Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 392
 Mine couldn't be activated without using a higher tier service July 31, 2010
D. Heineke (central Texas)
I'm sure this is a great, fast, reliable cable modem. But ...
I ordered this DOCSIS 3.0 modem when I signed up for Suddenlink cable internet service which is compatible with DOCSIS 2.0, thinking this would be backwards compatible, so that I would already have a higher speed modem if I were to upgrade the service later, and to not have to rent one for $10 per month.
However Suddenlink wouldn't activate this modem unless signing me up for an internet speed that costs $80 per month for internet alone. So, I returned this and now am renting a DOCSIS 2.0 for $10 per month in addition to the internet service, at least until I buy a DOCSIS 2.0 modem.
 Improved My Download Speed. 40Mbps! July 30, 2010
D. Kerton (CA United States)
I had a DOCSIS 2 modem from Comcast that was costing me $5 a month. When I realized I had paid for it for about 48 months, or $240, I figured I could do better. I also wanted a speed boost, and know that Comcast upgraded my area to DOCSIS 3 a year ago, so I bought this modem.
I upgraded to this modem easily, by swapping the cables with my old modem, then calling Comcast to have them activate. Easy. Return old modem to save $5 month fee :-)
I am on a $52/mo data plan that offers 16Mbps/2Mbps sustained, and 20/4 with the short spurt of "Powerboost". I was happily actually getting a bit more, usually seeing speeds around 24/4 under Powerboost.
Powerboost note: If you don't know, Comcast offers users a burst of fast data above your paid rate, to help you complete your downloads faster, but if you use it in a sustained fashion, they will limit you back to your paid rate. This is actually quite useful for average day-to-day use. The idea also behooves Comcast, because it helps them look much better in speed tests, since speed tests usually use a small amount of compressed data, they usually are fully Powerboosted.
Anyway, after upgrading to the Motorola modem, I got download speeds of 40Mbps!!!! I almost always test above 35Mbps. So, while my sustained quoted speeds are still 16/2, I'm getting over double that under Powerboost, and notably more than with the DOCSIS 2 modem. The downside is that, for whatever reason, my upload speeds have decreased to around 3.7Mbps from the prior 4. Can't win 'em all.
Conclusion: Money saved, speed increased. Easy upgrade. Good times. 5/5. Almost -1 star for slower upload, but not quite.
 Did not do the Job July 29, 2010
Bod
Upgraded to the Motorola SB6120 DOCSIS 3.0 eXtreme , hoping to get much faster speed then my eight year old 2.0 Toshiba PCX2600 , for all the publicity and the awesome reviews it have, it worked fine for a month, and all of the sudden the download speed dropped dramatically to 300KBS, upload speed was normal 4mg, called cox the cable company several times, wasted countless hours tested everything they could, sent a tech to check the connection and determined the modem was not working ok, called Motorola and tried everything they could , and said if the modem turning on so its working fine , that's the only answer you get from motorola customer support, not giving anyway to check it out or replace it, they blame the problem on the cable company all the time
So the cable company Blame Motorola and Motorola Blame the cable company. So if you planning to buy this modem and this problem popped up,
You might end up with a $100 door stopper. Finally hooked up my old Modem and everything worked fine like usual 26 mg down and 2 mg up.
Good, But Worried About SB6120's DHCP Server July 28, 2010
David A. Lessnau (USA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I bought this Motorola SB6120 SURFboard Cable Modem to replace my old SB5120 Surfboard Cable Modem Docsis 1.1 and 2.0 Certified USB (which, according to Cox, was dying). I had no problem getting it up and running (connect to the cable line, ethernet line to my router, and power, then call Cox and give them the serial number and MAC address). I don't notice any speed difference between the new SB6120 and the old SB5120, but I was happy with the speed anyway. A few things worry me, though:
- DHCP Server: if I check the SB6120's information page at 192.168.100.1 and look at the Configuration tab, it says "DHCP Server Enabled" and talks about how it will give out IP addresses when it's not connected to the internet. I AM connected to the internet, and since my router is my DHCP server, I don't want another one on my network. Yet, it says Enabled and I can't figure out how to disable it. I emailed Motorola, but have gotten no response.
- Errors in log: the Logs tab on the information page has several critical problems of "No Ranging Response received," "DHCP FAILED," and "Ranging Request Retries exausted" (sic). I haven't noticed any problem at the human level of things. So, I don't know if these are real problems.
So, even though the cable modem seems to be working fine, the stuff I'm seeing on the information page and the lack of response from Motorola worry me enough to only rate it at an OK 3 stars out of 5.
 Easy to set up, fast and consistent operation July 28, 2010
We purchased this modem to replace an old DOCSIS 1 unit. Our cable provider (Comcast) has updated their system and recommends that its subscribers have at least DOCSIS 2. We chose this product because of the DOCSIS 3 support, and because of previous good experiences with Motorola products.
Installation was painless, just a couple of cables to disconnect from the old unit and connect to the new one. That was followed by a phone call to Comcast. For that call, be sure to have the MAC address for your new modem. It's on the box, and also on the bottom of the modem itself. The Comcast technician uses the MAC to activate your new modem.
The entire install/setup process took less than 20 minutes, the majority of which was on the phone as the Comcast technician worked through the activiation process. The technician knew exactly what she was doing, it just took a little time.
The modem's performance has been excellent. It's an enormous improvement in speed over our old DOCSIS 1 model, and we've not had any service problems. It's only been a few weeks since we purchased the modem. So far, we're quite satisfied.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 392
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