Hello, Has someone noticed that having different modem and/or ethernet cable could affect receive / sent internet speed .. Which modem and ethernet cable do you suggest?
Bandwidth and latency are largely separate issues. Which of these you need to improve, if any, really depends on what you're doing. If your bandwidth is maxing out, you may need more bandwidth, in which case it's easy to upgrade if your provider has it on offer, which it sounds like they do. Latency, you can't do much about, except possibly switch providers or colocate a server closer to where you trade. I doubt that either of these will make much difference if you're a point-and-click trader, although I admit I have no idea how much bandwidth point-and-click platforms use these days, as they may be very inefficient. In that case, customer support for your trading platform might be the appropriate place to ask your question.
With older modems, you might see a difference, specially if the firmware is updated. Although tonight I was messing with an old Linksys G router and I still got 24 Mbps (the same as with the new router), so I guess and old horse is not always a slow horse...
If your cable is Cat 5 or Cat 5e or Cat 6 or above, you are fine. (Most of the cables sold at computer stores are). CAT 5 is rated for 100Mbps and Gigabit Ethernet. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category_5_cable As for the modem, you need contact your internet service provider (ISP) to see what they require/support.