time for the annual Internet Speed Quest

[Dan Jenkins]

On 7/6/2014 2:05 PM, David Rysdam wrote:
> Joshua Judson Rosen  <rozzin at geekspace.com> writes:
 >> I think FairPoint does have some service in NH that's analogous to
 >> FiOS, but I don't see any way to find out from their website how
 >> much it costs or whether it's even available in a given area.
 >
 > Yep. I know they have some kind of "high speed" service, but there's
 >  no indication of how fast, how much or where. The website is a
 > riddle wrapped in an enigma.

I've spoken to FairPoint a few times and haven't gotten useful answers.
I have a few schools and an organization up north that wanted faster 
connectivity.
FairPoint said it was "a few miles away" in one town. That was a year 
and a half ago.
"Coming soon" was another answer. "I'll check and get back to you" was 
yet another.
Never heard back. Gave up with them.

> It's sounding like the upshot  is that I should try comcast. It
 > actually might not be that annoying to try, since I can leave my DSL
 >  alone until I get the comcast working.
 >
 > What does the cable modem consist of? From a black-box POV, I assume
 > it's basically identical to a DSL modem. Magic on one side, CAT5
 > ethernet on the other. Plug my tomato-powered wireless router into
 > that side and away I go.

Yup.
Cable comes in one side; Ethernet comes out the other,
as well as wireless and phone, depending on the model and service.

They tend to provide Arris cable modems (which appear to be a Motorola 
SURFboard in a lot of cases).
If they provide one with wireless, you likely want to disable the 
xfinitywifi guest account that it can provide.
You likely would want to have any cable modem in bridge mode, rather 
than have it NAT
your already NATted traffic from your router and have to deal with their 
firewall.

I use my own cable modem, which saves me a few dollars a month.
I recently bought a Motorola SB6121, which is a basic DOCSIS 3.0 cable 
modem.
It was $65 at Staples, if I recollect. The previous one was a discarded 
Motorola,
which I used for a decade.