My cable company (Cox) is recommending I use a “DOCSIS 3.0” modem. My current modem is 4-5 years old. Do I assume it’s not what Cox recommends? Would the difference be noticeable?
Could be. A 5yo modem might not be able to keep up with the latest cable speeds. If maxing out is your thing, and you pay for high speeds, you might not be getting what you pay for due to a modem bottleneck.
What speed are you paying for, and what speed are you getting now?
Also, see if the cable company will give you a new modem, free. Mine did (Charter) and all I had to do was ask (self-installed). There’s very little downside to that kind of offer.
Going off the age it sounds like it would be DOCSIS 2. (1 cannot be working on Cox so its a choice of 2 or 3…)
Here’s a list of model numbers indicating version … yours is most likely on it .
DOCSIS 2 runs at 48 mbs download (and 30 mbs upload), so if your plan doesn’t allow you to go faster than DOCSIS 2 , DOCSIS 2 will do ! (they say DOCSIS 2 is fine for “starter” and “essential” plans.)
DOCSIS 3 will allow you to run at up to 8x 48.83 mbs download, that is, over 300mbs…
And upload is up to 4x 30.72 … You can see they are multiplying the DOCSIS 2 up and down speeds, up to 8 x 4 x. Watch out, some DOCSIS 3 modems only do 4x 4x.