I develop software and may now get a MAC to do some development. I have comcast broadband. Will there be a problem connecting the MAC? I would have thought no, but I do recall that when I hooked up my network the comcast guy asked me if I had Windows or MAC.
No, it doesn’t care.
And, it’s “Mac” not “MAC.” MAC is an acronym for Medium Access Control.
At least he didn’t say he develops in PERL.
I appreciate the answer…
Don’t give a rat’s ass about MAC vs Mac.
Clearly.
Most people who develop software do.
As long as you can “speak the native language” of the Internet (the TCP/IP protocol suite), it doesn’t care whether you’re a Mac or a toaster.
He was probably just asking that because they have some “setup CD” with a program that will configure your computer’s network interface(s) with the right IP and DNS settings. For obvious reasons, they have to have a separate Mac and Windows version of that.
Usually these ISP setup bundles are junkware at best, and borderline spyware at worst. They’re certainly unnecessary in any case, since you can just configure the interface yourself. 99.9% of the time, this simply means telling it to use DHCP, so that it will configure itself automatically. With most OSes, this is even the default behavior for new network interfaces, so you don’t have to do anything at all; just plug it in.
So, my advice from a security and performance point if view is not to let them install anything on your system. Just set it up manually.
In that case, our answer should have been:
No, because a PC uses a MAC interface to the network controller.
If you don’t care about using the right term, why should we care about figuring out what you actually wanted to know, instead of just answering the question as you actually posed it?
We’re here to fight ignorance. We don’t care whether it is willing or not. And it is hard to get the right answer if you can’t be bothered to learn how to ask it.
Using protocol is redundant, and TCP is only part of the Internet Protocol.
Fair enough. :rolleyes:
It’s not really “part of IP”, but yes – I realize that there are additional protocols (ICMP and UDP, at the very least) which are central to Internet routing and delivery. Which is why I said “suite”, not just “TCP/IP”.
LOL. Feel free not to answer. But some nits need not be picked, so truly and genuinely, if something this small is important for you, I’d rather not have an answer.
Amid all the showoff nitpicking, I’ll add: It actually makes sense to clarify the MAC vs Mac issue if you’re talking about networking. If the comcast guy needs to know your MAC address, don’t tell him you don’t have a MAC just because you don’t have a Mac. The distinction is important.
The comcast guy asked me which OS I was using. If I respond MAC or Mac, he won’t know, nor care, because it sounds the same. Although at the time if I had said either it would have been a lie, since my operating system is Windows XP.
If he asked me for an OS and I gave him a MAC address, no doubt he would be confused. Almost everyone would be, since I have never heard of an operating system named after a MAC address.
Comcast: Sir, which operating system are you using?
Me: Oh, 00-22-AE-6B-61-1E.
Comcast: 
He would probably wonder how I knew enough to look up my MAC adddress, but not know which OS I was using.
There are WASPs nesting under the eaves of my house. Can anyone help me?
Since you’re obviously very knowledgeable about the distinction, maybe a good way to avoid getting all defensive about being corrected is to just write it the right way in the first place.
I’ve had enough “what’s your MAC address?” / “oh, it’s a PC not a Mac” conversations that when I read your OP, I immediately thought, “I wonder if he somehow misinterpreted the comcast guy asking about his MAC.”
Sure! Send them over to my church. 
As for the OP’s question: I think the Mac/PC question still gets asked in reference to ISPs because of some very old issues. You may remember the days of CompuServe and AOL when you needed specialized software to connect. And Mac, pre-OS 7, didn’t always match the networking protocols preferred by the router/modem provided by broadband ISPs.
For any modern Mac, though, it’s a non-issue. I think the tech support departments have just become so used to asking it that they haven’t kicked the habit.
Also, if the Comcast guy is going to step the customer through the manual configuration of the network settings, he’ll need to know which OS he is dealing with:
“Windows XP? Ok… from the desktop, click on Start in the lower left corner, click settings, then Control Panel…”
It’s all the same IP protocol and all operating systems, Mac, PC, or Linux should have no problems with working with Comcast. That said, it wasn’t long ago when many companies refused to support a Mac. You could connect one up, but you were on your own. These companies would send you a “Setup CD” that ran only on Windows, so if you wanted to configure a Mac, you had to do it manually.
However, this Anti-Mac policy has pretty much ended. Too many people now use Macs, so you’d hurt yourself by refusing to help set them up. I suspect that Comcast asked you, so they know which set of directions to give you. Do you get the PC directions (Click on the Start Menu in the lower left corner, go to Control Panels, Click on the Network…) or the Mac directions (Click on the Apple menu in the upper left corner, then select System Preferences…)
Macs make great development machines – especially for the Open Source world. They come with all the most popular open source tools (Perl, Python, PHP, Apache Web Server, Eclipse, Git, Subversion, CVS, Java, etc.) and even have an excellent development environment called XCode and a C/C++ compiler. I know many open source people who have Macs as their personal PC because of this.
(Yes, I know Linux distros also come with the same development software, and I also have a couple Linux machines too. However, Macs have a nicer and better developed GUI interface than Linux, so the Mac is what I use for things like IM, Web browsing, Email, etc.)
Just to clarify the MAC thing, this is what it is:
Mac Macintosh (slang for Apple computer)
MAC Media Access Control
MAC Mandatory Access Control
MAC Macro (File Name Extension)
MAC Macau (ISO Country code)
MAC Medicare Administrative Contractor
MAC Macaroni
Mac Macedonian (linguistics)
MAC Multiple Access
MAC Medium Access Control
MAC Mid-American Conference
MAC Message Authentication Code
MAC MacPaint (File Name Extension)
MAC Make-Up Art Cosmetics, Inc
MAC Mark McGwire (baseball player)
MAC McMaster University (Hamilton, Ontario, Canada)
MAC Mycobacterium Avium Complex (medicine)
MAC Media Access Controller
MAC Material Adverse Change
MAC Mainland Affairs Council (Taiwan)
MAC Musical Arts Center
MAC Mountain Athletic Conference (Pennsylvania high school athletics)
MAC Immaculata
MAC Moves, Adds, and Changes
MAC Management Advisory Committee
MAC Metropolitan Airports Commission
MAC Membrane Attack Complex
MAC Maximum Allowable Cost
MAC Marine Aquarium Council
MAC Missouri Arts Council (St Louis, MO)
MAC Municipal Advisory Council
MAC Military Airlift Command (US Air Force)
MAC Mining Association of Canada (l’Association Minière du Canada)
MAC Mid-Atlantic Center for the Arts (tours & events; Cape May, NJ)
MAC Mathematics and Computation (MIT Artificial Intelligence Lab project)
MAC Maximum Acceptable Concentration
MAC Migration Authorisation Code (UK DSL)
MAC Monitored Anesthesia Care
MAC Mineralogical Association of Canada (Association Minéralogique du Canada)
MAC Minimum Alveolar Concentration (measure of potency for anesthetics)
MAC Main Automation Contractor
MAC Maximum Allowable Concentration
MAC Medium Access Controller
MAC Memory Access Controller
MAC Multiplier/Accumulator
MAC Move, Add, Change
MAC Military Assistance Command
MAC Master of Arts in Counseling
MAC Marginal Abatement Cost (curve; metric of costs of complying with Kyoto Protocol for reducing greenhouse gases)
MAC Market Access and Compliance (US Department of Commerce)
MAC MacConkey Agar (microbiological media)
MAC Maximum Allowable Charge
MAC Mines Action Canada
MAC Management Advisory Council (FAA)
MAC Mean Aerodynamic Chord
MAC Municipal Assistance Corporation (New York City)
MAC Mine Action Center
MAC Manhattan Association of Cabarets and Clubs
MAC Munich Airport Center
MAC Mid-America Conference
MAC Midwest Archives Conference
Mac Methanosarcina Acetivorans
MAC Multiple Award Contracts
MAC Multicultural Advisory Committee
MAC Magnetic Accelerator Cannon (Babylon 6)
MAC Mobile Air Conditioner
MAC Machine Aided Cognition
MAC Master Addictions Counselor
MAc Master of Accountancy
MAC Michigan Association of Counties
MAC Multi Asset Class (Oberon Financial Technology, Inc.)
MAC Mid America Corvette (company)
MAC Mitral Annular Calcification (echogardiography)
MAC Multiplexed Analogue Components
MAC Maryland Athletic Club
MAC Muslim Association of Canada (Ottawa, Canada)
MAC Atlantic Mackerel (FAO fish species code)
MAC Maintenance Allocation Chart
MAC Military Affairs Council
MAC Maintaining Arc Consistency (constraint programming AI research)
MAC Michigan Apple Committee
MAC Moore Action Collectibles (toy company)
MAC Machine Address Code
MAC Mid-Atlantic Crossing
MAC Memory and Aging Center
MAC Mission Assurance Category
MAC Manufacturing Alliance of Connecticut
MAC Military Armament Corporation (produced Mac 10&11 SMGs)
MAC Medical Advisory Council
MAC Manitoba Arts Council
MAC Marketing Advisory Committee
…etc.
I was being a dick.