It is a common type of trickery found with internet service providers everywhere. They will quickly state that you need to use the router that they supply you with. Some ISPs will not charge you for the privilege of using their router, but instead build-in charges elsewhere. Other ISPs are more explicit, charging you anywhere from $5 to $20 a month to use the router that they have chosen for you.
There is no reason that you cannot choose from a list of compatible routers for Optimum or other ISPs rather than suffer with the router form your ISP. There are instead plenty of reasons to replace your ISP’s router with your own. Here are a few.
- It will save you money. The first reason that you should consider replacing your router is that it will save you money. Typically, your ISP will either allow you to rent or buy a router from them, but neither option is cost-effective. Renting a router is just paying the ISP monthly for a generic router, wasting your money. If you buy a router from the ISP, you might as well go out and buy a better one rather than settle for what they are selling.
- You will get better security. Another reason to buy your own router is that you will get more security features than you will from your ISP’s router. Security needs vary from network to network and no two networks have the exact same needs. This means that the perfect router for your network will not be the same as someone else’s. If you have children who are online, you will want a router that has good parental controls, while if you do business work that has sensitive information, you will want a router with a solid VPN and firewall. Either way, an ISP router will not come with the level of security you need.
- You will get better speeds. Your network’s speeds are going to be limited by the package that you have with your ISP, but you still want to make the best of the speeds that you can have. Getting your own router will allow you to buy a high-speed router that is capable of using all of the available speeds in your network, something that is not promised from an ISP’s router.
- There are better features. You will also get better features and more features with your own router. The type of features that you want or need depends on what you are doing online. Networks that have a lot of online streaming or gaming will want a router that has features to manage that level of activity. You will not get MU-MIMO capabilities from an ISP router, where you can look for that features specifically with your own router.
- You get better bandwidth. When you opt for your own router, you will get better bandwidth. An ISP router might not even be dual-band. Single-band should not be used unless you browse online, but do nothing else. Quality routers will either be dual-band or tri-band, giving you more bandwidth to use. The more bandwidth you get, the better traffic management you have, and ultimately, the better speeds that you receive.
ISPs are not in the business to provide you with a service, but instead are there to make a profit. Do not buy into the scheme that you need to use their router or pay them for one. Instead, do some research to find out which routers work with your ISP and then go for one that meets your needs.