Re: Modem DOCSIS speeds
We are on a very limited income, and have only recently been able to get high speed internet were we live. For me, it is $5 per month to rent a modem, and on ebay, about $10 to BUY a modem. Even if that modem were to break every few months, it would still be cheaper than renting. I would NEVER pay over $20 for a modem, for two reasons. You can get cheap modems on ebay, and modems do break, and unless you have an insanely fast connection, you probably are not ever going to be bottlenecked by the cheapest modem out there. -Jonas On Wed, Jul 7, 2010 at 5:07 PM, Dan dantear...@gmail.com wrote: At 2:04 PM -0700 7/7/2010, Jonas Ulrich wrote: I've also been wondering about this. My provider just wanted a docsis modem, so I paid $10 for the cheapest modem on ebay and am getting 6mbps. I'm going to see if that is the limit of the modem, or if that is my connection. Ok. Technically... DOCSIS 2.0 == 40 Mbps per channel downstream, 30 Mbps up. DOCSIS 3.0 == 200 Mbps per channel downstream, 100 Mbps up. It is rare when a cable company lets you bond multiple channels, so the per channel stuff is mostly moot from your POV. *However* Those are max speeds, based on high quality modems, a *great* signal-to-noise ratio over the coax drop, very few other modems on your drop (coax run down the street), AND a good quality CMTS. The CMTS (Cable Modem Termination System) is the so-called Head End. That is the router that your modem talks to, to make the hop into the cable company's ethernet LAN. (Of course, this ignores various node configurations, where they first convert your coax signal to fiber to get down the big streets etc. It is this approach that makes them Hybrid Networks). - Dan. -- - Psychoceramic Emeritus; South Jersey, USA, Earth. -- You received this message because you are a member of G-Group, a group for those using G3, G4, and G5 desktop Macs - with a particular focus on Power Macs. The list FAQ is at http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-list.shtml and our netiquette guide is at http://www.lowendmac.com/lists/netiquette.shtml To post to this group, send email to g3-5-list@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/g3-5-list -- You received this message because you are a member of G-Group, a group for those using G3, G4, and G5 desktop Macs - with a particular focus on Power Macs. The list FAQ is at http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-list.shtml and our netiquette guide is at http://www.lowendmac.com/lists/netiquette.shtml To post to this group, send email to g3-5-list@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/g3-5-list
Re: Modem DOCSIS speeds
At 9:21 AM -0700 7/8/2010, Jonas Ulrich wrote: We are on a very limited income, and have only recently been able to get high speed internet were we live. For me, it is $5 per month to rent a modem, and on ebay, about $10 to BUY a modem. Even if that modem were to break every few months, it would still be cheaper than renting. Ok. So get two. That way you have the spare to swap in as soon as a difficulty arises. [snip] IN the future, please BOTTOM POST and TRIM -- especially on posts that are ALREADY done that way. What you did was post a convoluted mess that's a totally unfollowable. This is 1% ***NOT*** the way to get good tech support. - Dan. -- - Psychoceramic Emeritus; South Jersey, USA, Earth. -- You received this message because you are a member of G-Group, a group for those using G3, G4, and G5 desktop Macs - with a particular focus on Power Macs. The list FAQ is at http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-list.shtml and our netiquette guide is at http://www.lowendmac.com/lists/netiquette.shtml To post to this group, send email to g3-5-list@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/g3-5-list
Modem DOCSIS speeds
Hi All I'm having a discussion with my son who just got hooked up with Charter in northern Nevada and the lady at the cable company told him the speed he bought is 25 Mbps and she told him he had to have a double throw down modem for this and of coarse for a fee they will provide it. So I told him about a Zoom modem I could get at Fry's for $55.00. well he bought a Motorola at Best Buy for $95.00, I told him the Zoom was faster than his cable and the DOCSIS 3.0 wasn't going to get him any more speed than a DOCSIS 2.0 unit. Who is right here? Below is the specs for the two. Motorola $95.00 * DOCSIS / EuroDOCSIS 3.0-certified * Channel bonding of up to 4 downstream and 4 upstream channels increasing data rates of well over 100 Mbps in each direction * 1 GHz capable tuners * Supports IPv4 and IPv6 to expand network addressing capabilities Zoom $55.00 * Supports DOCSIS 2.0, 1.1 and 1.0 * Delivers speeds up to 42Mbps * Flexible installation on either a USB or Ethernet port * Includes both USB and Ethernet cables * May be positioned either vertically or horizontally *works with all popular cable services including Adelphia, Cablevision, Charter, Comcast, Cox, Insight, Mediacom and Time Warner * Windows, Macintosh, Linux and Unix compatible John Carmonne Yorba Linda USA Sent from my MBP -- You received this message because you are a member of G-Group, a group for those using G3, G4, and G5 desktop Macs - with a particular focus on Power Macs. The list FAQ is at http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-list.shtml and our netiquette guide is at http://www.lowendmac.com/lists/netiquette.shtml To post to this group, send email to g3-5-list@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/g3-5-list
Re: Modem DOCSIS speeds
At 1:14 PM -0700 7/7/2010, John Carmonne wrote: I'm having a discussion with my son who just got hooked up with Charter in northern Nevada and the lady at the cable company told him the speed he bought is 25 Mbps and she told him he had to have a double throw down modem for this and of coarse for a fee they will provide it. So I told him about a Zoom modem I could get at Fry's for $55.00. well he bought a Motorola at Best Buy for $95.00, First - No cable modem will be useful unless the ISP has provisioning data for it. Iffa they don't support it, it won't talk - period. So make sure whatever you get is on their approved list. Next - Strongly consider how much it will cost you when you have a problem, if you own your modem. If you rent the modem and there's a problem, they'll just swap it out as part of the troubleshooting process - minimal downtime. If you own the modem, they'll point to (blame) it every time - and you'll continue to pay for service while exchanging the modem by mail with whatever company and at whatever costs to you - perhaps weeks of downtime. In my experience, myself, and various friends and clients across the country -- it NEVER pays to own your modem. YMMV. IF your cable system says they want DOCSIS 3 then get DOCSIS 3. They aren't going to want to make the whole drop suffer because of a cheap customer. I told him the Zoom was faster than his cable and the DOCSIS 3.0 wasn't going to get him any more speed than a DOCSIS 2.0 unit. Who is right here? Moot. At those speeds, either modem is sufficient. But the cable company may be doing temporary cap boosting and other flow control / quality of service type things that require DOCSIS 3 features. - Dan. -- - Psychoceramic Emeritus; South Jersey, USA, Earth. -- You received this message because you are a member of G-Group, a group for those using G3, G4, and G5 desktop Macs - with a particular focus on Power Macs. The list FAQ is at http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-list.shtml and our netiquette guide is at http://www.lowendmac.com/lists/netiquette.shtml To post to this group, send email to g3-5-list@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/g3-5-list
Re: Modem DOCSIS speeds
On Jul 7, 2010, at 4:44 PM, Dan wrote: At 1:14 PM -0700 7/7/2010, John Carmonne wrote: I'm having a discussion with my son who just got hooked up with Charter in northern Nevada and the lady at the cable company told him the speed he bought is 25 Mbps and she told him he had to have a double throw down modem for this and of coarse for a fee they will provide it. So I told him about a Zoom modem I could get at Fry's for $55.00. well he bought a Motorola at Best Buy for $95.00, If you own the modem, they'll point to (blame) it every time - and you'll continue to pay for service while exchanging the modem by mail with whatever company and at whatever costs to you - perhaps weeks of downtime. In my experience, myself, and various friends and clients across the country -- it NEVER pays to own your modem. YMMV. Emphasize the above paragraph from Dan. Star it, memorize it and chisel it in stone. ANY tech support call will start with--Is there anything in the chain that is not ours? If there is something not theirs, they will want proof that it works before they even got to the Level 1 tech questions like is it plugged in? The hassles your son will go through are not worth the minimal savings he would get by owning his own modem. Not to mention what happens after the first lightning strike takes out the $25 power strip/ surge protector he got from BB and everything connected to it. With a rental, you just take it to the cable company and they swap it out. With his own, well, another schlep to BB and another $95, unless he took them up on their protection racket ^H^H^H^H^H^H plan. Len -- You received this message because you are a member of G-Group, a group for those using G3, G4, and G5 desktop Macs - with a particular focus on Power Macs. The list FAQ is at http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-list.shtml and our netiquette guide is at http://www.lowendmac.com/lists/netiquette.shtml To post to this group, send email to g3-5-list@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/g3-5-list
Re: Modem DOCSIS speeds
I've also been wondering about this. My provider just wanted a docsis modem, so I paid $10 for the cheapest modem on ebay and am getting 6mbps. I'm going to see if that is the limit of the modem, or if that is my connection. Look on ebay though. -Jonas On Wed, Jul 7, 2010 at 1:44 PM, Dan dantear...@gmail.com wrote: At 1:14 PM -0700 7/7/2010, John Carmonne wrote: I'm having a discussion with my son who just got hooked up with Charter in northern Nevada and the lady at the cable company told him the speed he bought is 25 Mbps and she told him he had to have a double throw down modem for this and of coarse for a fee they will provide it. So I told him about a Zoom modem I could get at Fry's for $55.00. well he bought a Motorola at Best Buy for $95.00, First - No cable modem will be useful unless the ISP has provisioning data for it. Iffa they don't support it, it won't talk - period. So make sure whatever you get is on their approved list. Next - Strongly consider how much it will cost you when you have a problem, if you own your modem. If you rent the modem and there's a problem, they'll just swap it out as part of the troubleshooting process - minimal downtime. If you own the modem, they'll point to (blame) it every time - and you'll continue to pay for service while exchanging the modem by mail with whatever company and at whatever costs to you - perhaps weeks of downtime. In my experience, myself, and various friends and clients across the country -- it NEVER pays to own your modem. YMMV. IF your cable system says they want DOCSIS 3 then get DOCSIS 3. They aren't going to want to make the whole drop suffer because of a cheap customer. I told him the Zoom was faster than his cable and the DOCSIS 3.0 wasn't going to get him any more speed than a DOCSIS 2.0 unit. Who is right here? Moot. At those speeds, either modem is sufficient. But the cable company may be doing temporary cap boosting and other flow control / quality of service type things that require DOCSIS 3 features. - Dan. -- - Psychoceramic Emeritus; South Jersey, USA, Earth. -- You received this message because you are a member of G-Group, a group for those using G3, G4, and G5 desktop Macs - with a particular focus on Power Macs. The list FAQ is at http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-list.shtml and our netiquette guide is at http://www.lowendmac.com/lists/netiquette.shtml To post to this group, send email to g3-5-list@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/g3-5-list -- You received this message because you are a member of G-Group, a group for those using G3, G4, and G5 desktop Macs - with a particular focus on Power Macs. The list FAQ is at http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-list.shtml and our netiquette guide is at http://www.lowendmac.com/lists/netiquette.shtml To post to this group, send email to g3-5-list@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/g3-5-list
Re: Modem DOCSIS speeds
On Jul 7, 2010, at 2:06 PM, Len Gerstel wrote: If you own the modem, they'll point to (blame) it every time - and you'll continue to pay for service while exchanging the modem by mail with whatever company and at whatever costs to you - perhaps weeks of downtime. In my experience, myself, and various friends and clients across the country -- it NEVER pays to own your modem. YMMV. Emphasize the above paragraph from Dan. Star it, memorize it and chisel it in stone. With jimmies and cherries and flaming leftover July 4th sparklers on top...What Dan said ^3. One go-round of It's not my modem, honest, I just went and bought a brand-new one and I still have the problem wipes out a year or more worth of modem rental. The key to successful support is ALWAYS Make it Someone Else's Problem; those are the rules they play by, those should be the rules YOU play by. -- Bruce Johnson University of Arizona College of Pharmacy Information Technology Group Institutions do not have opinions, merely customs -- You received this message because you are a member of G-Group, a group for those using G3, G4, and G5 desktop Macs - with a particular focus on Power Macs. The list FAQ is at http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-list.shtml and our netiquette guide is at http://www.lowendmac.com/lists/netiquette.shtml To post to this group, send email to g3-5-list@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/g3-5-list
Re: Modem DOCSIS speeds
On Jul 7, 2010, at 2:24 PM, Len Gerstel wrote: On Jul 7, 2010, at 5:18 PM, Bruce Johnson wrote: The key to successful support is ALWAYS Make it Someone Else's Problem; those are the rules they play by, those should be the rules YOU play by. Why do I get the hint of you being on both sides of this statement at various times? I am like unto the Famous Cat of Schrodinger's...capable of two states simultaneously, until someone nails me down on one or the other option :-) But this is why I rent my cable modem, my cable box, heck, even my cable remote. It breaks, I take it to them and say 'gimme a new one!'; I have a problem: 'Hey everything's stock!, you fix it!' (Also Cox has their special cable remotes that are the only ones to control all the weird featuresI had a third-party one that would *almost* work, except it let you get *into* a certain menu structure, but wouldn't let you *out*.) This is also why my normal troubleshooting procedures are to tell people to get into safe mode, or disable all the startup items or unplug all the extraneous peripherals. There's no way this silly game I installed has anything to do with Office not working, and my normal process when a system suddenly breaks is to see what stuff people have installed on it NOW. -- Bruce Johnson University of Arizona College of Pharmacy Information Technology Group Institutions do not have opinions, merely customs -- You received this message because you are a member of G-Group, a group for those using G3, G4, and G5 desktop Macs - with a particular focus on Power Macs. The list FAQ is at http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-list.shtml and our netiquette guide is at http://www.lowendmac.com/lists/netiquette.shtml To post to this group, send email to g3-5-list@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/g3-5-list
Re: Modem DOCSIS speeds
On Jul 7, 2010, at 1:44 PM, Dan wrote: First - No cable modem will be useful unless the ISP has provisioning data for it. Iffa they don't support it, it won't talk - period. So make sure whatever you get is on their approved list. In the case of my ISP, they have a walk-in center less than a mile from me. I walked-in with my own personal Speedstream modem and their tech guy checked it out on his test bench. Their own Speedstreams are the same as mine, except mine is supposed to be an extended range model. I got it at a flea market for $10. Anyway, I am within the range of a standard range modem and I did not have to enable the extended range feature. It is set by a switch block on the inside of the modem. I have a backup modem which I bought new from Fry's Electronics, and it works just the same. Really, many such modems are commodity items and only in rare cases are special modems necessary. -- You received this message because you are a member of G-Group, a group for those using G3, G4, and G5 desktop Macs - with a particular focus on Power Macs. The list FAQ is at http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-list.shtml and our netiquette guide is at http://www.lowendmac.com/lists/netiquette.shtml To post to this group, send email to g3-5-list@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/g3-5-list
Re: Modem DOCSIS speeds
At 2:04 PM -0700 7/7/2010, Jonas Ulrich wrote: I've also been wondering about this. My provider just wanted a docsis modem, so I paid $10 for the cheapest modem on ebay and am getting 6mbps. I'm going to see if that is the limit of the modem, or if that is my connection. Ok. Technically... DOCSIS 2.0 == 40 Mbps per channel downstream, 30 Mbps up. DOCSIS 3.0 == 200 Mbps per channel downstream, 100 Mbps up. It is rare when a cable company lets you bond multiple channels, so the per channel stuff is mostly moot from your POV. *However* Those are max speeds, based on high quality modems, a *great* signal-to-noise ratio over the coax drop, very few other modems on your drop (coax run down the street), AND a good quality CMTS. The CMTS (Cable Modem Termination System) is the so-called Head End. That is the router that your modem talks to, to make the hop into the cable company's ethernet LAN. (Of course, this ignores various node configurations, where they first convert your coax signal to fiber to get down the big streets etc. It is this approach that makes them Hybrid Networks). - Dan. -- - Psychoceramic Emeritus; South Jersey, USA, Earth. -- You received this message because you are a member of G-Group, a group for those using G3, G4, and G5 desktop Macs - with a particular focus on Power Macs. The list FAQ is at http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-list.shtml and our netiquette guide is at http://www.lowendmac.com/lists/netiquette.shtml To post to this group, send email to g3-5-list@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/g3-5-list
