Whatever you decide, buy your own modem. I bought ours (forget what model, but it was a pretty well rated one) for at most $100, 5 years ago. It is still going strong. If we rented, that would have been $600+.
Crap! I might have to buy my own modem! Is it easy to set up/switch from Comcast's modem to the Arris modem? I'm looking at my Comcast bill and I dont see a charge for modem rental. Hmmmm.
I just looked at my bill and chatted with a Comcrap agent. I'm not being charged a modem lease fee even though I have their modem.
They better not! ha ha! I'm actually still chatting with them online right now and getting a refund for a digital adapter box that I have but havent used in a long time. I'm playing dumb, saying I dont have any extra boxes so they are going to refund me the $$ I've been paying on it each month.
50/50 is $44.99. My homeowners' association cut a deal with Verizon. A portion of our HOA dues pays for internet and TV. It didn't cost much to upgrade the 50/50 to 150/150. Verizon FIOS got bought by Frontier Communications. 150/150 is $64.99. I do a lot of software development that requires both uploading and downloading of big files or lots of files. The $20 extra is well worth waiting less for those uploads/downloads. For you, 50/50 is plenty. They do have Frontier in the PDX area, no?
HCP, here is some terminology in case you're still unclear: The box that plugs into your wall via a cable wire is the modem. There's really no need for anything fancy here, but owning your own modem is a good idea so you don't pay Comcrap's rental fee. The box that plugs into your modem and provides wifi is called a router. You can get different types of routers depending on how big your house is. I think Comcast also offers a combined modem/router device as well.
The Apple routers are a little more reliable, in my experience. I never had to reboot mine, but the cable company ones required frequent reboots. Annoying. You want the AC version - it goes 300mbit or more. If you have 150mbit internet and 50mbit wifi, the wifi limits you. Time Warner has 300mbit down/25 up for ~$70/mo.