Modem Help

[Arcticfo]

Hey Guys, moving into a new place and setting up a new internet service with windstream... After going through about an hour of support talk with them and a wishywashy answer of whether or not I can use my own modem I have a few questions.  

1st does anyone else have any experience with them, in my area its them or time warner and well... lesser of two evils.

2nd is anyone using there own modem with them such as the Motorola surfboard sb6121? I'm wondering before I purchase it whether or not It's avtually going to work.

[xox]

If you are subscribed to ADSL, then if you have an ADSL Modem, it should work

 

If you just give it a try, it really should not do any harm

[dalekphalm]

Hey Guys, moving into a new place and setting up a new internet service with windstream... After going through about an hour of support talk with them and a wishywashy answer of whether or not I can use my own modem I have a few questions.  

1st does anyone else have any experience with them, in my area its them or time warner and well... lesser of two evils.

2nd is anyone using there own modem with them such as the Motorola surfboard sb6121? I'm wondering before I purchase it whether or not It's avtually going to work.

Do you know what kind of internet it is? DOCSIS 2.0/3.0 Cable, ADSL, VDSL, etc? Hopefully you'll find someone actually on that ISP here because that's the only way to know for sure without buying and testing a modem. Does their website not have an approved modem list?

 

That Motorola modem is quite good. I've used one before, and almost bought it (I use a Thomson DCM 475).

 

If you are subscribed to ADSL, then if you have an ADSL Modem, it should work

 

If you just give it a try, it really should not do any harm

That's not entirely correct in the sense that ISP's can lock out connections based on MAC Address Filtering - In other words, they only accept modems with certain model and firmwares. This practice seems to be a lot more common on Cable though.

[Arcticfo]

Do you know what kind of internet it is? DOCSIS 2.0/3.0 Cable, ADSL, VDSL, etc? Hopefully you'll find someone actually on that ISP here because that's the only way to know for sure without buying and testing a modem. Does their website not have an approved modem list?

 

That Motorola modem is quite good. I've used one before, and almost bought it (I use a Thomson DCM 475).

 

That's not entirely correct in the sense that ISP's can lock out connections based on MAC Address Filtering - In other words, they only accept modems with certain model and firmwares. This practice seems to be a lot more common on Cable though.

Unfortunately they have no compatible modem list, after some digging through there incredibly clunky website I found out that they are a dsl company and the Motorola will most likely not work it being a cable modem and all.  Alright i guess next question being does anyone know of a decent dsl modem with gigabit? 

[dalekphalm]

Unfortunately they have no compatible modem list, after some digging through there incredibly clunky website I found out that they are a dsl company and the Motorola will most likely not work it being a cable modem and all.  Alright i guess next question being does anyone know of a decent dsl modem with gigabit? 

If you're looking to purchase your own modem, then I would actually suggest getting a 1-port Modem and a fully separate Router/Wifi. The modem/router combo boxes aren't that good. There are some "decent" ones like:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833122334&cm_re=dsl_modem-_-33-122-334-_-Product

 

Or anything Netgear or TP-Link really should be alright.

 

But I would actually suggest this:

TP-Link TD-8616 ADSL2+ Modem

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16825165003&cm_re=dsl_modem-_-25-165-003-_-Product

 

combined with something like this:

ASUS RT-N66U

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833320091&cm_re=rt-n66u-_-33-320-091-_-Product

 

Note: The speed package that you get will DIRECTLY affect what modem you can use. For example. ADSL2+ Modems support a max speed of around 24 Mbps give or take a bit (Although in practice, usually around 16 Mbps tops). Anything higher will require a VDSL modem. Good news is most DSL modems are backwards compatible. A VDSL modem generally supports ADSL as well.

[Arcticfo]

the only concern I have about the tp-link one is the lack of Gigabit.  Wont that negatively impact the network speed of the enitre package not just internet speeds?

[menendez1293]

the only concern I have about the tp-link one is the lack of Gigabit. Wont that negatively impact the network speed of the enitre package not just internet speeds?

Yea general file transfer over TCP/IP will suffer. I have ADSL2+ architecture and use an all in one. It's some TP link one that I bought on Amazon for 100 bucks and so far it was worked fine.

Is it great? No far from it. But seeing as ADSL2+ modems are not that simple to find, I'm happy with it. I will say mine has a 4 port Gig switch on it.

[dalekphalm]

the only concern I have about the tp-link one is the lack of Gigabit.  Wont that negatively impact the network speed of the enitre package not just internet speeds?

Depends on your network setup. If you also purchase that ASUS Router that I recommended, then that will effectively remove the potential bottleneck for File Transfers. Basically, computers and devices negotiate the speed of the connection depending who who they're connecting to and where.

 

As an example, you can even take a regular old 10/100 router from back in the days, drop a Gigabit Switch onto it, and plug all your devices into the switch and then the switch into the router... Then all of your devices will effectively be on a Gigabit LAN. All the connections will go through the Switch, except internet. As long as your Internet connection is under 100 Mbps then you'll be fine.

 

Yea general file transfer over TCP/IP will suffer. I have ADSL2+ architecture and use an all in one. It's some TP link one that I bought on Amazon for 100 bucks and so far it was worked fine. Is it great? No far from it. But seeing as ADSL2+ modems are not that simple to find, I'm happy with it. I will say mine has a 4 port Gig switch on it.

As per above, file transfers will only suffer if you're just using a 10/100 Modem. If you add a Gigabit Switch, or a Gigabit enabled Router into the mix inbetween modem and devices, then your File Transfer/LAN performance will be the same as if the modem was Gigabit as well, and only the Internet will be limited to 100 Mbps - which ADSL2+ can't match anyway.