But there's one intriguing fact: Unless you're paying through the nose, your current modem can go faster.
There's an excellent new book from No Starch Press called Hacking the Cable Modem: What Cable Companies Don't Want You to Know, written by a hacker known only as DerEngel. The book outlines several techniques for discovering crucial information about your modem (such as the name of its config file), walks you through DerEngel's methodology as he hacked generations of DOCSIS modems, and even provides schematics for helping you hack the popular Motorola 5100 modem.
Nonetheless, we recommend the book for educational reasons only. Why? Because bumping up your modem's speed this way translates to theft of service.
Absurd two-facedness courtesy of PC Magazine
Jeremy Kaplan teaches you where to look for information on hacking your modem, explains why you would want to do so, but cautions against actually doing it:
