Modems

[Kerry F]

I was wondering how many people have bought their own modems instead of rent from the Internet provider.  I wonder how good the quality of their rental modems is.  For instance, could a better quality modem have a better wireless component to it?

Also, has anyone ever heard of even if you have a higher Internet speed, but an older computer with an older wireless card in it, it will not go above about 20 megs.  I just upgraded to 40 megs and have much faster speeds on my laptops, that are fairly new, but my desktop that is a 2009 still only gets about the same speed it got with the 20 megs and it's only six feet from the modem.

[Deborah M.]

My cable company started charging rent on my modem and it pissed me off.  I bought a new one on Amazon, figured it would pay for itself instead of renting one from the cable company.  Works fine, was easy to install.  I don't know about the other stuff.  Makes sense, though.

[Kerry F]

What brand did you buy?  I hear the Motorola ones are good.

[Janiece Young]

I have AT&T Uverse.  So if I purchase a modem, I would still have to pay them something for access to internet; right?

[Kerry F]

You save the $7 or $8 a month they charge you for modem rental.  I good modem costs about $100.  Look at your bill.  I'm sure there's a monthly modem rental fee in addition to your monthly service.  I'm only thinking of buying my own modem because I think the modem CenturyLink rents out doesn't have good wireless connectivity.  My speed keeps going up and down.  Since I upgraded from 20 megs to 40 megs a week ago, my up and done speeds have been even worse.   I was getting nowhere with customer service so I finally called their corporate offices in Louisiana today and now they're doing something about my Internet issues.   But I got such a good rate from CenturyLink.  Comcast is just outrageous on their prices now.  If you have really good, consistent Internet connection, look into that Ooma device for your phone service.  It costs about $120 to $150 for the box, 24/7 customer service, and will cost you about $5 month for 5000 minutes of talking.  That's 83 hours on the phone.  I sure don't talk that many hours on the phone.

[Mary Jo Cochran]

If you have really good, consistent Internet connection, look into that Ooma device for your phone service.  It costs about $120 to $150 for the box, 24/7 customer service, and will cost you about $5 month for 5000 minutes of talking.

 

I got Basic Talk.  The box was about $20 at Wal-Mart, and $10.00 a month for unlimited talk.  It is owned by Vonage.  I'm happy with it.

[Kerry F]

Mary Jo,

You know, I had tried Magic Jack Plus and Net Talk Duo.  They both gave me problems after one week of use.  Magic Jack is online chat for customer service, which I spent 90 minutes trying to resolve it.  Incoming calls would go right to VM and my phone quit ringing.  Net Talk I could never get them to email me back or call me and I had to replug it in and reboot it every morning to get it to work.  I think Comcast did something to block them.