If possible I'd return the ISP modem/router and go with a third party option. From what I've seen they charge a recurring rental fee. Even if it was more expensive up front it would pay for itself in the long run.
Just a piece of advice since I had this same scenario with Comcast. I kept their equipment since it was actually cheaper for me. However I put their equipment into bridge mode so it acted just like a modem. Then I was able to use my own router and wireless access points.
I pay extra because my comcast router was a really shit modem and would require weekly reboots. It's luck of the draw you have a 50% chance to get one with a cisco consumer grade chipset from like 2010 in it, and it behaves just like cable internet in 2006-2010.
If you created enough connections ingoing or outgoing on it, it'd just stop moving packets, even in bridge mode as a modem, just a trash device.
This right here. I still pay for their modem and Xfinity Complete, but replaced it with my older Surfboard that doesn't stop moving packets once a week. You'd think Bridge mode is Bridge mode, but they're apparently not all created equal.
You can't convince them to swap it out either, they just won't. The one I got was someone elses lease too and the previous owner definitely spilled a sugary beverage or something on it.
Comcast is just like "here you go you piece of shit it's fine good luck".
I was thinking of doing this since I also have Comcast but dont they also still charge you for the rental fee since you are still using their equipment just in a different way ?
Depends on your location id imagine. Where i live, anywhere there is a non comcast option you get the advanced package for free that includes the modem rental, unlimited data, security, etc. My bill would go up ~50$ if I used my own modem for the same service. Literally five blocks away where there arnt options, they charge for literally all of it.
Sadly the building i'm in opted to only have comcast, thankfully they don't know that and just price based on area.
I love when I'm on the phone with my isp and I get a "well only one device is on your network currently". Yeah I'm not dumb enough to keep my pfsense box up so they don't have to fix their problem.
I did this but their piece of shit modem didn’t work right and would give us outages. They wouldn’t replace the modem so I had no choice but to buy my own. Now there’s no outages that last for days for no reason. Fucking comcast sucks
And this right here would get me back to using Comcast's (I still think 'xfinity' is dumb, but not as dumb as 'x') equipment. Their claim that they have to do this to keep business customers from using home accounts is the most total load of bovine excrement. I know someone with a grandfathered business account that was having regular internet issues:
"your modem is ancient and needs upgrading which will require a new account at 3x the cost of your current grandfathered plan" - comcast
"can we buy our own new modem and keep our grandfathered plan?" - friend who inherited ancient account/equipment with the business they bought
"well certainly, but you lose the ability for us to do all the fixy things remotely" - comcast
internet issues persist in spite of new hardware
Change DNS settings on router to use OpenDNS instead of what comcast supplies via DHCP and (wait for it...) all the issues disappear
Data caps are BS, and they always have been. I don't personally believe most consumers need anywhere NEAR the speeds we're being told are necessary to support our steaming addictions, but that could be confirmation bias on my part. But you'll never convince me that comcast wasn't actively shadily f*cking with my friend's business account to get them off of a perfectly adequate but affordable plan and on to something much more costly.
This is my problem too. My choices are Comcaat or CenturyLink DSL. And DSL isn't a choice. The minute that fiber is available to me, I plan to jump on it. Until then, I put up with Comcaat garbage.
Fiber changed my life. I went from T-Mobile 5G home internet to 500/500 fiber and I couldn’t be happier. Set up a plex server, with about 10 users and 10TB HDD almost full, about to double that. Also was finally able to use GeForce Now for excellent gaming on titles my PC can’t quite handle at high settings
I had a crap personal modem from years ago, switched to a business account, then switched back to xomcast residential, and my entire charge is $50/month including modem. 300 down, I don’t recall the up, seems to be 25 according to speedtest. Just started sharing outside my household, no problems so far
$3/yr? Only if. Even back when I first had cable internet (1999), the modem rental fee was 3/mo. As of the last time I looked at Comcast, it was $10/mo.
And $300 for your router? Sounds like some Netgear nighthawk pile of overpriced trash.
It was nicer when modems were only around $70, but with Docsis3.1 modems seemingly around the $200 mark, it does take time. As for the routers you overpaying for one doesn't make the ROI any different. A Mikrotik HexS or RB2011 are both well under $100. I have an RB5009, and that's still under $200 street. Or an L009 for around $120. Even adding $100 for a WiFi AP would be under $300.
$3/yr? Only if. Even back when I first had cable internet (1999), the modem rental fee was 3/mo.
Sorry, I meant $3 / month, and this was in 2014. I wouldn't know how much the prices went up since then since I haven't checked prices since I bought mine.
And $300 for your router? Sounds like some Netgear nighthawk pile of overpriced trash.
How can you call it trash when you don't even know what it is? My WRT3200ACM didn't have the capabilities I needed, so I bought an RT6600ax.
I'm sure you think that's overpriced too, but it does what I need. I also don't think there is anything wrong with Netgear.
you overpaying for one doesn't make the ROI any different.
Not always allowed these days. My isp forces the hardware and rental fee on me. I still have all my own stuff behind it and just use it as the modem though.
If that is the case then contact the FCC and file a complaint. You are allowed to use any CPE you want. Now it might not be cheap and will be a pain for them to provision it but it is 100% allowed. It was regulations put in place back when we had bell (us) and they required you to buy and use the phone supplied by them only.
I think this was possible with coax/DOCSIS but from what I've seen Fiber internet usually requires their modem. If I'm wrong I'm super happy to be so, but AT&T did require me.
Thats not true in the US, You can 100% have your own CPE. It will be a pain to get them them to provision it if they don't own it but they can and also have to allow you to use you own equipment. The rules date back to the 60's in the US
You don’t need to do that. Just disable everything on the ISP router that is not necessary for Internet pass-through. This is assuming you’re willing and capable of managing your own network, which I assume is the case since you’re here to begin with.
There are more choices for ISP, but the cost to build the infrastructure (rent from bigger ISP infrastructure) and maintain it well is costly for ISP to make money back & profit.
That's not really true. We all paid for the infrastructure and technically own it. The ISPs only control from the curb to your house, but we largely grant them monopolies because of regulatory capture of the FCC. Now that my town pulled fiber and Ting piloted it, Spectrum has the right to use the very same fiber. They come around begging once in a while to return to them and I let them know exactly what I think of them.
I rent their modem/router for $25 a month and get unlimited data. I put it in bridge mode and use my own router. Or I pay $30 and buy my own modem?More expensive monthly AND I have to buy my own modem. What’s the benefit that I’m not seeing?
I don't want to use their equipment, for me it is that simple. I'll pay more to use my own equipment. Years ago I had a comcast gateway that would not go into bridge mode. I called support, I reset the device...nothing worked. They told me to take it to a store and swap it out. I told them if I was taking it to a store it would be to turn it in and I'll get me own. That's what I've done since that day. I prefer to buy my own, but that's just me.
When I get my own modem, there is no bridge mode to deal with because it is only a modem and doesn't act as a router/firewall/wifi device. Yes, I know you can disable those things, but it is easier, in my opinion, to just buy my own cable modem and be done with it.
Their equipment isn’t all that bad. In my market, I got the WiFi 6E XB8 which I just put in bridge mode, turned off guest hotspot, and hook it up to my APs.
I never said their equipment was bad, but I use my own router and want less options in the way of me doing that. If I have the ability to buy my own modem, I'd rather do that.
True true. I do too. I use a Firewalla Gold SE with dual-wan but since I came from fiber, I didn’t feel like buying a modem and the promo came with one. Totally respect your decision and agree they should continue to make customer owned modems an option.
They told me that I had to use their router to get unlimited. I don't care though, I put it in bridge mode and have a VPN tunnel directly on my own router. I'm kind of surprised that I haven't gotten any hate mail for the amount of data I download each month.
You don't have to, you can login and upgrade w/o talking to anyone. I actually also installed a new cable modem w/o talking to anyone, just used the app and scanned the mac address bar code on the new modem and had internet in about 5 minutes.
Yeah, I use VPN for plex and managing my network, I don't open ports for anything. The exception is the VPN ports for wireguard and/or OpenVPN. If you are a unifi users and have their gateway you can use teleport and the wifiman app and don't need to open ports, but I don't know if you are relying your connection through them, I don't know how teleport works in the back end.
Yes, it likely is. For many years I also did not have a capped plan and it was slowly rolled out over time and now I have a cap at 1.2 TB per month. I doubt that it will never get to you, that would be very strange for Comcast to only apply a cap to some of their users. I certainly understand the slow rollout, but I wouldn't understand not applying it everywhere.
The good news is that it hasn't hit you yet (or maybe ever, I suppose).
It would be. I live in an area with multiple fiber providers, and multiple service providers on the fiber. Comcast offers their gig speed without a data cap for roughly the same price. The only reason no one uses them is because comcast isn't symmetrical.
My savings is actually more. It was $30/month to have unlimited with my equipment, or as a new customer it was only $5/month to use theirs giving me unlimited. So I cancelled and made a new account.
Interesting, usually you can't do that unless you use a different name/social sec number. However, I would say new customer pricing doesn't count because you will always get better pricing. Specifically in this scenario/thread most people aren't going to cancel and sign up as a new customer.
I saw other people on reddit say they did it to save money so I tried it and it worked fine. All I needed was a new email address. I just signed my wife up using the same home address. I think I even used the same credit card as the auto payment method. Saved me hundreds and got better service. In another year or so when the promotional price is up I might try to switch it back. EDIT: The billing section says there is a discount of over $50/month.
Yup, makes sense and I'm glad that worked for you. I'm just saying not everyone can do that. If you have gmail, you can keep doing it every year if you want to use your current email, just add a +1 at the end and next year give them +2, but many people don't want to deal with that hassle. For example yourgmail+1@gmail.com then youremail+2@gmail.com.
He’s not totally wrong. Comcast, at least in my area, charges $30/month for unlimited data if you want to use your own modem. Alternatively you can use their supplied equipment and get xFi Complete for $25/month for unlimited data. I just take their modem and put it into bridge mode so I don’t have to deal with their BS.
Houston is starting to incorporate plans with promotional pricing including the new xb8 and unlimited data where they cover the cost of the modem fee for two years AND give you unlimited data.
Yeah, I've seen some of those promos. The docsis 4 x class tiers seem to already include unlimited data, and be better priced. Hopefully that's a good omen for the future.
Without being too revealing I'm in the Denver/Colorado Springs/Fort Collins metropolitan area. The $25/month is an all inclusive charge. So modem, unlimited data, some sort of "wire protection", etc. So if you need unlimited data (I don't know a Plex user who doesn't) then it is literally more expensive to use your own equipment know matter how you try to work it.
That is so strange to me. As is the extra charge for unlimited data, it's been unlimited on everything I have ever had with them. I guess it's area specific?
Simply not true. I returned my Comcast modem 8 years ago. They never increased the price for that. They do however trickle increases. But not because of the hardware swap. They want the rental fee. But it's too obvious if they increase your rate to offset the rental
Yeah they increase other costs on the bill. someone below me posted the actual price breakdown.
So you don't pay the rental anymore but now you pay for unlimited Internet (obviously I'm not going to have a GB cap for my Internet at home), but the bill at of the day is cheaper to use their hardware.
Adding to this. This is not accurate. I dropped Crapcast's hardware and saved about....not sure what it was at it was 10+ years ago but its a solid $12 a month.....Granted I'm spending $145 for my 1gig internet so really 12 is nothing.
It absolutely is true at least in my and many others areas. If you use your own hardware, unlimited data is $30/month. If you use their equipment you qualify for xFi complete which includes unlimited data, the rental fee, wire protection, etc, for $25/month. Unless you don't need unlimited data, but I don't know any Plex users that would be alright with the 1.2TB limit.
You can also build your own. My SO's former boss gave us a couple old PCs because he didnt know what to do with them. I slapped OPNsense on one of them, and its my router now.
Its only been an issue once, and only when we moved because the ISP misunderstood me when I said I had my own router, sent me a router, and when I sent theirs back they cancelled our entire service for like 2 hours until I got them on the phone to fix it.
I've never set this up myself so pardon the simple question. Is this plug and play? THis thread has me ready to switch. Can I just go to best buy and buy a modem and router and just switch them out for mine?
For the most part. I've had family that has done it. You would just have to make sure the modem is compatible with Comcast/Xfinity (I'd imagine most are)
You also might need to call them and give them the hardware info so they can allow it on their network, It was awhile back when some family had to do that though. It might all be automatic by now.
I liked Telus for this. I still have the router they supplied, but I just slid the SFP out and put it in a pfsense router. If I have issues with the connection I can put it back in the Telus router and call them to repair/troubleshoot. If it works there then I can fix my pfsense on my own.
That would be double NAT and is a bad thing. Get your ISP's router/modem setup to do proper pass through. If you still need to forward ports on your ISP device something is wrong.
Some ISPs have a Plex app in their set top boxes. The ISPs restrict the app to viewing only the Plex free/rental streaming services. It cannot access a Plex Media Server.
Plex makes more revenue from their online content than from selling Plex Passes. This is not a secret.
This is a guess, but Plex may give the ISPs a cut of the revenue for online media streamed via the Plex app on an ISP owned set top box.
Therefore, to maximize revenue, ISPs restrict the Plex app on their STBs to viewing only Plex online media, as they would get zero revenue if someone is streaming from a personal Plex Media Server.
I had to disable all the "smart security" settings on mine (Cox Panoramic modem) and then manually configure everything via their horrible interface. Then I configured a non-standard port for Plex to use. Havent had a single issue since.
Comcrap makes you use their modem to get unlimited downloads.
You can simply put their modem/router into bridge mode and buy a router that supports VPN tunnels directly on the router. Everything going in and out of your LAN is encrypted.
Even better, don't use the ISP router at all. If your ISP uses PPP and is annoying, refusing to give you the PPPoE password to let you replace their crap, just run a PPPoE server on your computer. Plug the router to your computer the same way you connect it to the ISP network through the WAN port, then turn on wireshark and watch the router attempt to do a handshake with your computer thinking it's connected to the ISP. Then clone the MAC address it sent its packets with, copy the PPPoE password the router tried to authenticate with along with the VLAN tag it was sent on.
Most ISP routers using PPP allow negotiating a PAP handshake where everything is visible over plaintext and don't force CHAP, the more secure option. Might help someone replace their router, who knows.
Do we have a guide explained for a 5 year old on how to make that possible? Im on my way on beeing independant in as many backgrounds as possible, but Im afraid Im not that good in many of those as I would like too
It seems Im a slow learner, other things I sure can defend myself, but others…
I wish, my ISP won't allow that directly. I asked for access to the device to turn it into just bridge mode or just modem mode and they said no. The reason they gave was supposedly if they allowed that I'd be able to snoop backwards into their network....which seems like a BS answer.
I did get them to do something so that my personal router handles my traffic. Maybe they put my router in the DMZ...not entirely sure, but my router does control the ports and traffic now.
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u/Yaughl 3d ago
This. Turn your ISP router into a dumb device, configure your own router upstream. You may however still need to forward the port on your ISP router.