About ready to buy Cable Modem...now, help me!

[Larry_OHF]

You heard me!
I am getting hooked up, baby!My wife gave me permission to buy it after I told her I got a good raise at work today.
So...Let me tell you what I have on my side to consider.
I do not have TV in my house, so the house is not wired for Cable.
Also, I know I need a cable modem...but...what is the best one???
Next...should I hold out for a special deal or something?
How much money am I looking at for installation?
Can I do it myself?

[fable]

The first thing is to find out what's available in your area. Check your Yellow Pages, since you're in the US.

Speak to some representatives. Find out what the speed is that you can expect. They'll probably give you some numbers which reflect upload time, and download time; bear in mind that the download part also represents any info going to your screen, so that's the more important figure. Remember to find out if their figures specifically apply to your address. Reps are not above blithely quoting you a standard number which sounds great, but only applies to a small radius around their headquarters of a mile or two.

Hope that helps. [img]smile.gif[/img]

[MILAMBER]

I don't know how things work where you are, but out here, if you sign up, they give you a modem, all you have to do is install it. You will for sure need to have cable ran to the house, but I would imagine that the cable company will do that for free. I personally have had both, and if DSL is available, I'd go with that. Cable tends to get slow at certain times of the day. Also DSL providers are doing better financialy right now so there is less of a chance of having to change companies down the road.

[Larry_OHF]

Thank you both for that wonderful information.
Question...what is the price difference on DSL vs. Cable ?

[slackerboy]

just posting because i have to (respectfully) disagree with milamber.
I had both running at the same time one two computers side by side. and while it is true that the cable would slow down sometimes, at its slowest point it was 50% faster than the dsl. and it was rare for it to get that slow. it was normally twice as fast as dsl. i told my dsl company to stuff it. love my cable. but i am changing company's next month. but it is just going to change over to my cablecompany' own service. so we dont expect problems.

[Larry_OHF]

quote:

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Originally posted by slackerboy:
just posting because i have to (respectfully) disagree with milamber.
I had both running at the same time one two computers side by side. and while it is true that the cable would slow down sometimes, at its slowest point it was 50% faster than the dsl. and it was rare for it to get that slow. it was normally twice as fast as dsl. i told my dsl company to stuff it. love my cable. but i am changing company's next month. but it is just going to change over to my cablecompany' own service. so we dont expect problems.

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Interesting input...thanks!
In my area...a few people have Road Runner. They claim it to be the best. Should I trust them to have done thier homework on it?

[LennonCook]

If u want the best one, do ur own research by asking representitives, and manufacturers. Also retailers can be helpful sometimes. You shouldnt trust these other people because although it may be best for them, your needs/ wants may be entirely different. So the best way is to do ur own homework- but dont just block out everything they say either. LIsten to it, but dont treat it as gospel.

[fable]

I was quoted roughly comparable figures for DSL and cable. The main difference was that the DSL connection would have been faster on upload, but the cable was faster on download. By a difference of up to three or four times.

So I went with cable, roughly two years ago, and haven't regretted it since. It's about 360 or so, letting me here high quality music on the web, too.

I'm also getting cable on Monday. I just called up the nearest cable company, and they'll come over and do everything themselves, I have to pay a lump sum of about 150 dollars and they sort out the rest.

I really would advise calling a company and not doing it yourself.

[Ladyzekke]

quote:

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Originally posted by Larry_OHF:



Interesting input...thanks!
In my area...a few people have Road Runner. They claim it to be the best. Should I trust them to have done thier homework on it?

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Yes Larry, I've used Roadrunner before at my old house (don't have it where I live now) and they are a good cable provider. Give em a ring, they'll tell you what you have to pay for hookup. Yes, they'll have to run the cable. Sometimes they have deals for free installation, or a month free, etc., but if you don't want to wait I can understand that They hook up your modem for ya, set up your computer for e-mail, etc., and when they leave you are ready to roll! They also usually give you the option to rent the modem (only a few bucks a month) or you can buy it for like $200.00 or so. Depending on your area, the bill should run between $40.00-$50.00 per month.

Either way, you will LOVE having cable modem, and will wonder how you managed to live without out it! You can have multiple websites up at the same time, listen to music, run video clips, no lag no waiting no worries! [img]smile.gif[/img]