ATT & Cable Modem

[need4spd]

Need cable modem (AT&T Sacramento Area)
(I will be purchasing a cable modem in the next day or two)

questions:

LAN based system or USB??

Are there any brands to "stay away" from or are they all pretty much the same.

Too many choices....3com, motorola, Linksys, Toshiba 1100U or RCA

Any advice appreciated

 

[Kingofcomputer]

for sure, motorola's cable modem has both usb and lan ports.

 

[need4spd]

Hey thanks...

So Motorola is the good brand?

Is LAN connection better then USB.....?

 

[skriefal]

The Ethernet/LAN connection is better supported, and will work with any operating system you can throw on your machine -- Windows 95/98/ME/2K/XP, Linux, FreeBSD, etc. The USB connection is most likely going to work only under Windows.

Also, the USB bus is limited to 12mbps bandwidth. If you're in the midst of a heavy download and want to do something else involving the USB bus -- i.e. print, download digital photos, etc -- the heavy load placed on the bus by the cable modem could dramatically slow down those tasks. Or those tasks could noticeably affect the download speed. Either way, an annoyance.

Plus I'm just more inclined to trust an Ethernet connection over a USB-based "network" connection. A decent 10/100 PCI network card can be found for $10; the added reliability and speed is worth the small cost.

 

[need4spd]

skriefal
--
Nice comments .. thanks.

LAN seems the way to go...

Any suggestions of a brand of Modem I should consider..?

 

[skriefal]

I'll have to leave modem recommendations to others. I'm still using the 3Com "Sharkfin" modem provided to me by MediaOne (now AT&T). I thought about buying my own modem to save the $10 monthly rental fee, but with the recent uncertainty in the cable modem field I decided to wait...

 

[Kanalua]

Can you use both the USB and the LAN outputs?

 

[Kingofcomputer]

no, you only can pick one to use for internet,
but the motorola cable modem spec says you can use usb port for the computer accessing internet and use the lan port to connect to another computer to form a lan with this computer (the modem is acting as a hub/switch).

 

[TheMabbi]

need4spd, don't sweat it, the brand doesn't matter at all, they're all pretty much the same. Just get whichever is cheapest 😉

 

[blstriker]

Get a lan/rj45 based one so you can use a router if you choose to do so. The throughput from both usb and rj45 are much more than your cable modem so bandwidth should not be a concern unless you got some crazy fast line. I mean crazy fast!

 

[need4spd]

Thanks...