On 24 Oct 2012 20:32:13 GMT, Han wrote:

" wrote in
:

On 24 Oct 2012 15:27:38 GMT, Han wrote:

" wrote in
:

On Wed, 24 Oct 2012 05:53:00 -0400, Ed Pawlowski
wrote:

On Wed, 24 Oct 2012 02:27:38 +0000 (UTC), DerbyDad03
wrote:




Actually, once they finally got me to someone who actually made
sense (the third person I chatted with) he made sure that I was
aware that any modem that I purchased from the approved list would
work with the *current* features and speeds. However, should TWC
upgrade their hardware and/or programming, those of us who own on
our modems would have to purchase another.

The tone of his chat was decidedly leaning towards the lease
option.

Sure, they get $48 a year from you. Most modems will cost less than
that and last 10 years. I had the same offer from the phone company
for DSL and chose to buy. Never needed tech support either.

I generally lose a DSL modem every couple of years. No ESD or
lightning strike, it just stops working. AT&T no longer rents them.
They do spread the cost ($75, IIRC) over three months, if you want.

I never understood the rationale for renting a router or buying one
from the ISP, though. They want a lot of money for something that's
dirt cheap online.

It's my understanding that Verizon uses some kind of modified
proprietary software. There is no modem rental - you get a router as
part of the package. My ActionTec MI424-WR has functioned since the
very beginning of FiOS (well, the first one's radio quit in a week,
but the second one has worked ever since). The radio of the router is
now weak and doesn't get everywhere, so I have wired a DLink in the
living room from the upstairs router to give us WiFi and more ports
here.

AT&T gives the option of a modem or router+modem. Actually, the third
option is to use your own modem. I bought their modem to minimize
problems (the installation in my AL house is a PITA and I have to call
them if I touch anything). Adding a router is usually pretty easy
(though in the above case...).

Some time Ineed to upgrade to a gigabit router and wiring, though.

Why? AFAIC, 100Base-T is plenty. Actually my WiFi is enough for what
I do over the network. DSL is way slower than it.

At the moment things are OK. I now have FiOS, and the speedtest just now
on speedtest.net says 40/33 Mbps up/down. Some time those speeds are
going to increase further (I think I started with 5/.75 or so). Then the
traffic between computers here is going to get more intense, so I expect
that I am getting close to occasionally get to the limits of 100BaseT.
Not this year or next, perhaps, but I need to keep my eyes open for an
upgrade to my ActionTec MI424-WR .

I get 3Mb/.3Mb on a good day (much better than .7Mb/.02Mb I get in my other
house), so a string and a tin can is good enough. But wireless can easily get
to 30Mb. What do you do that you need 100Mb between computers? I don't
think I've even connected mine together more than a half dozen times.