I am currently using/renting the Cox Panoramic Wifi Router in my home. I’d like to stop renting and buy a modem/router but would like it to be mesh. Are there stand along mesh systems out there that I can directly connect to the coax of my cable internet?
You should certainly be able to buy a modem and a separate router. That router can thus be mesh. This is the best combination, because this way you can replace either as needed. (More likely you’d eventually want to upgrade your router than the modem, though.) This one looks good, is from a brand I would trust, and has DOCSIS 3.1 so should be pretty future proof. https://www.amazon.com/ARRIS-SURFboard-Approved-SB8200-Frustration/dp/B07DY16W2Z
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Thanks. Would that create any kind of double NAT issues or is the modem just asking like a bridge?
Your modem doesn’t do anything but modulate from IP to DOCSIS and back. It has no NAT or routing function (in the IP sense anyway.) i.e. It only translates between the two signalling protocols.
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Okay, thanks. I took a look at some highly recommended WiFi mesh routers with WiFi 6. A bit expensive at the moment. I’ll wait a while. Everything is working well at the moment.
Wifi 6 is nice, it works much faster.
Also there are 2 setups that you can have with the Cable Modem and separate Mesh WiFi.
- Hookup the cable modem as you normally would and let it handle DHCP and everything else and setup the Mesh WiFi system in bridge mode.
- Hookup the cable modem and disable DHCP (which usually also disables all but 1 of the ethernet ports on the back) and hookup the Mesh System and set it up to run DHCP in the IP scheme that you want.
I’ve used both setups and they both seem to work fine.
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Not that nat is the solution for everything , but I would probably trust mostly any router to do nat and other security more than the cable modem. Also WiFi 6 has other things that are good, but if your devices are not WiFi6 capable, you won’t get the benefits. I think you can also buy the same hardware as COX is using, so you don’t have to rent . I have Xfinity ( Comcast ) , but have not used rented modems since it was local cable company. There is only one thing you should be aware of. Any time something is not working , they will say it is your device, even if it is not true.
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Cox does not sell nor will they tell you where you can buy the same equipment they use. You can buy similar equipment or sometimes even better equipment though. As for the Panoramic equipment they refuse to sell it and claim it is unavailable for purchase.
As for them saying it is your equipment that is at fault that is completely true they do tend to blame it on owned equipment if you are not renting.
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I’ve tried both and they tend to have issues for what I doing. Thanks for the selection.
Any weirdly my current Orbi mesh system seems to max out at 100 Gigs even though it can handle up to 1 TB speeds.
Yes. This is something that I worry about if I go down the route of buying my own.
WHat I’ve learnt to do over the years is to use a router with firmware like DD-WRT so i can keep a log of my own traffic to send them when they start saying it’s my router that is faulty. Usually if they know what they are doing,
seeing the dashboard and logs for months and annotations of dates when i reset and dates
when they must have done restarts (signal disconnect logs on cable modem) of their system or updates helps.
Recently Charter was f’ing up and I called and as soon as I did i got a message that they were doing
updates to the network in the area.
So they’re starting to automate some aspects of the automation of reboots and IP management stuff.
Still I recommend buying your own cable modem with the latest standard and upgradable capability.
Cheers!
Also I got one of those Ubnt Edgemax X routers and have two modems that I was using in a dual-WAN setup in load balancing mode.
With a VPN to make the connection even more stable.
There is a big difference between ISP’s in their tolerance for user-owned equipment and their propensity to blame your devices for any problems. I’ve been using my own modem and router with Spectrum for many years (including when they were Bright House). I don’t recall them ever blaming my equipment for any connection or performance issues.
I’ve had great luck with my Netgear Orbi mesh router. Mine is a few years old. Not Wi-Fi 6. I have the two-piece system (router plus one satellite) and it works great in a one-story 1900 square foot home. I have no problem streaming 4K content over Wi-Fi to my smart TV even though the TV is not in the same room as either the router or the satellite, even using just the basic Spectrum 10/100 subscription. And I have 60 internet connected devices on the network between TV’s, computers, phones, smart switches, security cameras, smart bulbs, etc.
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I don’t think anyone was saying that all cable companies blame your equipment or even everyone at Cox.
It just seems through experience that they do like to throw that around quite a bit of the time and if nothing else waste time insinuating that notion before actually fixing the issue or realizing there is a more wide spread issue currently at work.
I have Cox and gave back their Panoramic Wi-fi modem all I had to do was just call them when I got my new modem and they had to zap it. I use the eeros.
Interesting. I didn’t know Eeros could replace a modem? I thought you still had to have a separate modem?
Oh I still bought a new modem that is what Cox had to initialize it’s a DOCSIS 3.1 Cable Modem
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