What IS this left-over from a rental house? Cable, modem, router, alarm system, what? (3 Viewers)

[Isaac]

What would you say this is, I found it in a rental home. I lived in this house myself and had the primary local Internet provider, and I never had any such box. I'm wondering if it looks like something you all specifically know, or might guess. I hesitate to get rid of it if it's useful in some way but I am woefully ignorant about hardware and to me all the routers/modems/alarm hubs look confusingly similar.

 

[Steve R.]

Unfortunately, the resolution of the image did not allow for reading the label (or the light labels) on the device. The cord looks to be an Ethernet cord. It should also have, printed on it, something like "cat 6". Check the outside of the house and see if there is a wire entering the house at the location of the box.

 

[BlueSpruce]

Nokia manufactures wireless internet modems. Look for the model number on that box and googling it will tell you exactly what it is.

 

[Isaac]

One of those labels/markings said the word "Alarm", I forgot to mention

 

[The_Doc_Man]

Some home alarm systems are rigged with a cable connection to relay any alarm to a monitoring station. We had an AT&T version of that in our home alarm system, but it is now wireless.

 

[BlueSpruce]

One of those labels/markings said the word "Alarm", I forgot to mention

Googling that artifact's model number will reveal its function.

 

[moke123]

Google lens brings up a lot of similar looking units which are part of Fiber internet modems.

 

[moke123]

 

[BlueSpruce]

View attachment 121776

That's it!.. The box below the modem in Issac's pic is a wifi7 router. I suggest using Cat 8 double shielded ethernet cables, versus using wifi. You cannot leverage 10Gb optic speeds with Cat6 cables. I also heard routers are frequently being hacked with a new blackhat android app. If you see people sitting in parked cars near your home for a long while, most likely they're hacking into your devices. I caught one hacking into my PS4 via bluetooth.

 

[The_Doc_Man]

I caught one hacking into my PS4 via bluetooth.

Which is why I turn off Bluetooth support on my PC. If I want to move files between PC and Android, I have a direct USB connection. And while I don't have Bluetooth enabled on my cell either, in my case it wouldn't matter because I do my banking from my PC has has a robust 3rd-party anti virus/network security package that I've tuned.

 

[BlueSpruce]

Which is why I turn off Bluetooth support on my PC. If I want to move files between PC and Android, I have a direct USB connection. And while I don't have Bluetooth enabled on my cell either, in my case it wouldn't matter because I do my banking from my PC has has a robust 3rd-party anti virus/network security package that I've tuned.

Unfortunately I cannot turn off bluetooth on my PlayStation4 because I would have to hardwire my Dualshock4 controllers.

The hackers are at it again, there's a car camping out in front of our house and i can see them tapping away at tablets, meaning they acquired a connection!

I'm using VPN on my PC's and iPhone's, but the PS4 is unprotected. Maybe it's time to upgrade to PS5 and get a Firewalla Purple device.

https://firewalla.com/products/firewalla-purple

 

[Isaac]

View attachment 121776

thanks, Moke. I'd tried google lens for this issue but came up short - this definitely looks like it.
So I guess he had some different internet provider than I am used to. I sometimes forget that in most parts of Phoenix we now have a choice between Cox, Quantum and another one I think.

Thanks

 

[BlueSpruce]

I sometimes forget that in most parts of Phoenix we now have a choice between Cox, Quantum and another one I think

Xfinity/Comcast?... Yeah, drive by hackers are becoming a big problem! I'm going to start calling the cops and tell them we have trespassing stalkers camping out in front of our house

 

[moke123]

I sometimes forget that in most parts of Phoenix we now have a choice between Cox, Quantum and another one I think.

Nice to have a choice. In our area we have one, spectrum. We still have areas without service. Years ago a friend wanted to get cable and they wanted something like $6,000 to run a cable to his house. I think he wound up with satellite but didn't like it.

 

[The_Doc_Man]

In certain points of south Louisiana, satellite doesn't work as well as one might like because a good rainstorm will provide too much interference. I was in my local barber shop one day when a rainstorm passed overhead. They had on a sports event via satellite feed and it didn't take long for the signal to become all static and no content.

 

[BlueSpruce]

I heard Elon Musk's Starlink solves the bad weather interference problem

 

[The_Doc_Man]

A few years ago we paid a small fee to upgrade from copper to fiber, so at the moment I have fiber-based ethernet connectivity to my house. My digital TVs and the phone company's signal convertors handle access to local and national TV. At some point we might have to go streaming, but with high-speed fiber, that shouldn't be an impossible task.

 

[BlueSpruce]

A few years ago we paid a small fee to upgrade from copper to fiber, so at the moment I have fiber-based ethernet connectivity to my house. My digital TVs and the phone company's signal convertors handle access to local and national TV. At some point we might have to go streaming, but with high-speed fiber, that shouldn't be an impossible task.

I've been streaming for couple years. YouTubeTV provides all the local networks I need and I have not experienced any interruptions or lagging.

 

[The_Doc_Man]

We are anticipating a notice sometime next year that our service will be terminated at the source and we will have to find appropriate alternate sources. We DEFINITELY want to avoid certain cable services because we have heard horror stories about them from friends, but if we can find the streaming service that has my wife's favorite channels and at least a few that I like, we should be OK.

 

[pbaldy]

The hackers are at it again, there's a car camping out in front of our house and i can see them tapping away at tablets, meaning they acquired a connection!

Go outside and take pictures of them and their license plate, send to @moke123