Cable Modem

D

dpoverlord

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Nov 18, 2004
Messages
1,931
Hey guys,

Seems that Time Warner Cable is now charging an extra $4 a month for a modem "leasing fee" Considering their RCA modem is a POS and breaks down every 1-2 years I figured I could save the money and buy my own.

With that being said could you give me your opinion on the best modem for high speed internet? Keep my dedicated Linkskys wrt-54g with DD-WRT loaded on or should I get the Motorala SBG6580 Cable modem / Router or stay with my Linksys and just buy the cable modem for $20 less (Motorala SB6141)

Do you guys know anything about these? Love for your input!

Thanks!
 
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my motorola modems have been reliable over the years and tend to run cooler than cisco modems (my equipment is in a closet).
 
Just buy a cable modem not a combo modem/router. Motorola is pretty much the king of cable modems. 6120, 6121, 6141, whichever is supported by your ISP.
 
I dont recommend an all-in-one cable modem - router to an enthusiast. The SB6580 isn't a bad device by any means, but I prefer to not have my routing tied to my cable modem.

If TWC supports the 6141 then get that as it can bond to eight downstreams compared to the 612x's four. In theory this will allow this modem to take advantage of great speeds in the furture, but you may or may not ever encounter it's need. Still, if the price difference is relatively slight, I'd go with the 6141.

I would however also invest in a better router than the WRT-54g, like an Asus nt-56u or n66. The processing power of the 54g is weak by modern means and can certainly hold you back in certain scenarios.
 
Working at comcast, Ubee's were pretty decent......but the ones that would work the longest....Moto.....

They could hold a 54 TX and still be alive and kicking :O
 
I just put in the SB6580 in bridge mode. Took 2 hours 15 minutes on the phone with them and about 6 different people to figure out how to activate it. When I ordered it, their only DOCSIS 3.0 approved modems were the 6580 and 6141, and the 6141 wasn't available anywhere.
 
David_Schroth said:
I just put in the SB6580 in bridge mode. Took 2 hours 15 minutes on the phone with them and about 6 different people to figure out how to activate it. When I ordered it, their only DOCSIS 3.0 approved modems were the 6580 and 6141, and the 6141 wasn't available anywhere.
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I could not find the 6141 anywhere so I got the 6580. Was their a reason you put it in bridge mode? What did you do with it?
 
dpoverlord said:
I could not find the 6141 anywhere so I got the 6580. Was their a reason you put it in bridge mode? What did you do with it?
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Putting it in bridge mode makes it act like a traditional modem. Meaning, the internal router won't NAT and the lan ports on the modem now act like switch ports. Anything plugged directly into the modem will now get a public IP directly from the ISP. This is used when you wish to use your own router instead of the modem's built in one.
 
thanks! I am going to get it out as a router since my current router only is G WRT-54g, Will see if we get better speeds. So far maxing at 20mb Downstream and 1mb upstream
 
dpoverlord said:
I could not find the 6141 anywhere so I got the 6580. Was their a reason you put it in bridge mode? What did you do with it?
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Ehren8879 answered it well - basically I'm running my own router (An E4200 using DD-WRT) behind the modem, as it has far more capabilities than the 6580. From your planned use, the 6580 will be a good upgrade over your 54G across the board, especially if you don't need more advanced knobs and dials.

Ehren8879 said:
Putting it in bridge mode makes it act like a traditional modem. Meaning, the internal router won't NAT and the lan ports on the modem now act like switch ports. Anything plugged directly into the modem will now get a public IP directly from the ISP. This is used when you wish to use your own router instead of the modem's built in one.
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It isn't quite as straight forward as that - the unit will only do that bridge/passthrough to specified MAC addresses, so if I plug a PC into the 6580 that isn't TWC authorized and not on the passthrough list, then it'll get an IP from the 6580 and be off to the races.
 
David_Schroth said:
It isn't quite as straight forward as that - the unit will only do that bridge/passthrough to specified MAC addresses, so if I plug a PC into the 6580 that isn't TWC authorized and not on the passthrough list, then it'll get an IP from the 6580 and be off to the races.
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Good to know, I wasn't ware of this practice with TWC. As a service provider we don't MAC provision our CPEs. Pretty much plug whatever you want into a modem and you can pull an IP from our DHCP servers.
 
Ehren8879 said:
Good to know, I wasn't ware of this practice with TWC. As a service provider we don't MAC provision our CPEs. Pretty much plug whatever you want into a modem and you can pull an IP from our DHCP servers.
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That might be the case with their stand alone modems, but I have only had their gateway equipment (Ubee, now Moto 6580) in my recent history. It also seems that DOCSIS 3.0 really messes with the low level tech support folks - 5 people over 2 hours couldn't figure out how to even grant the modem device access to the network. A tier 3 guy finally got called in and fixed it in about 2 minutes....
 
David_Schroth said:
That might be the case with their stand alone modems, but I have only had their gateway equipment (Ubee, now Moto 6580) in my recent history. It also seems that DOCSIS 3.0 really messes with the low level tech support folks - 5 people over 2 hours couldn't figure out how to even grant the modem device access to the network. A tier 3 guy finally got called in and fixed it in about 2 minutes....
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Interesting. For us a D2 and a D3.0 modem provision the same exact way. Some wierd voodoo on the TWC plant I presume.
 
Ehren8879 said:
Interesting. For us a D2 and a D3.0 modem provision the same exact way. Some wierd voodoo on the TWC plant I presume.
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They have pushed all of the modem activations out of tech support and into customer service (the billing folks) as they're getting flooded with these requests since they implemented the 3.95/month junk fee for "leasing" their modem.
 
David_Schroth said:
They have pushed all of the modem activations out of tech support and into customer service (the billing folks) as they're getting flooded with these requests since they implemented the 3.95/month junk fee for "leasing" their modem.
Click to expand...

It was just a marketing / Sales move. Personally $4 is low, but I refuse to pay to rent a modem, so I figure it will take 2 Years just about to pay for the modem/router I bought. I am still having issues with my cable going on and off and they are sending someone out to fix it. Seems that the modem keeps on rebooting.

Personally I feel that DD-WRT is better, if I did not have an older "G" router I would have just purchased the modem.
 
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