Eli5- What is an internet channel (when shopping for modems)?
In: Technology
A DOCSIS channel refers, generally, to the capacity a modem has to support a given internet speed.
A modem marked 24×8, for example, has
* 24 channels bonded together for the download, which gives you up to just about 1000Mbps of download, and
* 8 channels bonded together for the upload, which gives you up to about 200 Mbps of upload.
It’s *very very important* to match your modem’s channel bonding to the speed of service you want to get. If your modem doesn’t have the capacity, you won’t get the speed.
Wifi routers broadcast at various frequencies, commonly 2.4GHz and 5GHz, but they will have “channels” that are sort of like a tweak of this. They may go a few Hertz up or down in order to create these different channels, all around the same frequency. The benefit is to cut down on interference.
Think of like the channels of a TV. If you wanted to watch HBO, your neighbor wanted to ESPN, and another neighbor wanted to watch the Cartoon Network, you couldn’t have them all on the exact same frequency, they would fight and nothing would make sense. So, your WiFi is like that. You may find nobody is on Channel 11, your neighbor chooses Channel 24, and another neighbor chooses Channel 4. Everyone has good WiFi and they aren’t competing against each other.
Make sure to get a modem set with DOCSIS 3.1.
That’s future ready for any internet service.
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