Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
OK folks. So I'm using some pretty old equipment at the moment. I've flip flopped back and forth a few times from cable to dsl and back and in the process I've just managed to hang on to my original equipment from the first pass.
My cable modem is circa 2004 ish....i think. My cable provider just gave it to me and it doesn't even have a brand name on it so I have no idea what it even is.....
My wireless router is a D-Link something or other from around the same time.
I think.....they may be a little past their prime.
I have no idea what is good or bad in current technology. Would anyone mind schooling me a little on the subject? Or possibly provide a good recommendation for replacements.
Call your provider and see what they recommend, usually a docsis 2 or 3 modem. The router you may want to replace as well if your old one doesn't support at least WPA, WPA2 is preferable, I recommend the Netgear WNR3500L.
Personally I wouldn't use a combo device, if one side fails you have to replace the whole thing, and you may not be able to find one with all the features you want or someplace local that has one in stock if yours dies. But if you find a good deal on one that you can live with I don't see why not.
ATT/SBC offers the all-in-one modem/router device. I think it's called 2-wire. It's a good device.
Oh, and don't upgrade JUST BECUASE the stuff is old. Let's face it DSL modems haven't changed much. I still have a real old one... it was really high quality back in the day but it is old. Still works fine for me, though.
It certainly will not improve speeds at all to get a new device.
Maybe a new router for newer security options as Dave suggested, but the modem should be fine.
There are new standards in cable modems now. DOCSIS 3.0 seems to be the latest.
I'm not counting on a huge boost in speed but I do want to get the most out of my current connection.
I guess I just started thinking about this recently because I had a bundled service package through my cable company (Phone/Internet/TV) and decided to end my landline service because we use our cell phones for pretty much everything....even if we're sitting next to a landline phone. My cable company provided the modem because of the phone line out. So they wanted it back when we discontinued the service. Fine by me because I've got a cable modem already.....
....so I swap out the modems and for whatever reason the signal seems a little less reliable than it did previously....especially when I'm playing online games on the Wii. I keep dropping the connection in the middle of matches when before it hardly ever happened. I have a direct connection adapter for the wii so I don't have to use Wifi for it. I'm thinking about trying that out to see if it makes a difference.
My router has been a little flakey lately as well. I keep having to reset it.
Last edited by drjones96; 03-31-2011 at 10:56 AM..
DSL CABLE doesn't matter, my friend. It really hasn't changed. Everything I said regarding DSL, just switch DSL to CABLE.
Seriously.
DOCSIS whatever... it has NOT changed that much at all to make it worth the expense.
A 5 year old cable modem will provide everything a brand new one does.
I Wii, I PS3, I have an iPhone, a Droid and a Laptop all using an old modem. Everything works great.
I did have to upgrade my wifi router since I got a Vista laptop but I am still using the same old 5+ year old modem.
OK folks. So I'm using some pretty old equipment at the moment. I've flip flopped back and forth a few times from cable to dsl and back and in the process I've just managed to hang on to my original equipment from the first pass.
My cable modem is circa 2004 ish....i think. My cable provider just gave it to me and it doesn't even have a brand name on it so I have no idea what it even is.....
My wireless router is a D-Link something or other from around the same time.
I think.....they may be a little past their prime.
I have no idea what is good or bad in current technology. Would anyone mind schooling me a little on the subject? Or possibly provide a good recommendation for replacements.
Thanks.
If it ain't broke, don't fix it. I'm still using an eight year old Speedstream 5100a DSL modem. The thing is a powerhouse. Never drops a connection. I've had several newer modems, that were total crap. They dropped the connection all the time. I don't know what I'm going to do when this thing dies.
Am I wrong in thinking we could go out and buy the most up to date hardware and we'll still be throttled by our ISPs???
They'll still cut you down to what your paying for, at least comcast does.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
