WiFi Cable Modems

A standards off the shelf wifi router/switch from the local electronics store ought to do it.

Be prepared to spend at least $40 - $50 for a good N(~300 Mbps) speed unit or $80 - $100 for a good AC (~1 Gbps)speed unit.

I don't even know what our cable speed is.

Think I'll go on-line and see what we're paying for.

I'm good with $100.00+. That works out to $10.00 a year.

Go dual wired for desktop and wireless for most mobile gadget if local internet provider could support ~1Gbps. Browsing CR4 will be quick and smooth that way.

lyn,

Were you happy with the way it was running before?

If so why bother with the upgrade?

Just because it runs slower than your service is no reason to shell out bucks for new stuff just to keep ahead of the service.

JMHO

Yes. No complaints.

But, after 10 years, surely some new technology is around.

He needs it I guess for some laboratory purposes R&D with Lyndoor Enterprise

Just buy a middle of the road NetGear wifi router. It'll have the latest important stuff.

I just installed a NetGear R6300v2 (AC1750 dual-band) at the advice of our cable technician (sounds similar to the advice Lyn's tech gave him), and we're not very happy with it. NetGear touts it for 'Ultimate wireless coverage for large homes', but my wife's iPhone video streaming slows noticeably at the far end of our 2200 SF house. I would recommend a DOCSIS 3 modem - we are using a Motorola SB6120. I don't think his wireless device speeds will ever catch up to his cable speed (not in the near future, anyway).

I just installed a NetGear R6300v2 (AC1750 dual-band) at the advice of our cable technician (sounds similar to the advice Lyn's tech gave him), and we're not very happy with it. NetGear touts it for 'Ultimate wireless coverage for large homes', but my wife's iPhone video streaming slows noticeably at the far end of our 2200 SF house.

I installed the same router 6-8 months ago? I had fits trying to get the router to play nice with all the different devices we currently have! Phart Smones, laptops, 2 PTZ security cameras, wireless printer, along with several desktop computers in the house and shop. the wireless range is marginal at best especially when I walk outside. I had to install another wireless access point in my shop because the WiFi signal dropped to nothing 50 feet from the WiFi. I use wired for most of everything that has a heavy data throughput and reserve the WiFi for the small portable devices.

The biggest reason for you to upgrade is throughput and security. The 10 yr. old modem is probably ready to have a meltdown anyway.

Good luck.

I don't recall ever having a pleasant experience using netgear equipment though many have. And many issues arise with wifi setup that may frustrate one not understanding these types of construction or water features can interfere with any wireless protocol etc.. Large homes with plaster or sound deadening systems, aquariums, fountains etc., metal roof or siding and masonry features too all require additional zoning for a acceptable experience.

Oh wait!

TOYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

and just in time for christmas.

forgive me my moment of weakness.

Your modem is usually provided by the cable co, and is probably capable of whatever speed you're paying for....they have several speeds here....So the only piece to consider is the router, and after 10 years yours is obsolete to be sure....if for no other reason security...I would recommend changing your wi-fi router every 5 years....When you buy a new one, get 'state of the art' stuff....I have a linksys E-1000 about 2 years old....Here is a link to some top rated...

http://www.cnet.com/topics/networking/best-networking-devices/

http://www.cnet.com/topics/networking/best-networking-devices/802-11ac/

Up until my wife got her job at the local phone company and set us up with a fully loaded fiber optic internet package my router consisted of a monkey with a morse code keyer in my closet.

I think the new package replaced the monkey with a woodpecker has marginal morse coding skills.

I'm testing at 17mbps download and 1mbps upload.....for standard high speed, which is 1 step above minimum...I think there's like 5 higher speeds available....

With 16.4 Mbps download and 7.13 Mbps up with the old equipment, I think we're good enough for now.

You are right, security is paramount nowadays. That alone is a good reason to update.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

As to someone else here having a large house and his wife's phone download speed slows in some areas, there are WLAN repeaters that can often reach farther corners for about $20 a pop....

Also, mounting the WLAN router relatively high in the house is always a good idea for best coverage, away from the ground plane. Plus check the antenna orientation (not all have an external antenna, my new one doesn't, but some good ones actually have two!), that sometimes helps a bit with fringe areas.

I have Xfinity (cable, internet, telephone, @home), and the Arris TG862 (Wireless VoIP Telephony Gateway Docsis 3.0 Modem).

I had my own Buffalo, Netgear, Motorola, etc. solutions for years but decided to quit buying new equipment for the new DOCSIS standards, IPv6, etc. every year or so.

I figured that Comcast might actually know best what works on their network and apparently I was (in my case) right.

Since changing over to their equipment (which I already had for the landline) I have more reliable wireless (the Verizon Nokia cell phones actually connect to wifi now) and faster speeds. I consistently get 30 Mbps down, 20+ up and occasionally get 50+ download speeds.

Everyone in the house can stream whatever and very few problems.

Does not your service provider provide you with WIFI router? In my experience, if I call - say every 2 years - to complain about "slow internet", a service guy comes out and points at the WIFI router and says to the likes of "That is 'old' technology. We'll change that first". I am then an owner of a new router at no added cost (Won't say free - because it ain't).

In a word, no.

The wife's the one who needs the speed.

She connects to her work mainframe from home.

Me, I just troll the net.

The Cable Company can give you a Modem or a Bridge in most cases. If you want the best go with the bridge if you have that option and then get a good router. I have checked most of the popular rigs and found that a dual band is the best way to go. Why. Because with 802.11 B,G,N there are only 11 channels AND in Reality there is only 3 as each channel takes up 1.5 channels above and 1.5 below. For example if you set something to channel 5 it will go all the way down to 3.5 and up to 6.5 and interfere and get interference. Many new devices use the the new 5 Ghz where there are 31 channels that do not overlap. There are more channels than 31 but I am talking that do not overlap. IF the Modem allows for all channels it is way over 100 on the 5 Gig side. Now. If you go with one of those I would chose a channel that is near the bottom of the numbers like 42 or 44 or so. Why. Because unlike 2.4 Ghz rigs the 5 Gig rigs go from just over 5 gigs to almost 6 gigs. the lower the Frequancy IF not interference from others in your home or near it you will get less attenuation that comes from higher frequencies. But even withl more attenuation as compared to 2.4 Hhz There is normal no one else in the same channel or even overlaping your channel so you get better performance and distance in most cases. Also set the SSID for the 2.4 such as Lyn24 and the 5Ghz side as Lyn5 . Why. So you know what one you are connected to. It is also a good way to see what devices use both 802.11 a.b.c.n and you want A,B,C,G and N. A is the 5 Ghz but it uses the same protocol as N and N is the best. A good rig for the fact that you have Kindles and Kids and a whole family using the thing I got this one and feel it is about as good as it gets. http://www.asus.com/us/Networking/RTAC87U/ the top of the line Linksys is cool but about $300 and is not nessisary unless you like to screw around with it and if you going to do that evening in the house will be upset so just get the asus and you will be setup with the fastest and easy to set up in 30 seconds. Oh yea. I always check the spectrum with my Android phone using this free program. It will check 2.4 and 5 Ghz if both are supported by the phone. And also get WiFi Manager for Android. This is very useful and gives a graphical image of what is the best channel to use. You will also see the overlap I was mentioning above on the 2.4 Ghz. Sorry so long of a mail but all you need to know is in here based on what you said in your post. Cesare

Thanks. That is a lot to digest.

I'll have to look at that some more.

I'm still thinking it's time to upgrade with boxes that are 10 years old.

I think I think if I needed a wifi upgrade I would with a longlook type device that would get me down the road like your current gadget. That said this is a good steer: ASUS RT-AC68U and one should do ya, neighbor....

Yes and no.

It sounds a good idea but it may open you to attacks from outside of the house....or someone starts downloading kiddy porn from outside your house, or whatever.

Here the owner of the WLAN Router is held responsible for such happenings.

Recent tests here show that about 40% of WLAN routers have not had the security set up properly and are easily "hacked" from outside the house. A journalist recently charged up his laptop, ran some special software on it, and in 2 hours driving around Munich, found nearly 200 Routers that he could use easily have used....

Well sure ya need to set it up right and that model has full capacity allowing a NSA 64+ character security network key. The smarty pants would pay a few pretty pennies for software to crack in less than twenty years. Face the music you must have at least fifteen characters including upper and lower case letters, numbers, punctuation and special characters help too. Good equipment intended for the retail market is user friendly and ultra secure.

At our place, the wireless/ethernet router usually lasts about a year maybe 18 months, before it goes toes up. The cable company just sent me a notice that they intend to upgrade my cable modem to the "new awesome speed" but I was already getting bilked for twice that speed. As usual it is the bait and switch gimick.

It seems I am becoming much more cynical, less trusting in my business dealings as I age onward. Make sure you are getting an Olympic pool, if that is what you paid for, you know.

Other Posters have put forth decent advice about run-of-the-mill routers, they are all way better than the best ones from 10 years ago.

Often I've found that using a UPS w/battery backup power supply extends the router lifetime.

Buy two boxes.

Box #1 - cable modem

Box #2 - WiFi AP (not a router just an access point)

Why? Because in the wonderful world of electronics it is not a good idea to buy boxes with combined functions. You want to be able to address the problem one box at a time (when there is a problem) rather than have to replace a working function because a non-working function in the same box failed or is no longer adequate.

Thanks. That's what we've got now, and they both seem functional.

Not wanting to change things at this point, since the speed is good.

So you essentially have no security, or nothing like this: edit specs TYPE Wireless router WIFI 802.11 a, ac, b, g, n BANDS Simultaneous dual-band ETHERNET 10/100/1000 [Gigabit] INTEGRATED SWITCH 4 ports USB Mass storage / NAS,... ANNOUNCED June 3, 2013 General TypeWireless router WiFi802.11 a, ac, b, g, n WiFi encryptionWEP, WPA, WPA2 BandsSimultaneous dual-band Antenna typeExternal (3 antenna(s), Detachable) WiFi Protected SetupYes Ethernet10/100/1000 [Gigabit] Integrated switch4 ports Ethernet duplexFull-duplex Networking features DHCP serverYes DMZYes Dynamic DNSYes FirewallStateful packet inspection (SPI) MAC address filteringYes Network address translation (NAT)Yes Network time protocol (NTP)Yes Port forwardingYes Quality of service (QoS)Yes Remote managementYes UPnPYes VPN passthroughYes Other features Upgradeable firmwareYes Uplink Ethernet uplinkYes USB USBMass storage / NAS, Printer-sharing, WPS / config Display IndicatorsPower, Port status, Link activity Power Power sourceExternal Power adapterExternal Pricing & availability AvailabilityAvailable Announced (US)June 3, 2013 Colors Black UPC: 886227419005 Amazon ID (ASIN): B00FB45SI4 General info Product sitewww.asus.com­/sg­/Netw...

Well, at least his is old enough, the bad guys may not be looking for it.

Does a WiFi AP have ethernet connections? If it does not, I don't want one.

Don't worry about 10 year old boxes as long as they have (and you use) the latest WPA / SK technology.

My new box (installed 21 Nov 2014), a technical upgrade, has already failed.....

I got it working again (it makes little sense the method I used), was to power it off for 24 hours and change the LAN socket while powered on that I was using......DO NOT ASK ME WHY THAT HELPED!!! I was just pissed and screwed around with it...

It kept losing the Internet telephone link about once every 24 hours before that anyway....shit quality!

A new one is on its way....tomorrow or Monday.....

This is probably zero use : Not long ago my ISP upped the service speed. I was notified of this upcoming change, but just filed (binned) the letter. Everything crashed, and I had no idea why. After some lengthy nasty tinklering with hardware, then phone calls, a technician came out and tweaked something. All of a sudden all the gadgets were working just as good as ever.

A frustrating experience because I'd had no speed problems in the first place. Getting the ISP to throttle the speed solved all the problems.

10 years sounds almost prehistoric. It would be well worth a few quid to upgrade. Reviews I've read on Netgear have never been very good, though I'm far from expert on knowing what to check. I'd hardwire as much as you can. It's worth reading all the security guff. The wireless laptop I'm using now can detect 8 other signals, 2 of which are flagged as having no security (not that I'd know how to piggyback anybody).

I'm slightly amazed you have all that stuff running on a 10yo router.

"10 years sounds almost prehistoric"

Maybe, but I'm spending many thousands restoring a 43 year old car. When it's done, it'll still be a 43 year old car.

If it ain't broke, I ain't touching it.

Without even asking the model, I'll swap the car for a modem/router. You pay shipping costs on the car .Good grief, I'll even pay for a technician to visit and set up your internet stuff.

Oh ****...you're having some dream about first ever car aren't you . Duct tape and zip-strips is all you get !

Nope, still have it.

So, tell me of the garage...do I need bolt croppers ?

I'm off to bed, but can you taunt us with details ? It looks like serious fun !

Ab well neighbor three to four inches fuzzy rain since supper. All was well before idiot1 installed a steel roof and isolated/seperated the rooms electronically, now need a wifi antenna and CAT5 in each room hardwired from the central receiver just down stream from one of three firewalls. A nice straight forward simple setup with a UPS constant sine wave battery backed so the ornery harmonics of windmills are nil.

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Spam alert.