2 Modems

[pjmorgan.livejournal.com]

Is there an internet service provider serving Somerville that will allow me to have 2 cable modems without charging extra (or at a nominal extra charge)?    I prefer to plug directly into the cable modem rather than rely on the slower and less reliable wireless signal.  I believe Comcast wanted 25/month or something.  I don't understand why I can have a TV in every room that plugs into cable but not internet in every room

I guess I could try to fish cat ethernet wires, but I've found that to be difficult if your walls aren't already open. 

Comments

Why do you need 2 cable modems?

[nvidia99999.livejournal.com]

I think you just need a router...

Re: Why do you need 2 cable modems?

[dominika-kretek.livejournal.com]

OP is saying that the coax is already run through the house, so why run cat 5 ethernet everywhere to use a wired router.

From my point of view, the cable modem uplink is so much slower either Cat 5 or wifi that I don't see the point of favoring either of them over the other. The exception would be internal LAN connections, but I don't think multiple modems fixes that.

To answer the OP's question, the answer is that every new cable modem needs its own real IP address, and IP addresses are a scarce resource. This is why NAT boxes were invented!

[m00n.livejournal.com]

At 50+mbps 802.11n Wireless is faster than the Internet access itself anyway. You're better off just going that route.

[overstim.livejournal.com]

its not technically as easy as plugging in cable boxes in every room because you are only getting 1 IP address from the service provider. You'd have to provision both modems, and one would be behind the other, and then you'd be running double NAT and it would be a big mess.

As someone else said, Wifi G is 50mbps, and Wifi n is 200mbps... your internet service is, at most, maybe 15 or 25 mbps so this wont speed things up at all for you other than computer-to-computer transfers.

And even then, an average desktop hard drive has a throughput of 320mbps at most. Not such a big deal above 200. And if you tell me youre running 10k drives in a RAID, I'm going to ask why you dont want to run ethernet cable through your house :)

For the "what's wrong with wifi" commenters

[mattdm.livejournal.com]

http://www.xkcd.com/654/

:)

Re: For the "what's wrong with wifi" commenters

[nvidia99999.livejournal.com]

Ahahah! That is funny!

Re: For the "what's wrong with wifi" commenters

[wavilyem.livejournal.com]

In fairness though, that's only an issue for 802.11b and g. The a and n standards use a higher frequency band that doesn't compete with microwave ovens, cordless phones, and the like.

Re: For the "what's wrong with wifi" commenters

[sparkgrrl658.livejournal.com]

still, it never gets less funny when i'm cooking a potato or something else that needs checking on before it's officially done in the microwave and hearing from the two adjacent rooms "MY INTERNET!" "MY INTERNET!"

Re: For the "what's wrong with wifi" commenters

[nvidia99999.livejournal.com]

You have the power!

Re: For the "what's wrong with wifi" commenters

[sonofabish.livejournal.com]

Hey Steph. Funny, I was just over in Allston and thought about you wondering how you've been. I've been absent from LJ for a bit but when I was looking, hadn't seen you around. Good to see ya.

Re: For the "what's wrong with wifi" commenters

[sparkgrrl658.livejournal.com]

hi!

though i've not really been posting on lj, i still read everything. i'm doing okay, hanging in there as it were. i hope things are still on track for you guys!

Re: For the "what's wrong with wifi" commenters

[perspicuity.livejournal.com]

some people also prefer to not have extra radiation in their lives...

and for some it might be considered a security issue.

the overall impressions of speed might be correct (latency?) but realistically, some people have older wireless cards and can't or won't upgrade.

depending on your wifi, your overall quality might go down if someone is ALSO using your access point (1:1 vs 5:1) AND as a special bonus, don't access points tend to negotiate downwards to the lowest common protocol being used? don't know if that's [still] true. get one old gadgets still using a/b and your nice fast G is gone. sure, you can forge G typically, but see above: they might actually have older stuff in use and can't upgrade.

#

Re: For the "what's wrong with wifi" commenters

[wavilyem.livejournal.com]

Regarding security, a wireless router configured with adequate security measures (i.e. using WPA2-PSK with AES encryption and strong/hard-to-guess passwords) is for most purposes just as secure as wired ethernet. The security issues come from bad practices such as not changing default passwords, using the thoroughly-broken WEP protocol instead of WPA, etc.

And you're right that many older routers and wireless cards don't support 802.11a/n and that upgrading may be cost-prohibitive. However, the one-time cost of buying new wifi equipment will probably pay for itself in just a few months compared to Comcast price of $25/month for a second cable modem.

[concrete.livejournal.com]

talk to the cable modem installer - he will pull in an ethernet cable for you for a smallish fee.

[afty.livejournal.com]

You might want to try an Ethernet-over-coax bridge. It lets you send a wired network signal over a coaxial cable (same as what cable TV uses). About a year ago, I bought a pair of used Motorola NIM100 bridges on Ebay for $30-40 each. I see about 30 Mbps from these things (actual transfer speeds, not just connection rate); other people report even higher speeds. The connection is rock-solid, *much* better than wireless. It also doesn't interfere with the cable TV/Internet signal.

You can find more information here:
http://www.mocalliance.org/

OK

[pjmorgan.livejournal.com]

Sounds like I'll need to live with the wireless. For the record though, I do feel plugging directly in is a higher quality experience in terms of speed and more importantly reliability of the connection.

Re: OK

[rethcir.livejournal.com]

There are also network-over-powerline solutions availible, I used to use them when I lived with my parents before the advent of WiFi. But honestly.. you might be suprised by the advances in wifi stability if you haven't used it in a while. A properly configured Linksys WRT54G with good firmware should be fine for all consumer-grade purposes and have 95%+ uptime.

[zmgmeister.livejournal.com]

I don't think two cable modems is possible without paying for a second account.

A second modem would basically mean you're getting a second "piece" of the neighborhood's bandwith pie, and you have to pay for it. I don't think any modems have a feature to "coordinate" sharing the same bandwith cap (but it is possible).

Some ISPs might let you obtain multiple IPs using the same modem for a nominal charge, say for instance you needed a static IP or you wanted to work from multiple IPs for privacy reasons. But that wouldn't solve your problem.

Though.... you -could- get your own DOCSIS server and start your own little home cable-modem network with all those rooms you have wired for coax.