Second Opinions

Steve Gregory, of Pitaman, N. J., asks: "I am deaf. For me, obtaining information on technology is not as simple as having a conversation in the court hallway. Plus, I live in very rural southern New Jersey, and technophiles are few and far between.

Cable access to the Internet soon will be available to us, and we'd like to subscribe. Can you recommend a 'rated' cable modem? We are a two person office, and expect to ultimately have no more than four computers, which we would like to network with a 100Base hard wired network. One computer is a notebook, the others are desktops. We do not own any network equipment or software at this time.

Can you recommend a cable modem that would serve our ultimate needs, which is to service the four computers with cable Internet access? We are not afraid of purchasing the best product, but we are afraid of making a poor choice, and having to make a second expenditure later to correct a misinformed acquisition."