I use my own modem and router. They have a deal to upgrade to unlimited for 11 bucks if you rent their modem/router for 14, so 25 total. I don’t want to do it but if I stay on track to for hitting my cap 12-13 days into the month I’ll have to. They charge 10 bucks per 50 gigs over after you hit the cap.
Nice, the Asus ones are pretty good and can give you some insight sometimes. If any questions let me know. Also, I definitely agree with you on wanting to use your own equipment, I mean it sucks they're doing that on the bill though (forcing you to their equipment for unlimited). The only reason I state that is with my own equipment but their modem (spectrums in my case) I have great service - whereas my neighbors are constantly complaining on our community fb page about their internet being down... I don't recall the last time I even reset anything - I know usually it's roughly 6+ months. I'm also a bit overboard on tech though due to tech background - like I went as far as to run a direct coax to my modem to get the best power and SNR etc. Someone at spectrum actually told me "you really don't want the numbers too good", I told them "sure" and then changed it back to what I was doing - this was years ago when they finally rolled out 300 MBit from 50 Mbit and were doing random check ins. On their multiple split coax setup I'd be resetting the modem every few days due to the multichannel bonding these modems started using and the levels being way off. I also don't mean like broken amplification numbers high but the tech literally tried to educate me on having numbers below normal cable standards... I didnt bother arguing. On a side note... It might be worth seeing if your isp offers only the modem w/ no router at a better price w/ unlimited - then you force it into bridged mode and can still use your router (maybe it'd cost less) - but I'm not sure they do that, spectrum here actually gives the equipment at no charge (I have their router not even in use). Anyway with spectrums modem but my equipment I'm only paying for 400 MBit/s but get 440-480. I'd pay for higher speed but with the competitor (at&t) only offering 50 they really crank the cost up and 400 seems decent.
You’ve got to go unlimited I think. I have Entouch and with their router and taxes/fees I am paying $80 a month for 1Gbps and I have 2 adults and 4 kids all streaming YouTube and Roblox constantly. WiFi works excellent even with all of us in the evenings using it.
If you also have unlimited data on your phone like your son (and hotspot is allowed) you can bond your cell and home internet connections and save some data by spreading things out. Speedify is what I used, though it's $50 a year for unlimited... includes a VPN. You can give it a whirl for free and 5 gb per month to see how things go.
Thank you for the insight and offer to help get set up. I’m kind of in between because I can just pay 30 extra a month every time I’m going to go over and keep my equipment or I can rent theirs plus have unlimited for 25. 360/year extra if I go over every month or 300 with their equipment but I can’t pick it up or drop it when I want as easily.