# Does my internet connection care if I have Windows or MAC? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 5, 2009, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-my-internet-connection-care-if-i-have-windows-or-mac/516424 "2009-11-05T15:15:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2009, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-my-internet-connection-care-if-i-have-windows-or-mac/516424/1 "2009-11-05T15:15:40Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2009, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-my-internet-connection-care-if-i-have-windows-or-mac/516424/2 "2009-11-05T15:22:41Z")
No, it doesn’t care. And, it’s “Mac” not “MAC.” MAC is an acronym for Medium Access Control. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2009, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-my-internet-connection-care-if-i-have-windows-or-mac/516424/3 "2009-11-05T15:37:32Z")
> [@beowulff](#): > > And, it’s “Mac” not “MAC.” MAC is an acronym for Medium Access Control. At least he didn’t say he develops in PERL. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2009, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-my-internet-connection-care-if-i-have-windows-or-mac/516424/4 "2009-11-05T15:47:28Z")
> [@beowulff](#): > > No, it doesn’t care. > > And, it’s “Mac” not “MAC.” MAC is an acronym for Medium Access Control. I appreciate the answer… Don’t give a rat’s ass about MAC vs Mac. ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2009, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-my-internet-connection-care-if-i-have-windows-or-mac/516424/5 "2009-11-05T16:00:06Z")
> [@Khadaji](#): > > I appreciate the answer… > > Don’t give a rat’s ass about MAC vs Mac. Clearly. ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2009, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-my-internet-connection-care-if-i-have-windows-or-mac/516424/6 "2009-11-05T16:15:16Z")
> [@Khadaji](#): > > Don’t give a rat’s ass about MAC vs Mac. Most people who develop software do. ---
**Author:** ![Stathol](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/71e660/32.png) [@Stathol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stathol)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2009, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-my-internet-connection-care-if-i-have-windows-or-mac/516424/7 "2009-11-05T16:17:59Z")
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. > [@Khadaji](#): > > I do recall that when I hooked up my network the comcast guy asked me if I had Windows or MAC. 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. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2009, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-my-internet-connection-care-if-i-have-windows-or-mac/516424/8 "2009-11-05T16:27:43Z")
> [@Khadaji](#): > > Don’t give a rat’s ass about MAC vs Mac. 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. ---
**Author:** ![DanBlather](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f4b2a3/32.png) [@DanBlather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DanBlather)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2009, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-my-internet-connection-care-if-i-have-windows-or-mac/516424/9 "2009-11-05T16:35:39Z")
> [@Stathol](#): > > 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. Using _protocol_ is redundant, and TCP is only part of the Internet Protocol. ---
**Author:** ![Stathol](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/71e660/32.png) [@Stathol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stathol)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2009, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-my-internet-connection-care-if-i-have-windows-or-mac/516424/10 "2009-11-05T16:45:23Z")
> [@DanBlather](#): > > Using _protocol_ is redundant Fair enough. :rolleyes: > [@DanBlather](#): > > and TCP is only part of the Internet Protocol. 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](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Protocol_Suite)”, not just “TCP/IP”. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2009, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-my-internet-connection-care-if-i-have-windows-or-mac/516424/11 "2009-11-05T17:31:26Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > 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. 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. ---
**Author:** ![spinky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@spinky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spinky)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2009, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-my-internet-connection-care-if-i-have-windows-or-mac/516424/12 "2009-11-05T19:35:44Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2009, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-my-internet-connection-care-if-i-have-windows-or-mac/516424/13 "2009-11-05T20:19:32Z")
> [@ntucker](#): > > 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. ---
**Author:** ![BorgHunter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@BorgHunter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BorgHunter)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2009, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-my-internet-connection-care-if-i-have-windows-or-mac/516424/14 "2009-11-05T20:46:53Z")
There are WASPs nesting under the eaves of my house. Can anyone help me? ---
**Author:** ![spinky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@spinky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spinky)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2009, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-my-internet-connection-care-if-i-have-windows-or-mac/516424/15 "2009-11-05T20:51:06Z")
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.” ---
**Author:** ![dracoi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90db22/32.png) [@dracoi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dracoi)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2009, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-my-internet-connection-care-if-i-have-windows-or-mac/516424/16 "2009-11-05T20:54:02Z")
> [@BorgHunter](#): > > There are WASPs nesting under the eaves of my house. Can anyone help me? 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. ---
**Author:** ![mlees](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@mlees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mlees)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2009, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-my-internet-connection-care-if-i-have-windows-or-mac/516424/17 "2009-11-05T20:57:50Z")
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…” ---
**Author:** ![qazwart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/5fc32e/32.png) [@qazwart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/qazwart)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2009, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-my-internet-connection-care-if-i-have-windows-or-mac/516424/18 "2009-11-05T21:37:46Z")
> [@Khadaji](#): > > 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. 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.) ---
**Author:** ![RaftPeople](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/6f9a4e/32.png) [@RaftPeople](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RaftPeople)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2009, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-my-internet-connection-care-if-i-have-windows-or-mac/516424/19 "2009-11-05T22:06:55Z")
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. > **[MAC](https://acronyms.thefreedictionary.com/Mac)** > > What does MAC stand for? ---
**Author:** ![DanBlather](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f4b2a3/32.png) [@DanBlather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DanBlather)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2009, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-my-internet-connection-care-if-i-have-windows-or-mac/516424/20 "2009-11-06T03:10:57Z")
> [@Stathol](#): > > 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](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Protocol_Suite)”, not just “TCP/IP”. I was being a dick.