Cable Modem Replacement

Considering replacing my Xfinity supplied (rented) cable modem with a Motorola MT8733 (cable+wifi+phone), or some other a modem setup that's equal, or more reliable.

My PC (Dell XPS 7129) has a built-in wifi/bluetooth hot-spot feature. I might be able to save a few buck$ getting a cable+phone only modem, instead of the full featured MT8733.

Does this make sense? Any lessons learned? Alternative modem recommendations?

Comments and questions are always welcome.

Cheers... M

One thing to bear in mind when choosing whether or not to own your own equipment is E911 functionality for the voice service. I’m not so much referring to configuration/technical problems with your personally owned equipment as I am power backup.

I believe when you have phone service from Comcast, they install a small battery backup for the landline voice functionality somewhere on your premises. I believe they also replace this battery at no cost to you when it wears out. You may be on your own for this kind of power backup if you supply your own voice-capable gateway box. It’s certainly something to check into if you have children, elderly, or other people in the home for whom landline E911 service may be important.

There are basically two types of cable modems, those with built in router/wifi and those without.

Without a built-in router/wifi you will need to have a separate wifi router that gets the signal from the modem and powers your home network. Your current Motorola is a combo job.

The advantage of not getting a modem with built in router is that it gives you more wifi options, like mesh systems, or upgrading the wifi as standards change, like the many flavors of Wifi 6 and its progeny.

When you get whatever modem you get you have to activate it over the phone with the cable provider, not difficult.

If you have cable telephone, which does not sound like the case, that is generally separate from the data modem and split off from the cable/internet service separately, particularly if wired into existing phone jacks in the house.

You will likely save a lot of money compared to paying monthly for whatever the cable company rents you.

Using a phone based "hot spot" tends to be much slower than cable internet unless you have an uber 5g signal. If you have a data cap on your phone it can be rapidly consumed.

Given the usual inconsistent data stream from cable providers it rarely pays to buy a modem that promises faster speeds than the cable company can actually deliver.

I've used the 8600 for 4 years. Right tool for the job, saved money early in the 2nd year.

But lately Comcast had introduced another one of their bundling tricks - pay 25/month for their "Advanced" router and get unlimited bandwidth free, instead of the $30 I pay. So maybe I'll accept the tradeoff one of these days. But I have no intention of using their wifi.

bmoag said:

If you have cable telephone, which does not sound like the case, that is generally separate from the data modem and split off from the cable/internet service separately, particularly if wired into existing phone jacks in the house.

Click to expand...

[bold mine]

This is most definitely not the case with Comcast/Xfinity. At least in their grater Chicago service area that I’ve been exposed to. The landline voice service effectively comes out of the cable modem/gateway box.

I'm using an MT8733.

I went with it because I wanted a 2.5Gbps Ethernet port, and an integrated VoIP capability. I also wanted a device that Comcast lists as compatible.

(Getting it provisioned for both Internet and voice was painless. Configuring it to allow manually choosing the 2.4 or 5GHz bands was more transparent than for the equivalent Xfinity gateway that I rented for some months.)

I have preferred a separate modem and router in the past, but at the time I bought the "gateway" (June of 2022), I didn't find other options that seemed as cost effective.

I'm happy with the MT8733. At the current $15/month Xfinity modem rental rate, it'll take me a couple of years to recoup its expense. Maybe I'll lose it if I switch to fiber, which is now available in my neighborhood. (Or not. The fiber service is from Frontier.)

BobKnDP said:

(Or not. The fiber service is from Frontier.)

Click to expand...

FWIW, just in case you hadn't heard:

Billiam29 said:

One thing to bear in mind when choosing whether or not to own your own equipment is E911 functionality for the voice service.

Click to expand...

Good point... (there's always something). Thank you... M :-D

Austinian said:

BobKnDP said:

(Or not. The fiber service is from Frontier.)

Click to expand...

FWIW, just in case you hadn't heard:

https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/new...-speeds-ripping-customers-who-paid-high-speed

Click to expand...

Sounds familiar.

But the article is about DSL, not fiber.

When Frontier acquired the local (CT) phone service, their reputation for support was very poor in the first few months.

The phone provider was once SNET (southern New England Telecommunications). Acquired by SBC in 1998. Absorbed by AT&T in 2006. Sold to Frontier in 2014.

My point? Few companies are improved by being turned over multiple times.

BobKnDP said:

Austinian said:

BobKnDP said:

(Or not. The fiber service is from Frontier.)

Click to expand...

FWIW, just in case you hadn't heard:

https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/new...-speeds-ripping-customers-who-paid-high-speed

Click to expand...

Sounds familiar.

But the article is about DSL, not fiber.

Click to expand...

If same company, same management, same business practices.

BobKnDP said:

When Frontier acquired the local (CT) phone service, their reputation for support was very poor in the first few months.

The phone provider was once SNET (southern New England Telecommunications). Acquired by SBC in 1998. Absorbed by AT&T in 2006. Sold to Frontier in 2014.

My point? Few companies are improved by being turned over multiple times.

Click to expand...

Right, as few would buy a company unless they thought their management could increase its profitability. One guess as to the result for the customers...

But perhaps I am too cynical.

Billiam29 said:

bmoag said:

If you have cable telephone, which does not sound like the case, that is generally separate from the data modem and split off from the cable/internet service separately, particularly if wired into existing phone jacks in the house.

Click to expand...

[bold mine]

This is most definitely not the case with Comcast/Xfinity. At least in their grater Chicago service area that I’ve been exposed to. The landline voice service effectively comes out of the cable modem/gateway box.

Click to expand...

Thanks for your comment...

I have a "land-line" phone and an iPhone. Like Chicago, Comcast in my area connects the landline phone to the landline relay system via the cable modem/gateway box. The only modem gateway can consider needs to accommodate the landline due to job requirements.

Comcast compatible modems that serve this purpose without wifi are less expensive than full featured modems that include dual-band wifi, like the MT8733.

In the case of my iPhone connecting to the internet via wifi, my desktop's Win 11 Home PC via SETTINGS>NETWORK & INTERNET>MOBILE HOT-SPOT offers a way to make wifi available as a base at 2.4Mhz, or 5Mhz. Unlike the MT8733, automatic dual band sharing in not available. I'd need to set the PC hot-spot manually, probably 2.4Mhz for maximum compatibility with various other devices (thermostat, older laptop, etc).

Since the PC's hot-spot feature is bought/paid for and included for a reason... can I use a setup that employs the PC's hot-spot feature to fill the gap that's missing from a full featured modem (like MT8733), if I go for a compatible modem that does not have built-in wifi? Or... does the PC based "hot-spot' only serve as a gateway address that continues to need the wifi feature built to be built-in to a full featured, or stand alone wifi device?

Cheers... M :-D

Austinian said:

BobKnDP said:

(Or not. The fiber service is from Frontier.)

Click to expand...

FWIW, just in case you hadn't heard:

https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/new...-speeds-ripping-customers-who-paid-high-speed

Click to expand...

Interesting... Not an issue for me.

My plan with Comcast calls for 800 as my speed. In the past and routinely, after a month or so, Comcast lets me know they've given me a 'free' upgrade to 1000. I run a speed check and sure enough, I'm running 1000 +/-.

When my contract comes up for renewal, they quietly increase the cost of my service to the 1000 level. In turn, I immediately adjust my plan back to 800, there by saving a few buck$. When I recheck my speed after the roll-back, it's still clipping along at 1000+/-.

Cheers... M :-D

Michael Arbor said:

Austinian said:

BobKnDP said:

(Or not. The fiber service is from Frontier.)

Click to expand...

FWIW, just in case you hadn't heard:

https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/new...-speeds-ripping-customers-who-paid-high-speed

Click to expand...

Interesting... Not an issue for me.

My plan with Comcast calls for 800 as my speed. In the past and routinely, after a month or so, Comcast lets me know they've given me a 'free' upgrade to 1000. I run a speed check and sure enough, I'm running 1000 +/-.

When my contract comes up for renewal, they quietly increase the cost of my service to the 1000 level. In turn, I immediately adjust my plan back to 800, there by saving a few buck$. When I recheck my speed after the roll-back, it's still clipping along at 1000+/-.

Cheers... M :-D

Click to expand...

Sneaky devils.

I'm at Xfinity's highest data rate for my area, so they're not pushing upgrades on me, so far. Maybe once they offer 2Gbps...

The one oddity I dislike is that they have my IP location in Massachusetts. (I'm actually in Western CT.) Fortunately, I don't do any internet activity so far that is geographically restricted (like online gambling). The data rates I see go up to 1.2X the advertised ones, so I'm not complaining. (And probably getting no benefit.)

Michael Arbor said:

Austinian said:

BobKnDP said:

(Or not. The fiber service is from Frontier.)

Click to expand...

FWIW, just in case you hadn't heard:

https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/new...-speeds-ripping-customers-who-paid-high-speed

Click to expand...

Interesting... Not an issue for me.

Click to expand...

Or me.

Michael Arbor said:

My plan with Comcast calls for 800 as my speed. In the past and routinely, after a month or so, Comcast lets me know they've given me a 'free' upgrade to 1000. I run a speed check and sure enough, I'm running 1000 +/-.

When my contract comes up for renewal, they quietly increase the cost of my service to the 1000 level. In turn, I immediately adjust my plan back to 800, there by saving a few buck$. When I recheck my speed after the roll-back, it's still clipping along at 1000+/-.

Cheers... M :-D

Click to expand...

I just have Spectrum's basic 300 Mbps, which is more than sufficient for our needs. We could save some money with T-Mobile's 5G home internet, but the little contract clause that says we might get 'deprioritized' in favor of mobile traffic makes me nervous.

One thing that has prevented me from buying my own cable modem is that my provider (Comcast) regularly upgrades the communication technology and to take advantage of those faster speeds, they require me to switch to a new cable modem (that they send me without me paying additional).

If I owned my own modem, I'd have to somehow stay abreast of the tech changes and decide when it was to my advantage to buy a new modem and which modem would actually contain the new tech.

Plus, picking and configuring a modem is a lot more complicated if you also have voice service (which I do).

jfriend00 said:

One thing that has prevented me from buying my own cable modem is that my provider (Comcast) regularly upgrades the communication technology and to take advantage of those faster speeds, they require me to switch to a new cable modem (that they send me without me paying additional).

Click to expand...

DOCSIS 3.1 has been the standard for quite a long while - a decade. The 3.0 ones are still technically rated for 1gps, though it deliver less at the 1g or 600m plans.

jfriend00 said:

If I owned my own modem, I'd have to somehow stay abreast of the tech changes and decide when it was to my advantage to buy a new modem and which modem would actually contain the new tech.

Click to expand...

Aside from the slow trend towards 2.5 gig connections (important as Comcast is now a 1.2g service in most places), not a lot going on here. I don't want to use the router as the wifi AP.

jfriend00 said:

Plus, picking and configuring a modem is a lot more complicated if you also have voice service (which I do).

Click to expand...

Fewer common options, but unless you spring for their end end offering, you can buy a better modem than the ISP will provide. And with their high end, you pay to power a community hotspot, plus any potential legal concerns about perverts using it (far fetched in Cal, but I wonder in unconstitutional Florida) to commit child porn crimes.

I paid $180 for the MB6800 4 years ago. That's over $600 in rental fees.

Comcast advertises millions of hotspots, meaning their customer's routers.

However, they allow customers to disable the guest feature. (It's enabled by default.)

When I was using their "gateway", I didn't like that its default was to autoselect the band for each WiFi device. There was a single login. Finding out how to have separate logins for the 2.4 and 5GHz bands was a little difficult, but it can be done.

I may never recoup the cost of the MT8733, but at least I have the satisfaction of paying Comcast $180 per year less by avoiding the rental.

I’ve mentioned this in some prior threads here, but it seemed relevant to drop into this one as well.

None of the major cable internet providers in the U.S. allow individual users to update the firmware on their cable modems. All cable modem devices connected to the provider’s network are the provider’s responsibility to update where firmware is concerned. This is true regardless of whether you own the equipment or rent it from the provider. It’s one of the reasons why the providers will only activate devices on their “approved” lists.

So in this one particular regard, the difference between owning and renting is “a wash.” This probably isn’t a huge deal for most people. However, someone somewhere may be thinking “at least I’d be able to update it” when considering the owning vs. renting question when the reality is actually, no, you won’t in either case.

kelpdiver said:

jfriend00 said:

One thing that has prevented me from buying my own cable modem is that my provider (Comcast) regularly upgrades the communication technology and to take advantage of those faster speeds, they require me to switch to a new cable modem (that they send me without me paying additional).

Click to expand...

DOCSIS 3.1 has been the standard for quite a long while - a decade. The 3.0 ones are still technically rated for 1gps, though it deliver less at the 1g or 600m plans.

Click to expand...

How do you know what you need for a particular provider and when there's some advantage to upgrade your hardware? I don't dispute that you know these things, just that they aren't things I know or know how to know.

kelpdiver said:

kelpdiver said:

If I owned my own modem, I'd have to somehow stay abreast of the tech changes and decide when it was to my advantage to buy a new modem and which modem would actually contain the new tech.

Click to expand...

Aside from the slow trend towards 2.5 gig connections (important as Comcast is now a 1.2g service in most places), not a lot going on here. I don't want to use the router as the wifi AP.

Click to expand...

I don't use their wifi API either. I currently get 950Mbps down. Of course, I only have 1G switches anyway running on old Cat5 house wiring from 1999 so that's probably my limit anyway unless I upgrade my infrastructure.

kelpdiver said:

kelpdiver said:

Plus, picking and configuring a modem is a lot more complicated if you also have voice service (which I do).

Click to expand...

Fewer common options, but unless you spring for their end end offering, you can buy a better modem than the ISP will provide. And with their high end, you pay to power a community hotspot, plus any potential legal concerns about perverts using it (far fetched in Cal, but I wonder in unconstitutional Florida) to commit child porn crimes.

Click to expand...

What's an "end end offering"? What does a "better modem" get you?

I disable the community hotspot. That whole thing is a hack.

Even as a user, if I want to use a community hotspot elsewhere, I have to given them my xfinity credentials, but I have no idea if it's a "real" xfinity hotspot or not so you never know if you're just handing your credentials to a pirate. Does anyone actually use those things?

--
John

I have internet only with Comcast. When I look at my bill I don't even see a charge for the xfinity box. Do they even charge a rental fee when you only get internet?





--
Bill - Beverly Hills, MI
Motorsports Photography
www.billgulkerphotography.com