Need recommendations on a cable modem with built in wireless router.

[natr0n]

Since paying for comcasts garbage is costing more than it should.

I figure I could save $25+ a month if I get my own modem/router. Gonna drop the voip and get a cheap cell phone for house calls.

Seen some modem models for like $60. You guys know better than me what to get.

 

[Solaris17]

are you deadset on built in wireless? is $60 truly your budget?

 

[flmatter]

Arris has some good offerings, maybe not in the $60 range but amazon and best buy carry them. I am sure someone has a better suggestion. But my $.02

 

[natr0n]

are you deadset on built in wireless? is $60 truly your budget?

Want to stay around $100.

I mean I could go back to using a separate wifi router if needed.

 

[svan71]

https://www.amazon.com/NETGEAR-Nigh...?ie=UTF8&qid=1533873111&sr=8-1&keywords=C7000

 

[natr0n]

https://www.amazon.com/NETGEAR-Nigh...?ie=UTF8&qid=1533873111&sr=8-1&keywords=C7000

That's not that bad a price honestly.

 

[Jetster]

Want to stay around $100.

I mean I could go back to using a separate wifi router if needed.

That's what I did. Buy a nice modem and get a cheap router for now. Or buy used

 

[newtekie1]

Want to stay around $100.

I mean I could go back to using a separate wifi router if needed.

I would go with separate modem and wifi Router, the built in Wifi in most of the modem/router combos is terrible. Especially in the cheap ones.

This will keep you right about $100, and give you a 32x8 modem and a halfway decent Wireless AC router, with actual good range thanks to the external antennas:

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16825694017 + https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833320292

Or you can grab a slightly better router, but it puts you closer to the $150 range:

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833320330

 

[svan71]

I own the c7000 and convinced 3 other people to switch. On average speeds went up 25 to 50 mb just swapping out Comcast modem for this. The wireless range is excellent downstairs and upstairs, zero dead spots.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/NETGEAR-Ni..._nkw=NETGEAR+Nighthawk+WiFi+Cable+Modem&rt=nc

https://s33.postimg.cc/wl1m0eb27/Capture.png

 

[natr0n]

Will be doing this/buying sometime next week. Suggestions are great. I'm favoring getting the nighthawk model for convenience of one unit. Talked it over with parents and they agreed with that price point.

Just for reference. My bro and I are hardwired. Parents use the wifi on other side of house.

 

[newtekie1]

Just for reference. My bro and I are hardwired. Parents use the wifi on other side of house

Just for reference, I had that nighthawk for a while, the 5.0 didn't make it across my house and the 2.4 was pretty weak. I could only get a strong enough signal on the 2.4 to get 33-48Mbps connections. The actual speeds were lower.

 

[Bill_Bright]

I vote for separates too. And I would expand the budget as much as possible. If you are paying $25 for renting your device now, you are already spending $300 per year!

Make sure any modem you get supports at least DOCSIS 3.0. DOCSIS 3.1 would be better if you can get a good price and DOCSIS 3.1 Full Duplex even better for the best future proofing. I note Comcast is actually one of the leading supporters of DOCSIS 3.1 - a very good thing.

Parents use the wifi on other side of house.

You did not say how far away or how many barriers (walls, floors, ceilings) are between the WAP (wireless access point) and those distant computers. I recommend you get a dual band AC1900 router and one with external antennas. I really like my Linksys AC1900 (PCMag review here).

Yeah, those two are way over your budget but in 2 years, you will be nearly $300 ahead! But not just that. You likely will see much better performance in terms of connectivity and speeds.

For those who automatically balk at Linksys, I used to too. At one time, they were great, then Cisco bought them and their reliability and reputation dropped. Now they are owned by Belkin who turned Linksys around again. Foxconn is looking to buy Belkin and hopefully that will be a good thing too.

 

[natr0n]

It's a 1 story house. Just a single wall in the way, but they are paper/drywall basically. Never really have wifi signal problems. Always around 4-5 bars according to the windows wifi icon.

 

[Bill_Bright]

It's a 1 story house. Just a single wall in the way, but they are paper/drywall basically. Never really have wifi signal problems. Always around 4-5 bars according to the windows wifi icon.

That's good but I would still recommend the same wireless router. Dual band lets you connect 2.4GHz and 5GHz devices at the same time. AC supports the most recent 802.11ac protocols as well as 11n and 11g devices. And 1900MHz ensures plenty of bandwidth when streaming Netflix etc.

Not single story houses are often spread out more than multi-story homes. And don't forget the contents (wires and metal pipes) of those barriers affect wifi too.

 

[eidairaman1]

Since paying for comcasts garbage is costing more than it should.

I figure I could save $25+ a month if I get my own modem/router. Gonna drop the voip and get a cheap cell phone for house calls.

Seen some modem models for like $60. You guys know better than me what to get.

Voip is trash, pots is better lol.

But Id look at netgear

 

[Durvelle27]

Don’t do it

Always try to get separate Router and Modem as if one goes you’ll be screwed otherwise and have to start over again ( been there done that)

I myself use a Linkys CM3008 Modem and TP-Link AC1750 with Comcast and it works great with speeds upto 250MB/s

Range is really good as well reaching outside the house as well

The Surfboard modems are pretty decent as well depending on the speeds you are paying for

 

[natr0n]

Had a long day today. Long story short went out grocery shopping come home crazy storm happens.Then lightning hits literally outside window kills the rented modem dead. It also killed my add on pcie network card as my onboard intel lan went bad long ago.

Went to bestbuy and found this for $100. https://www.bestbuy.com/site/netgea...3-0-cable-modem-black/3707003.p?skuId=3707003

Online now with a spare usb wifi for a few days while I find a decent Ethernet card.

Lightning doesn't play around. I'm grateful my pc isnt fried and I can go online.

 

[eidairaman1]

Had a long day today. Long story short went out grocery shopping come home crazy storm happens.Then lightning hits literally outside window kills the rented modem dead. It also killed my add on pcie network card as my onboard intel lan went bad long ago.

Went to bestbuy and found this for $100. https://www.bestbuy.com/site/netgea...3-0-cable-modem-black/3707003.p?skuId=3707003

Online now with a spare usb wifi for a few days while I find a decent Ethernet card.

Lightning doesn't play around. I'm grateful my pc isnt fried and I can go online.

Lightning rods, afci/gfci should be installed.

Even things like this it sounds like your area is very prone to that

https://www.google.com/search?clien...9-2......0....1.........41j33i160.gb3khrkfvhU

You may even want a coax surge arrester too.

You may want to have your coax lines checked.

What do you say @Kursah ?

 

[natr0n]

The comcast guy came last week and redid our line. He put a filter in the coaxial before going to house/(perhaps it's a surge device) in the line as well and pounded a rebar in the ground for grounding.

I will get some of those surge devices you posted.

 

[Durvelle27]

The comcast guy came last week and redid our line. He put a filter in the coaxial before going to house/(perhaps it's a surge device) in the line as well and pounded a rebar in the ground for grounding.

I will get some of those surge devices you posted.

Nope the filter he installed is just to block out noise

You need a good surge protector

 

[Bill_Bright]

You might consider a "good" UPS with AVR. I live in Tornado Alley so I feel your pain when it comes to bad storms. I have a 1500VA UPS that easily supports my computer, both monitors and all my network gear. Note if my computer and monitors are off when I lose power, this UPS will easily keep my network alive for at least 3 hours. That way I can at least access the Internet via wifi.

Surge protectors are better than nothing, but they do absolutely nothing for dips (opposite of spikes), sags (opposite of surges), or brownouts (long duration sags). And for excessive surges and spike, at best (if lucky) they just kill power - never good on computers.

I have a "good" UPS on all our computers here, and my home theater audio gear, big screen TV and even my garage door opener! Note I keep saying "good" UPS. Like power supplies, there are cheap UPS that should be avoided.