Full Internet equipment upgrade for Comcast service. Bought it all a while ago but posting here now. Spent up to $300 in total...
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10215075305105413&id=1514432607
It's a new DOCSIS 3.1 modem, won from eBay, a true gigabit model. I'm hoping it can better maintain a stable connection than my old one...
The old SBG6580 became a daily problem, suffering from high noise in the cable line or too many Comcast customers in one neighborhood node, dunno what causes the noise at certain hours, but grounding IS VERY IMPORTANT to help, at least it helps reduce lost/uncorrectable TCP packets!
I made use of 2 new copper ground rods I installed outside and inside which has helped stabilize the connection better, though it hasn't been enough. I just didn't trust the old modem anymore and felt it time to upgrade in the hopes of improving the service given it supports 4x the downstream channels.
I learned that the fan mod I did to the old Motorola SBG6580 modem was VERY IMPORTANT!! The CPU runs hot, when it gets too hot, then you start seeing lost packets and the Signal to Noise ratio drop to 28 decibels which is bad, it must be above 33 for the modem to keep a stable signal...
Long story short, I had removed my fan because I thought the EM field might be a problem, but it was lack of grounding which I solved recently, so by putting a mini fan pointing at the CPU, the bastard was working pretty normally again!!!
The thing wasn't designed for a fan, I hacked/modded it given somebody else's advice I got off Google, which yeah, turns out was very necessary... Anyway, it's going in the garbage.
So new modem is stable and runs warm, NOT hot! It's working with the 2 routers I set up for it, one is for my renters who I share the ISP with. I should've bought this one a long time ago! Pretty happy so far!
WiFi Router is AC2300 from MicroCenter on sale for $99. Spent $139 on modem, $50 for a second AC1900 router, then another $20 on gold plated cat7 gigabit Ethernet cables to do it right, etc.
http://www.microcenter.com/product/478607/Archer_C2300AC2300_Wireless_MU-MIMO_Gigabit_Router
