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Should I Buy a Cable Modem?

C

Carbo

Diamond Member
After some recent connection issues, Comcast upgraded me to their latest modem, TG1682G. It's their dual band model, and as big as a car radiator. A bit of an exaggeration, of course. . .
Anyway, got me to wondering about buying my own. Save the $10/mo rental fee, save some desk space, and ideally increase performance. Seems that the Surfboard modems are at that top of most lists, the 6141 and the 6183.
Worth the purchase? I'll be using it with a Netgear R7000 router.
Thanks, all.
 
Although I've expressed my opinion in your other thread, I will link it here so others can find it when searching this topic. I'm hoping others will chime in as well. Security improvements aside, the modem will pay for itself in less than a year (in most cases), and who doesn't want more money?
 
I bought my own SB6183 cable modem for TWC service. I also have the R7000 wireless router.

Why pay them $10 to rent a unit every month for years and years, when I can buy one for $90 and be done with it?

Pretty simple math: Break even after 9 months, save $10 a month after that.
 
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The 6183 has numerous complaints about running very hot. Any concerns with this in your experience?
 
Carbo said:
The 6183 has numerous complaints about running very hot. Any concerns with this in your experience?
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Nope. It is roughly the same as the SB6141 it replaced. I just have it sitting on a shelf and I haven't had any heat issues, or any issues for that matter. The SB6183 is the one I'd go with as it is more future proof.

I had only just broken even on buying my SB6141 late last year when Google announced Charlotte was selected to get Google Fiber.

Within a month of that announcement, Time Warner sent me a letter that my 50/10 Mbps speeds were now miraculously upgraded to 300/20 Mbps at the same price I was paying.

The SB6141 was limiting me too roughly 100 Mbps down, so for the faster speeds I needed the SB6183.
 
UsandThem said:
. . .
I had only just broken even on buying my SB6141 late last year when Google announced Charlotte was selected to get Google Fiber.

Within a month of that announcement, Time Warner sent me a letter that my 50/10 Mbps speeds were now miraculously upgraded to 300/20 Mbps at the same price I was paying.

The SB6141 was limiting me too roughly 100 Mbps down, so for the faster speeds I needed the SB6183.
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Coincidence, I'm sure. 😀
 
Carbo said:
Coincidence, I'm sure. 😀
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I'm sure. Time Warner is known as such caring and generous company (They even have commercials to tell us that fact).

There is no way they did that so all of us wouldn't jump to Google Fiber once it was up and running. 😉
 
Make sure the device you are interested in is supported for your speed tier. I actually recommend getting a modem for a higher tier for future-proofing. FWIW, the SB6183 is not compatible with the Extreme 250 tier. I bought a Netgear CM500-100NAS as it is compatible with all tiers, residential and business.
 
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I recently replaced my SB6121 with a SB6190 to hopefully future proof myself for a longer time period. It will service their highest speed tier just as will the Netgear AnonymouseUser bought but it did cost considerably more.

After being a huge Netgear fan for many years I had two of the same model router from them go south on me and it kind of turned me against their products.

Personally, I find it's hard to know what is the right and wrong thing to purchase these days based on my having bought highly touted Asus routers that have the wireless cutting out for reasons that seem to be impossible to determine.

But having said that, owning your own modem is mostly a no-brainer. You can do a self install without even having to call them these days. All you need is your account number and the phone number tied to the account. A web page will open, you enter that information and within a minute you'll be on your way. At our winter residence I swapped several times between the 6121 and the 6190 and never had to give them a call.
 
Up front costs vs. ongoing rental fees. It's really that simple.

If you can afford to save money in the long run, why not do so?

Also, the modem you buy will probably not have that "xfinitywifi" guest network set up, so you know randos won't be leeching your bandwidth. (I know it's all encrypted, but that stuff creeps me the ef out.)
 
UsandThem said:
I bought my own SB6183 cable modem for TWC service. I also have the R7000 wireless router.

Why pay them $10 to rent a unit every month for years and years, when I can buy one for $90 and be done with it?

Pretty simple math: Break even after 9 months, save $10 a month after that.
Click to expand...


This. I bought the SB6183 Oct 2014 when it was first released. I've already made my money back and it was bought at nearly msrp of 2014.
 
UsandThem said:
The SB6141 was limiting me too roughly 100 Mbps down, so for the faster speeds I needed the SB6183.
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In what way were you limited? I have 75mbit internet and I have yet to find a site that actually uses it. When I download videos from youtube it only runs at 30mbit even with 8 simultaneous connections.
 
This is a no brainer. I get 20 down and 1 up from Time Warner and spending $30 shipped on a used SB6121 off Ebay has paid off handsomely. It paid for itself in only 3 months and everything after that was gravy.
 
sm625 said:
In what way were you limited? I have 75mbit internet and I have yet to find a site that actually uses it. When I download videos from youtube it only runs at 30mbit even with 8 simultaneous connections.
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I have two teenagers who it seems are connected to 10 different things at once. Between their Xbox Ones, their computers streaming their games and games they are creating, HD Youtube and their cell phones on wi-fi, my wife streaming HD Netflix or Prime movies, it all adds up.

Plus, if I'm already paying for the higher speed, why not utilize it? At 100 down, the network struggled at times if we were all at home on our gadgets. 300 down, not even a hiccup.

Plus, I just sold my SB6141 for $20 less than I paid for it at Amazon Warehouse Deals.
 
sm625 said:
In what way were you limited? I have 75mbit internet and I have yet to find a site that actually uses it. When I download videos from youtube it only runs at 30mbit even with 8 simultaneous connections.
Click to expand...

I have 150mb/s fiber and I often find myself using my entire bandwidth, either on game installs or various other downloads. It isn't all that difficult.

Updating Starcitizen for example I can easily hit 18.5MB/s+ I pay for for 18.75MB/s so that's about as good as it's gonna get.
 
The more speed the better!

NIOD4sa.jpg
 
I got my own, currently at the second upgrade but it's not probably 4 years old. Not sure if upgrading it to a new one would matter or not, if anything a better router would likely be the wiser choice.

Anyways, it's wiser to just get your own, no sense in renting one.
 
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