There are many different ways of obtaining Internet service in the United States today, but a handful of them together account for the vast majority of individual cases. Many people, for example, maintain active mobile data plans, relying on smartphones and tablets for a great deal of their daily usage. At home and at many smaller businesses, another, more reliable form of connection is the norm. Cable Internet connections have become the most popular of all among those that afford high-speed bandwidth, even while other options do exist and bring advantages of their own.
Using television cable to provide Internet access is not as simple as plugging in a jack, though. The coaxial cable that carries so much Internet data today is well suited to the task, but additional equipment is required everywhere along the path. As far as residential and office settings go, that will mean the use of a cable modem that is capable of transforming the signals sent along the wires into something that computers can understand.
Many providers will offer to rent such devices to customers on a monthly basis. That can seem like a tempting option, especially when the monthly rate is relatively low compared to the rest of the service fee. Going this route will typically mean having access to upgraded modems as they become available or necessary, which can be a good way of insuring against obsolescence, breakdown, or other issues.
On the other hand, those monthly fees will typically add up quite quickly. In some cases, it will take only a few months of renting to equal the price of the same piece of equipment at retail, or sometimes even less when secondhand options are taken into account. For those who are willing to to do the homework, a trip to a local networking equipment supplier or even a visit to eBay might therefore prove to be a rewarding one.
In order to make sure that any such venture pays off, it will be necessary to find a list of supported modems, though. Most providers do maintain such resources on their websites, so it will often only take a bit of searching to produce some results that can easily be used to save money.
