My Dad is moving from ATT to Comcast for faster internet, what modem/router combo should I buy him?

[Bill_Bright]

Hi Bill, I am confused by your wording on the bold part.

Me too!

That's my complaint with Comcast. They are adding confusion with their wording. I don't understand either why the Comcast webpage says WiFi is unlimited but not LAN. That makes no sense to me. Once your data leaves the "router" and enters the "modem" (remember, these are separate devices even if integrated in the same box), it should not matter (and is none of their business) how you connect to your LAN.

So what I was trying to clear up is the fact you don't have to pay more to get unlimited "wifi". You have to pay more to get unlimited bandwidth period - regardless if you connect your LAN devices via Ethernet or wirelessly.

Clear as mud, huh?

 

[Slizzo]

Don't know if anyone has mentioned it, but if you go WiFi only, there's no way you'll be able to use your gig connection anyway, so that's wasted bandwidth.

 

[Durvelle27]

Use the Comcast provided. You’ll regret not using it when you get overages

 

[Space Lynx]

Use the Comcast provided. You’ll regret not using it when you get overages

So you can confirm it is unlimited data as stated in this article with their modem/router?

Stop the Cap! » Comcast Brings Back “Free” Unlimited Data, If You Rent Their $15 Hardware

 

[dirtyferret]

If you can, get Verizon instead. Comcast is very unreliable. Had really bad experiences with them. By comparison, Verizon stays up all the time, I don't need a modem just CAT6 to my router from the ONT, its faster, and its $50 less per month. Comcast would intermittently go down for 5-10 minutes about once every 1-2 hours on average.

I dislike Comcast (I had them for one year and they throttled netflix) but my in laws had a choice between Comcast and Verizon. They went with Verizon but Verizon was only DSL to the mail box not the home so they quickly dropped them. For a lot of people they often only have one choice for ISP.

Its Frontier here

they are awful, just awful

 

[Space Lynx]

I dislike Comcast (I had them for one year and they throttled netflix) but my in laws had a choice between Comcast and Verizon. They went with Verizon but Verizon was only DSL to the mail box not the home so they quickly dropped them. For a lot of people they often only have one choice for ISP.



they are awful, just awful

Sad part is we have another choice, MetroNet fiber optics. However, my father does not want to go to them for some reason, we tried them once and their TV service was a bit messed up, but that was 5 years ago... I might make him a deal. We cancel Comcast install, I'll pay half in half for the 1 gig down 1 gig up fiber with metronet ($45 a month for each of us) and he keeps his Direct TV satellite he likes. He might go for that. Metronet has no contracts at all, so its no risk, but he still most likely won't do it sadly as he only cares about TV not internet.

 

[Durvelle27]

So you can confirm it is unlimited data as stated in this article with their modem/router?

Stop the Cap! » Comcast Brings Back “Free” Unlimited Data, If You Rent Their $15 Hardware

Yes I switched to their modem and I got unlimited included

 

[Space Lynx]

I also got 970 down on my speedtest. 19ms.

Do you guys think if I get a NVME drive my steam download will go even faster? is my 2TB SSD holding me back? it seems like the disk usage is slowing me down, not sure... thoughts?

@R-T-B @rtwjunkie @newtekie1 @Durvelle27

 

[Durvelle27]

I also got 970 down on my speedtest. 19ms.

Do you guys think if I get a NVME drive my steam download will go even faster? is my 2TB SSD holding me back? it seems like the disk usage is slowing me down, not sure... thoughts?

@R-T-B @rtwjunkie @newtekie1 @Durvelle27

I doubt it


I downloaded multiple 50GB games last night due to doing a clean install and it took less than than 30Mins

It all depends on how far you are from the server and how congested they are

Also that was to a 2TB 7200RPM Mech HDD 10x slower than a SSD

 

[moproblems99]

Also that was to a 2TB 7200RPM Mech HDD 10x slower than a SSD

HDDs can do sequential reads and writes ok provided the disk isn't fragmented to hell. Latency is what kills them.

 

[Jetster]

Motorola MB7420
Paid like $80 two years ago and haven't had one issue
Otherwise the latest one for $150

I buy the $150 mbs download. As far as the cap goes I don't hit 1Tb but close sometimes. Ive only had one overage charge and it was $10

 

[Durvelle27]

11GB Game only took 6 mintues to download

 

[rtwjunkie]

I also got 970 down on my speedtest. 19ms.

Do you guys think if I get a NVME drive my steam download will go even faster? is my 2TB SSD holding me back? it seems like the disk usage is slowing me down, not sure... thoughts?

@R-T-B @rtwjunkie @newtekie1 @Durvelle27

I really wouldn’t worry about it.

Also, you are getting nearly 3 x the download speed I am!

 

[moproblems99]

I really wouldn’t worry about it.

Also, you are getting nearly 3 x the download speed I am!

I am only 100mb at home.

 

[Jetster]

No one care about your works speed

 

[Totally]

Just a heads up if you happen to live in the suburbs or dense residential area in the evenings (7-9ish) when everyone gets home and starts streaming speeds will take a hit, in my case would tank to the point where it allowed simple browsing. Gaming became a lag-fest, and trying to watch anything myself pretty much 10s of buffering for every second of whatever I was watching. Calling in a complaint only got me a response that advertised speeds were "up to" what I was paying for. I switched to ATT after I had enough and realized there no longer any point in holding out for fiber in my area. Speeds are slower for the same money but they're consistent.

 

[Space Lynx]

Just a heads up if you happen to live in the suburbs or dense residential area in the evenings (7-9ish) when everyone gets home and starts streaming speeds will take a hit, in my case would tank to the point where it allowed simple browsing. Gaming became a lag-fest, and trying to watch anything myself pretty much 10s of buffering for every second of whatever I was watching. Calling in a complaint only got me a response that advertised speeds were "up to" what I was paying for. I switched to ATT after I had enough and realized there no longer any point in holding out for fiber in my area. Speeds are slower for the same money but they're consistent.

I'm aware of this issue, I planned to just pause downloads during rush hour times, as it doesn't matter to me. Doesn't seem to be too much of a slow down with 1 gig though

@Durvelle27 that is nice you get faster speeds than me though, and you are just using SSD as well? or going to HDD?

fyi here is my fast.com speed 1.1 giga down... and this is during rush hour traffic. not bad for $75 a month. well me and my Dad split the cost. so yeah, this is so much nicer than ATT 60 down max we was getting...

 

[Durvelle27]

Just a heads up if you happen to live in the suburbs or dense residential area in the evenings (7-9ish) when everyone gets home and starts streaming speeds will take a hit, in my case would tank to the point where it allowed simple browsing. Gaming became a lag-fest, and trying to watch anything myself pretty much 10s of buffering for every second of whatever I was watching. Calling in a complaint only got me a response that advertised speeds were "up to" what I was paying for. I switched to ATT after I had enough and realized there no longer any point in holding out for fiber in my area. Speeds are slower for the same money but they're consistent.

Since getting my network situated I’ve never seen below 700Mbps hardwired
No matter the time of day

I'm aware of this issue, I planned to just pause downloads during rush hour times, as it doesn't matter to me. Doesn't seem to be too much of a slow down with 1 gig though

@Durvelle27 that is nice you get faster speeds than me though, and you are just using SSD as well? or going to HDD?

fyi here is my fast.com speed 1.1 giga down... and this is during rush hour traffic. not bad for $75 a month. well me and my Dad split the cost. so yeah, this is so much nicer than ATT 60 down max we was getting...

That’s straight to a Segate ES HDD

 

[Space Lynx]

sure is nice having faster internet like this, wow... lol ATT is so outdated in my area, they don't stand a chance unless they upgrade to fiber, last I heard they were done expanding their fiber though. too bad for them, my money is going elsewhere now.

 

[Durvelle27]

sure is nice having faster internet like this, wow... lol ATT is so outdated in my area, they don't stand a chance unless they upgrade to fiber, last I heard they were done expanding their fiber though. too bad for them, my money is going elsewhere now.

AT&T where I live only offers fiber in the upper class areas, the rest are limited to only 75Mbps on DSL

 

[Space Lynx]

AT&T where I live only offers fiber in the upper class areas, the rest are limited to only 75Mbps on DSL

yep we only had 75 with ATT for last few years, but it wasn't really 75, youtube would buffer all the time cause there are 5 of us in this house at times... and my niece and nephew both watch youtube, im watching netflix while gaming online, and my parents are playing tablet games online... it was so outdated I couldn't stand it...

my dad is actually paying $10 less a month now, gets more tv channels, 1 gig internet, and landline. So glad we made the move, not a huge fan of any of these companies, but its nice to have proper internet for a change.

 

[moproblems99]

AT&T where I live only offers fiber in the upper class areas, the rest are limited to only 75Mbps on DSL

ATT in my area is capped at 25.

 

[Space Lynx]

A few things here.

1.) You can opt-out of this through your customer account page or by going here.
2.) You should be putting the Comcast gateway into Bridge mode, turning the gateway into effectively a modem.
3.) You should have your own router between the ISP equipment and your LAN. I'd never trust the ISP provided equipment to keep my network safe. So even is someone does manage to crack the VLAN between the public hotspot WiFi and the private customer network, the customer's router will stop anyone from getting into their network.

I opted out just now, thanks for the heads up. I live in a retirement home area with my parents, so not too worried about hackers, just going to use the modem/router combo they gave me since I am getting such amazing speeds. /shrug

@Durvelle27 @newtekie1 so i wanted to double check my speeds after opting out.... LMAO omg its so fast.... rofl what is this madness

 

[Solaris17]

Closed per request.