"TELSTRA AND BIGPOND CONSIDER APPLE MACINTOSH COMPUTERS TO BE NOT WORTH SUPPORTING?"
-- This is an alleged fact?

Friday, September 24, 2004:

iwishihad wonders why, in Australia, Telstra / Bigpond allegedly have so much trouble with Apple Macintosh computer systems especially those using ADSL.

If you were to choose Bigpond for your Apple Mac ADSL provider you would have got an Alcatel modem and a Bigpond CD.

Depending upon the age of your Mac this CD would have installed Enternet for OS8/9 OS or Mac OSX USB drivers if you are using the latest Mac OS.

It would have configured your Mac still using the Alcatel modem as a "Bridge." (Note that it's not only Telstra that requires this. iPrimus will also not support modems if not bridged.)

This means that connecting to ADSL was quite simple, BUT not terribly reliable if you used USB. This is possibly because the packet-size of the USB datastream is small compared to the TCP/IP packet size, so, simply, your connection would be unstable or slow as empty packet space results.

Furthermore, you may have shared several Macs on your home LAN BEFORE going ADSL.

NO MORE! The Alcatel 2-Port USB+Ethernet CANNOT be used to LAN-share on a MAC!

Mac users are advised NOT to get a 4-port Alcatel UNLESS one consults a LAN expert (You will be told.)

But why? You think. The 4-Port Alcatel ADSL modem is a Router? Isn't it? I can set it up as a DHCP Server, use Ethernet and still get ADSL while sharing my Macs?

NO WAY! NOT WITHOUT A MATE LENDING YOU HIS PC! (BIGPOND WILL ALLEGEDLY TELL YOU!)

Bigpond WILL NOT SUPPORT MACS USING A 4-PORT ALCATEL MODEM!

Four Port ADSL Connection
IBM-compatible PC Pentium II + Windows 98, ME, 2000, XP (self or professional install) 32 MB RAM (for Windows 98 and ME) 64 MB RAM (for Windows 2000) 128 MB RAM (for Windows XP) Spare NIC or USB port SVGA display 800x600x256 colours + 150MB hard disk drive space Internet Explorer version 5.5 +	Macintosh
FULL SUPPORT!!	Not currently supported
BigPond currently provides an Ethernet card (PCI) or a USB/Ethernet Adaptor with professional installation if required. For the BigPond supplied 1 port or 4 port modem option (4-port EXCLUDES MACS), BigPond provides a USB/Ethernet adaptor if required. Your computer will need a spare USB port or a pre-installed Ethernet card (PCI).	Macs have Ethernet as standard??? NO EXTRA COST TO SUPPORT??

Yet, IT'S EASY!!

So, what to do? GET ANOTHER PROVIDER THAT ALLOWS THE TRUE USE OF A ROUTER?

The above was derived from information sent iwishihad and does not reflect iwishihad opinion.

iwishihad, ponders, at this and imagines:

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