PostPoints tip: Don't rent your cable modem

While you're spring cleaning, don't forget to take a look for clutter in your telecom bills. If you subscribe to your cable company's Internet service--especially if you've been doing so for a long time--you may be needlessly wasting $5 or so a month on renting your cable modem. That, as I've written before, is a mistake: Because the cable industry settled on a standard architecture for modems years ago, you can buy one in a store, plug it in and return the rental to your provider. The only catch is that you'll need to check on your provider's Web site to see which specific models it supports (others might work, but you'll get no help from tech support in those cases). Considering that you can make up the $60-and-up cost of a new modem in a year and change, the time needed to research your choice, then run over to a store or place an order online will be well spent.
-- Rob Pegoraro, Consumer Technology Columnist