Developer Forum

Charter has provided me a Surboard SB3100 and it has worked good. I am
going to purchase a modem to save the rental and am looking for
recommendations. I am open to purchasing the modem on eBay.
I live in Rochester MN.

Thanks

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

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.


--
Ron Hunter XXXX@XXXXX.COM

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).

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.


--
Ron Hunter XXXX@XXXXX.COM

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.

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

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 *** soup:

>> 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

http://www.yqcomputer.com/

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 :-)

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.

--
Warren H.

==========
Disclaimer: My views reflect those of myself, and not my
employer, my friends, nor (as she often tells me) my wife.
Any resemblance to the views of anybody living or dead is
coincidental. No animals were hurt in the writing of this
response -- unless you count my dog who desperately wants
to go outside now.
Compare the newest tax preparation software apps:
http://www.yqcomputer.com/

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

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.

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


--
Ron Hunter XXXX@XXXXX.COM

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