Should You Buy or Rent Your Modem?
Techquickie
·Techquickie
·2019-05-06
·
1,046 words · ~5 min read
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thanks for watching Techquickie click the subscribe button then enable
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notifications with the Bell icon so you won't miss any future videos to buy or
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to rent whether we're talking a home a car or a furniture I mean anyone who's
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driven by one of those no credit no problem banners has probably thought
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about this and if you're a fan of having maximum control over your home's
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computer network you might be considering buying a modem instead of
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renting one from your ISP but is it actually a good idea and why do ISPs
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even rent modems in the first place I mean they don't rent iPads and computers
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so what gives well there are a few rationales behind those rental fees that
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you pay every month one is that since the modem connects directly to your
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providers network the boxes that your ISP provides are validated for
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compatibility with that specific ISP
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signal for the ISP this is not just about you but also about lowering the
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risk of your random equipment causing security issues or other problems that
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could muck up the network for other users fiber-to-the-home providers for
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example keep things particularly locked down and a DSL is becoming less common
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so our focus today is really going to be on cable modems of course the sweet
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sweet paper that those rentals fees bring in every month from millions of
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customers doesn't hurt especially from customers who don't consider themselves
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tech savvy enough to buy and install their own modem or even realize that
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it's an option so the biggest reason you might want to consider buying your own
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modem is to save money although buying
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it upfront generally requires of course a bigger upfront investment than your
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monthly rental cost anywhere from about thirty to over a hundred and fifty US
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dollars it will inevitably pay for itself over time especially if you're
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not sharing your modem rental with your roommates but more money in your pocket
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isn't even the only perk oftentimes aftermarket modems can be of higher
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quality than what your ISP would provide especially if your ISP has given you one
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of those modem wireless routers which combo units which sometimes come with
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underperforming Wi-Fi buying a modem yourself means that you can pick
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something with more channels and simply put the more channels and modem supports
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the more data it can carry per second so if you think that you might want to
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upgrade your internet speed down the road you want to find a modem with a
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high number of channels current-gen modems can get about 42 and a half
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megabits per second per channel so find
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a 24 channel model if you're looking at a gigabit connection down the line once
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you've done that you can hook up a separate wireless router that's more
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powerful than whatever's built into that Rental combo unit which can dramatically
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improve performance if you're trying to get coverage for a larger house or if
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you've got a ton of devices on your wireless network now if you're a
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tinkerer an aftermarket modem can allow you to keep an eye on and prioritize
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your network traffic much more effectively than the options that your
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ISP might give you just remember that before you buy you'll want to make sure
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that the modem that you fancy is compatible with your ISPs network and
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that it can also deliver the speed that you're paying for most major ISPs do
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allow you to buy your own modem and they keep a list of tested approved models on
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their website now if you buy something outside that list it might still work
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but there are no guarantees and some ISPs might even see that you're using an
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unapproved device and refuse to provide service also pay attention to the DOCSIS
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version of the modem that you want this is the specification that indicates
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among other things the modems maximum speed most modems these days are DOCSIS
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3.0 which can deliver speeds of over one gigabit per second but make sure you
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aren't buying a docsis 2.0 modem because you saw it in a bargain bin somewhere
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for five bucks those can only get up to 40 megabit a pretty slow speed limit by
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today's standards with some ISPs not even supporting them anymore now you
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might be tempted to future-proof with a shiny new DOCSIS 3.1 modem this standard
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should allow for speeds of up to 10 gigabits per second in each direction
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but we don't know how long it will be before the cable companies can actually
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pull off a connection that fast but I mean you might have to wait until the
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next inevitable rebrand
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speaking of inevitable if you like
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allowing you to bypass geo restrictions and censorship by making you appear as
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to help prevent attacks Auto blocks all traffic if the VPN disconnects keeps
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your data out of the hands of advertisers and other snoops and even
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includes mace P is built-in malware blocker P ia supports multiple VPN
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protocols and encryption levels they have apps for Windows Mac Android iOS
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Linux and a Chrome extension and they have over 3,000 servers in 28 countries
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and they don't log user activity so what are you waiting for check out p IA VPN
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at the link below so thanks for watching guys like dislike check out our other
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