Cable modem purchase

SB5100 would be my choice (or any future replacement model) - ie: stay with Motorola.

An SB5100 is like $80 at the store and $50 or so on ebay - same new modem. If you can rent for $3 or under, I would rent and not have to worry about a replacement at some future date and not have to worry about diagnosing failures on my own modem (cause my ISP won't touch it).

A good cable modem will cost you about $50 at a local store. Why bother with Ebay? If you do the math, you will find that renting the modem is probably cheaper. I have had 7 modems in about 5 years. Glad I rent.

Are you sure about that - doesn't make much sense to me why they would provision a modem differently based on ownership.

Exactly why I rent, and being on the 7th modem in about 5 years, I think that at $2.95 a month, I am ahead of the game.

I had a modem, that was included in the "package" for about 4 years. Then last year, I bought a modem, when my ISP changed the network to DOCSIS. Because I own my modem, I get 5 Mb service. If I used the ISP's modem, I'd only get (IIRC) 3 Mb, for the same monthly fee.

Not as much as you might think, and maybe not at all.

While they save the cost of maintaining an inventory, they also loose the revenue meant to offset that cost. Even if they were only breaking-even on modem rental charges, it can make for a larger number in the gross revenue column, which is appreciated by investors who don't (can't) look at the whole picture.

Also, the cost of support likely goes up when dealing with customer owned modems. With a company owned modem, it is easier to isolate a problem because they can simply swap the modem, no questions asked. And when they isolate a problem to a modem that you own, it's your willingness to replace the modem that determines whether you'll continue to be a customer or not. (You may not even believe the problem is your modem!)

Those are just some of the reasons why a big company doesn't encourage modem ownership.

On the other hand, selling modems in stores like Best Buy and Circuit City is a marketing tool. So even if it does cost more to service customers who own their own modems, a portion of that cost can be written-off as marketing expenses. So the hawking of modems by these stores is a good thing. But if you call most MSO's directly, there won't usually be a big push for you to buy your own modem.

Why your MSO wants you to own your modem for the level of service you're subscribing to is difficult to say. But it's not as simple as it being flat-out cheaper for them when people own their own modems.

What's with all these new cable modems you've had?

I'm only on my second cable modem in 5 years, and I got the second one only because it was free with an additional year's contract (which I would have signed anyway bacause it also locked me into a lower rate).

Perce

On 02/08/05 11:57 am Ron Hunter tossed the following ingredients into the ever-growing pot of cybersoup:

I have the"Extreme" service, which requires me to buy my own modem. The the "Express" service includes the modem. My ISP has four service levels, but all are provisioned with the same modem. One of the features of DOCSIS, which allows this, is configurable bandwidth. Also, since Iown the modem, they're no longer responsible for it, which reduces their costs. So, in exchange I get faster service.

A lightening strike took out the ethernet port side of one of my modems. I was glad to see that 'stegosaurus' go :-)

I bought a 4100 when I signed up with Optonline/Cablevision about 4 years ago. Just keeps running fine. FWIW YMMV DFB

"When a legislature undertakes to proscribe the exercise of a citizen's constitutional rights it acts lawlessly and the citizen can take matters into his own hands and proceed on the basis that such a law is no law at all."

- Justice William O. Douglas

When my service switched to DOCSIS, they made us buy modems. My modem got flaky today. Ironically this is a few weeks after I dumped DSL (after having both for a few years), because I decided that cable was reliable enough for me, and faster.

Anyway I'm looking around for a replacement. From this thread, I'm leaning towards an SB5100.

My current Modem is DOCSIS 1, and I use Comcast. Will I actually see any benefit from going to a DOCSIS 2.0 modem? I'm planning to anyway--it doesn't cost much more, and maybe there will be future service upgrades--but I'm curious if I will get the DOCSIS 2.0 performance increase, or any other advantages I'm not aware of.

I searched Comcast's support page, but no joy.

Thanks, David

They have all been replaced because they didn't work correctly after a while.

Actually you can buy the SB5100 for $64 at Walmart. And I guess I view it different that some are expressing. I bought a modem for $40 (after rebate)

4 years ago and it still works fine. At the time Comcast was charging $5/mo to rent. I've paid for that modem several times. And every trouble I've had has been very easy to tell whether it's the modem or not. I'll buy over rent any time.

Maybe, maybe not.

I bought my cablemodem from the ISP last summer. The cost of renting for

18 months adds up to the purchase price, yet the warranty on the (purchased) unit is 24 months. When the warranty is longer than the depreciation period, buying is obviously the way to go.

cheers,

Henry

It isn't.

Already did. I had to buy something new. Turned out everything local cost a lot more than the Ebay prices, but I bought a Surfboard 5100. Of the two shops I went to Frys & Comp USA, it was the only 2.0 modem I found, and it was the only one they had at Comp USA anyway. That made the decision easy, since the alternative was returning to Fry's to spend a little less for a DOCSIS

1 modem in a brand I'd never heard of, or trying a 3rd store.

My understanding is that upgrading from DOCSIS 1.0 to 1.1 or 2.0 really doesn't buy you much at all. You won't gain any speed. If your current modem is working, you're probably wasting your money to upgrade.

$90 + tax. I'm sure I saw them for much lower "buy it now" price on Ebay (with maybe $10 shipping), but waiting several days would be bad. If only this had happened while I still had DSL (a few weeks ago), I would have been happy to wait for an Ebay purchase. Or I may have dropped cable instead. And I had a spare DSL modem, so I would have been prepared if my DSL modem failed.

That is a good modem. And if buying one I'd make sure it was Docsis 2.0. But I doubt it'll do anything the other one wouldn't do. So how much did you have to pay for it?