Thanks for the advice in buying rather than renting. In the real world, what advantages will an AC1900 (R7000 nighthawk for $200) get me vs an AC1750 (Archer c7 for $90) vs an AC1200 (Trendnet for $54) or even a solidly built N style router?
When I read reviews, I'm sorry but everything is way over my head...or people are complaining about constant reboots...A GIANT fear of mine. A few years ago we had DSL and our router constantly needed rebooted.
I'm not going to compare features of the various routers; that's really what the reviews are for. If your head is spinning at those reviews, your head is telling you something: Those routers are likely just overkill for your current and foreseeable future needs. To just browse the internet and watch some YouTube videos, you don't need a $200 AC1900 or 1750 class router.
First, you need to amortize the cost of buying vs. renting and then think to yourself, "how long will it take me to recoup the cost of my purchase, compared to what I'd spend over the same period of time renting? Or, stated differently, how long will I have to rent to have spent the same thing I'd have to spend to buy?
With a 50Mbps ISP tier, you'll need to have at least a Docsis 3.0 cable modem, with at least 4x2 channel bonding. You do not need anything with more channel bonding capability, because your speed tier doesn't require it. So you don't need an 8x4 channel bonding modem, and you really don't need a 16x4 channel bonding modem. Those are overkill for what you're getting from Comcast currently.
Probably the cheapest modem you'll be able to get away with that's also rock-solid reliable, is the Arris SB6121 which retails for about $69-$79 depending on where you get it (for example, it's $69 from Amazon, $79 from Walmart and other big box chains). It's a fine modem for anywhere between 50-100 Mbps cable internet tiers. So let's just say you'll have to spend about $80-85, with sales tax and shipping to buy your own cable modem with the minimum specs to service your current speed level.
As far as a router, given what you're doing now you could get by with almost any decent and extremely cheap 802.11n wireless router. You could spend as little as $20 for a TP-LINK TL-WR841N Wireless N300 from Amazon (which I wouldn't really recommend), all the way up to a good AC1900 or 1750 class router for 10 times that amount (which would be overkill for what you're going to do with it, which is just internet browsing and the occasional Youtube or equivalent). You say you want a really solid router, one that's going to be reliable (i.e., it will stay connected and won't reboot or otherwise exhibit strange behaviors). I'd suggest going with the Asus RT-N66U, which you can get for around $115.00 on Amazon. Not the cheapest, and certainly not the newest and fastest, but it's a stable and proven design, and you can also load Merlin firmware to gain additional features if you want to start playing around to see what you really can do, and there is tremendous support for it here in the forums. For you needs it will absolutely serve you well for many years into the future. It's not the "best" router out there, but for your current and foreseeable near-term future use, I think it would be an ideal choice. And if you want to go to 802.11ac speeds, for about $100 you can pick up an Asus RT-AC56U, or a Netgear AC1200 R6200, or something similar.
But conservatively, you're looking at spending a minimum of $200 out of pocket to replace the combo modem-wifi router you're currently leasing for $7 per month. At $7 per month, it will take you about 29 months to recoup the investment you'll be making to buy your own equipment. And during that 29 months, if you plan to go up to a higher speed tier, say 150 Mbps or higher, you're going to have to get a new router anyway (unless you want to jack up your total out of pocket by another $20-30 for an 8x4 modem like the SB6141, or by another $50 for a 16x4 like the SB6183). And even if you don't make the decision yourself to go to a higher tier, sometimes your ISP just does that for you, increasing the speed of your service on their own. And don't laugh about your ISP upgrading your service for you, because TWC for example did just that for it's customers, raising my speed from 50 to 100 for free, and then charging only a modest add-on to go to 300. Similarly the FCC has just announced it's changed the definition of "broadband" so that ISP's can only claim to provide "broadband" if they are giving customers minimum speeds of 25Mbps download. So like death and taxes, the one thing you can say is that we've not reached the limits of possible high-end speeds on the internet, and it's a certainty that at some point in the future ISP speeds provided to customers will be increasing. The only real question is "when" that's going to happen for you.
And there are other things to think about when considering buying vs. leasing: For instance, what if something goes wrong with your equipment and it fails? Don't look to Comcast to fix it. You'll have to RMA it, assuming it fails during its warranty period, or worse, if your warranty is up, you'll need to buy something new. And even if it's just an issue with slow download speeds, or connectivity, Comcast is likely to say to you "well, it's your equipment, we can't really do anything other than on our side of the box". And then you're stuck trying to resolve issues that may be well over your head, that you've got to resolve yourself. (Another tip: Remember this URL:
http://www.dslreports.com; you will need it when something with your connection goes amiss. Find the Comcast forum there and read about issues that others are having with Comcast when using their own equipment and ways they've found to fix problems).
What I'm getting at is that the decision to lease equipment from your ISP vs. buying your own equipment really isn't as clear-cut as it may seem, and it's not all only about saving the $7 per month. Because at some point, you're going to spend that $7 many times over, and even more, just to likely get what you already have, whether you lease or buy.
Many prefer to buy, saying this gives them some "control" over their internet experience. Fair enough. I'm with that side all the way. But others prefer just the ease of use and flexibility that leasing affords them. And for what you say you are doing with your internet connection at the moment, paying $7 per month may actually be a pretty cheap way to go, and you won't be locked into certain equipment when and if things change during the next two+ years as they most likely will. Right now, you can always exchange your current leased device for something else that Comcast will be responsible to maintain and help you set up properly. Don't like the TG862 you've got now? Call Comcast and get a different device, perhaps one that is more user-configurable, one that has dual wifi channels (and even 802.11ac), and one that will actually let you configure the interface to customize settings more easily than you can with the TG862. Just look at the list RogerSC posted and read the product pages to learn about which modems and/or gateway combo devices Comcast is currently leasing to see what they have available.
I've gone both ways on this subject, and after buying my own Arris SB6183 for about $130 retail at Best Buy (actually closer to $145 with sales tax and the California State electronic recycling fee that gets charged up front), if I had it to do over again, I'd probably just have stuck with the device that TWC was leasing to me for about $8 per month (the Arris DG1670A, which was a combo modem/router/wireless unit). With the DG1670A, I could turn off wifi, turn off NAT, turn off the firewall and put it into "bridge" so that it was just acting as simple cable modem (a really good simple cable modem too), and thus my own Asus RT-AC66U router was still functioning as it is now, i.e., handling routing, firewall and DHCP, using the SB6183. In fact, the performance of both cable modems is pretty much indistinguishable. While I'm very happy with the SB6183, I'm also pretty sure I would have been just as happy had I stuck with the DG1670 for a couple of years until the next cable modem upgrade was required based on increasing speeds from my ISP.
Look, I'm just pointing out that there some other considerations that need to be taken into account when you decide to buy vs. leasing from your ISP besides just the monthly lease charge for the modem. And not all of those reasons and factors lean in favor of buying for someone like you given your needs and usage. You probably won't use even a fraction of the features that come with a $200 AC1900 or a $170 AC1750 class wireless router, so there's literally no reason to spend that money unless you just want to have something that is newer and "better" than what you have. But the reality is that it wouldn't be "better" for you because you just don't need that level of technical complexity in your modem and router.
And one other thing to consider: You'll never really be able to future-proof your equipment, so you shouldn't try to do that. There will always be a new wireless protocol or speed innovation under development, something better and faster and shinier will always be coming along, and newer equipment is always just on the verge of being released that promises to bring you features that you can't even yet imagine.
So in some cases, paying a nominal $7 per month is just a much less expensive way to go, and best of all, you can upgrade any time you want to a different device without paying anything extra other than the same $7 you're paying already.
Just some things to consider and think about.
