goes andthat's about all. kinda like the mechanicals of the car, i know where the gas, oil and battery is, and that's about it.

[CatDad]

Ok, I went out and read there site.

Your system sounds fine for what you are about to get. The thing that you need to focus on is that you are going to need a network card. Do you know if you have one? If you don't I would find a friend who knows PCs and have him look. I cannot tell you without doing some more stuff. So if you do not have someone who can check, let me know and I can email you and tell you what I would need to have an idea on if you had a network card. It is not hard just a screen shot.

Now if you do not have a network card I would suggest that you have your computer friend, if you have one, install one. This card is what you will use to comunicate to the net, you will no longer need the modem. I am making some assumptions here, and hopefully WOWs connections are like every other cable connection. Just to let you know I have a cable connection through comcast, and I kept my earthlink account. You do loose cable every now again.

If you do not have a network card or someone to install one, the installers that come to your house generally have them and can install them. just make sure that there are not chaging you an arm and a leg for it. I just went and looked and the price of the card may be included. I don't knwo for sure.

Since this is cable and they should be comming out that it all you need to know.

Please let me know if you would like any more information. I know that I did a very quick over view in this post. I will try to remember to look back at this post. However, if you ask a question and do not see a reply, please send me a PM. Also, feel free to just PM me ans ask questions.

[joycenalex]

the cable guys came today, and in 4 hours my house is wired for cable tv and internet cable service, and holy cow! it's much faster then the 40K dial up. the guys brought everything i needed to get back up and i'm surfing again. amazing. early 21st century comforts here i come......