Cable Modems

[tmiranda]

I need to purchase a cable modem for my new house and know next to nothing about them. Are they all the same? What's a decent cable modem to get and how much do they cost? Browsing Amazon I see them between $40 and $100, what's the difference? My internet provider will be Comcast.

My better half works from home and needs the internet to be fast and reliable.

[fidget]

Comcast should have a list of compatible modems. You can then look on Amazon for one that meets your price and speed requirements. It n my case, the modem provided by Mediacom was terrible (replaced three times and was still dropping the signal) and I haven’t had any problems with the new one.

[trk2]

Look here for a shortened list. If you type in your address, Comcast will supply the full list. Personally I would go Arris. If you search around the web you can find some cable modem reviews and recommendations and the consensus seems to be for Arris.

[samgreco]

Originally Posted by trk2

Look here for a shortened list. If you type in your address, Comcast will supply the full list. Personally I would go Arris. If you search around the web you can find some cable modem reviews and recommendations and the consensus seems to be for Arris.

I went with the Arris as well. Very highly rated. I went with an SB6190 as it is rated for more downstream channels (32) and up to 1.4GBPS.

[tmiranda]

Thanks for the info. I'll look at the Arris.

I'm also looking for whole house MESH WiFi solution. My current home has Cat6 into every room. I think getting that installed in the new house will be cost prohibitive.

The Linksys Velop appears to be highly rated. I just don't know if I trust running all of my extenders, smart TVs, and Sonos boxes on WiFi. I'm spoiled now with the Cat6 connections.

[fidget]

Getting cable run may not be as bad as you might think. The electrician will probably use plenum rated cable and run it through the areas used for your ductwork. If you do go with a mesh network, having each node wired together will give you more flexibility placement. I have a Eero mesh setup and my pantry node was marginal until I connected it to the wired network.

[wayner]

Where possible try to keep as much as possible wired, including WAPs - I would say to only use mesh networks as a last resort. For wifi you could run ethernet to a few strategic ceiling spots and use WAPs there. I strongly recommend Unifi stuff. If you are doing this then you will also need a PoE switch. You may also want to run ethernet to external entrances to facilitate PoE IP cameras for security. I would also run 2-4 LAN drops to where you main AV equipment is and also to a home office if you have a lot of stuff there. But you're right this does get expensive.

[KryptoNyte]

Has anyone ever designed a universal wiring system? There is a cable that consists of, let's say 20 shielded wires. This cable is run to (1) or more recessed wall boxes in each room of the home. This recessed wall box will then be wired with what we'll refer to as a "universal outlet." At the other end of all these cables is an array of these same universal outlet thingies, a manifold so to speak, where all the cables converge, in the basement or some utility room.

That same company then produces small plugs that fit into this universal outlet, connecting some quantity of wires in a specific configuration with a complimenting port, like a coax, ethernet port, or an HDMI port for example (or multiple ports if the 20 wires suits the technology). These plugs are then used in the universal outlets thingies in each room of the home, and at the array end, leaving countless wiring options at the array, and a decent level of future proofing both the technology and the plug options.

I would think that anyone willing to make something like this would have a good sales pitch for any new construction for business, schools, etc.

[wnjj]

Coax is physically very different than twisted pair cat6, for good reasons. While you could make a bundled cable, it will likely have the wrong numbers of what you need with some waste making it more expensive.

Also the closer you parallel wires the more than can interfere with each other.

[KryptoNyte]

Can the interference be overcome by some kind of shielding? What do they do with the cabling now, when they try and run it in the same chase? Are there engineers that can solve these problems?

[NetworkGuy]

I have Comcast and have been using the ARRIS SURFboard SB6190 modem for the past 18 months. I also chose it for the additional download channels. I have been very happy with it.

[wayner]

And there is an Arris SB8200 that supports DOCSIS 3.1 if you have that available in that area. That should help to future proof you a bit more. You will be ready for service > 1Gbps!

[NetworkGuy]

Originally Posted by wayner

And there is an Arris SB8200 that supports DOCSIS 3.1 if you have that available in that area. That should help to future proof you a bit more. You will be ready for service > 1Gbps!

Good point. You should check to see what types of service Comcast offers in your area. Some places will never get to 1Gbps anytime in the foreseeable future.

[davidb]

Originally Posted by KryptoNyte

Has anyone ever designed a universal wiring system? There is a cable that consists of, let's say 20 shielded wires. This cable is run to (1) or more recessed wall boxes in each room of the home. This recessed wall box will then be wired with what we'll refer to as a "universal outlet." At the other end of all these cables is an array of these same universal outlet thingies, a manifold so to speak, where all the cables converge, in the basement or some utility room.

That same company then produces small plugs that fit into this universal outlet, connecting some quantity of wires in a specific configuration with a complimenting port, like a coax, ethernet port, or an HDMI port for example (or multiple ports if the 20 wires suits the technology). These plugs are then used in the universal outlets thingies in each room of the home, and at the array end, leaving countless wiring options at the array, and a decent level of future proofing both the technology and the plug options.

I would think that anyone willing to make something like this would have a good sales pitch for any new construction for business, schools, etc.

I looked for something just like that when we had our house built in 1996! I couldn't find it then so I went with running cat 5 to every wall of every room in the house and in my home office I wired 3 runs to every box and put in multiple boxes per wall. The wall ports have snap in plugs that can switch between rj45 and rt11. The whole thing terminates back to a "wiring" closest with 3 48 port patch panels. I then have short patch cables for the used devices going to 2 24 port network switches. It was a pain to wire but I am glad we did it! If you took your idea and used 20 shielded wires and wanted to run Ethernet on them I would expect you would have crosstalk problems as each pair of an Ethernet cable has a different twist rate.

[wayner]

You can do almost everything over ethernet cabling - but you may need a separate run for HDMI over ethernet and a managed switch to switch everything. If you are interested in a sophisticated system of this sort check out Just Add Power. If you are looking for something more simple you can use cheaper HDMI-ethernet devices from a place like Monoprice.

[dstanley]

Originally Posted by KryptoNyte

Can the interference be overcome by some kind of shielding? What do they do with the cabling now, when they try and run it in the same chase? Are there engineers that can solve these problems?

I would think that this is not much of an issue - take a look at some the combination cables available now:
http://www.scpcat5e.com/bulk-cables-...site-c-93_256/

[KryptoNyte]

Ah hell, it's probably all going wireless anyways, until the scientific community decides it's causing cancer.

Sorry to hijack your thread, Tom.

[BobPhoenix]

Originally Posted by KryptoNyte

Ah hell, it's probably all going wireless anyways, until the scientific community decides it's causing cancer.

Sorry to hijack your thread, Tom.

Link has popups and adds:
https://www.shape.com/lifestyle/mind...n-cause-cancer

Sorry couldn't resist.