Time for a new modem

Ms3r4ISU

Me: Mea culpa. Also me: Sine cura sis.
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May 7, 2008
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So, your MOdulator/DEModulator died (These haven't been around for ions. I get a kick out of how many things are mislabeled these days). That said, you need a router. And I'd recommend you get something YOU can manage. Most allow management, but ISPs generally discourage it because most people don't really know what they're doing. I stayed on Frontier's back until they upgraded me to a router which I have full control over. That enables me to tighten security, direct traffic, assign addresses, subnet my internal network and view more detailed logs (handy when I showed them where their problem was). All very handy things. Oh! And I can lock them (ie ISP) out which I also like.
I've had an Orbi router for nearly 3 years, and our own modem for much longer than that. I guess both my provider Mediacom and Amazon are guilty of mislabeling.

And do you mean "eons"? Or is that mislabeled, too?
 

ricochet

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So, your MOdulator/DEModulator died (These haven't been around for ions. I get a kick out of how many things are mislabeled these days). That said, you need a router. And I'd recommend you get something YOU can manage. Most allow management, but ISPs generally discourage it because most people don't really know what they're doing. I stayed on Frontier's back until they upgraded me to a router which I have full control over. That enables me to tighten security, direct traffic, assign addresses, subnet my internal network and view more detailed logs (handy when I showed them where their problem was). All very handy things. Oh! And I can lock them (ie ISP) out which I also like.

How is a cable modem not a modem? You have an analog signal on one side and a digital signal on the other and it bridges those by demodulating and modulating.

As for the original question, one decision is whether to go with DOCSIS 3.0 or 3.1. The 3.0 modems are quite a bit cheaper and either one will work with Mediacom today but someday they might require 3.1. If your download speed is over 500 Mb/sec (probably not likely with Mediacom) I'd recommend 3.1 even though 3.0 is supposed to go up to 1 Gb/sec. There are some upload speed limitations with 3.0 also but I don't remember what they are (200 Mb/sec maybe?).
 

Cloneon

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Oct 29, 2015
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How is a cable modem not a modem? You have an analog signal on one side and a digital signal on the other and it bridges those by demodulating and modulating.

As for the original question, one decision is whether to go with DOCSIS 3.0 or 3.1. The 3.0 modems are quite a bit cheaper and either one will work with Mediacom today but someday they might require 3.1. If your download speed is over 500 Mb/sec (probably not likely with Mediacom) I'd recommend 3.1 even though 3.0 is supposed to go up to 1 Gb/sec. There are some upload speed limitations with 3.0 also but I don't remember what they are (200 Mb/sec maybe?).
You are correct. I was wrong. I was thinking DSL 'modem'.
 

jbhtexas

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Oct 20, 2006
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So, your MOdulator/DEModulator died (These haven't been around for ions. I get a kick out of how many things are mislabeled these days). That said, you need a router. And I'd recommend you get something YOU can manage. Most allow management, but ISPs generally discourage it because most people don't really know what they're doing. I stayed on Frontier's back until they upgraded me to a router which I have full control over. That enables me to tighten security, direct traffic, assign addresses, subnet my internal network and view more detailed logs (handy when I showed them where their problem was). All very handy things. Oh! And I can lock them (ie ISP) out which I also like.

All the DOCSIS 3.1 modems that Spectrum is giving out now are pretty much locked down except for a couple of settings pertaining to the modem's WiFi, which you manage from their website. Stinks. I still have my old DOCSIS 3.0 Arris which I can log into and fully manage, but my speed is capped at 300 Mbps.
 

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