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I rent the router/modem/telephony gateway modem from Comcast. I have set up probably hundreds of wifi networks for home users over the years, and so it might se

I rent the router/modem/telephony gateway modem from Comcast. I have set up probably hundreds of wifi networks for home users over the years, and so it might seem odd that I spend money monthly with my ISP (Comcast) for something I could easily replace for a couple hundred bucks or less. But I have reasons. 1) I work from home. When my internet goes down, everything grinds to a halt. When I call my ISP, I want their first words to be "we are having an outage" not "we can't help you because you're not using our supported hardware." 2) When the router inevitably dies, I can take it down and get another one without too much trouble on the same day. 3) It actually works. Nicely. Why would I want to screw that up and give myself one more thing to configure/tweak to death? No thanks. I have real work to do. Until this thing gets in my way, it stays.

Wowfunhappy 7y ago
> When I call my ISP, I want their first words to be "we are having an outage" not "we can't help you because you're not using our supported hardware." I grew up in a Comcast house, and now live in a Time Warner apartment. Both with their own modem and router. I have never had either ISP say "we can't help you because you're not using our hardware." This includes one time when it actually was my hardware—the modem was bad—and Time Warner sent a tech over, and I was somewhat embarrassed. I almost don't want to post this because I don't want to give them ideas. :)
- geocrasher 7y ago
  I worked for a Comcast contractor once. I've seen the ugly side of it, and don't have the time/energy to worry about it.
driverdan 7y ago
> When the router inevitably dies, I can take it down and get another one without too much trouble on the same day. Which is typically more frustrating than going to a local store and buying a new one. > It actually works. Nicely. Why would I want to screw that up and give myself one more thing to configure/tweak to death? No thanks. I have real work to do. Until this thing gets in my way, it stays. There are plenty of routers that require minimal configuration to "just work."
- geocrasher 7y ago
  > Which is typically more frustrating than going to a local store and buying a new one. Not here. I call in, explain the troubleshooting I've already done. The rep agrees that It's Dead, marks my account. I go to the local store, hand them my old one, they hand me a new one, and I come home and plug it in. Couldn't be easier, all things considered.
gruez 7y ago
>When the router inevitably dies Is this a common occurrence for people? I literally have 0 routers/modems break on me. I upgrade them before they break, and I'm not replacing them a few years either. The router before my current router was a 802.11g router.
- rosseloh 7y ago
  The primary reason my shop keeps basic routers in our stockroom is because we have plenty of customers whose equipment died. Sometimes it's ancient, sometimes it's a year or less old. Is it common? Maybe not, and you're right there, especially not compared to some of the other stuff we sell (hard drives, oh boy). But it's definitely not unheard of.
- LasEspuelas 7y ago
  Even if it doesn't die, customer support will claim that any problems with the internet, are with your router. That's how they keep me paying for the rental.
- jschwartzi 7y ago
  Yeah every $100 router+wifi+modem combo I've ever bought starts dropping connections after a couple years. I spent 3x as much money on my current setup and am having no issues with it after year 3.
- hyperman1 7y ago
  In general,1 modem per year dies on me. The rep considers that normal. Now these things run hot, so one year I put a timer in there so it was only powered on when I was home and not sleeping. 6 months and 4 modems later, I decided to remove the timer.
  - jandrese 7y ago
    Oh yeah. If you have a device that runs hot and you power cycle it a lot you're going to stress the heck out of the connections on the board. Every time it heats up or cools down you're putting pressure on the connectors until they eventually break.
the_jeremy 7y ago
Comcast has a list of "supported" modems and routers. I've never had issues with those. They cost $100 ea, and I've had them for 3 years now. Also note, if you use a comcast-provided modem, it will by default have an "xfinitywifi" network that it also broadcasts, which anyone with an xfinity account can connect to, using your bandwidth. You can opt out, but this is "one more thing to configure/tweak".
- tssva 7y ago
  The "xfinitywifi" uses bandwidth provisioned for its use and not the bandwidth provisioned for your use.
  - the_jeremy 7y ago
    Fair. It does not contribute to your data caps or your provisioned speed with comcast. It does still use your router channels and provides the owner with zero benefit, so I don't understand why you'd ever allow it.
    - geocrasher 7y ago
      Zero benefit how? As a Comcast customer I can travel all over the place and connect to WiFi at high speed as long as I simply sign in once with my device, which authorizes my MAC address.
      - smabie 7y ago
        Yeah but you'll never connect your own xfinity wifi point. Even if you use xfinity wifi there's zero reason to not turn off the feature from your home router. Tragedy of the commons, etc etc
    - gizmo686 7y ago
      Because you like to use xfinitywifi and would feel bad disabling it while freeloading off of those who left in on.

Wowfunhappy 7y ago

> When I call my ISP, I want their first words to be "we are having an outage" not "we can't help you because you're not using our supported hardware." I grew up in a Comcast house, and now live in a Time Warner apartment. Both with their own modem and router. I have never had either ISP say "we can't help you because you're not using our hardware." This includes one time when it actually was my hardware—the modem was bad—and Time Warner sent a tech over, and I was somewhat embarrassed. I almost don't want to post this because I don't want to give them ideas. :)

geocrasher 7y ago
I worked for a Comcast contractor once. I've seen the ugly side of it, and don't have the time/energy to worry about it.

driverdan 7y ago

> When the router inevitably dies, I can take it down and get another one without too much trouble on the same day. Which is typically more frustrating than going to a local store and buying a new one. > It actually works. Nicely. Why would I want to screw that up and give myself one more thing to configure/tweak to death? No thanks. I have real work to do. Until this thing gets in my way, it stays. There are plenty of routers that require minimal configuration to "just work."

geocrasher 7y ago
> Which is typically more frustrating than going to a local store and buying a new one. Not here. I call in, explain the troubleshooting I've already done. The rep agrees that It's Dead, marks my account. I go to the local store, hand them my old one, they hand me a new one, and I come home and plug it in. Couldn't be easier, all things considered.

gruez 7y ago

>When the router inevitably dies Is this a common occurrence for people? I literally have 0 routers/modems break on me. I upgrade them before they break, and I'm not replacing them a few years either. The router before my current router was a 802.11g router.

rosseloh 7y ago
The primary reason my shop keeps basic routers in our stockroom is because we have plenty of customers whose equipment died. Sometimes it's ancient, sometimes it's a year or less old. Is it common? Maybe not, and you're right there, especially not compared to some of the other stuff we sell (hard drives, oh boy). But it's definitely not unheard of.
LasEspuelas 7y ago
Even if it doesn't die, customer support will claim that any problems with the internet, are with your router. That's how they keep me paying for the rental.
jschwartzi 7y ago
Yeah every $100 router+wifi+modem combo I've ever bought starts dropping connections after a couple years. I spent 3x as much money on my current setup and am having no issues with it after year 3.
hyperman1 7y ago
In general,1 modem per year dies on me. The rep considers that normal. Now these things run hot, so one year I put a timer in there so it was only powered on when I was home and not sleeping. 6 months and 4 modems later, I decided to remove the timer.
- jandrese 7y ago
  Oh yeah. If you have a device that runs hot and you power cycle it a lot you're going to stress the heck out of the connections on the board. Every time it heats up or cools down you're putting pressure on the connectors until they eventually break.

the_jeremy 7y ago

Comcast has a list of "supported" modems and routers. I've never had issues with those. They cost $100 ea, and I've had them for 3 years now. Also note, if you use a comcast-provided modem, it will by default have an "xfinitywifi" network that it also broadcasts, which anyone with an xfinity account can connect to, using your bandwidth. You can opt out, but this is "one more thing to configure/tweak".

tssva 7y ago
The "xfinitywifi" uses bandwidth provisioned for its use and not the bandwidth provisioned for your use.
- the_jeremy 7y ago
  Fair. It does not contribute to your data caps or your provisioned speed with comcast. It does still use your router channels and provides the owner with zero benefit, so I don't understand why you'd ever allow it.
  - geocrasher 7y ago
    Zero benefit how? As a Comcast customer I can travel all over the place and connect to WiFi at high speed as long as I simply sign in once with my device, which authorizes my MAC address.
    - smabie 7y ago
      Yeah but you'll never connect your own xfinity wifi point. Even if you use xfinity wifi there's zero reason to not turn off the feature from your home router. Tragedy of the commons, etc etc
  - gizmo686 7y ago
    Because you like to use xfinitywifi and would feel bad disabling it while freeloading off of those who left in on.