Mad at the concept, but at least it’s off by default. Had Xfinity for 2 years and was running my own modem and router anyway, so I’m all set if I decide to switch back at this point
Get your own gateway. Don’t rent theirs.
You can buy cable modems cheap, too. No reason to use their crap at all.
“cheap” is a relative term.
Nobody should be buying a DOCSIS 3.0 modem these days. They are obsolete and for some reason still being sold.
A decent DOCSIS 3.1 modem is at least $200. A Next Gen like S34 is at least $220. At least at the big blue big box store. And then you have to get your own wifi.
(However, that big blue store also will give you a 15% discount on any networking purchase if you recycle an old network device…I traded in an old modem but you should be able to find a switch or router at a thrift store and still come out ahead)
It pays for itself pretty quick (by not paying rental fees), but that doesn’t necessarily make it cheap.
I absolutely prefer using my own equipment, and do…but it’s also worth mentioning that in many markets, Xfinity removed data caps if you have a rented modem.
Rental? How much is rental?
It looks like DOCSIS 3.0 and 3.1 are for coax which should be avoid anyway . VodafoneZiggo is already starting with DOCSIS 4.0.
In my neighborhood you get a choice between coax or nothing.
5G modems are probably an option.
Edit: never said it was a good option, just that it was an option.
While that may be “an option”, 5G sucks compared to coax service.
Both are inferior to fiber by a long shot, but wired will always be better than cellular, which is limited spectrum and inconsistent.
As others have said, highly location dependent.
I switched from Xfinity to T-Mobile 4 years ago because tmobiles speed (raw speed) blew Xfinity out of the water…especially for upload. Latency and jitter suffered a bit but not enough to greatly effect voice calls. It didn’t help my online gaming skills, but likely would’ve if I were a higher-caliber gamer. For me, the latency between chair and gamepad was much more impactful.
However Xfinity did some upgrades in my area and the roles have reversed so I’m back to Xfinity. Tmo is still absolutely usable, but Xfinity now offering 250mbps upload makes my mouth water.
I used docsis 3.0 and it worked just fine. So why not?
Because docsis 3.0 standard is nearly 20 years old at this point and 3.1 is significantly faster. Docsis 3.1 is only 15, but 4 (which is still 8 years old) probably isn’t supported by your ISP yet. But the speed difference is quite noticeable. 3.0 will theoretically do 1gbps down, and 100-200 up, but 3.1 could do 10 down and 1gbps up. In the age of symmetrical fiber internet those upload speeds are dire. 3.1 realistically gets you a symmetrical gig connection.
If a DOCSIS 3.0 modem still can’t be saturated by the tier of internet someone is paying for, what advantage would 3.1 have?
Yeah I recently switched from cable to fiber (finally available), and prior I was using an old as fuck modem/router that capped at 500Mbps. My internet at fastest was 380. I rarely transfer files over the network, so figured why bother? (I did have Gen1 Google Mesh though to cover dead spots). I had a bit of a shopping splurge when I got fiber. Nothing crazy, just an upgraded mesh and a switch (Why the fuck does Frontier provide an ONT with 8 ethernet ports but only one is active?)
If your provider has implemented it (Comcast is the only one i know of in north america) then Active Queue Management is a huge quality of life improvement that you won’t know you were missing unless you already had a router that implements queue management. https://www.cablelabs.com/blog/how-docsis-3-1-reduces-latency-with-active-queue-management
At least in my case, my DOC IS 3.0 modem was having connectivity issues. My neighbor in another apartment had similar issues: dropped connections, slower than expected speeds, etc. Switching to DOCSIS 3.0 modems solved the problem. I guess Comcast upgraded their hardware and it wasn’t compatible with my modem anymore
