Comcast HSI Upgrade → Re: Huh?

This was a poor article, but seaquake is right they are upgrading the dhcp servers, so that sas.r1.attbi.com is no longer needed. Apparently it will no longer care about the mac address of the computer connected, plus this upgrade is supposed to make it so that we can buy almost any cable modem and use it rather than renting one.

Buying a DOCSIS modem contained on Comcast's Approved Modems list has been an option for Comcast users for as far back as I can remember (three years for Legacy areas, two years for ex-ATTBI areas). There was a spurious post in the Comcast forum on 12/24/04 (»Comcast speed upgrades thread - Part 3 ) about forthcoming upgrades increasing the list of "allowed" modems from some 200 different Comcast approved modems to over 800 newly approved modems, however, at that time the number of Comcast Approved modems (listed by manufacturer and model) stood at 93 and the sum total of all manufacturer / model / hardware version / software version combinations of modems certified by CableLabs to DOCSIS 1.0, 1.1, or 2.0 stood at 403.

While the changes likely effect the method used to provision a purchased modem, the ability to purchase a modem versus renting a modem is nothing new.

I think you're confusing DHCP servers from provisioning servers. DHCP servers are used to issue dynamic IP addresses on a network. The SAS system is a provisioning server, which allows a device, such as a cable modem, to be allowed to use the network.