Subscriber Discussion

Need New Modem And Router

JH
Jay Hobdy
Aug 10, 2017
IPVMU Certified

New office and we want to skip the monthly rental fee for a modem. We are signing up for 150 Mbps download

 

Comcast has a list of approved modems and we are looking at the TP Link TC 7610 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01CH8ZNJ0

 

Thoughts?

 

How about a router? I am not really looking to go crazy on a router, and really do not need VPN at the moment. Any suggestions?

KJ
Ken Jenkins
Aug 10, 2017
IPVMU Certified

Cisco 5506X  $500.00?

Avatar
Brian Karas
Aug 10, 2017
IPVM

I would buy whatever modem Comcast themselves would ordinarily supply.

Ideally your actual modem is just going to be a transparent gateway, feeding some router behind it where you would run your things like VPN, port-forwarding rules, etc.

The reason I say buy the same modem as Comcast's is because when (not if) your service goes down or suffers in some way Comcast is going to tell you everything is good and it must be your modem. To resolve this, you are probably going to drive to Comcast's office, rent their modem for a few days, plug it in and see what happens. If this actually fixes the issue, then you are going to wonder if there is some weird incompatibly now with your aftermarket modem, or not.

To save all the above, just use what Comcast uses, but don't pay them to rent a modem, buy yours outright. Everything should be DOCSIS 3.0, you are not (or, should not) be using any of the 'features' on the modem for wifi or port-forwarding, so for your purposes they are all equivalent.

For a router, it really depends on how complex you want to get. In your case I probably would (actually, have), setup a pfsense box for corporate stuff. I would also setup one of each of whatever you install for customers as well for test/demo networks (you are presumably getting a block of IP's from Comcast?). That way you can test/debug router configurations for customer networks, and give your techs a good sandbox.

 

(1)
JH
John Honovich
Aug 10, 2017
IPVM

Everything should be DOCSIS 3.0, you are not (or, should not) be using any of the 'features' on the modem for wifi or port-forwarding, so for your purposes they are all equivalent.

What about DOCSIS 3.1? I've heard some providers cite that. Does 3.1 really make a difference?

Avatar
Brian Karas
Aug 10, 2017
IPVM

3.1 allows higher download speeds, though 3.0 goes up to something like 350Mbps (forget the exact spec, but it's at least 2x what he is signing up for).

But either way, back to my original point, I would get whatever Comcast would supply him with for eventual troubleshooting purposes. If Comcast is supplying DOCSIS 3.1 modems for his package (I would not expect so), then get that same DOCSIS 3.1 modem.  

UE
Undisclosed End User #2
Aug 11, 2017

I agree with pfsense suggestion. I have used pfsense with Comcast business routers with a range of public IP addresses and assigning internal NAT IP Addresses of Services inside to individual Public IP Addresses outside. Regarding the modem, I bought a Motorola SB6120 SURFboard DOCSIS 3.0 on Amazon 5 years ago for Comcast, and it has performed well.

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Ethan Ace
Aug 10, 2017

I'm the opposite of Karas here. I don't care what the ISP recommends, I always prefer the Arris SURFboard modems. They're more expensive than some, but I have one (SB6183) that has an up time of something like 230 days. By contrast, the TP-Link and other gateways that ISPs like to use tend to crap out on me every month or so. My Verizon gateway, for example, keeps defaulting itself (it's 12 months old). 

I haven't had an issue with tech support having a third-party modem yet. The techs that have come on site all preferred the Arris to their own.

The Arris SB6190 is the latest DOCSIS 3.0 model, ~$100 online. Earlier ones will probably work fine for 150 Mbps, but ISPs have a tendency of just randomly upping speeds as they free up channels lately so it's better to be a bit future proofed. I had Time Warner/Spectrum increase me from 30 Mbps to 150 at no charge and Verizon just doubled my FIOS speed.

There is a DOCSIS 3.1 model in that line, but it's $200 and likely overkill (3.1 has a theoretical download speed of 10 Gbps, though it's probably years til we're there).

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UI
Undisclosed Integrator #1
Aug 11, 2017

I use Arris as well and have had no issues.

UI
Undisclosed Integrator #3
Aug 11, 2017

Not exactly on the topic, but I believe Comcast will also sell a Dynamic IP for business, which they will change periodically, without notice, and the change could happen 1 month or 10 months, no set period, from the start of service.  Static IP's cost more.  Am I right?

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