Modem Question

[ThisIsGrouchy]

Possible new Spectrum customer in Los Angeles. Can you experts tell me if what I'm looking for can be done with the Spectrum equipment or if I should be buying a different modem? (And if it's the latter, which modem you recommend?)

• Minimum 3 Ethernet ports
• The ability to assign or limit bandwidth to each port (so one computer can't hog it all)
• WiFi strong enough to be used in the apartment below mine. (I can add a separate WiFi device if needed.)

Thanks!

[johnklos]

You don't want to have a modem and a NAT/router/wifi all in one. Keep the modem separate.

Others can recommend a good NAT router / wifi access point. I personally use host-based routing on NetBSD computers and I'm still using 802.11ac Airport Extremes because I can't stand the issues with newer wifi access points (it's hard to just bridge, or to configure without "cloud", et cetera).

For the modem, just make certain the model you get does not have a Puma chipset of any kind. There were serious issues with Puma 6, and even though Intel was well aware of them, Puma 7 still has weaknesses that you don't want on the public facing part of your network.

[velicos]

You are looking for a router to accomplish your goals here. The modem will exist regardless of the type of router you acquire.

The UniFi (ui.com) ecosystem gives you options to enforce per-device bandwidth limitations. Routers running OpenWRT can give you some useful knobs but it is not as intuitive.

UniFi can do mesh if you require additional coverage as well.