Noob networking help

[AMDMike]

Am fairly new to this, always lived with my parents who had fiber, I now have a cable modem from my isp, I been considering a netgear nighthawk DOCSIS any input on those? Also possible for the wood to be interfering with Bluetooth? Wireless keyboard and Xbox controllers seem to be struggling unless they are close to the system 

[Donut417]

38 minutes ago, AMDMike said:

Am fairly new to this, always lived with my parents who had fiber, I now have a cable modem from my isp, I been considering a netgear nighthawk DOCSIS any input on those? Also possible for the wood to be interfering with Bluetooth? Wireless keyboard and Xbox controllers seem to be struggling unless they are close to the system 

As far as Cable modems go. The first thing to do is determine if your ISP has a list of approved modems that they know will work. Secondly Cable Modems use Channel bonding. Thats how they get faster speeds. For example my cable modem has 8 down stream channels and 4 upstream channels or its known as an 8x4 modem. The more channels you have the faster the speeds. Only Docsis 3.1 modems will do Gigabit in most cases, so if you have a Gigabit connection you need a Docsis 3.1 modem. The next thing is most cable operators use Gateways and not standard modems. Gateways have a modem and router built in, Gateways are hot garbage and should be avoided. Always choose a separate modem from router. 

 

Bluetooth is a low range low power wireless standard. I would imagine if the wood is thick/dense enough that it could block the signal. Keep in mind as well that Bluetooth works on 2.4 Ghz which is also used by WiFi. So the two can conflict with each other. 

[AMDMike]

3 hours ago, Donut417 said:

As far as Cable modems go. The first thing to do is determine if your ISP has a list of approved modems that they know will work. Secondly Cable Modems use Channel bonding. Thats how they get faster speeds. For example my cable modem has 8 down stream channels and 4 upstream channels or its known as an 8x4 modem. The more channels you have the faster the speeds. Only Docsis 3.1 modems will do Gigabit in most cases, so if you have a Gigabit connection you need a Docsis 3.1 modem. The next thing is most cable operators use Gateways and not standard modems. Gateways have a modem and router built in, Gateways are hot garbage and should be avoided. Always choose a separate modem from router. 

 

Bluetooth is a low range low power wireless standard. I would imagine if the wood is thick/dense enough that it could block the signal. Keep in mind as well that Bluetooth works on 2.4 Ghz which is also used by WiFi. So the two can conflict with each other. 

Super helpful reply thank you, the modem I was looking at did have a router built in I’ll get ones that are separate then I’ll be able to get the router I wanted originally 

[Donut417]

6 hours ago, AMDMike said:

Super helpful reply thank you, the modem I was looking at did have a router built in I’ll get ones that are separate then I’ll be able to get the router I wanted originally 

One last thing. Stay away from any modem running the Intel Puma 6 chip. The chip is known to have issues. I think mostly this chip was put in to the Docsis 3.0 32z8 modems.