[SOLVED] Recommendation for cable modem, router, & wireless equipment

[TexasFig]

My wife & I built our home "out in the country" 15 years ago, so we have been stuck with various satellite internet providers which max out at ~15mps. When we built the house (on 6 acres), we wired the house with Cat6 throughout -all run to a central location with a cheap, unmanaged TP-Link, 24-port gigabit switch. The modem for the satellite ISP is run into port 24 of the switch. We also ran Cat6 from the switch to the 2 "out buildings" on the property. Each out building has it's own wireless router (cheap Linksys N600) to help extend the wireless range beyond the house.

The house is a 1 story, 2800 sqft "split design" (meaning 1 BR and study are on 1 side of the house, 3 other BRs are one the other side of the house). We do all of our TV watching by streaming (Firestick). In addition, I am wanting to get a DIY home security system w/ at least 3 cameras (the cameras will all need to use Wifi as I don't want to run cat6 to where they will be located).


2 days ago...

Suddenlink (aka Altice) decided to run their cable service to our area - the cable actually terminates on the pole in my front yard. They have a terrible reputation for customer service, BUT they can provide service up to 1 gb (and if we get only the internet service, it's not a terrible price). I'm planning on calling to have them install the service tomorrow (Black Friday!).

(now to the question)
I know that I am much better off buying my own cable modem router - which according to them, needs to have DOCSIS 3.1. Doing google searches for which one I buy has left me somewhat glassy-eyed.

1. Do I get a stand-alone cable modem, or do I get a modem with the wireless built-in?
2. Which one?

 

[USAFRet]

Look on their recommended list of cable modems, and buy one of those.
Whatever router behind that....all up to you.

 

[kanewolf]

Look on their recommended list of cable modems, and buy one of those.
Whatever router behind that....all up to you.

@TexasFig, this is the correct answer, and downvoting it does not change that. The ISP has control of the modem. They will have a list of modems they will support for each level of service. You want to purchase from that list.
You do want a separate modem and router.
The choice for a router depends on budget and desire to manage it. For a high budget setup, you can use the UniFI system from Ubiquiti. You would replace your unmanaged switch with a managed POE switch and add WIFI access points throughout the house to provide WIFI. You would replace the routers in the out buildings with APs. You would get a single dashboard to manage it all.
IMO, WIFI security cameras are garbage. WIFI was not designed for the criticality of things like security systems.

 

[Cul8rmom1]

My wife & I built our home "out in the country" 15 years ago, so we have been stuck with various satellite internet providers which max out at ~15mps. When we built the house (on 6 acres), we wired the house with Cat6 throughout -all run to a central location with a cheap, unmanaged TP-Link, 24-port gigabit switch. The modem for the satellite ISP is run into port 24 of the switch. We also ran Cat6 from the switch to the 2 "out buildings" on the property. Each out building has it's own wireless router (cheap Linksys N600) to help extend the wireless range beyond the house.

The house is a 1 story, 2800 sqft "split design" (meaning 1 BR and study are on 1 side of the house, 3 other BRs are one the other side of the house). We do all of our TV watching by streaming (Firestick). In addition, I am wanting to get a DIY home security system w/ at least 3 cameras (the cameras will all need to use Wifi as I don't want to run cat6 to where they will be located).


2 days ago...

Suddenlink (aka Altice) decided to run their cable service to our area - the cable actually terminates on the pole in my front yard. They have a terrible reputation for customer service, BUT they can provide service up to 1 gb (and if we get only the internet service, it's not a terrible price). I'm planning on calling to have them install the service tomorrow (Black Friday!).

(now to the question)
I know that I am much better off buying my own cable modem router - which according to them, needs to have DOCSIS 3.1. Doing google searches for which one I buy has left me somewhat glassy-eyed.

1. Do I get a stand-alone cable modem, or do I get a modem with the wireless built-in?
2. Which one?

1. Stand alone.
2. SB8200

Stand alone modem. Get a Motorola/arris modem no bells and whistles I am running an sb8200. I would say it’s overkill but… there is no such thing when you talk about internet speed. And it should run for awhile.

Suddenlink’s service is horrible. I even tried to get a business account paying 500 a month to get a real tech to my house to get them to fix some issues on the segment I am on. The guys who came out no less than 12 times kept bringing low end consumer modems and their tickets said nothing about business call.

Ubiquity I have had a few issues with. May be a personal preference but I haven’t ever had a modem issue with Motorola/arris modems. You can also change the admin password and keep them from burning firmware on it. Set up bridging etc. (so you don’t have a double bat and your external router gets the public IP).

Troubleshooting is much easier and if you have a large network you can just use it for internet and not everything. I move a bunch of data on my network and the router (think I have an asus ax-11000 and a couple of 48 port 1g real managed switches) have can do most of it but it’s def not as good as having a real switch.

I have about 12 cameras, esx clusters, NAS boxes, Apple TV’s, Pcs, etc. etc. I would suggest having another dedicated wireless network for cameras tho, to keep camera stuff away from real stuff.

Is it the switch or the router that is the problem? Rebooting one independently of the other. Logs in different places. Wireless tech advances faster than cable modem tech. So you flexibility to update on or the other.


I ended up reading a bunch and got and active cable modem amplifier to mostly fix the problem. When they have signal problems then the modem has to try to pump its send power up to compensate. It is a pretty cool device. I would have blown my stuff up had I not read enough.

(This info I just in case you are interested or have to do the same thing.)
The active one actually you can power from inside your house. You connect a power supply inside and and the amp is outside as close to their line as possible. There are a few reasons to do it this way. One is the interference from the 60hz interfering with the signal when placed close to it… and you have to worry about weather and having a power socket close etc.

You get the power supply plug it inside. There is a box that injects the power down the coax into the amp. The amp amplifies it then sends it back and you have a splitter that strips out the power from the signal so your cable modems magic smoke doesn’t come out.

f you see high transmit power on your upstream channels and or large error counts correctable/uncorrectable on your downstream channels then you would likely benefit.

cheers.. I am in Texas as well :0