Save Money on Cable

When looking to cut Internet costs, one of the most important first steps that I recommend clients is to consider is buying their own cable modem. While it may seem like a complex endeavor, installing and configuring your own cable modem it is actually quite straightforward, and best of all it can save you up to 45% of your bill by allowing you to forgo installation and equipment rental fees.

All that one really needs to have a proper Internet connection, is a basic Coax (or DSL for our more rural readers) to Ethernet bridge, there are several models on the market made by several manufactures; my personal favorite being the ones that are made by Motorola. However what you should really be interested in is purchasing one that falls on your service providers approved modems list. You can find this typically on the service providers website, but for convince here are the pages for, Time Warner Cable, AT&T U-Verse, Comcast, and Wind Stream.

In my area, Time Warner Cable has by far the best offerings for speed, reliability, and cost, so I chose one the highest rated for their service, the ARRIS / Motorola SURFboard - SBG6580 While it is definitely more than what you need, it offers most of the features that we have came to expect in a cable modem: a wireless access point, an integrated router with many of the features home users need, 4 port switch, and most importantly a cable modem.

I know many of my readers will be wanting a  more configurable solution, and for that I would recommend you buy a dedicated router, and cable modem. I think that for the most part the typical home user will be happiest with an all in one solution like this.