[GRLUG] modems etc

[Don Ellis]

Well, I received the postcard from Charter encouraging me to take advantage
of their free modem with no obligation offer. Decided to take them up on it
after all. Went in to retail store front and asked - they just had the
Cisco modem. I accepted it. Took it home. Didn't see in instructions where
I was supposed to plug the computer directly into the modem. Phoned help
line, robot passed me direct to a human, who explained the process. I
plugged it in & copied the numbers into the web page. The router connected
through the modem. When done, reset the modem, then plugged router in again.

Last week during the Solar Impulse flight, I was experiencing a lot of
breakup in the streaming feed. When I did a speed test (while streaming) I
measured 25mbps. Tonight after connecting the modem, I tried the Solar
Impulse videos and they played smoothly. Speed test indicated about 35 mbps
(second trial was 25 mbps, third one back to 35 mbps). I get the impression
there is some other benefit from the DOCSIS 3 besides raw speed.

My bill shows 57.99 for Internet, 25.99 for TV (bundled). With the new
modem, they are switching me to a different plan which will be $2 less per
month. Sounds like a reasonable price to pay! :-)

The clerk at the store indicated I might be able to get a Motorola modem at
another location, about 30 miles away. I decided to put that trip off a
while. First I want to see how the Cisco performs.

--Don Ellis


On Sun, Apr 28, 2013 at 3:22 PM, Don Ellis <don.ellis at gmail.com> wrote:

> I haven't been to Micro Center yet to ask a floor rep, but looked on
> the Web site, finding these responses:
>
>     http://www.microcenter.com/search/search_results.aspx?Ntt=docsis&N=
>
> I don't particularly want a router tied into the modem for $10 extra
> (router fails, so you lose your modem), so I'm just looking at the
> modem-only items (Zoom & Linksys, $30 difference). Using the compare
> feature, I noticed a lot of N/A entries for the Linksys, and some seem
> inconsistent (ex: Linksys has N/A for Network Data Transfer Rate,
> while Zoom shows 10,100,1000). Interesting that the Linksys indicates
> twice the downlink rate, while the Zoom shows twice the uplink rate.
>
> How many on this list have experience with both these modems (or
> either), and just how significant are the differences? (especially,
> are the differences worth $30 in the Linksys's favor?)
>
> [I figure that, before I ask the sales person if Charter will work
> with a user-provided DOCSIS 3, I should know what they have and which
> one I would want.]
>
> --Don Ellis
>
>
>
> On Sat, Apr 13, 2013 at 6:51 PM, Joseph VanDerStelt
> <joseph.vanderstelt at gmail.com> wrote:
> > Charter Rep Here!
> >
> > With Charters "new" 30/4Mbps internet package we now require the
> customer to
> > have a Charter provided DOCSIS 3.0 modem. However, we no longer charge a
> > modem lease fee. The standard rate for the 30Mbps service is 54.99
> alone, or
> > 49.99 when bundled with phone or TV. As far as I know the self
> provisioning
> > will not allow for non-Charter provided modems to be provisioned but I
> > cannot promise that is true. I have seen customer accounts where the MAC
> ID
> > for the modem we provided was not responding and at deeper look there
> was a
> > different device/MAC ID provisioned and their internet seemed to be
> > functioning fine. If you do purchase a modem (and assuming your on the
> new
> > internet package, as the legacy package will allow customer owned modems)
> > let me know if you are able to get it provisioned.
> >
> >
> > On 4/13/2013 6:12 PM, Don Ellis wrote:
> >>
> >> I had heard some time ago that our cable provider (Charter) would
> >> require a new DOCSIS3 to be procured through the Cable Company, but I
> >> didn't believe it, and would be willing to try buying one and
> >> returning it to MicroCenter with a complaint if it turned out to be
> >> true. I prefer to own my own equipment these days, contrary to their
> >> promise that leasing is better than owning. Haven't had enough
> >> failures or other troubles to justify continuing long-term payments on
> >> top of the base rates.
> >>
> >> I have not yet upgraded [most of] my APs - just the main one that I
> >> use as a router, which is a relatively new D-Link. The WRT54G I use at
> >> the other end of the house doesn't seem to be a bottleneck. For the
> >> most part I use hard connections for security reasons. At that end, I
> >> seem to not be getting GigaBIt speeds on several links, which I plan
> >> to diagnose and see if I can correct.
> >>
> >> --Don Ellis
>
> ...
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://shinobu.grlug.org/pipermail/grlug/attachments/20130611/9f08da8f/attachment-0001.html>