I received this item and had made arrangements to cable service started. What I thought was interesting was the tech from Comcast said this device was completely unusable since the serial number had been registered elsewhere I had to rent a unit from him. After a couple of days, I called the service department and while on the phone he told me all I needed was the MAC address and they would take care of the rest.
Well, needless to say, the unit works great! Was even able to connect my router to and set up my network with no issues. What was Comcast thinking? Well, when I got my bill they overcharged me for the service I signed up for and kept the rent charges on the bill after I returned their modem.
The modem works great and I'm glad I made the purchase! Cisco CM100 Certified Refurbished LINKSYS Cable Modem
Nice stuff here. I bought this for the same reason most others are doing so: To save money on usurious modem rental fees slipped in by default from most cable providers, and to not pay full price for an otherwise boring, unsexy, unnoticed piece of hardware. Success on both ends. Just remember, before you realize that there's no returns on this baby and throw it against a wall in frustration, that you must REGISTER YOUR NEW MODEM'S MAC ADDRESS WITH YOUR PROVIDER!!! Duh!!! (It's written on a label in teeny, tiny print underneath.) Just give your ISP a phone call.
Minor Downsides:
*It's DOCSIS 2.0 compliant...good, but DOCSIS 3.0 is here in many areas. Still, I get crazy fast speeds promised by DOCSIS 3.0 (which isn't in my area yet) anyhow, so whatever. It'll still work after upgrades anyhow.
*Its "Link" light keeps blinking no matter what, in contradiction to what its somewhat skimpy online only documentation literature claims it should do. A bit confusing if you at first have configuration issues. No matter, it works.
*It's a "No Return" situation, though I think the simplicity of these items is such that you shouldn't have to worry about getting a lemon. So cheap, anyhow. Check the new-item prices and decide.
*It keeps going down in price! I know, that's an upside for you, but I paid almost $30, so boohoo for me.
In the end it's just as good as the Motorola Surfboard which Comcast sneak-rented to me for a year. Buy this and save some money!!!
I tried this to save on my monthly fees from comcast. The unit worked for about 2 weeks and then started to go out. I called tech support and got it working on 2 subsequent occasions, but i was spending way to much time on it and going out 3 times in 3 weeks was more than i could take so i went back to my old modem which was rock solid.
I got an email from the seller and they told me that they would refund my $$ even though i thought there was a no return policy on a refurbished item.
I don't think i will buy another refurbished item, but i would buy from this seller again because of their excellent customer service and that they stood by their products.
I would give the seller a 5 star rating but not the modem.
I ordered 2 on Thursday 4/22/2010, received today(4/27/2010). Hooked the first one up at 3PM, but couldn't get online so I called Charter Cable at about 5:30. Don't waste your time with the automated service, just ask for an agent. I wasted 10-15 minutes with the auto service. You'll need to give the MAC Address to the agent(this is the Second line on the bottom of the unit). The first modem, that had been hooked up since 3PM, worked right away, but the second one didn't. The reason was, I gave the agent the MAC Address without having the unit hooked up to the system first. I told him this might be the problem, so I hooked it up and sure enough, he re-enters the MAC number and it appears on his screen. Now I have 2 modems for less than the price of one at Best Buy. Also, they have a 90 day Warranty from Cisco-Linksys(almost all refurbs I've ever seen do). The bottom of my invoice states "Linksys offers a 90 day warranty on all their refurbished products. You may contact Linksys with any warranty issues. In the event that Linksys can not help you, we will honor the terms of the warrranty!". Linksys sells this same item on their website(found it through Bizrate). I had already bought it here for around the same price. If it dies before 90 days are out, I'll repost it.
I ordered this product a few months ago to replace the rented modem I had from my cable company. I received the product within a few days. It looks and acts new. When setting it up through my cable company, the tech on the other end said that it had the strongest and fastest connection he'd seen for some time. It has worked flawlessly so far. For the "short" money I paid, it will pay for itself (not renting a modem for $5+ a month)in 6 months.
I bought one of these babies because it was by far the cheapest Modem I could find out there, and because with Amazon Prime, shipping is lightning fast. I have Comcast by the way.
It worked great for 4 or 5 days, and then a major Thunderstorm hit my area and there were a few power spikes. The modem just stopped working. None of my other electronic devices were affected (including my router, which wasn't connected to a surge protector, my modem was). I guess that the electrical current that killed the modem came from the cable jack, not the power supply.
I was pretty upset, but I bought another one from the same seller the day after (30 dollars is not worth the anguish of dealing with Linksys customer support), and this time I got a surge protector that insulates the power supply, as well as the cable input. Been running great for 2 weeks now.
Moral of the story:
Protect your investment, your internet depends on it. - Comcast - Recommend - Modem - Linksys'
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