I checked out the above article, and clicked on the link to Comcast. It said that I could get Gigabit Pro (which is 2Gb/s) for $300/month, plus installation and activation fees up to $500 each. I live in a part of Houston that doesn’t have Comcast, so I couldn’t get it anyway, but… no, I wouldn’t pay that much.
I’m live on the new modem. Hookup wasn’t too much of a hassle. It said I could activate automatically, but then when I tried, it turned out I had to call in. Even that didn’t take too long. I just had to read the tech my MAC address.
Before and after speed tests are pretty much identical:
Before
After:
Question: can I just replace my cable modem at will, or do I need to contact Comcast about it? I know I too have been renting this one for 10 years, sadly…
You’ll have to register the new modem with them.
The only downside of owning your modem is that when there is an issue, tier 1 support is extremely quick to blame it on your hardware.
You can do this over the web now, which is nice. Once your modem is connected, your web browser will guide you to provisioning the new modem. Much better than in the old days when you had to read the whole MAC address phonetically to someone at Comcast.
I had to call in to get mine to work. Around here at least, they have to put a flag on your account that you have your own modem, or you don’t get the page to automatically authenticate the router.
I actually had the flag on my account, but I also had one of their modems and I kept getting the authentication page, which was as fucked as reading the MAC address, but in a different way. No matter, I don’t regret getting my new modem. Took a bit to get it straight with Comcast, but now the shit just sits in the corner of the room and blinks, which is just what you want.
That sucks, Tim. Guess I need to preface my above comment with “YMMV”. When I signed up for Internet service, I swapped out three different cable modems (the one from Comcast, which I returned, and two I owned) to check speeds. Took all of about twenty minutes. Comcast is great when you don’t have to talk to their support drones. :)
Ok I ordered through the qt3 link above and I’ll take the plunge. I have rented this damn cable modem for 10 years now…
Well worth it. Buying a modem pays for itself in like 4 months now.
I definitely had to call Comcast to get my self purchased cable modem activated. Fairly painless, took maybe 15 minutes all told.
There is a disruption in internet service of about an hour (for syncing and changes on their end) so be prepared.
Aha this is the page in question. You get it after activating the new cable modem on Comcast’s end…
Holy shit. This is the speed of the connection at my house with my new modem.
This is the back room of my house:
http://results.speedtest.xfinity.com/result/1464193084.png
It’s the same connection as above, but it just takes a hop through some cat5 I had strung under the house many years ago. I think it also might go through an Apple Airport we have at the other end of the house, but this is on a wired connection (that goes into one of the ports on the Airport, then under the house).
Why is it so much slower?
That modem is so 2016 ;)
I’d say the airport tho.
If the cat 5 run is shitty it could definitely make that happen. Run a good line across your house (just over the floor) and connect it with that and see what happens to your speed then
That’s a good plan. I’d have to go out and purchase a 50 ft roll of CAT5 because all the stuff I have is like little 4 or 6ft twists. It might be worth it, though, because that back room is where I watch all the por…
COUGH COUGH instructional videos!
You know, those high bandwidth, HD, instructional videos and such.
Make sure it is Cat5e at least, or even Cat6, not just Cat5 if you want a longer run and gigabit speed.
Yes, this. Your instructional videos will be more successful if you use the right rating for the network cable. For a 50 foot gigabit run, use 5e or 6. Either terminate them really well or just buy a cable that already has the connectors on there.
So last fall I bought the SB6141 someone linked above and let it gather dust until this week. Couple of nights ago, I unboxed it, called up Comcast and got started on the swap.
She had me power on the new modem and let it do its thing for a few minutes, and then connect the cable and ethernet. When all the status lights were to her liking, she deauthorized my old modem and authorized the SB6141 using the MAC I provided. She confirmed that all looked good on her end.
On my end, no internet access. I rebooted the modem & router & PC a few times, restarted browsers after clearing caches, etc. and even reset the PC’s IP address a few times. Nada.
She suggested that it might be an issue with my router and that I should try a factory reset next. I didn’t have time to do that then, so I swapped back and she reauthorized the old modem, and all was as it was before.
Hive mind advice? Edit: ASUS RT-N56U router.
Last two times I swapped out routers – both for routers in that series – I couldn’t get a connection unless I followed their steps verbatim which included a full unplug and power down of the modem and router and reboot of the PC. I think the order was unplug everything->plug in modem->plug in router->reboot PC but I can double check the manual when I get home.