Motorola Surfboard SB5100 Cable Modem

My Toshiba modem is failing after 8 years.
I am thinking of replacing it with the Motorola SBS5100.
I use it with my laptop via Airport Extreme, and with my desktop via ethernet cable.
Is this modem a good choice for my use ?
Is their a better choice ?

Sorry, I mis-typed, number should be 5101, not 5100.

Similar Messages

Motorola Surfboard 5101 Cable Modem

I just wanted to post a message about my findings and my solution to the Mototrola SurfBoard 5101 Cable modem. I use comcast as my ISP. I was using an old COM21 modem. I was getting around 4300 KBPS on a broadband test from Speakeasy. Since Comcast was starting this PowerBoost, I needed a DOCSIS 1.1 compliant modem and the COM21 modem wasn't. I went to my localComcast office to switch it out since I was leasing one. They gave me a SurfBoard 5101. I already saw the postings and the articles on Macfixit.com. I tried the modem and was getting 2700 Kbps. I tried everything to get the speed better. Connecting my iMac directly to the modem. Tweaking TCP settings.
I called Comcast and they said they never heard of the issue. I explained of all the postings I saw and the artiles also. She said she believed me but didn't know of the problem. I found one article talking about using other modems. The newer Surfboard 5120 modem said was better but had issues with Comcast's network and would disconnect. They said the linksys cable modem wasn't any better. The one they said was the best was the DLINK DCM-202. It was 49.95 on sale at Best Buy. I thought, what the **, I'll try it. If it didn't work I can return it. I got it home. Installed it. Provisioned it and ran the Speakeasy tests. I was blown away. I got a speed of 9049 Kbps. Just ran the test while typing this.
So if anyone else having this issue, I would return the cable modem back to Comcast and ask for a non Motorola modem. That's the advice the Comcast rep told me. Or just buy the DLINK modem. I can now return the 5101 modem and stop leasing it and finally I get my full speed.
Thanks!!!

I did some more research into this and see what anyone out there thinks. The Dlink modem uses a TI chipset with a method of controlling ACKS called Turbodox. It does ACK filtering. I also have read the the newer Motorola Sufboard modem (5120) works fine with Macs. This modem also uses TurboDox.
If you run a tweak test from DSLREPORTS.COM, it states to turn on selective ACKS. Selective ACKS is an option in OS X. Delayed ACKS are. I have tried the delayed ACKS on my iMac with the 5101 but didn't have any luck. I noticed also a person mentioned in the macfixit.com article said he thought the delayed acks setting helped his issue.
I am wondering if the TurboDox is taking care of this "selective acks" setting at the modem level instead of the machine level. Since the Macs can't do this the modem does and the connection is much faster.
I found a white paper on the TurboDox implementation and what it does with ACKS:
http://focus.ti.com/lit/ml/spay014/spay014.pdf
iMac 17" G5 iSight and iBook G4; iPod 5G Mac OS X (10.4.7) Airport Express (Used for iTunes)

Roadrunner, motorola sb5100 cable modem & airport..how do I get it to work?

Trying to get my snow Airport to play nice with my TW Roadrunner cable internet service. I can plug directly into the ethernet cable from the cable modem and get online easily..but it doesn't seem to work when I hook up the snoe basetation.
My Powerbook sees the wireless and the basestation is plugged in the cable modem. I cycled the modem and basestation off(and the Powerbook) and then restarted them....no dice. The outer two lights on the base station stay almost constant blinking when the airport is connected...as is the online light on the Motorola surfboard modem.
Ultimate goal is to get a wireless network for both Mac's & PC's in the house using the Airport as a router...

Make sure you are connecting the ethernet cables to
the correct ports on the base station. From the modem
connect to the WAN port. From the Mac connect to the
LAN port. With everything off, turn on the modem,
wait 30 seconds, turn on the base station, wait 30
seconds, then boot the Mac.
Well more detail....I managed to get it to work..sort of....
I had to turn off the NAT addressing in the Airport(Snow) configuration. However doing that means I cannot share the internet connection as best as I can figure correct?
I have also discovered the cable modem interferes with my ability to configure the base station(or modify the configuration).
As for the LAN & WAN ports..as I understood it the WAN port is the Ethernet symbol on the snow base station and the LAN is the circular symbol..correct?

Can I use my airport express to establish wifi with Motorola SB6120 SURFboard DOCSIS cable modem?

Can I use my airport express to establish wifi connection with a Motorola SN6120 DOCSIS 3.0 cable modem?

Yes, the AEx goes into router mode.. plug in via ethernet to the modem port.. you then need to power cycle the cable modem.. it might need to be off for 20min or more before it will lose the previous connection and start afresh with the Express.

Bridge an AirPort Express from an Extreme connected to a Motorola DOCSIS 3 cable/modem/gateway via an ethernet cable? Can I connect ethernet to the Express to setup/handshake/coordinate, and then unplug the ethernet cable from the Express?

In other words, does the AirPort Extreme NEED to be the device connected to the coaxial cable, or can I connect that cable to the Motorola SBG6580 DOCSIS 3.0 cable modem/wireless gateway? (My Internet provider requires DOCSIS 3.0 for speeds above 12 megabits/sec.)
Will the Airport Extreme "program" the Express via an ethernet cable, and than the cable can be removed?
The "bridge" or "repeater needs to be quite a distance away from the physically connected cable modem/wireless gateway and the ethernet- connected AirPort Extreme, and we have wall-to-wall carpeting, and the walls and ceilings are off-limits (family politics), so a looooong ethernet cable is out of the question.
Any help is GREATLY appreciated!
Thanx!
P.S. The 802.11 in my house (ground floor, about fifty feet away from the modem; in the living room about 35ft away *****! And Motorola touts this wireless gateway as having amazing coverage (360, I think they call it),but in fairness, this house is old and has a 5 hanset cordless landline and a microwave and a fan, etc., etc., etc......

See if find a solution in one of these discussions:
Best bets to extend/boost signals from Airport and AP Extreme
How to extend and Extreme network using Express

Remote monitor of Cable Modem

I have a Motorola Surfboard SB5100 cable modem. The modem is in another room. For unknown reasons I sometimes loose my connection. Is there any software available, especially a widget, that cou.ld display the status lights of my modem on my desktop so I could quickly and easily check my modem status if I loose network response?

I found a workable solution in another post either here or over on the Broadband Reports site.
With my modem, I enter "http://192.168.100.1/startup.html" and I get a web page generated by my modem displaying its status. I can click and get some other information. Not quite a widget but still I can quickly check to see my modem's status.
I don't know if this will work for other brands of modems.

Cable Modem buy or not

I have Comcast internet and cable with their Motorola modem. I pay $3 a month for that modem. I making a switch to include T-Mobile @ Home with my AEBS, so I will have two routers. Current modem only has one LAN port. I don't know how to configure the two routers with one LAN port. Back to the question, is it better to buy your own cable modem? They're probably better, don't know?

buy a cable modem for 25.00 after the rebate 3.00 a month add's up 25/3 is only 8 after 8 months you'll pretty much pay for it.
here is the link
http://dealnews.com/Motorola-Surfboard-SB5101-Cable-Modem-for-25-after-rebate-fr ee-shipping/234646.html

SurfBoard Cable Modems and OS X

I just wanted to post a message about my findings and my solution to the Mototrola SurfBoard 5101 Cable modem. I use comcast as my ISP. I was using an old COM21 modem. I was getting around 4300 KBPS on a broadband test from Speakeasy. Since Comcast was starting this PowerBoost, I needed a DOCSIS 1.1 compliant modem and the COM21 modem wasn't. I went to my localComcast office to switch it out since I was leasing one. They gave me a SurfBoard 5101. I already saw the postings and the articles on Macfixit.com. I tried the modem and was getting 2700 Kbps. I tried everything to get the speed better. Connecting my iMac directly to the modem. Tweaking TCP settings.
I called Comcast and they said they never heard of the issue. I explained of all the postings I saw and the artiles also. She said she believed me but didn't know of the problem. I found one article talking about using other modems. The newer Surfboard 5120 modem said was better but had issues with Comcast's network and would disconnect. They said the linksys cable modem wasn't any better. The one they said was the best was the DLINK DCM-202. It was 49.95 on sale at Best Buy. I thought, what the ****, I'll try it. If it didn't work I can return it. I got it home. Installed it. Provisioned it and ran the Speakeasy tests. I was blown away. I got a speed of 9049 Kbps. Just ran the test while typing this.
So if anyone else having this issue, I would return the cable modem back to Comcast and ask for a non Motorola modem. That's the advice the Comcast rep told me. Or just buy the DLINK modem. I can now return the 5101 modem and stop leasing it and finally I get my full speed.
Thanks!!!

I used telewest's 10 megabit cable service here in the London UK for about a year. they issued me with a motorola surboard SB 5100i and this worked perfectly. I could get the max download speed of 1.2 megabytes per second and an upload speed of 400k.
I used the cable modem with a linksys wrt54gs router and has not bandwidth issues at all.
I did not have to tweak any network settings on my Macs.

Safari and motorola cable modem with wireless (gateway) sbg900

why can't i connect to the internet with safari using a Motorola SBG900 Wireless Cable Modem, while i can using internet explorer?
arnie
Powerbook G4 Mac OS X (10.4.9)

why can't i connect to the internet with safari using a Motorola SBG900 Wireless Cable Modem, while i can using internet explorer?
arnie
Powerbook G4 Mac OS X (10.4.9)

Motorola Surfboard SBG6580 in wireless mode??

Anyone know if Motorola's Surfboard SBG6580 cable modem can be used in wireless mode with an iMac? There's a warning *inside* the box that it only works with ethernet. Software install fails, blaming it on Adobe Air.

Rainbow14 wrote:
They said the Motorola works wirelessly with Macintosh, it is only the CD install that does not work properly with Macintosh.
Then, the responder doesn't know its backside from a hole in the ground. Mine's hardwired to ethernet and works w/o issues. This is the la latest speediest w/basic internet service.

Power cycling the cable modem speeds up my email. Why?

For several days my email coming into my inbox was very slow, about several minutes to bring in about ten messages without any large attachments. Also opening up the email messages was very slow with the dreaded beach ball spinning. Then when I power cycled my Motorola Surfboard SB5100 modem to try to alleviate slow line speeds, the email problem went away! email came in fast and opened up quickly. Why would getting a new dynamic IP address help dramatically with email retrieval? (There was no effect on speeding up the line connection.)
Thanks.
Raymon

Update on my question:
1. Power cycling the modem to speed up email worked only once and I've not been able to reproduce it. Instead what seems to work well (so far) is "Compacting Folders". I'm using the Netscape 7.2 email client. When I called Netscape tech support, they agreed on Compacting Folders but cautioned that this may corrupt some email files. So far I've not seen any such corruption, but then I've not systematically checked all the email I have in folders.
2. Since my initial posting about two weeks ago, I've discovered that the "low connection speeds in the afternoon and lasting until about midnight" was apparently entirely due to my not clearing my Netscape browser cache often enough. Now when ever I see a drop in connection speed I simply trash the browser cache and the line speed immediately clocks back up to normal! And so, no sign of nodal oversubscription what so ever.
~Raymon
G4 933 MHz "2002 Quicksilver", 1.54 GB RAM, two 160 GB HD, Mac OS X (10.4.8) 120 GB FireLite FW drive, iLife'06, LaCie d2 burner, 80 GB iPod

Connecting Cisco 2821 Router, Switch, and Cable Modem

Hey everyone,
I am currently in the Cisco Network Academy at my school and just finished CCNA 1. I have a few questions though.
I am purchasing new equipment and that equipment includes:
1-Cisco 2821 2-port Gigabit Router
1-Linksys SE3016 16-Port Gigabit Switch (unmanaged)
1-Cisco WAP4410n Wireless Access Point
1-Motorla SurfBoard Gigabit Cable Modem (no router built in-Just standalone Modem used with Comcast Xfinity High Speed Internet)
1-12U Network Rack (not enclosed)
I am confused on how I will connect the cable modem to the router and the router to the switch and the WAP so that I still have WiFi. Since the router only has 2 Ge Ports, how would I cable this up?
If my assumptions are correct, would I do the following set up?
Take the Cable Modem and run a Straight Thru to Port 1 of the Router.
Connect the Switch Port 1 to Port 2 of the Router using a Straight Thru cable (I believe I will most likely have to Subnet a network, won't I?).
Connect Switch Port 2 to WAP using Straight Thru Cable (so I still have WiFi in my home).
Connect all my computers and other devices to the Switch (this includes several PC's/Laptops, two printers that are ethernet, two TV's that are ethernet, an AppleTV and a Blue Ray Player that are both ethernet, and some Cisco Powerline Network Adapters).
Will that set up work?
Also, how would I configure the router to work with my cable modem AND act as a DHCP Server so that all of my devices get IP Addresses? I have the Cisco Command Guide Book, but it is confusing to me as of now.
Thanks!
Chris

A good start but a few points I would make.
If you set the clock manually, you may find it resets itself after a router reboot. I would look at pointing it at an NTP server:
#ntp server x.x.x.x
#clock timezone GMT (Assuming you are UK based)
Although not required, I would put a description on each of the interfaces as it may help identify them later if you are not physically in front of the Router.
#interface gi0/0
#description WAN
Same for LAN
You have set up your LAN subnet with a /16 subnet mask which is effectively 10.0.0.1 - 10.0.255.254. This is a large subnet allowing over 65k hosts which is not best practice on enterprise networks. It probably won't cause you any issues but I doubt you will have any more than 254 hosts so personally I would use a /24 subnet (255.255.255.0)
The only major thing missing is NAT which needs to be configured on the router to translate the LAN IP addresses from their 10.* private range to the Public IP address on the Gi0/0 WAN Interface.
Firstly you need to define the 'inside' and 'outside' NAT interfaces which is fairly self explanatory:
#interface gi0/0
#ip nat outside
#interface gi0/1
#ip nat inside
Gi0/0 is your outside interface because its facing the Outside world (i.e the internet) and Gi0/1 is your inside interface because its facing Inside your LAN.
Then you need to tell the router which addresses to translate against by first creating an access list:
#ip access-list standard LAN-Addresses
#permit 10.0.0.0 0.0.255.255
Finally you need to tell the router to start translating:
#ip nat inside source list LAN-Addresses interface gi0/0 overload
Oh, I have just noticed that you do not have a 'default route' configured. A router forwards packets by first looking up the destination IP address of the packet (i.e where its going) in it's own routing table. Obviously home routers are not going to have an entry for every Public IP subnet on the internet so they use something called a default route which effectively says 'If I cannot find an entry for this packet in my routing table, use the default route'.
As you are on DHCP and your IP address (and even default gateway) could change on your WAN interface, I would not bother with the next hop address in the default route but rather use the outgoing interface as below:
#ip route 0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 gi0/0
Hope this helps!

How do I get a Motorola SurfBoard SB6141 DOCSIS 3.0 Cable Modem to work with my AirPort?

I just bought a Motorola SurfBoard SB6141 DOCSIS 3.0 Cable Modem to replace the one Comcast was renting to me. My configuration is as follows:
Modem is wired via ethernet to the AirPort Time Capsule
Time capsule is wired to an iMac, a PC, and an Xbox 360
Time capsule is wireless broadcasting to connect various peripherals around the house (iPhones, consoles, printer, Macbook, etc)
Anyway, while the modem works great plugged straight into the iMac, we completely lose our internet connection (wired and wireless) if I plug the AirPort Time capsule into it.
Does anyone know if there is a conflict that I can disable on one of these devices? The airport utility was warning of a double NAT.

Did you power off the SB6141 for 20min before you change over from iMac to the Time Capsule.. this is required. (Test at 5min if you want).
Make sure the TC is set to dhcp on the internet tab.. and DHCP and NAT on the network tab.
Power up the modem.. wait a couple of min for it to settle down then plug in the TC.
No luck try longer times.. or ring comcast and ask them to reset the IP.
If your TC is tall one or running 7.6.4 firmware.. another problem may arise where the 6141 does not connect properly.. there is a problem between this modem in particular and the apple routers.
You can try using a crossover cable instead of ordinary patch cable or use a small 10/100 switch between them.. that will sometimes help.

Reliability of Motorola SB5101N Surfboard cable modem

Hello,
Can anyone comment on the reliability of the Motorola SB5101N Surfboard cable modem versus other cable modems (Thompson DCM 475, Cisco DPC 3825). I have the Motorola SB5101N for about 3 weeks and it appears to be having intermittent connectivity problems. Can anyone comment on a similar experience?

I used a very similar model to that for about a year and seems to notice the same thing.
I switched to a Zoom brand and haven't had the issue since. I would trust anything Cisco, just due to their high reputation though.
If you like my post, or solution to your issue/question, go ahead and click on the little star by my name and/or accept the post as the Solution. It makes me happy.
I'm NOT an employee of Best Buy, or Geek Squad, though I did work as an Agent for a year 5 years ago. None of my posts are to be taken as the official stance that Best Buy will take on your situation. My advice is just that, advice.
Unfortunately, that's the bad luck of any electronic, there's going to be bad Apples... wait that's a horrible pun.

Can't connect WRT54GL router to Motorola Surfboard cable modem SB6120

I can't connect my router (WRT54GL) to my new cable modem (Motorola Surfboard SB6120).
Some info:
1) Cable modem works perfectly when connected directly to computer ethernet port
2) ISP is Optimum Online
3) Using Automatic DHCP setting on router
4) Using MAC cloning on router
5) I can access the router's admin screen from the PC
6) I can connect to the router wirelessly, but no internet access
7) I've tried powering down everything multiple times, still no internet access
8) I upgraded the router firmware to 4.30.14
9) The "link" light on the cable modem never lights up when connected to the router
10) This is very frustrating
Thanks

Dabug wrote:
Hi
I've tried two ethernet cables, no luck. On the router, I get lights for Power, WLAN and the ethernet port that the pc is connected to. The "internet" light is not lit.
When the modem is connected directly to pc the link is lit up, just not when it's connected to router.
The internet light won't turn on as you need to plug something on the WAN port. And that should be the cable coming from the modem.
When you connected your pc directly to the modem, do you get internet access?

Motorola Surfboard SB5100 Cable Modem

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