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Question about old cable modem from cable company

honkymcgoohonkymcgoo Registered User regular
in Help / Advice Forum
So, I'm not really sure what to do with this modem. I found it in a box, it's from my last apartment about 8 months ago. My roommate thought he had lost it so I have no idea how it ended up with my stuff. Anyway, it was a rental from the cable company and he already paid the fee for the lost equipment. It's still fairly nice, it's a newer motorola surfboard. If I return it to the cable company will he get a refund or something? Can I just use it or do they track it somehow? Can I hack it to do something cool on my own local network? Can I sell it on craigslist or is that considered stolen property?

I didn't even know what the fuck and avitar was until about 5 minutes ago.

Posts

  • JebusUDJebusUD Adventure! Candy IslandRegistered User regular
    If he paid the fee it is as good as yours unless he is around. Give it to him?

    You can use it instead of renting one for cable internet. That'll save you 5 to 10 bucks a month.

    and I wonder about my neighbors even though I don't have them
    but they're listening to every word I say
  • TomantaTomanta Registered User regular
    That cable company probably has it marked lost, or maybe still just listed on his old account. Who knows what will happen if it turns up again (I'm assuming based on my company that there's a decent chance if you tried to register it with them they would find the old account but who knows what they would do. It's an unusual situation for a standard CSR).

  • PantshandshakePantshandshake Registered User regular
    It would seem like something too small to bother with, but I would bet on every item with a serial number having its own place in a database somewhere. If it comes up again to be registered, it'll probably flag as already existing in their system, and then someone will have a question or two.

    As to whether or not you can then use it and save yourself the rental fees... I would say yes, I think.

  • DraygoDraygo Registered User regular
    It also might be worthless because it uses a lower standard such as DOCSIS 2.0 instead of 3.0.

    But he paid the missing equipment fee so its as good as his, and no the cable company won't want it back - it's already written off.

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