I bought the Motorola Surfboard 5101 a couple of weeks ago on Amazon. Think they must have gotten a new vendor because the price was about $15 cheaper and there were hundreds of reviews for this cable modem.
I just wanted to point out some things that I picked up from the other reviews. I am a Comcast customer and I wanted to avoid paying the $3/month rental charge for their RCA modem. When I connected the 5101 even though I had all green lights I still had no internet connection. That is because you have to call Comcast and tell them your new MAC ID number that is shown on the modem. This is not pointed out anywhere in the instructions. The Comcast tech did not ask for my serial number. After a few minutes he made the change and said everything was OK.
I rebooted the modem and computer but I still could not connect to the net. I remembered from other reviews that it takes about ten or fifteen minutes for the change to take place. After 15 minutes I rebooted everything and I had my internet connection.
Also there is no mention that the 5101 works with Vista. Thought I might have to download some drivers but I didn't. It works just fine with Vista.
After two weeks the 5101 modem has been working with no problems. I do use that Standby button when I am not connected to the net just because all those green lights are a distraction.
Hope this helps. SURFboard SB5101 DOCSIS 2.0 Data Modem
I purchased this cable modem to replace a combo cable modem/wireless router from my internet provider to save money as I already had a wireless router. I use Charter Cable and the installation was very simple with them. First I plugged up the Surfboard modem, and powered up and connected the cable, and then plugged in my laptop and started IE. Charter loaded up a simple page where you indicated you were replacing their hardware, and all you had to do was enter your account # and their modem's MAC address and that was about it. I did install the Charter browser applet just to make the setup easier but that's all there was to it (I'll uninstall that later). A couple of reboots to the modem and reloading the IE browser and it was up and running with internet access. Then I plugged in my Netgear WGR614 wireless router to the modem. That took a couple of reboots to get all the IP addresses worked out between cable modem and wireless router and laptop, but it pretty much came up on its own with minimal effort. And all worked fine together with no added or installed software or patches. I will try and remember to update this post after it's been up and running a while with new info on how it performs over time. But initially I can only say good things about this modem, and connection speed is very good as well.
It's a simple cable modem and only has one ethernet connection at the back so if you want to connect multiple PCs/laptops then you'll need an additional router. It does have USB connection available as well.
For the price and ease of setup and installation it's great and all that we needed for our house.
I purchased this modem so I would not need to continue paying Comcast the monthly "rental charge". It runs well and has been trouble-free for a couple of months now.
Follow-up: After 5 months - still working great!
I haven't been able to try this product. It is sold by comcast and I purchased used from another party. But the unit needs to be removed from any accounts in order to add to your account. I emailed the seller to get it released, but no response. I couldn't believe comcast couldn't figure this out and remove it from any existing accounts so I could use it. Don't waste your money and learn from my mistake.
We switched cable service providers in the Cleveland area from Time-Warner Cable to WOW. Our old cable modem, although supposedly DOCSIS 2.0 compatible, refused to sync up with WOW's system. When asked, WOW technicians reported good experiences with the Motorola Surfboard SB5101 so I purchased and installed one in our home, replacing WOW's loaner modem. The Motorola cable modem has worked flawlessly every since, without a single failure in Internet service in the months we've had the new system.
One caveat and one minor quibble.
The caveat: the SB5101 had both Ethernet and USB interfaces. We used the Ethernet interface, not the USB interface, which potential users should know needs software installed on the host computer which does NOT work with Macintosh computers.
The quibble: the SB5101 has a Standby button (and light) which temporarily interrupts the connection to the net. I've never used it and the more I think about it, the more useless it seems to me. Save a few bucks and get the version without the Standby button.
Overall, a good, solid, very reliable cable modem at a very reasonable price. - Cable - Cable Modem - Modem - Surfboard'
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