Thinking of switching to cable from satellite... questions

[EarDemon]

Why not get your own router and have it all set to go?

The all in one combo modem/router gateways they provide are junk. They're good as modems, but as routers, they're terrible and less customizable then just about anything you can buy. A lot of people who have all in one gateways will have the cableco put them in bridge mode (disable wifi/DHCP/NAT) and use their own router. If you get a TWC provided gateway it will most likely be an Arris or Ubee. Generally, people have issues when they have a decent amount of devices on their network. I have no first hand experience as I've always used separate modems and routers, so I’m just parroting the experience of others, and now I'm to the point where I don't even use wireless routers. Wired router + Wireless access point is the only way to go. And you can swap your own router between ISPs very easily if you want to go back to Frontier for whatever reason or move.

I just got HughesNet satellite internet installed last week as a backup to Time Warner. I’m running a dual WAN Cisco router configured for failover. If the cable connection goes down, the satellite takes over. My router handles everything and zero configuration has to be done on the Time Warner and HughesNet provided hardware and everything works on HughesNet when it is my active ISP as it does when TWC is feeding everything. .

 

[cparker]

Why not get your own router and have it all set to go?

The all in one combo modem/router gateways they provide are junk. They're good as modems, but as routers, they're terrible and less customizable then just about anything you can buy. A lot of people who have all in one gateways will have the cableco put them in bridge mode (disable wifi/DHCP/NAT) and use their own router. If you get a TWC provided gateway it will most likely be an Arris or Ubee. Generally, people have issues when they have a decent amount of devices on their network. I have no first hand experience as I've always used separate modems and routers, so I’m just parroting the experience of others, and now I'm to the point where I don't even use wireless routers. Wired router + Wireless access point is the only way to go. And you can swap your own router between ISPs very easily if you want to go back to Frontier for whatever reason or move.

I just got HughesNet satellite internet installed last week as a backup to Time Warner. I’m running a dual WAN Cisco router configured for failover. If the cable connection goes down, the satellite takes over. My router handles everything and zero configuration has to be done on the Time Warner and HughesNet provided hardware and everything works on HughesNet when it is my active ISP as it does when TWC is feeding everything. .

Normally, I do exactly what you're saying as far as using my own equipment, but right now, I'm going to let them install their stuff and see how it goes (except for their DVR box.... don't want it... even though they're telling me I have to have it on premises). If I use their phone service, my understanding is that they won't provision a third party router unless it's for data only. So... theirs for phone, and mine for data... I'm just gonna wait and see what the problems are before I try to solve them

Aaaaannnd... the Tivo boxes arrived. Installed them as OTA for now and got them all updated and happy. Glad I didn't wait for the cable install day to do that. The interface is quite different from the DirecTV boxes we've grown used to, but I think they'll be fine.

 

[cparker]

OK... it's in.
Tech had a really tough time getting tuning adapter recognized by Tivo Bolt units. And my house is wired all cat5e with a patch panel in the basement and a few special things done to that so... I had to help him get the phone portion up and running.

Picture quality is excellent. I like the Tivo but we really are still learning it. Phone quality sounds good too. So.... so far... looks good.