So I ended up buying a cable modem...

[maddogchen]

Since this is a thread about cable modems....

anyone here buy a SB6183 modem?
-Download speeds up to 686 Mbps
-16 download & 4 upload channels

http://www.surfboard.com/products/sb6183/

Supposedly the 6141 only bonds to 4 channels. If your neighborhood has the latest cable lines, and you get this 6183 it will bond to 16 where the other 12 are not used by anyone else in the neighborhood so you get consistently fast internet?

I'm not sure if its worth the price.. Just wondering if anyone has gotten it and can tell me if its worth it.

 

[mnewsham]

And this was after you replaced your modem?

I just replaced my Comcast modem with an SB6141 and it works great and doesn't have some of the network limitations that the Comcast modem did.

Nope, I have verizon fios, I just noticed last week my ping times were WAY lower than usual. About 6-8 months ago I would get 10ms ping in CSGO, then it went up to 25+ms ping regularly for the last several months. Now it's 3-10ms ping for the last week. Not sure if the game is just being weird or I really am getting 3ms ping...

 

[Sonikku]

Back when I was playing WoW on dial up (Thanks, piss poor American internet infrastructure) I'd average 300ms on a good day and 600-700ms in group dungeons. I made that dial up work and often topped charts with it. Having 30ms would have been a dream come true back then.

 

[Imp]

...I paid $90 for my modem over a hear ago. I paid for 10/1 and I'm getting 9.9/0.9.

 

[blurredvision]

Also using my own modem on TWC. I have internet-only with them and they offered some promotion a couple of years ago where I could upgrade my speeds for no cost increase for a year and I'd get a $50 visa gift card. Got the gift card in the mail, took it to Best Buy and bought my modem. Took their's back, saved the $8/month rental fee and it has paid for itself 4 times over now.

 

[Schfifty Five]

I am paying $40 for a 15mbps connection and off and on Time Warner would keep charging me for cable modem, have not been paying for last 2 years but starting this month I was being charged $7 again. I called them and tried to get it waived but it didn't work. So I finally started shopping around for a modem, didn't want to spend $60 - $100 so turned to fleabay and found this dude selling his SB6121 for $35, received it today, works great! and my speed bumped up to ~60mbps!! I had heard that for a free modem upgrade I could get a higher speed but never bothered to go though the process... but today I have a happy camper!!!

You should gone with a SB6141 at the very least. Those can be had new from Amazon for $60-80. More expensive yes, but offers higher speeds.

Also, TWC has been rolling out their MAXX program, where if you were on their 15mb level, you get bumped up to 50mb. 30mb (extreme) -> 200mb. 100mb (ultra) -> 300mb.

I'm on the 30mb -> 200mb bump which is awesome, but my modem (SB6141) only can handle 100mb. I think TWC somehow limits it for this particular modem. Still though, 30mb -> 100mb, with potential for 200mb is fine by me.

 

[Annisman*]

Ok, just ordered the SB6141, can somebody please tell me what now needs to be done to activate it properly ? Do I need to call TWC ? How do I return their old POS modem ? Thanks !

 

[Schfifty Five]

Ok, just ordered the SB6141, can somebody please tell me what now needs to be done to activate it properly ? Do I need to call TWC ? How do I return their old POS modem ? Thanks !

You just switch out the old one with this one and then call TWC customer service. Tell them you have your own cable modem and that you need it activated on their end. They will probably ask for the mac ID so have that available. Once a few signals are sent, everything should be good to go.

Congrats, you now will save $6-8 per month! My modem has already paid for itself.

As far as returning the old modem, just take it to a TWC shop. Also, make sure you check your statements for the next few months to make sure they aren't charging you. For two months after I got my own modem, they still kept the rental fee for me, so watch out for that and call them to credit you back if you see the charge still.

 

[Annisman*]

You just switch out the old one with this one and then call TWC customer service. Tell them you have your own cable modem and that you need it activated on their end. They will probably ask for the mac ID so have that available. Once a few signals are sent, everything should be good to go.

Congrats, you now will save $6-8 per month! My modem has already paid for itself.

As far as returning the old modem, just take it to a TWC shop. Also, make sure you check your statements for the next few months to make sure they aren't charging you. For two months after I got my own modem, they still kept the rental fee for me, so watch out for that and call them to credit you back if you see the charge still.

Thanks bossman !

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Bought my modem for $50 two years ago, have saved 24 months of rental fees.

Wheee.

 

[Ichinisan]

Got an SBG6580 for ~$4.xx from my local Goodwill thrift store about 1 month ago. Looks like it was barely ever touched or used. Gave it to a friend. I hope he's using it...

 

[Fayd]

pay the same $40/mo for 50/50 from verizon.

 

[KLin]

Got an SBG6580 for ~$4.xx from my local Goodwill thrift store about 1 month ago. Looks like it was barely ever touched or used. Gave it to a friend. I hope he's using it...

Nice, I just bought one at Target for 140 bucks.

went from this

to this after swapping out the SB6121 and tplink router

 

[Raduque]

I'm on Grande and switched from their Arris POS Touchstone to an SB6121. My connection is 100% stable now, I'm saving the $7 modem charge and $5 "Wifi" charge.

 

[CZroe]

I'm on Grande and switched from their Arris POS Touchstone to an SB6121. My connection is 100% stable now, I'm saving the $7 modem charge and $5 "Wifi" charge.

Arris bought Motorola's set top box and cable modem operations, so are they both "crap?"

 

[Ichinisan]

I'm on Grande and switched from their Arris POS Touchstone to an SB6121. My connection is 100% stable now, I'm saving the $7 modem charge and $5 "Wifi" charge.

I work for a local cable ISP. The Arris DOCSIS 3 modems seem to work great for us, but Motorola SB6121 was really flaky. I had an SB6121 that would frequently go into a state where downstream+upstream were locked on, but the Online light would blink forever. Not sure if it was a compatibility problem with a particular hardware revision, firmware revision, or CMTS + package, but it did happen to other people too. Never had any such problems with the Arris D3 modems and EMTAs we use now (CM820A, DG860P, DG860P2, TG862G EMTA, TM822G EMTA). All of those Arris models listed are doing 8 downstream channels just fine. SB6121 only does 4 downstream channels.

 

[isekii]

i had the 6141 before i moved over to the telephony/wireless combo. I prefer the 6141.

 

[Ichinisan]

Got an SBG6580 for ~$4.xx from my local Goodwill thrift store about 1 month ago. Looks like it was barely ever touched or used. Gave it to a friend. I hope he's using it...

Nice, I just bought one at Target for 140 bucks.

went from this

to this after swapping out the SB6121 and tplink router

I didn't even realize what a score it was. I paid $4.54+ tax. You paid 30.8x more!

I guess I was long overdue for a decent score at the thrift store, but I really had no use for the modem because mine is built into the Arris whole-home multi-room DVR system. That's why I gave it to my friend. I visited him this weekend for his little girl's birthday and he's still using the leased modem with the ancient Buffalo 802.11g router I gave him a long time ago. I urged him to hook up the new one and get it registered ASAP. His smart TV really needs wireless-N for streaming HD...

[edit]
I looked-up the MAC in the system at work and saw that the previous owner replaced it with a SBG6782-AC in January.

 

[NoCreativity]

Remember folks, you're not going to get a faster speed than the tier of service you're paying for. What has happened with Comcast is that they increased the speed at no extra cost but neglected to inform their customers that their modem was not capable of that speed.

Cox does this too. We spent last week visiting the grand kids and my stepson was complaining about the buffering he was getting when streaming. His old, owned modem was not able to utilize the speed tier he was paying for. He also was using an ancient Belkin G router that he said was about 8 years old. In his case, he opted to pay Cox to have a modem/router combo provided by them and his speed on wireless went from 5Mb/s to 32Mb/s. We never tried hard wiring to the router to see what speed he could get that way. His tier was 50Mb/s. He's not interested in running wires anyway.

Surprisingly, Comcast has contacted me on several occasions (multiple e-mails, phone calls & letters) to let me know my modem should be upgraded to take advantage of the speed increase.

Hell, they even called me to let me know my package price was expiring and signed me up to renew the price. Not used to Comcast actually providing good customer service. It's a nice change.

Not a bad upgrade for $35 OP.

 

[Anubis]

Remember folks, you're not going to get a faster speed than the tier of service you're paying for. What has happened with Comcast is that they increased the speed at no extra cost but neglected to inform their customers that their modem was not capable of that speed.

Cox does this too. We spent last week visiting the grand kids and my stepson was complaining about the buffering he was getting when streaming. His old, owned modem was not able to utilize the speed tier he was paying for. He also was using an ancient Belkin G router that he said was about 8 years old. In his case, he opted to pay Cox to have a modem/router combo provided by them and his speed on wireless went from 5Mb/s to 32Mb/s. We never tried hard wiring to the router to see what speed he could get that way. His tier was 50Mb/s. He's not interested in running wires anyway.

that was not always true. before TWC properly implemented DOCIS 3.0, using your own DOCIS 3.0 modem got you upgraded to their "turbo" speed for free - it took them a year to correct this where I live

 

[mikeford]

Did some surfing on it last week, was gungho for a 6141, then thinking maybe 6183, but I read some bit about new versions or something coming soon and decided to wait unless some great deal shows up on at least a 6141.

BTW thought I was TWC Ultimate 300/20, but bill says 100/10 and so does speed test. I need to check back on billing and see if I am getting screwed or not.

 

[who?]

The link light on my sb6121 flashes because my router is only 100Mbps and not 1000Mbps.

 

[sourceninja]

...

 

[Fritzo]

Yeah, I always recommend people buy their own modem. You can find Motorola DOCSIS 3.0 modems once in a while for $20, though $30-$40 is more common. Get your own wifi router (which will give a lot more range than the crappy Arris wifi modems they use) and you're a happy camper.

 

[Ichinisan]

[moved]