Especially if you have a small apartment, and a cable internet plan of less than 100Mbps and you truly want to save as much money as possible, this is the cheap combo modem to buy. (That's why I always go refurbished when shopping for Apple products.) What's more, most routers on the market have more settings and features than the router part of a combo device. 99 In order to connect more devices in a home -- many of them are Wi-Fi devices, like your tablets or your laptops -- you also need a Wi-Fi router. The only problem is that I am a broke college student not looking to spend much money. The major benefit here is that a used modem tends to run about a third of the price of a new one. The good news is, for most city living apartment dwellers, that is all you need. On the market, refurbished modems cost as little as two-thirds of the price of the new unit. More wires and two power outlets required. With 3rd party sellers, they generally just buy “return pallets” from major sources of defective returns. Risky and rigid; router section often lacking; impossible to upgrade. The most recommended modem I have seen is the Arris SB6183. At least it will save you the $10/month rental fee. The most recommended modem I have seen is the Arris SB6183. A refurbished product is one that, for any number of reasons, no longer qualifies as new. This means that getting a brand-new modem gives you no more benefits than getting a refurbished one of the same type. Sorry, WD -- not going to risk a used hard drive for a measly $15 savings. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Because it is an older technology, it is a slower router, and it is refurbished. We delete comments that violate our policy, which we encourage you to read. Your actual internet connection speed depends on the speed of the modem, the router, the Wi-Fi connection, switches, the connected client itself and the broadband data plan you pay for, and whichever is the lowest at a given time. Electrode, Comp-04b6f889-ce3c-4fe7-9546-68348072e5bc, DC-wus-prod-a14, ENV-prod-a, PROF-PROD, VER-20.0.40, SHA-41ed8468826085770503056bd2c9bc8be5b55386, CID-7c6d4109-007-175bdd6aa4cd05, Generated: Thu, 12 Nov 2020 19:02:43 GMT, Electrode, Comp-dd1ddc2f-a5a6-4c76-a310-feb912f28841, DC-wus-prod-a14, ENV-prod-a, PROF-PROD, VER-20.0.40, SHA-41ed8468826085770503056bd2c9bc8be5b55386, CID-c9efbd8e-007-175bde321bfc30, Generated: Thu, 12 Nov 2020 19:16:20 GMT, Electrode, Comp-160190b5-c1a2-43c4-994e-91c73ddfeaff, DC-wus-prod-a9, ENV-topic-seo-prod, PROF-PROD, VER-20.6.1-860680, SHA-860680b823687dfe520a76678ea9d22269c681fb, CID-4b3b501e-007-175bde40c8047c, Generated: Thu, 12 Nov 2020 19:17:21 GMT.