Modem and Routers?

orange150

orange150

Well-Known Member
Joined
Mar 20, 2005
Location
Fairfax City, VA
Any recommendations here? I've got TWC/Spectrum/Charter/Whatever, we have their mid level internet package which is... 50(?) mbps. I DO NOT rent their equipment, obviously. We don't play video games or anything, just watch TV shows and movies through the typical streaming services.

We've been having issues with our service lately, calling them every time we have an issue. They've come to the house, reran our lines (for free), did something on the pole (for free), and sent pings or whatever every time we have an issue. They've finally said it's probably something with my equipment. So fine, I'll replace it I guess.
 
What modem are you using now? What issues are you having?

I have a SB6121 at the house that's not doing anything. You're welcome to try it out and see if it fixes your issue, but I'd be more inclined to think that you have an issue with wifi speeds, rather than a problem with the modem. Netflix soaks up the entire 2.4GHz band at our house, to the point where I put it on its own 5GHz channel. I'd rather have it hard-wired, but the fire stick is wifi-only.
 
This is outside my realm of expertise but...

1) Read on here several years ago that routers are throw aways...buy a $100 unit at Best Buy and get a new one every 3-ish years. I hate throwing parts at stuff, but it's worked so far
2) They actually have a 100mbps offering that's only a couple bucks more a month. They have 300mbps as well, but that requires like $300 for install.
3) Spectrum actually has a couple class action suits out there if you search. Where advertised internet speed isn't what customers are actually getting
4) If you're still actually under a TWC contract, you're probably getting screwed. Up until about 2-3 weeks ago my dad was under a TWC contract, service had been intermittent for a month or two before that on tv and internet. He was flat told (through whatever customer service channel he used) that Spectrum was supplementing Spectrum requirements with TWC resources, so it was to be expected. Not sure on the validity or how any of that works, but as soon as he switched to a Spectrum contract, problems went away. My buddy had a similar scenario 3-4 months ago. When I moved 5 months ago, I was told it would be a better idea to open a new account with Spectrum than to transfer my service because the TWC stuff would be getting phased out.
 
UTfball68 said:
1) Read on here several years ago that routers are throw aways...buy a $100 unit at Best Buy and get a new one every 3-ish years. I hate throwing parts at stuff, but it's worked so far
Click to expand...

Wifi routers usually cook themselves. When they're dead, they're dead.
 
We were having outage issues when using their equipment. I bought our own modem/router for the house and the office. Haven't had any issues since replacing equipment. We are paying for 60 down and 10 up (actual is 95 down and 20 up). However, if you have business class internet, they do not allow you to use your own modem anymore.

Netgear N300 WiFi Cable Modem Router Model C3000

Easy to setup and good for up to 300Mbps. I've got the extra one sitting here on my desk (yes, I'm trying to sell it to you). $30 and I'll send it priority mail.
 
UTfball68 said:
This is outside my realm of expertise but...

1) Read on here several years ago that routers are throw aways...buy a $100 unit at Best Buy and get a new one every 3-ish years. I hate throwing parts at stuff, but it's worked so far
2) They actually have a 100mbps offering that's only a couple bucks more a month. They have 300mbps as well, but that requires like $300 for install.
3) Spectrum actually has a couple class action suits out there if you search. Where advertised internet speed isn't what customers are actually getting
4) If you're still actually under a TWC contract, you're probably getting screwed. Up until about 2-3 weeks ago my dad was under a TWC contract, service had been intermittent for a month or two before that on tv and internet. He was flat told (through whatever customer service channel he used) that Spectrum was supplementing Spectrum requirements with TWC resources, so it was to be expected. Not sure on the validity or how any of that works, but as soon as he switched to a Spectrum contract, problems went away. My buddy had a similar scenario 3-4 months ago. When I moved 5 months ago, I was told it would be a better idea to open a new account with Spectrum than to transfer my service because the TWC stuff would be getting phased out.
Click to expand...


If you had a contract with TWC, it is now void. I went through this about a month ago.
 
I wouldn't recommend buying any gear until he describes exactly what the problem is, and when it occurs.
 
Modem is an Aris, model# SB6121
Router is a TPLink, model# TL-WR841N

It will just quit, and then a restart gets it going again. There's no specific frequency to it, it seems to be pretty random. I reset both when it happens, so I'm not entirely sure if it's just the router or the modem.

We use chromecast as well which seems to have a pretty hard time with the router, it doesn't like being too far away. Our house is load bearing masonry too, not sure if that plays any part to it. It's only 1100sf but it doesn't seem to have too good a reach.

Edit: by quit I mean no more transfer of data, I will still get full frequency from the router to my devices.
 
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orange150 said:
Our house is load bearing masonry too, not sure if that plays any part to it.
Click to expand...

It plays a huge part in day-to-day transfer speeds. Wifi is basically only line-of-sight, even in gypsum walls. It'll go through walls, and it'll bounce off of them, but there are big signal losses, especially on the 5GHz band.

orange150 said:
Edit: by quit I mean no more transfer of data, I will still get full frequency from the router to my devices.
Click to expand...

So you can transfer data between devices on the network, but you have no more internet connection? Do the lights on the modem go out? The top four lights on the modem should be illuminated if it's connected to the network.

You can also plug a laptop directly into the modem (might need to manually set the IP to a 192.168.100.xxx address), and connect to 192.168.100.1 to see the modem control panel. That'll tell you if it's staying bonded on all channels, what the SNR is, how many packets have been lost, etc.

Did the techs actually check your signal strength or anything like that?
 
Get a new modem. I've had a few 6121s that have had frequent reset problems after a few years of use. I got a 6141 and solved it (so far). It's also slightly higher throughput for the same speed package.

That Netgear C3000 is a solid all-in-one unit, I bought one for the mother in law and it's been great. Perfect for your 50meg package because it's only got 8 downstream channels.

You're limited to just over 100 meg of real-world speed with any 8 channel router, which is why the 16 channel 6141 is a good choice if you were on a faster speed package. For your package I'd buy something cheap and then get something better when the Docsys 3.1 infrastructure is finally rolled out by the cable companies at much higher speeds.
 
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shawn said:
So you can transfer data between devices on the network, but you have no more internet connection? Do the lights on the modem go out? The top four lights on the modem should be illuminated if it's connected to the network.
Click to expand...

What I mean is, I can still receive a full signal from the router on my phone, computer, chromecast, but have no more internet connection.

shawn said:
You can also plug a laptop directly into the modem (might need to manually set the IP to a 192.168.100.xxx address), and connect to 192.168.100.1 to see the modem control panel. That'll tell you if it's staying bonded on all channels, what the SNR is, how many packets have been lost, etc.
Click to expand...

I'm going to have to google what all of that means, and means for me.

shawn said:
Did the techs actually check your signal strength or anything like that?
Click to expand...

They did for their line yes, and all is good now. They found an issue earlier this year which is why they ended up doing something on the pole. Then after another round of calls they came and reran the cable in our house (just the one for the modem). Now that I'm still having issues is why they are saying my equipment might be faulty.
 
orange150 said:
... I DO NOT rent their equipment, obviously. ...
Click to expand...

Just FYI- Under the new Spectrum brand, they no longer charge a separate Modem rental fee, so there's no financial gain to buy your own equipment. I was a major proponent of dodging the itemized modem rental fees as well.

Additionally, their advertised internet speeds are now supposedly the minimum and not 'up to'; theyre going to send a tech to my house because i have 90-92 mbps as opposed to the 100 they advertised. :lol:



The overall system performance under Spectrum seems to be much better than what I formerly observed under TWC.

They also have given up on whole house DVR, acknowledging that the former TWC system was garbage and have also done away with the massive Dinosaur relic DVR boxes from Sci Atlanta.



As to the wireless router selection, I got an ASUS router as a recommended result of a thread on another site, and liked it so much i bought another one for another house. Both have been absolutely flawless, rock solid, and was the easiest router setup ever. I bought an older model that runs about $20 on amazon, and it runs as fast as needed on as many devices as we can throw at it.
 
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They don't charge for the modem but it is $5/month extra for them to supply a router, but if it shots out its not on you.

Sent from my LGL56VL using Tapatalk
 
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