Motorola SB6120 Extreme Docsis 3 cable modem

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sok0

Gawd
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79.99 at Amazon with free shipping. Been looking at getting one for over a month now, and this is the lowest price I have seen.
 
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This came up on the Fry's ads as well for the same price. DOCSIS 3 areas are few and far between though so far.
 
I have one of these and its great even compared to Motorola's from the phone company.
 
I've been watching the price for a few months now, ever since I missed it when it went on sale for $60 I think, so it's been lower.
 
[H]'er;1035539661 said:
How is this better than the Motorola modems?
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???

It's also a Motorola... but most importantly, it is DOCSIS 3.0 certified and thus offers the ability of getting much faster speeds as long as your cable provider supports them (e.g. Comcast has upgraded a decent chunk of their territory to DOCSIS 3.0 and offers a 50/10 package).
 
I have one of these on a Cox (20Mb down/3Mb up) cable line, its still a DOCSIS 2.0 area only AFAIK but I still noticed an improvement in down and up speeds.

Nothing earth shattering mind you (difference was a bit less than 1Mb down, maybe 200Kbps up averaged over 3 tests on broadbandreports, I almost actually get what Cox says my line will do now) but still nice. Was around $90 when I got it a while back, worth it IMO.
 
Kenworth said:
This came up on the Fry's ads as well for the same price. DOCSIS 3 areas are few and far between though so far.
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Comcast had a 50% roll out last June and is likely to be at 100% by the end of the summer. Charter is pretty high as well. None of them are forcing you to get it yet but they may sometime in the future so it is worth buying even if you don't plan on getting a compatible speed for compatibility or better performance due to the channel bonding it supports.
 
Well ever since Comcast raised the modem rental price to 5$ a month, I've been looking to get a new modem, and since they have docsis 3 now in my area, I figured I might as well future proof my investment if I just buy one. Only 16 months to break even with the price it is now.
 
You will get a benefit with a DOCSIS 3.0 modem even without higher speeds as packets are load balanced across multiple downstreams, so if 1 of the downstreams is saturated (typically by DOCSIS 1.1/2.0 modems which can only lock onto a single downstream at a time) you will not notice a drop in performance. Just a FYI that you don't have to buy the expensive high speed plan with these modems.
 
Ryokurin said:
Comcast had a 50% roll out last June and is likely to be at 100% by the end of the summer. Charter is pretty high as well. None of them are forcing you to get it yet but they may sometime in the future so it is worth buying even if you don't plan on getting a compatible speed for compatibility or better performance due to the channel bonding it supports.
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In my area (Arizona) with my service provider (Cox), saturation doesn't seem to be as progressive. Based on your ISP's I am thinking you are a little more east than me? When I installed this modem my uploads went from around 2.5 to 4.5 so that was pretty nice but the down came down about 5 from 20 to 15. I really don't notice it but a strange occurance is when you get a bonded channel signale the receive led turns blue. When that happened my signal was very spotty. Probably just an issue with my ISP and of course the tech had no idea what to do or even what the led meant.
 
Kenworth said:
In my area (Arizona) with my service provider (Cox), saturation doesn't seem to be as progressive. Based on your ISP's I am thinking you are a little more east than me? When I installed this modem my uploads went from around 2.5 to 4.5 so that was pretty nice but the down came down about 5 from 20 to 15. I really don't notice it but a strange occurance is when you get a bonded channel signale the receive led turns blue. When that happened my signal was very spotty. Probably just an issue with my ISP and of course the tech had no idea what to do or even what the led meant.
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Now, go get an newer router that can handle 10/100/1000. A regular 10/100 like my old 2002 Wireless Linksys did the same thing. Hooked up directly to the computer and it was flying, (15mbps down, 5 mbps) blue Link LED was going great. Now, hooked up with router, I am only getting 4.5mbps down, 5 up, and the orange Link light. Gotta have something that support the high speeds we are getting bumped up too. ;)
 
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Try hooking the ethernet cord from the modem to your pc, set it up, then test your download speeds. I bet that is definitely the issue.
 
SnowBeast said:
Try hooking the ethernet cord from the modem to your pc, set it up, then test your download speeds. I bet that is definitely the issue.
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No kidding? I never thought of that. My router is indeed 10/100. I will bypass that for testing purposes when I get home and see. You are suggesting the blue led that indicates the bonding will return and I can run a test to show the advantages?
 
[H]'er;1035539661 said:
How is this better than the Motorola modems?
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I said compared the the Motorola's that I could get from the cable company (Charter) if a person was lucky and didn't get something else. As in its even better than the best I could get. That will probably change when DOCSIS 3.0 is officially released here. In my case this modem fixed disconnects I was getting from random upload noise spikes and has better logging and measurements tools (still not great though). I have a feeling that a lot of modems can't handle the speeds that speedboost provides. I'm guessing that they have rolled out DOCSIS 3.0 in my array and haven't announced it yet because for some reason a couple months ago I randomly started having 3 UPLOAD streams and the performance on this has become just killer. On my 20 meg connection I can get constant 3MB (24Megs) and 5MB (40meg) speed boosts. My uploads have improved quite a bit too.

Before that upgrade the difference in speed was quite small but it was still more reliable and user friendly as I stated earlier.
 
Great....... So if I'm using a WRT54GS v7 with the latest dd-wrt firmware, I still will need a new router to get the higher speeds and bonded channels? :(
 
I max out my connection. My paid for speed is 20mb, I download all day long at 20mb. I take it this will only help ppl that don't download at their max mb?
 
[H]'er;1035540988 said:
I max out my connection. My paid for speed is 20mb, I download all day long at 20mb. I take it this will only help ppl that don't download at their max mb?
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I've read some user feedback and it appears so.
 
sok0 said:
Great....... So if I'm using a WRT54GS v7 with the latest dd-wrt firmware, I still will need a new router to get the higher speeds and bonded channels? :(
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I am using a D-Link DIR-634M (old but solid) and I am finally getting a bonded channel signal. It took a couple resets and then the modem finally negotiated it I assume. Now I am getting a consistent 23-25/4-5 connection. Modem is solid, I still think my ISP gets flaky.
 
I got mine yesterday. DOA. Only the power light goes on and won't respond to Comcast nor signing in through 192.168.100.1. The Ethernet port doesn't show that it is active.

Thankfully, Amazon is sending out a replacement that will be here tomorrow.
 
Mine works fine. Although it shows a blinking orange light in the link part so I guess that means the router I have doesn't get bonded channels... But my speeds went up from the last modem, 21 down / 4 up.
 
sok0 said:
Mine works fine. Although it shows a blinking orange light in the link part so I guess that means the router I have doesn't get bonded channels... But my speeds went up from the last modem, 21 down / 4 up.
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An amber activity light indicates 10/100 connectivity, blue activity indicates a gigabit connection to the device. Does your router or comp it is attached to have gigabit?
 
Kensworth, what router would you go with this modem, wireless or wired? I gotta get something as a temp at least to get the higher speed.
 
DogChainX said:
I got mine yesterday. DOA. Only the power light goes on and won't respond to Comcast nor signing in through 192.168.100.1. The Ethernet port doesn't show that it is active.

Thankfully, Amazon is sending out a replacement that will be here tomorrow.
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You did call comcast and give them the MAC Address to activate it right? You can't just hook up and go. Just asking, didn't know if you knew that or not.
 
Thanks, been putting off just buying a modem and figured now is as good a time as any. Get away from rental fees and the POS combined router/modems they provide.
 
SnowBeast said:
Kensworth, what router would you go with this modem, wireless or wired? I gotta get something as a temp at least to get the higher speed.
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I am a ringer for D-Link routers and gear based on some pretty thorough experience with most other brands like Linksys (Cisco), Netgear, etc... I wouldn't say the other brands are crap but I just find D-Link to have a great price/performance ratio. I would say anything with a 4 port gigabit switch and wireless together would be sufficient. What type of wireless depends on your needs.

Thug Esquire said:
Will using a modem like this one improve speeds on normal, non-DOCSIS 3.0 ISPs?
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My experience with my ISP, Cox, is that I achieved higher up/down speeds just with implementing this modem and not upgrading my net package. I am not 100% sure my area is DOCSIS 3 activated but I do get bonded channels so I assume it is. I am also not sure if DOCSIS 2 supported the channel bonding over IPV6 like 3 was required to handle. My scenario is common in my area based on what I have read, but those results may be particular to my area.
 
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SnowBeast said:
You did call comcast and give them the MAC Address to activate it right? You can't just hook up and go. Just asking, didn't know if you knew that or not.
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Yeah. LIke I said, it won't respond to Comcast's side. They don't see it at all. I've tried numerous coaxial cables, outlets, etc. Its just DOA.
 
Zick said:
Probably not.
I went from a D-Link DCM-202 to this SB6120 and my speeds stayed pretty much the same.
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Did you try direct connect to a computer, excluding a router? Because without the router my old 5120 was at 8Mbps, with this 6120 direct connected mine went to 12Mbps. Thats how I found out my router was holding me back. Also, after talking to Comcast, I was told once DOCSIS 3.0 is activated in my area in two weeks, we will be at 24-25Mbps. Thats going to be original speed, the more expensive package it going to be 50Mbps.

Thanks Kenworth, since we really don't have anything for wireless, I am going to grab a 6-port 10/100/1000 switch then. Saw one at Staples for $45 I believe.
 
SnowBeast said:
Did you try direct connect to a computer, excluding a router? Because without the router my old 5120 was at 8Mbps, with this 6120 direct connected mine went to 12Mbps. Thats how I found out my router was holding me back. Also, after talking to Comcast, I was told once DOCSIS 3.0 is activated in my area in two weeks, we will be at 24-25Mbps. Thats going to be original speed, the more expensive package it going to be 50Mbps.

Thanks Kenworth, since we really don't have anything for wireless, I am going to grab a 6-port 10/100/1000 switch then. Saw one at Staples for $45 I believe.
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Yes it was direct connected without the router. That's why I said probably because it may or may not. It didn't in my case.
 
My first one arrived DOA, just the power light, but the second one is still working.
 
Got my replacement today. Works great! Hopefully it'll have a much longer life than my DOA one. =)
 
best buy had them on sale for 80 bucks a few months ago. I picked up one to use with comcast. although I have the cheaper tier (6 Mb/s) I can pretty much do 20 Mb down 4 up. Uploading youtube videos is pretty much instant. There is a 250 GB cap, but past 3 months I am doing about 100, so that is reassuring.
 
jiminator said:
best buy had them on sale for 80 bucks a few months ago. I picked up one to use with comcast. although I have the cheaper tier (6 Mb/s) I can pretty much do 20 Mb down 4 up. Uploading youtube videos is pretty much instant. There is a 250 GB cap, but past 3 months I am doing about 100, so that is reassuring.
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Is that a constant ~20Mb/4Mb over a prolonged time (say, a 1GB file) or is it Comcast's speedboost thing?
 
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