ARRIS / Motorola SURFboard SB5101U DOCSIS 2.0 Cable Modem

In my area, TimeWarner is now charging $6 a month to rent a modem from them. That's $72 a year.....The only benefit you get from this, is not paying for a new modem if yours dies. You could buy this modem once a year and still not pay as much as they charge to rent one. It's very easy to set this one up, anyone can do it. When you get this modem take a look at the MAC number on the box, or on the modem. There is a sticker with other numbers on it as well. This is all you need to set it up. Call up your cable company or use the online chat option, let them know you bought a modem and would like to activate it. They will ask for the Mac number, after you give it to them they will say you're all set. Now go and disconnect the old modem, and wire this one up the exact same way. Plug it in, and in 5min it will be up and running. If the online light is lit up, but your computer isn't going to the internet, unplug and plug the modem back in. It will connect much quicker this time and you should be up and running. Now you must return their modem back to them, and the monthly charges will come off.Unless you pay for an extreme speed package, this is all you need. If you pay for internet speeds that are less then 32down, and 30 up, this will work just fine. If you pay for a faster speed you will need a DOCSIS 3.0 modem " ARRIS / Motorola SB6121 SURFboard DOCSIS 3.0 Cable Modem - Retail Packaging ", and they cost around $70 and support crazy fast speeds. You won't be able to use VOIP with either modem, so if you have a home phone through your cable company you're stuck with what they gave you.

.No setup at all, really plug and play. I have a home network (LAN = Local Areal Network) that's both wired and wireless, and Netflix movies play fine. Speakeasy reports 12meg download speed, which is what I pay for (in all cases this varies wildly throughout the day, depending on the traffic load on the Internet).After the lights blinked for a while the modem connected itself to an activation page for Comcast. The page didn't work so I had to call and ask to have a new modem activated, which the nice lady did noprob. NOTE: Don't call the number on the activation screen, just call the usual Comcast 800 or 888 or whatever number.Comcast does have a new speed standard, called DOCSIS 3.0, and this router is DOCSIS 2.0. Regarding this Comcast says, "...DOCSIS 2.0 modems will still work with our speed tiers (except for Blast! and Extreme 50), but you won't experience the blistering fast speeds now available."(from: customer.comcast.com/help-and-support/internet/docsis3/)However, this "blistering fast speed" is pretty much fictional. This is because you might have blistering fast speed, but the rest of the Internet doesn't. A chain is only as strong as its weakest link, which is this case translates to being as fast as its slowest link, which for all anybody knows is a switching station in Turkey. The result is that once you have a 5meg download speed, faster and faster speeds make less and less difference.So this modem does the job at a giveaway price. I assume the low price is because Comcast is pushing its new DOCSIS 3.0 standard, scaring people away from DOCSIS 2.0. Haha, good thing we know better, huh?EDIT May 12, 2014I notice the price of this item has gone up to 40 bucks, so I take back my "giveaway price" statement. However, the thing does work fine..

**This is not necessarily a review of the product quality or functionality but ratehr the experience of the purchase**When I got this modem it appeared to be brand new although the box did not have a plastic wrap over it. I thought nothing of that as not all products comes wrapped in plastic. Well, I guess I was wrong.Called Comcast to have them activate the device (using the MAC address) - Apparently, according to Comcast, the MAC address on this device is already in use by someone in Texas. I live in Oregon and I ordered this product as "brand-new unopened" Okay, so apparently that was it. I could not use this modem because it's unique identifier was already being used.I suspect someone duped the company that sold this to me and bought this only to return it but somehow ripped the MAC address beforehand. Either that, or Comcast was upset I didn't want to pay a rental fee for their garbage modem and they lied to me. Either way I was so busy with school at the time I never got a chance to return it. Basically it's a complete waste of money sitting in my drawer the past 5 years.On a side note - I heard only good things about the actual modem. It is outdated now, but I would still recommend it for people who just use their home internet casually and don't require the latest fastest speeds and such.

Since installing this unit (which went very smoothly) I have had intermittent internet speed drop off and loss of connectivity. I have been in contact with TWC on numerous occasions. At first they thought it was my Netgear router, so I replaced that. No luck. Waste of money. Then they began looking at the modem. They did some testing and checked their service records and found that this model, while having a manufacturer stated rating of 34 mbps speed (NOT 38 mbps as stated in the description on Amazon. I called Motorola to confirm.) it has a difficult time with even 20 mbps. (Works just fine on 10mbps and under) TWC, AND MOTOROLA, both recommended a much more expensive model to fix the problem. I was disappointed to say the least. I gave it three stars because it works most of the time and the price was reasonable. It has been, and continues to be, a frustrating experience at times, however. Even though this was on TWC's approved list of modems, I guess you should call your cable provider in advance to make sure that it is TRULY compatible with your service. If I had done that, I would have purchased the more expensive modem with the money I would have saved by not buying a needless router. (At least I have a back-up router now.)

I bought 2 of these modems thinking my internet provider was still using the product but the switched to a different brand and they wouldn't accept my modem from me for using on their network . So I had to return both of my modems to the seller .

I haven't got the chance to try out in the real world due to incompatibility with my ISP's platform.I did some research and this is the one should fit my configuration well.