Would you lease?, or buy?? a DSL modem

[Babybearjs]

well, I got my new CenturyLink service yesterday and called the office to purchase my modem. boy has the price gone up! paid $70.00 for an Actiontec C1000 a few years ago and now it's $150! BUT... with a newer modem... the new C3000A is a 2 line DSL modem, so, yes it would be more... so. my question to you is, would you purchase or lease a DSL modem?

[twocvbloke]

Over here in the UK, the ISP tends to 'give' the customer the modem required, though we tend to have to pay postage on it, or in some case we can use our own hardware, even if it was used on a rival's service, the only exceptions I can think of are Sky (severely locked down hardware), Vodafone (lobotomised functionality) and VirginMedia (cable service so their hardware or nothing), so personally I'd rather not pay where possible...

[tubaman]

Echo @twocvbloke on this one - we (UK) will always be supplied with a suitable modem/router by the ISP if required. That usually then becomes yours to keep once the minimum contract period has ended.  Unfortunately a lot of these are tied down in the firmware to a specific ISP, so if you switch companies quite often you tend to end up with a cupboard full of useless hardware, which I think is very bad in terms of wasted resources.
Most of the ISPs kit is pretty basic so I tend to buy my own - usually secondhand via eBay.

In terms of buy or lease, I suppose it depends on the monthly cost and how long you intend to stay with CenturyLink. If you lease I assume you get support and a guarantee as long as you lease the hardware from them.
Also, does the hardware have any residual value after you have finished with it? If it costs $150 to buy but you could get, say, $75 back by selling it after a year then than needs to be taken into account too.

[LarryInMichigan]

I have been using Comcast internet service.  Comcast tries to push customers to rent cable modems from them, and sometimes charges rent even though the customer uses their own modem, and their monthly rental fee is more than 10% of the purchase cost, so renting a modem is much more expensive than buying one.  The modem I am using now actually cost me a total of $1 at a rummage sale.  Comcast would be charging something like $15/month if I were renting one from them.

Larry

[tubaman]

I think part of the lease/buy decision will come down to how confident people are in setting-up and troubleshooting their own equipment.
Here in the UK most ISPs allow you to use your own kit but will offer little or no support for that if things don't work (understandably).  For that reason I usually get and retain the ISPs modem so that I can plug it back into the line if there are any problems that I need to contact them about.  It stops them trying to blame a fault on the fact that I'm not using their kit.

[RB]

Even though here in the south, DSL has given way, "for the most part",  to Fiber,
It has usually been kind of open in that a modem, is a modem.
except in the cases pointed out. If it is not locked down, try any modem and if it fits, use it.
The fiber end of it, has required us to have a multiplexor on the house, that has the ability to provide
Internet, Tv, and Pots line. So, we just get one box, plus a cable modem/router combo.

[compubit]

I have FiOS and have the fiber coming into my dining room, and the ONT (converts fiber to Ethernet) is mounted at the baseboard.  Verizon hands off Ethernet, so I can rent their router or buy my own.  Since I just have data (no voice or TV), I used the router I bought when I had Comcast (I prefer To keep the modem and the router separate, so that I can use each as appropriate - e.g., unplug the router from the Comcast modem and plug it into the FiOS ONT...).

I also purchased my modem from Comcast, as it paid for itself in <10 months, possibly even faster, if the rental is taxed...

The ONT is provided by Verizon at no cost, and once i get my kitchen remodeled and the walls are opened up, I'll move the ONT into the basement, right under where it is now (the installer left an additional 10' of fiber, as well as a power adapter with a 20' cord).

J

[twocvbloke]

The Modem I have at the moment is a Huawei VOX 25, supplied by my current ISP, Vodafone, and the annoying thing about it, it has two ports for VoIP, but they're both software-disabled, making it a bit of a paperweight product as it can do more than it is programmed for, but at the moment it just serves as the modem for the VDSL and as a DHCP server, while my Netgear WNDR5300 router upstairs does WiFi and my networking mess...

I have a few Technicolor TG582n ADSL Modem/Routers, a BT SmartHub (ADSL/VDSL), Huawei HG612-3B VDSL modem (no router capabilities), and of course the above Vodafone-lobotomised VOX25, so I'm not short on spares if things break down...

[tubaman]

@twocvbloke - that HG612 you have is actually quite a decent modem. They are quite easy to unlock so that you can get all of your line connection stats - should you be interested in that sort of thing of course (sadly, I am ).

[twocvbloke]

Yeah, I've hung onto the HG612 because it's a useful backup, if the Vodafone router goes pop, I can at least hook that up and slap my username & pass into my Netgear router (I had that setup when with Plusnet), never got around to the unlocking part, never felt the need to...

Does remind me though, I'm not 100% sure where said HG612 is at the moment...

[Owain]

HG612 will also work with ADSL, and can be changed from Bridge mode to Routed Mode and have the modem do the PPPoE authentication itself. You can also turn DHCP on and set up virtual servers etc, just like a normal router. But performance suffers.

If you just have one PC to be wired, you dont even need to unlock the modem, just plug it direct in to the PC using LAN1 and set Windows/Mac/Linux to dial a PPPoE connection. In such cases you are connected to the internet 'naked' with no firewall or protection

[twocvbloke]

If you just have one PC to be wired, you dont even need to unlock the modem, just plug it direct in to the PC using LAN1 and set Windows/Mac/Linux to dial a PPPoE connection. In such cases you are connected to the internet 'naked' with no firewall or protection

When I first got the VDSL installed, I did just that with one of my spare laptops to test it out before I'd sorted out my router for use with it, seemed to confuse the Openreach engineer who said that shouldn't work that way and it needed to be connected to a router to work, but I showed him what I did (as you say, "dial" a PPPoE connection with my at-the-time Plusnet account details) and taught him something new...