The Lance J. Technoweb

There are a lot of cable modems on the market, and many are compatible with Xfinity service. However, that doesn't mean that every modem is perfect. My basic requirements are: Currently certified by my ISP.  Buying a cable modem that isn't currently certified is simply unlikely to work. Capable of supporting needed service speeds.  Buying a cable modem which cannot deliver the service needed is going to be an immediate bottlebeck.  Buying a cable modem which is far more capable that the service speed is likely a waste of money, No built-in WiFi capability or Telephone line capability.  A personally-owned WiFi router is likely a better choice than an all-in-one unit that will need to be positioned exactly where the cable is within the house.  Don't over-buy.  Cable modems do not last forever.  Manufacturers abandon support, and cable modems aren't infinitely durable due to things like lightning strikes and being powered on for years at a time. So what ...

I happened upon a set of Coax to Ethernet adapters and I decided to do an analysis of them. The adapters I found, by Commscope, use the G.hn protocol.  This protocol is used for many media types, with the general idea that existing or legacy cabling can be repurposed for modern home networking. I have some existing idle Coax in the walls and ceiling of my house, so I decided to try these adapters with this legacy copper.  Testing The home coax run I decided to try is a bit more than 10 meters long. I set up two PC clients on my network, with one PC being attached to one of these adapters, which was then attached to the 10 meter long cable. At the far end I attached the other adapter, which was then attached to my primary Ethernet switch.   The coax cable was in three distinct segments, 1 meter + 10 meters + 0.5 meters, all joined together with F-style couplers.   Network tested via iPerf   Results I successfully ran four trials of iPerf3 between my two PCs,...

I often find it challenging to find specific Xfinity web pages used manage my Internet service. Here is the list of URLs that I am often struggling to find. Status, and Remotely restarting the modem      https://www.xfinity.com/support/status      Under "Internet", there should be a Cable Modem entry that says "Connected" and which has a Restart button.   Monthly Data Usage      https://customer.xfinity.com/#/devices#usage Also in JSON form at       https://customer.xfinity.com/apis/csp/account/me/services/internet/usage?filter=internet Hotspot List      https://customer.xfinity.com/#/settings/security/hotspot-devices Speed Testing This is my go-to speed testing service.  It provides a lot of great information.  It isn't a Comcast service, but it does a great job.      https://speed.cloudflare.com/       

I was reviewing the Comcast Xfinity "compatible cable modem" list in my area and I see that Comcast has started to organize their certified cable modems into four distinct quality categories: Recommended Next-Gen Modems Recommended Modems Compatible Modems that are recommended Compatible (but not specifically recommended) Modems Hitron CODA56 cable modem In terms of future proofing, it is clear that the "Recommended Next-Gen" category lists all the modems that Comcast prefers moving ahead, as the modems in this category all support the fastest high-speed upload performance.  What I've read is that these most advanced "next-gen" modems support "mid-split" and "high-split" mode, allowing them to deliver higher speeds on modernized cable TV systems.  Of course not all cable systems are modernized - some might be decades old.  Surprisingly, Comcast only lists two non-"voice telephone" models in the most advanced "next-g...

We all read the ads and have seen "reviews" about Internet service provider costs and performance, but it is 99.99% advertising and affiliate link disinformation. The Speed You Need Most people think they need a gigabit download performance for great Internet performance.  This is nonsense.  Most people are restricted by upload speeds, not download speeds. Why?  Because upload speed is almost always the bottleneck. Some examples of where upload speed is critical: Zoom and other video calling technology VoIP telephone calling Online real-time gaming Some examples where download speed is just not important The number of devices you own Streaming video  Streaming audio All these technologies have a need for timely packet delivery, and with upload speeds being relatively slow, this is where nearly 100% of bottlenecks occur.  If your video call or game isn't behaving well, you've almost certainly saturated your Upload performance. So let's take a look at the Comcast ...

I no longer use a cable company for Internet service. My new Internet service provider offers me Internet over WiFi, otherwise known as a Wireless ISP (WISP).  I use a WiFi router as the gateway to my WISP, and it was far easier to get reliable high performance than I originally envisioned.   My neighbor is a professional with a lot of Internet needs. He contracts with a company that has a huge Internet pipe, and he offers the service to the neighbors using 802.11ac wireless. Given my close proximity to him and the low cost of service, this is an incredible deal for Internet service.   At first I thought I would need to install a dedicated outdoor WiFi access point with a directional antenna to get a decent signal, but I decided to start simple and experiment with equipment I had around the house. Since I like the quality, functionality, and price point of MikroTik gear, I decided to start with the inexpensive MikroTik hAP AC Lite I had on hand. At first I connected to ...

Today is the day! I am "installing Internet" in a friend's new city apartment. The goal: great Internet service for a group of young professionals, while keeping the cost as low as possible and the reliability very high. Here is the story of what I did to accomplish that goal. The overview of the who, what, and where: Four professionals, mostly working from home. Very densely populated urban environment. Comcast Xfinity is the area's wired, high-speed Internet monopoly. High reliability and reasonable performance for video chat is critical. Internet Service Ordering: Don't Over-Do It. Let's say you want to reduce your daily commute time. Right now you drive a stock Honda Civic that costs $80 a month. How much commuting time will you save by investing $200 a month on turbocharger? Zero hours and zero minutes. "Gigabit" download speeds are an extraordinary waste of money. Sure, we'll have four people being busy all day, but busy does not mean there...

 Today I read this on the Motley Fool in relation to Starlink: With Comcast offering 200 mbps for under $50 in metro locales in the U.S. you might not think [Starlink will be successful]. Why is the Motley Fool telling us this fabrication about Comcast pricing?  Motley seem to be merely repeating the words of a Comcast marketing strategy, not the pre-tax price customers actually pay.  Clearly no writer or editor for the MF is actually a Comcast ISP customer.  The sloppy editor will exclaim that the MF article is, on the surface, correct - in my "Metro Area", Comcast's claim is that they charge for 200 Mbps service at $49.99.  $49.99 is under $50.  But that number is incorrect, as Comcast fully states that the $49.99 is the price for a subset of a multi-year contract. The overall monthly cost is far, far higher. Comcast fully admits in their fine print that the fee for 200 mbps service is actually $92.95... not including other profits that show up ever...

Today I found a report by the FCC that talks about Internet performance of the most popular US providers.  It is clear that a lot of people are having major issues with Comcast. Here's a clip of the FCC's chart that highlights upload performance by the major providers.  The FCC chart shows that Comcast / Xfinity has some of the WORST performance in the industry: See where Comcast is?  It's in the toilet, and it is not improving.  In some countries Comcast's upload rate would not even be called broadband. Although Cox looks nearly as bad on this chart, in reality Cox's faster upload performance is from 2 times faster up to 100 times faster that Comcast! Comcast and its marketing team loves to ignore the importance of upload speed.  Do you take photos?  Do you use Zoom or Skype or Google Hangouts for school or work?  How about Dropbox or Microsoft Exchange?  Do you use your smartphone on the Internet?   If so, then upload performance is CRITICA...

You likely want to know which Cable Modem you should buy for the fastest performance, lowest latency, and highest reliability.  What does a network expert have to say? But before we begin, here is the deal:  There is no "best" cable modem. Any website that lists the "best" is full of garbage.  Forget them.  They are idiots try to sell you crap. Modems should last for 5 to 10 years and almost never fail.  They do not slow down with time. They do not wear out. Any quality issues are almost always an issue with the cabling in your home and/or from the street.  Modems do go obsolete.  That is how they end up in the garbage heap. With all that out of the way, here are my strict rules in terms of what to buy.  There are NO exceptions to any of my rules. Rule 1: Buy a Modem that is "approved" by YOUR cable company Each  Cable company has a list of "approved" modems that conforms to the standards.  Definitely focus on the approved modem list, as...

People assume that a blazing fast 340 Mbit/second cable modem will give them better performance than an 80 Mbit/second modem.  "4 times faster!  8 times faster!" All of that talk is simple marketing garbage, a hold-over sales pitch from the days of dialup modems. The fact is that the Internet doesn't work like that.  You will likely get the same exact performance with a low-cost standard cable modem versus an expensive fast modem. The reason?  Internet bottlenecks.  The Internet is a vast, shared network, and there are plenty of bottlenecks on every network path. With your 340 Mbit/second modem, you'll know that your modem is no longer a bottleneck.  But there are more than a dozen network devices between your computer and Google and so your cable modem is likely never the slowest device on the network. What other devices are slowing things down?  First, there is your home WIFI.  Then there is bandwidth that your ISP provides to you....

My trusty Belkin 802.11g router started having problems the other day. When surfing through Google Maps, the router would stop communicating with the Internet. Restarting the router was the only way to correct the problem. It would lock up, and no other computer would be able to reach the Internet. Internal LAN connectivity continued just fine. I have the latest firmware updates, so that wasn't the problem. So then I turned off the Router's "enerprise-class" Firewall, and that fixed it! The firewall was described to me to be a "stateful packet inspection" type of firewall. Turning it off address the reliability problems - now - no more crashes so far!