Question Need Modem and Router Recommendation Please

[dfellows5]

Hello, I have a question on modem and router needed.
My 2 teenage grandchildren have now had to move in with my wife and I permanently and the original cable company box will not cut it with the Wi-Fi needed. Spark light cable company Gig Ultra internet with up to 1000 Mbps down and 50 up for up to 30 devices. We do not have any tv service we stream form Firestick. We will now have 4 streaming tv’s with Firestick and or Roku boxes, 4 cellphones, 4 computers, 2 PS 5’s and 4 iPad or Kindles not at same time of course or hope not lol.
The home is an older 1960’s single story brick 1800 SF home with 1 bedroom remodeled from a carport so it has a brick wall between living room and bedroom.
I am 65 and have been away from the up-to-date computing/networking arena for a while now.
Am looking at buying a new modem and separate router and am looking toward the NETGEAR - Nighthawk AX5200 WiFi 6 Router Model:RAX48-100NAS and ARRIS - SURFboard 32 x 8 DOCSIS 3.1 Cable Modem Model:SB8200. I don't think I have any devices that use WIFI 6 but I think they are backwards compatible.
Any ideas on this setup or any better recommendations? Thanks for any help.

 

[Tech Junky]

Modem - MB8600
Router - doesn't need to be wifi
WIFI - NWA210AX ~$160/ea - 2 in the house / 1 I'm the car port (run Ethernet to it)

If you really want to future proof things Netgear has a 6E AP out now with 10% off at $360/ea and you should be set for awhile and get to use uncongested 6ghz channels.

 

[JackMDS]

Given the actual reality in the last decade 'Future Proofing" is more of a "Human Psychological factor" than anything to do with the functional world of Technology.

Given your environment and the amount of Streaming etc. that you anticipating.

I would stand alone Modem as mentioned above, and one less expensive Wireless Router like this.

https://www.amazon.com/TP-Link-WiFi-AX3000-Smart-Router/dp/B09G5W9R6R/

Then, if it works.. "Hooray", Otherwise, get an addtional WIFI Aces Point installed in best loaction that would ensure the best coverage of WIFI in the domicile.

 

[mike8675309]

Cable companies generally have to provide a modem for free these days. I have Charter/Spectrum and they supplied a Spectrum D3.2 ES2251 DOCSIS D3.1 device. I have 400MB service with them and I simply connected it to a Nest Wifi router that meshes out to 2 access points.

I also have dedicated circuits connected to my office and TVs through a MicroTek CRS317-1G-16S+RM switch.

Everything just works.

 

[Tech Junky]

Cable companies generally have to provide a modem for free these days.

Butt they don't typically outside of any new customer sign up. First 12 months get you hooked and then comes the $15-$20/mo rental fee.

Same with the box / DVR. Equipment adds a good chunk of cost to your bill if you don't keep an eye on it.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

First off above is correct, some people was passed where isps can’t charge or charge as much for the modem. Regardless they typically are pretty cheap at Best Buy or wherever.
I have a google Wi-Fi which is called nest Wi-Fi, very simple setup, very easy to manage. Everything is done thru a phone app.
Finally…..

HOLY LURKER OP

 

[JackMDS]

Well the whole thing really vary (just like the Future proof).

My next door neighbor has Spectrum, the so called free Modem is adding $10 to the monthly bill.

He has it for 3 years, so... he paid already $360 for a Mediocre gizmo that might be worth $90 purchaser new.

To make the point...

I have a Verizon service Fios 1 GB Internet Land line anf TV. Cost $99 a month.

I have a second Verizon service in an other location 50 miles away.

Fios 200 mb + Land line, NO TV. Cost $139 a month.

So.. which one should I recomend.

 

[Tech Junky]

@JackMDS

It's all about franchise agreements / competition. If the incumbent doesn't have to compete then the price is higher but, not excessively.

E.G.
Cable co charges $100/mo for 1gig plan until telco moves in with fiber and offers it at $70/mo.... CC drops the price tc compete / retain customers. LTE /%G moves into the same area and offers $50/mo.... not so much matching going on there yet but, still get 400-500mbps+ depending on distance to the towers / capacity.

Way back when these franchise agreements were drawn up exclusivity / monopolies weren't as big of a deal and cities wrote them up to allow a single carrier in a specific region. Then US GVT broke up Bell / ATT into regional entities.... that didn't last that long though.

Anyway... moral of the story is buy a modem / router / AP and retain your data instead of letting the CCCo sell it. The items you buy will last longer than the junk they put in your house. The only perk to paying $10/mo for it is they replace it on demand if it dies. I've been running the modem I'm using currently for 5+ years though so..... that's at least $600 in fees I've avoided for a modem that cost me ~$150....that's a multiple of 4X.

I cut the cord on the TV side as well a few years back and built a DVR / OTA solution and download the rest. That's another $100/mo in savings to pay for the system I built.

 

[dfellows5]

First off above is correct, some people was passed where isps can’t charge or charge as much for the modem. Regardless they typically are pretty cheap at Best Buy or wherever.
I have a google Wi-Fi which is called nest Wi-Fi, very simple setup, very easy to manage. Everything is done thru a phone app.
Finally…..

HOLY LURKER OP
View attachment 58592

Yeah I use to do a lot of reading when needed to find answers. LOL

 

[mindless1]

@JackMDS

E.G.
Cable co charges $100/mo for 1gig plan until telco moves in with fiber and offers it at $70/mo.... CC drops the price tc compete / retain customers. LTE /%G moves into the same area and offers $50/mo.... not so much matching going on there yet but, still get 400-500mbps+ depending on distance to the towers / capacity.

Unfortunately this does not always cause the less than 1Gb plans to drop in price. Mine (Spectrum) has only risen, year after year despite the telco offering 1Gb fiber in the area since a few years ago.

 

[Tech Junky]

Unfortunately this does not always cause the less than 1Gb plans to drop in price. Mine (Spectrum) has only risen, year after year despite the telco offering 1Gb fiber in the area since a few years ago.

Then you need to be the squeaky wheel and complain more.

When prices were coming off the promo price I went to the forum for Comcast and complained and got a retention deal for $89/mo vs the retail $120/mo and locked in for 24 months. Prices have come down though since then and w/ tax it's actually $5/mo cheaper now.

 

[JackMDS]

Most of the decision about services' price etc. have nothing to do with Technology.

In NYC thee is mainly two competitor. Spectrum and Verizon.

Both start around same price. Spectrum No contract low price that Keep rising every year or two as long as One is using their service.

Verizon Contract service and more steady price. Internet is a Nice Giga but thier TV service is a real a Scam.

Spectrum Internet sucks as compare to Verizon. However their TV service is Better.

People choose according to their needs. So Spectrum still "chunking"be cause for most people what ever they over in Internet is good enough. Almost all resident in NYC live in small to medium size places in Apt buildings.

These days we do not need to understand anything about cars, you choose according to dog breed that is placed in the commercials.

My favorite Golden Retrievers. In not my favortie car.

 

[mindless1]

Then you need to be the squeaky wheel and complain more.

When prices were coming off the promo price I went to the forum for Comcast and complained and got a retention deal for $89/mo vs the retail $120/mo and locked in for 24 months. Prices have come down though since then and w/ tax it's actually $5/mo cheaper now.

Already tried, they won't budge. I'm on a grandfathered plan, was offered higher speed at a slightly lower price with free modem for a year, but then after that year promo, price goes up higher than what I'm paying, and I lose my grandfathered plan and pay more every year after... plus like most of us I have my own modem so free modem for a year is no benefit, just pointless exercise in swapping modems twice. They would not deduct anything for my having my own modem under their promo offer.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

Already tried, they won't budge. I'm on a grandfathered plan, was offered higher speed at a slightly lower price with free modem for a year, but then after that year promo, price goes up higher than what I'm paying, and I lose my grandfathered plan and pay more every year after... plus like most of us I have my own modem so free modem for a year is no benefit, just pointless exercise in swapping modems twice. They would not deduct anything for my having my own modem under their promo offer.

simply churn the account. Internet providers haven’t learned people don’t like paying more for less as in the “new” packages are typically faster speed & lower cost or even more channels. Nobody likes paying more for less especially when you have been doing business with them and paying on time consistently.
Simply have your wife/roommate or whoever sign up for new service because they will be moving to your home soon and schedule the cancellation for the same day.
I’ve done this many, many times with fios and comcast.
Shitty game but they made the rules.

 

[Tech Junky]

@mindless1 @Fanatical Meat

Churn is one route but if yo reach out to "retention" they will get the best pricing / terms and sometimes even better than new customers at times. There's usually a handful of offers they can apply to your account so, if one isn't appealing enough then ask if there are any other options.

The retention game though typically means you have to play the game of threatening to cancel service to get to that dept. Sometimes you'll get a CSR that's all too happy to just cancel your services though without consulting retention for possible offers. Usually the first offer is some bonus premium channels that they have in house HBO/MAX / SHO/TMC or Starz depending on the cable company. Reject that and get to the meat of the issue being the internet pricing.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

@mindless1 @Fanatical Meat

Churn is one route but if yo reach out to "retention" they will get the best pricing / terms and sometimes even better than new customers at times. There's usually a handful of offers they can apply to your account so, if one isn't appealing enough then ask if there are any other options.

The retention game though typically means you have to play the game of threatening to cancel service to get to that dept. Sometimes you'll get a CSR that's all too happy to just cancel your services though without consulting retention for possible offers. Usually the first offer is some bonus premium channels that they have in house HBO/MAX / SHO/TMC or Starz depending on the cable company. Reject that and get to the meat of the issue being the internet pricing.

Rarely will you beat a new customer offer. There is a zero percent chance they will send you a $75/100/200 prepaid debit card. I am unique to this stuff because I have worked in telecom, retention in telecom and sales.
If whatever carrier is happier paying best buy or some reseller a commission for me to churn my account so be it. They made the rules.

 

[mindless1]

I've already checked this, called suggesting I may have to cancel. They don't even offer the plan I have on their site, best they will do is the faster plan (which is on their site) at nearly the same price, will transfer the account to the new customer promo rate for a year, then it rises above what I currently pay after a year.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

I've already checked this, called suggesting I may have to cancel. They don't even offer the plan I have on their site, best they will do is the faster plan (which is on their site) at nearly the same price, will transfer the account to the new customer promo rate for a year, then it rises above what I currently pay after a year.

My current insulting offer from fios account management is:
A) 150 up/down for $25 more a month. Giga is $40 more…..
B) 2yr commitment for the same price…..yay no price increases for 2 years. What a crap offer
C) 50 up/down (which is less than my 100/100) for $5 MORE per month.

Ill just churn the account when Disney+ expires and get 300 or 400 up/down for $40.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

I've already checked this, called suggesting I may have to cancel. They don't even offer the plan I have on their site, best they will do is the faster plan (which is on their site) at nearly the same price, will transfer the account to the new customer promo rate for a year, then it rises above what I currently pay after a year.

One underhanded thing you can do but it requires steel balls and I witnessed this happen when I was in wireless. Call started off with a trainer who was taking some calls while I was observing. Call in for something trivial, get the answer and say “This was great, I want to get a message to the supervisor”. Make sure you get that person live not voicemail. Wait for whatever amount of time it takes.
Compliment that person, tell them how wonderful they manage their staff and you expected the call to be horrible. Ask to speak to the next up, repeat until you get as far as possible and this may end up in a voicemail box but that’s okay. Director and above will never say “No”. Tear into that person about new customer rates being insultingly low compared to what you pay and you love how everyone values your business when you call because they better. You pay twice (or more) for half (or less) the service. If message leave a call back number and end with “I expect this to get resolved”.

Yes I witnessed most of that in my early wireless days. Dude got to a VP.
The VP named it “the rope a dope call strategy” and had a senior manager call back to offer some ridiculous deal.

 

[Fallen Kell]

Well, back to the issue at hand here. I suggest looking at a wifi router that supports DD-WRT or other open source firmware. The big reason is that as soon as next year's model is created, most companies ramp down all support for the previous model. I have seen many that have support for updated firmware stop within less than a year of it being released. You are then stuck with a router that has potential security vulnerabilities and leaves you vulnerable to attack. I have wifi routers with DD-WRT on them that are over 18 years old and still can update them (the 18 year old one is simply being used as a wifi bridge putting a printer that only has a RJ45 network port on my wireless network).

Also, don't be afraid of getting a WiFi 5 router. WiFi 6 really did not add anything that you could not do under WiFi 5. It mainly just added a more simpler way to create a mesh (something that could be done on routers that supported DD-WRT/OpenWRT using the wireless repeater mode). But even then I would never advocate for using mesh mode then or now, as all it does is take away from the limited WiFi bandwidth (a real problem in many neighborhoods and especially in apartments/condos/townhomes). It is always much better to run a wire to the additional wifi access points if more than one is needed for coverage.

And as has been stated above already, you will most likely require a wire run into that converted garage bedroom to provide network services there. Brick does a very good job of stopping wifi signals, and there will simply be no way around this. Given it is brick, you will also not be able to easily just run a wire into the room, so I suggest looking at replacing some of the trim around/near the door so that you can use one of the many products that include a cable pathway contained within the trim (look for something like "half round cable raceway" or "quarter round cable raceway"). Or you can try seeing if you can use a powerline ethernet adapter, or even a coax adapter.

 

[lakedude]

Good advice being given so far. We live in a 2 story 2300 sf home that is fairly compact with no internal brick walls. Our $50 wifi router had trouble in the farthest downstairs bedroom but the newer $100 wifi router easily and reliably covers the entire house including the downstairs bedrooms.

The newer high-speed, higher frequency signals actually have shorter range...

Where does your internet signal come in?

The closer devices can run the newer high-speed signal and the farther devices should be reached by the legacy signal.

Does your current wifi get decent reception in the brick bedroom? If so I think one wireless access point would do the trick. You can always run a wire and add a second.

You might put the wireless close to the brick room.

If you are running wires anyway will all the devices in the brick room take a wire? If so you might just put a network switch/ hub in there...