i bought one for like $65 on Amazon, have had no problems. Paid for itself in less than a year from rental cost from Mediacom.

The only reason I still rent is that the ones I rent from Mediacom seem to need replaced at least once a year... Curious if it's because their shit sucks, they're accidentally bricking them OTA, or if they just fail that often.

buy

buy. pays for itself in a few months.

We bought a dual band at Best Buy for $100 and it has been amazing!!!

@broox @iandees We used to have similar problems until buying the @wirecutter rec several years ago. Never renting a modem again.

Afaik buying is the way to go.

I bought, though now gigabit is available but requires rental.

I bought mine. Payback was 20 months. Had it three years with no issues. Had to purchase from our cable provider due to signal. Greg

Buy.

alright, so i'm apparently slow to the punch on this one. just bought the wirecutter recommendation (Arris SURFboard SB6183)

Only problem with buying is if you have any issues with your internet the technician can not touch your modem what so ever not even to reset it and if it is a problem with the modem the price to fix the it goes up extremely.

Plus getting the modem from the provider means you get the correct hardware for the bandwidth they are providing. It depends on the package you buy. If you are getting the 100 meg download package you want to make sure you are getting the correct modem for the speeds and the signal.

When I had mediacom I bought. Fine for five plus years until I moved. Mediacom has a list of approved modems that work best with their stuff as well. Not sure if it makes a difference.

Buy. Mediacom is the devil

charter includes it in our service no seperate line item its the same price either way

@ejacqui @iandees @wirecutter Just bought the wirecutter modem

rent. Those things break.

I buy, you can get good asus ones(better than the mediacom ones) that have good reliability and warranty. They are in the $100s range but pay themselves off since you wont be paying a "leasin fee" to mediacom.

The last one i got ~3 years ago still runs fine.

Netgear NightHawk R7000 is the one i use, got it for $150ish when it was on sale.

Yep, rent. I always bought but then as they become obsolete and things...you have to "buy" new. Rent, then just complain it's slow or not working and get the newest one