I use my own modem and my own router with XFinity.

It depends a bit on where you are and what you need, the speed of my 5G modem was a lot quicker than the coax options for the same money, and it was decently stable. My only issue was that I had like no upload speed.

I was also point out it was an option and it has it's use cases

We have a choice between T-Mobile 5G, 3M ADSL, coax docsis and Starlink.

Of those, the most reliable is the DSL, then Starlink, and it's a tossup whether the T-Mobile or the Mediacom DOCSIS is the least reliable

I worked for Mediacom for 5 years. It wasn't reliable then either, but at least then, I didn't have to play the "first we have to send out a tech that may not actually show up the first time because it's working at the exact moment he checks before he cancels the call" game.

When I left them, we switched to DSL, which was ... painful, but we managed for a couple of years. Then the pandemic happened, and the kiddo went to remote schooling, and the DSL just couldn't handle it. So we used the "reduced cost" internet plan for going back to Mediacom.

Except after months of fighting to actually get the reduced price plan we were supposed to be getting, we were told the T-Mobile now serviced our area, and switched with glee.

And for almost 3 years it was GREAT. But in the past year or so, we began having horrendous service issues. Speeds were no better, and sometimes even worse than the DSL we had previously.

Finally, I had enough, and bit the bullet and switched to Starlink.

Now, our service is great. The bill isn't, because let's face it, $120 a month for 200ish Mbps down and 50ish up is nuts, but at least we have fast, reliable service now.

Geez that prices I insane!, but I feel you. I my new house the internet providers fucked up. One only did DOCSIS (VodafoneZiggo) cause it still beliefs it is surperior, the other way was to lazy to get us fiber or coax (I can get coax from them now, but it is gonna cost me 1300 euro to get the connection) and then all the other fiber parties use the same cable which was not put in the buiding due to them sending the invoice to the wrong mail adres ....

So now they are trying to get everything up and ready for the connection, but it is taking months already.

So I am stick with the fuckers from VodafoneZiggo (or a 5G modem) which scam you by delivering coax and telling you it is a "fiber-cable" to make it seem faster than it is. Absolute bullcrap.

Like - I’m excited about sensors that uses higher frequency versions of this for health monitoring. I think that’s a perfectly valid use. But also, in my use, I’d be installing it as an IoT device on a network I control, feeding data to services I own.

This use - where it’s opt in for now, until they figure out how to monetize selling how much time you spend in front of the TV, in the kitchen, bedroom, or bathroom (paired with ‘anonymized’ data about what you’re looking at online in each space) is creepy as fuck.

Can confirm, I live out in the countryside with only coax available, and a measly 1Gbit down 150Mbit up and 9 - 11ms ping. No caps.

Wait, that’s awesome and steady and reliable. Expensive sure but with heavy multiperson usage and no noticeable issues, I am wondering WTF you’re on about unless it’s some weird edge case?

Maybe you are referring to predatory business practices like oversubscribed lines? That’s not a technical problem.

Oh boy, I can't wait for this new wave of paranoid customers claiming their wifi is watching them. Thanks, comcast.

Use your own modem and open source long range router

I live in an apartment building. I wonder if this is useless tech with dozens of WiFi networks from my neighbors going

I still use coax because I buy internet from a reseller third party and this is what they have. I have 400/50 for 35$, which is a lot cheaper yhan the competitors. No reason for me to change.

By default, WiFi Motion is set to detect even small amounts of movement in the motion-sensing areas, including motion caused by small pets.

holy shit lol

If your provider has implemented it (Comcast is the only one i know of in north america) then Active Queue Management is a huge quality of life improvement that you won't know you were missing unless you already had a router that implements queue management. https://www.cablelabs.com/blog/how-docsis-3-1-reduces-latency-with-active-queue-management

DOCIS 3.1 involves more than just speed. No point going over the speed limit if all the traffic lights are timed based on a certain speed. https://www.cablelabs.com/blog/how-docsis-3-1-reduces-latency-with-active-queue-management

Is it really “opt in” or is the opt in only for them to give you the information that they collect? I haven’t read through any terms of service for it but my assumption is they are already selling that data

If anything it's far more dangerous tech due to that. Let's say you live in 304; They know who lives in 303, 305, 203, 204, 205, 403, 404, 405, and the likelihood that your neighbors aren't as tech savvy and use ISP provided routers and modems means that they can use all of those sources to create a 3d image of you and your apartment with the proliferation of 2.4ghz and 5ghz to create a high resolution image that can track your lip movements and even your keystrokes on a computer. That basically just becomes a multi lens 3d camera recording at 5000 fps. The only way to avoid this is to faraday your entire apartment which ironically makes your signal much higher due to the deployment of countermeasures. The ol' "huh, interesting, what are they hiding?" approach.

Well, it very well can be used for exactly that.

open source long range router

Do you have a recommendation?

I remember when MIT had a paper on this around 2000

Asus Rog GT-AX6000 with Merlin OS looks interesting.
Can check list of devices for OpenWRT also.

What the actual Batman fuckery is this. I hope you are wrong or nobody is that motivated to do such things. Either way, scary! Where’s my tin foil hat?