Router help

[bug_eyedmonster]

I'm hoping someone here can help me with a problem at home. We have Comcast for internet, TV, and phone at home. The router they gave us (we rent from them) sucks. It only covers about half the house. For added reception, we added an extender so I can have wifi upstairs. I'd like to see if there is a way to eliminate the extender, and use upgrade the router. A friend said that because I have their phone service, I cannot switch out to any regular router. Is this true? Is there a router any of you tech-savvy folks would recommend for me? Our home is 2700 sq/ft, two floors, and the lines come into a corner of the house, and that's one of the main reasons reception sucks, although the guy from Comcast told us there was no place in our home we could put the router without having reception issues with their equipment.

Jerry

[Iknownot]

What your friend has told has never been true for any service provider I have used. (Time warner, ATT DSL, etc).

I have always ran my own router, modem and then used the providers modem for phone service.

In fact, that's my set up right now. I have the line split and one goes directly to my cable modem and router and one goes directly to the cable co's phone modem.

Works fine. Been set up like that for years now.

I like the motorola (Arris) surfboard modems and as for routers, I have been a fan of netgear lately. The netgear nighthawk routers have been working very well for me with good speed and good wifi coverage. The Netgear Orbi wifi network system is supposed to be pretty good for full house coverage, but I have not used it personally so I could not recommend it. You may want to read up some reviews on it.

As for where the line comes into your house and where the modem is positioned, I have NEVER listened to the cable co tech guys on that one. If I wanted the line run to a specific part of the house (central, or specific room) then I asked them to do it. And if they wouldn't, I ran the line myself. It's not hard to run your own cable. Home depot has everything you need to do it yourself and there are plenty of DIY vids up on youtube to make sure you know what to do.

[bug_eyedmonster]

I like the motorola (Arris) surfboard modems and as for routers, I have been a fan of netgear lately. The netgear nighthawk routers have been working very well for me with good speed and good wifi coverage. The Netgear Orbi wifi network system is supposed to be pretty good for full house coverage, but I have not used it personally so I could not recommend it. You may want to read up some reviews on it.

Got it, thanks for the info. So, to my understanding, I just daisy chain the current router/modem to the new one, and it will work in-line? I'll look into the models you mentioned, thank you for your advice!

Jerry

[Robotron2k84]

It is true that if you have Comcast's phone service you must use their modem, which also now contains a router. This is the same if you have business class service as Comcast runs RIP on the modem to perform routing optimizations on the fly.

What you CAN do, however is get Comcast to disable the Wifi on their equipment and simply split the network with your own router and access point off of an Ethernet port on the modem.

The trick here is to get Comcast to enable what is called "True bridge mode" on the modem so that it bypasses their router and firewall and passes all traffic back to your device. You will not be able to use a third party router without this as Comcast does NAT/Firewalling on the LAN side of the modem. True bridge disables NAT and the SPI firewall.

Good luck

[bug_eyedmonster]

It is true that if you have Comcast's phone service you must use their modem, which also now contains a router. This is the same if you have business class service as Comcast runs RIP on the modem to perform routing optimizations on the fly.

What you CAN do, however is get Comcast to disable the Wifi on their equipment and simply split the network with your own router and access point off of an Ethernet port on the modem.

The trick here is to get Comcast to enable what is called "True bridge mode" on the modem so that it bypasses their router and firewall and passes all traffic back to your device.

Good luck

Is this something their customer service can do over the phone, or will they need to send a tech to physically do this at our home? Is this hard to get them to do?

Jerry

[Robotron2k84]

Is this something their customer service can do over the phone, or will they need to send a tech to physically do this at our home? Is this hard to get them to do?

Jerry

Customer service can do it. Be prepared to fight through a few levels of CS reps to get to someone who knows how to do it. Generally whenever I'm faced with using Comcast, I get the installer to get their install techs at the ISP side to enable it before the installer leaves the premesis. This has worked well over several setups. I'm not sure of the success rate post-install, and some on Comcast forums say it's near impossible depending on the market.

Good luck

[sholling]

I'm not on cable (FIOS) but I use my own router on my side of Frontier's router. I do that for privacy and for better wireless.

I have not tried Netgear's Orbi but its reputation is solid and B&H has it on Cyber Monday sale (backordered) for $237 and is still taking orders.

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1278081-REG/netgear_rbk50_100nas_orbi_wireless_router_ac3000.html

Review:

https://www.pcmag.com/review/348941/netgear-orbi-high-performance-ac3000-tri-band-wi-fi-system

[the86d]

Customer service can do it. Be prepared to fight through a few levels of CS reps to get to someone who knows how to do it. Generally whenever I'm faced with using Comcast, I get the installer to get their install techs at the ISP side to enable it before the installer leaves the premesis. This has worked well over several setups. I'm not sure of the success rate post-install, and some on Comcast forums say it's near impossible depending on the market.

Good luck

I did this, as I thought it was their cable-modem that sucked...
I unplugged Spectrum's equipment in less than 6 days, and plugged back into my FiOS pipe.

Cable buffered youtube videos ALL the time, for 30 seconds at a time. It was terrible. I never have problems with FiOS data pipes, when the router was plugged into a UPS...

[Skip_Dog]

Bridge mode is the way to go. Just get it to the equipment you own and go from there. Good advice.

[bug_eyedmonster]

Can someone help me understand the difference between the Orbi and the Google wifi? I have zero idea what these specks mean, and now that the sales are over (I know, I missed the boat), I'm taking my sweet time to buy.

Jerry

[sholling]

Can someone help me understand the difference between the Orbi and the Google wifi? I have zero idea what these specks mean, and now that the sales are over (I know, I missed the boat), I'm taking my sweet time to buy.

Jerry

Most mesh systems are just a router and one or more basic wifi extenders sharing a SSID (name). Orbi differs in that they use a dedicated channel to improve speed from the satellites. The linked article will do a better job of explaining.

https://thewirecutter.com/reviews/best-wi-fi-mesh-networking-kits/

[remusrm]

Can you relocated the router on the upper lever in the middle of the house?