Subscribe[flv width=”480″ height=”288″]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/Post-Standard Time Warner Cable Modem Lease Fee 1-30-13.flv[/flv]
A reporter from the Syracuse Post-Standard is featured in this video explaining how to swap out your leased Time Warner cable modem for one you can buy yourself. It will save you $3.95 a month. One piece of advice: If the coaxial cable you plan to use has a push-on style connector, toss it for one that screws on. The push-on connectors are not recommended, even if your cable modem comes with one. You can also use the cable Time Warner originally supplied if it has a superior screw-on connector. Time Warner does not need the cables returned with the cable modem or the original box. Just return the cable modem and power cord to any Time Warner Cable store location and make sure they print, and you keep, the returned equipment receipt. (4 minutes)
Yep, 5 minutes is about how long it took us! The longest part was navigating the voice prompts to get to a human. Time Warner used to give “inactive” modems an IP and if you open your web browser, you’d be sent to a captive page telling you what your MAC was and to call customer service. I didn’t get that page, but this modem may have never been on TW before. Some ISPs let you fill out an online form here to activate the modem yourself, if you’re an existing customer. When I called, I had my rental and… Read more »
The prices on the Motorola 6141, which is our choice, has been gradually coming down by a few dollars a month. I’ve seen them as low as $75 now. The less-able 6121 is often $10 below that. I suspect by spring, we’ll see these at the $70 or less price point, especially as the 6121 gets retired. We have an ObiHai device here on a test line. It works acceptably, but I find it more clunky than a service like Ooma. The volume on the ObiHai is set quite loud, so you will hear a lot of background artifacts when… Read more »
Our Obi100 has been rock-solid. We use it’s second “line” as a SIP extension for our PBX in a Flash server too. I’ve used GV extensively, since it was called Grand Central, and never had crosstalk. That could be a problem with your own electronics, or perhaps your local telco has Google’s bridge equipment hooked up to sub-par lines. I wouldn’t put it past them. I do have some problems with my PBXIAF, but all clues point to my ATAs (two unlocked InnoMedia boxes) and a growing suspicion that Google’s Jabber implementation is weird and causes random glitches. If and… Read more »