[Bryan]

My Internet service costs with Comcast went up this month so I looked carefully at the bill to determine why. It seems like the monthly rental for their modem went from $3/mo to $5/mo. Anyone else notice this? Is there an alternative, like buying your own modem at Best Buy or somewhere and getting the modem rental charge off the Comcast bill?

[zcaveman]

You can go to Best Buy or anywhere and buy a modem. When you plug it in, you will get a screen to lead you through a process to register it. I never could get it to work. you can just call Comcast and they will activate it from their end. You can then take your old modem down to the local store and turn it in. Be sure to bring a bill so they can see you are renting that modem. If you happen to still have the receipt with the modem number on it bring it. It can't hurt.

[TrudyM]

I have a package for TV, phone and internet from them. I owned a modem from before but they said I needed a special one that would handle the phone. Can you buy these also or am I stuck renting forever?

[zcaveman]

You could check with Best-Buy and see if they carry one. I am sure that Comcast does not have a monopoly on that type of modem.

[zcaveman]

I guess a question I would have to ask is who debugs an internet problem if you supply your own modem? If I were COMCAST, I would tell you it is your problem until you can prove it is not a modem problem. Or the service call would include an extra charge since it is your own modem.

That is one reason I stick with the rental fee. The other reason is that I can take the old modem down to the office once every couple of years and tell them I want a new one so I can get the latest technology. Then all I have to do is go through the verification of the new modem.

A short story - Me and a neighbor had the old Clearlink modems. We were having problems with very slow response time at certain times of the day. I figured it was someone hogging the bandwidth. He called it into Comcast and they replaced his modem and the problem went away for him. So I took my old modem down to COMCAST and got a replacement and my problems went away. I have to assume it was an improvement in the modem technologies.

Not that I don't think it isn't a good idea to buy your own modem. They have come down in price and if it does break it is a simple task to run down to Best-Buy and get another one.

Just something to consider.

Z

[Carla B]

I bought our cable modem from Amazon.com when we moved here in 2008. Comcast hooked it up for us. We've had to call Comcast customer support a few times when we couldn't get on the internet due to, I don't know what...probably either router problems or Comcast problems. We don't love Comcast but they've never failed to help us through a problem and haven't charged us. There are lots of helpful reviews on Amazon so that might help you make a decision.

[Mikeod]

My mom lived in Sable Chase and had her own modem. She complained that her internet speed was slowing down. When Comcast came out, they said it was her modem and wanted to replace it with a rental one from them. Since I had another modem, I asked the tech if we could install that one instead. He told us he could install our modem, but, if something went wrong with it, there would be a service charge to come out and diagnose the problem. I think it was about $50. She opted to get the rental modem and her problems went away.