Internet Speed Testing And Home Internet Reconfiguration

My home internet service from Comcast was supposed to be fast, and I was certainly paying enough money every month for it.

Lately however I've noticed its been quite slow, especially when watching shows from Amazon or if one of the kids is on Facetime or another app on another system at the same time.

So I did a VUDU Speed Test and found I was getting all of 3Mbps. Considering I'm paying for 20 Mbps this is disappointing to say the least.

It turns out the modem I had issued to me from Comcast was the problem, being only a DOCIS Level 2 modem. While their tech support claimed it was not the problem. Well, it most certainly was.

This led me to my latest home project.

I went online to Amazon and bought a Linksys DOCSIS 3.0 Cable Modem (DPC3008-CC) from Amazon for all of $78. I installed it and had Comcast register it for service and hey whaddya know, I'm now getting 20Mbps and its great.

So yes, I was right and the online tech was wrong, imagine that. The tech I spoke to today setting up the system was far more competent.

Considering it's $7 a month to lease the super-slow-modem from Comcast, I'm ahead in money in less than a year with much faster performance to boot. The difference between 3Mbps and 20Mbps is very real.

On top of that, I went and bought an OBi100 VoIP Telephone Adapter and Voice Service Bridge and have now replaced the Comcast Home Internet Telephone system with The Obi and Google Voice for essentially a free home phone and a payoff measured in less than 2 months. More money saved and more fun in configuring the service which actually is not that difficult to do. The quality is just fine and I can't beat the price.

If you've got Comcast Internet, I'd strongly advise running a speed test a few times to see if you're really getting the performance that you're paying for from them. I'd also suggest looking at Obitalk's OBi100 and Google Voice for home VOIP telephony service.