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What is Spectrum, or Charter Spectrum?

Dave Farquhar ISPs May 8, 2017February 10, 20251990s, AT&T, AT&T U-verse, cable tv, comcast, Missouri, New York, Paul Allen, phone service, time warner, verizon

What is Spectrum? Charter Spectrum, or simply Spectrum, is a new name to many parts of the country. Spectrum is the brand name for cable, Internet and phone service from Charter Communications.

Although Charter started using the Spectrum name prior to its merger, the name Spectrum gained prominence as a result of the second, fourth, and sixth-largest cable operators in the United States merging in 2016. Post-merger Charter is now a Fortune 100 company.

Dave Farquhar

David Farquhar is a computer security professional, entrepreneur, and author. He has written professionally about computers since 1991, so he was writing about retro computers when they were still new. He has been working in IT professionally since 1994 and has specialized in vulnerability management since 2013. He holds Security+ and CISSP certifications. Today he blogs five times a week, mostly about retro computers and retro gaming covering the time period from 1975 to 2000.

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Spectrum bought by AT&T? Not quite.

Dave Farquhar ISPs November 24, 2016January 10, 2025AOL, AT&T, cable tv, comcast, nbc, phone service, time warner, verizon

Was Time Warner Cable or Charter Spectrum bought by AT&T? No it wasn’t, but I understand why some people are thinking that right now. It now turns out that both Charter Communications and AT&T have a history with Time Warner, but it’s complicated.

That said, there was a rumor that AT&T’s arch rival Verizon is considering buying Charter Communications, the company behind Spectrum. Meanwhile, AT&T did buy Time Warner. Time Warner differs from Time Warner Cable.

Dave Farquhar

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A Comcastic-ally bad idea

Dave Farquhar security June 16, 2014June 15, 2014android, comcast, firewall, Korea, RIAA

If you haven’t heard about it, Comcast has plans to build a wifi network for its subscribers, on the back of its other subscribers’ routers. What’s worse is it’s an opt-out service. If you don’t hear about it and say something, you’re a hotspot for any other Comcast customer who happens to wander by.

I’m not a Comcast customer. I’m in Charter territory, and I’m not a Charter customer either. But I have so many problems with this it’s hard to know where to begin, so I sure hope other ISPs don’t copy this. Read more

Dave Farquhar

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Is powerline networking secure?

Dave Farquhar security February 25, 2013March 13, 2021AT&T, comcast, FCC, lowercase letters, os x, time warner

Is powerline networking secure? It can be, but just like wireless, you have to set it up securely. Here’s what you need to know about powerline networking security.

Dave Farquhar

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What you really need to know about net neutrality

Dave Farquhar Servers and Networking February 21, 2011January 10, 2025classmate, comcast, internet providers, nbc, net neutrality, talk radio, time warner, Unintended consequences

I ran across a former classmate’s name in Google News recently, and when I flipped through his back catalog, I found the very best definition of net neutrality that I’ve seen.
Read more

Dave Farquhar

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What net neutrality means and why it\’s a good thing

Dave Farquhar net.culture February 26, 2008August 31, 20141990s, AOL, AT&T, comcast, FCC, internet providers, net neutrality, republicans, yahoo

This week, John C. Dvorak makes a good argument in favor of net neutrality.

I’m going to take it from a different angle. I am a conservative. While I rarely vote a straight Republican ticket, I am registered as a Republican. Republicans generally are against net neutrality.

They are wrong. I will assume it’s from a lack of understanding rather than bad intentions, but in this case, wrong is wrong. I’ll explain why. Read more

Dave Farquhar

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