I would think that any name brand wireless router will work fine. I have a DSL modem supplied by the phone company, and a 4-port Belkin Pre-N wireless router I bought separately a couple of years ago. The incoming signal goes to the modem, and then an Ethernet cable goes to the router. Hard wired devices plug into the ports in the back of the modem via Ethernet cable. My router can handle 4 hard-wired devices, and 32 wireless devices. I have 4 PCs hooked up to it (1 wired, 3 wireless), a Roku box (wireless), and a printer (wireless). The only thing to keep in mind about cable is that speeds can vary depending on how many people in the neighborhood are online at any given time. DSL is a constant speed, and since mine is 3 Mbps, that's enough for me.

Have you checked to see whether your DSL supplier can provide a higher speed? Last year, my speed was 1.5 Mbps and I asked if they had anything higher in my area. They said they had 3.0 available for the same price. When I asked why they hadn't just bumped up my speed, they said they were only allowed to change my account if I called to request and authorize it first! I said: Who wouldn't want twice the speed for the same price? They said they just wanted to be sure this was something I wanted! At any rate, 10 seconds later I had twice the speed.

Lastly, since you're mixing PCs and Macs on your system, I don't know if that would cause any problems. I have have friends with Macs who visit and they can get on my system (when I give them my security code) with no problem. However, if you are switching providers, you should ask first if there could be any problems.

Comcast provided the modem when they installed the cable. MAKE SURE THEY CHECK THE LINE SPEED -- they had to twiddle with something way up on the service pole to get decent speed.

I have a router hooked up to the modem and my mac mini, with no problems with iBook (airport extreme? card) and a newish HP laptop.

With the newer computers, I would think that they'd be downward compatible to "g" since "g" is so ubiquitous.

Funny, we're now switching to DSL (with 8 mbps doewnload) from comcast cable due to the reliability. We've had voip (vonage) for a few years. The occasional internet (and phone) service cut-outs have become intolerable. I'm also sick and tired of resetting the router, since the service degrades would affect the vonage quality first.

Motorola surfboard routers are supposed to be really good, but probably any name brand will do. Look for any mfr's rebates and you might get one for free. (That's better than a $4/mo indefinite modem rent to comcast.)

Before I bought my own modem for $65 I figured out I'd paid comcast over $200 to rent theirs. Then they didn't take it off my bill right away.....

Thanks for the input. Browsing the board, I quickly came across a link to a speed test, via a post from Mr. R. Cajun. The test revealed my download speed was somewhere between 758 and 765 Kbps. This morning I called Fairpoint, the phone company who took over when Verizon bailed on rural NE.

They had me do a speed test to confirm, and the tech agreed that it was slow and I should be getting 3Mbps at least. He said it should be fixed in 24-48 hours (could it be so?) on their end. Resetting the modem seemed to get me up to 1Mbps.

There is a 7Mbps plan, which we would be willing to try if they delivered near to the promised speed. Cable is still faster supposedly, and now that the price has come down, all the kids in the neighborhood seem to be switching.

I guess I'll wait on a modem/router (I'd been eyeing the Surfboard 900) for now. Tech says the venerable Westell versalink 327W modem/wireless router has the capability to handle the speed increases they could provide.

Kudos Kudzu9. I never would have thought to check the speed and call them for something faster. Let's hope it works! 3mbps is fast enough to wirelessly stream movies with the Roku?

Thanks

Len

Len-
Yes on the Roku speed and quality. I have a high def 24" monitor for my computer and a 50" plasma in the living room. On the monitor, it's excellent, and on the bigger screen it's quite good...almost the same as watching a DVD. I was impressed. I think I'm getting about as high a quality as the Roku can provide. You may know that the Roku checks your speed and adjusts the picture quality accordingly; I always get 4 out of 4 on the quality scale. And the Roku site says the signal tops out at about 5 Mbps, which I doubt would make much of a visible change for me. If you can use an HDMI cable between the Roku box and the back of your tv, it will make a difference, too. The only time I had a problem was when I was watching a movie once, and my wife got on the network to download some huge picture files: the quality adjusted downward to 3 out of 4, until she finished.

As for cable being faster, it can be...until other folks in the neighborhood get on and start sucking off parts of the bandwidth. Since I like my speed reliable, and 3 Mbps works for my needs, I'm sticking with DSL (until I can get a fiber optic line!).

Lastly, getting you back up to your expected speed could be a quick fix or not, depending on what they need to do. There could be many reasons they're not delivering the expected speed, ranging from simple to complex. If there is a chunk of cable that is degraded somewhere between you and the switching station where you get the signal, it would depend on how soon they get a crew out. Usually these problems are pretty fixable, so just stay on them.