Motorola Surfboard SB5101 Cable Modem

• Capable of downloading up to 100 times faster than traditional 288k analog phone modems
• No telephone line needed
• When connected to a DOCSIS 20 cable network, capable of up to 30 Mbps upstream capacity - that's 3 times faster than our previous models
• Real-time gaming access
• Specially designed architecture-allows for future upgrades

As an FYI, Amazon has this product listed 3 different ways as "Motorola Surfboard Broadband Cable Modem SB-5101" and as "Motorola Surfboard SB5101 Cable Modem" and as "SURFboard Cable Modem". All are listed at 3 different prices, too!

I did a little bit of homework, and the Motorola seemed to have good reviews. This product is supposed to be the same in function as the SB5120 except that the SB5101 uses a slightly different chip set.

I chose to buy a cable modem so that I could replace the rental unit from the cable company. Make sure your cable company supports this cable modem before buying!

For my setup, I have my cable service from the evil Comcast, my cable modem, and an older Linksys wireless router. The day my Motorola cable modem arrived, I took it out of the box, glanced at the Quick setup guide, and plugged it in. I called Comcast, navigated through their Byzantine automated phone menu system, and read off the MAC ID to the tech services person. He did some stuff on his end to first recognize the new cable modem. Then he had to do some other configuration on his end because of the router. Once that was done, viola! We've been using the cable modem for the past week or so without incident.

To me this is the best kind of electronics product. It takes ~30 sec to hook it up, and once it's done, you can forget about it. It took longer to open the package (and much longer on the call with Comcast) than it took to hook it up.

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I bought the Motorola Surfboard 5101 a couple of weeks ago on Amazon. Think they must have gotten a new vendor because the price was about $15 cheaper and there were hundreds of reviews for this cable modem.

I just wanted to point out some things that I picked up from the other reviews. I am a Comcast customer and I wanted to avoid paying the $3/month rental charge for their RCA modem. When I connected the 5101 even though I had all green lights I still had no internet connection. That is because you have to call Comcast and tell them your new MAC ID number that is shown on the modem. This is not pointed out anywhere in the instructions. The Comcast tech did not ask for my serial number. After a few minutes he made the change and said everything was OK.

I rebooted the modem and computer but I still could not connect to the net. I remembered from other reviews that it takes about ten or fifteen minutes for the change to take place. After 15 minutes I rebooted everything and I had my internet connection.

Also there is no mention that the 5101 works with Vista. Thought I might have to download some drivers but I didn't. It works just fine with Vista.

After two weeks the 5101 modem has been working with no problems. I do use that Standby button when I am not connected to the net just because all those green lights are a distraction.

Hope this helps.

Read Best Reviews of Motorola Surfboard SB5101 Cable Modem Here

We just ordered th SB-5120 from Fry's, and they sent this model instead. The SB-5101 has almost identical specifications, just the case is a little different, and I guess the 5120 includes TurboDOCS software. We previously had an old Toshiba, which has given stellar service for 5 years, but we decided it was time to replace it before it failed. The Motorola Surfboard was very easy to install, just plug in the ethernet cable to the router (or to your PC), connect the coaxial cable and plug in the power. There is no need to install software or drivers unless you want to use a USB connection. We also had to call Cox Highspeed Internet to give their tech support the new serial number and MAC address of the new cable modem (the Cox website neglects to tell you this step). That was the hardest part of the whole process it took about 20 minutes, taking into account resetting and rebooting the system at their request. I am not sure that this modem is any faster than the old one, but we have a low signal on our line to start with.

Overall it was very easy to set up and has been fast and reliable. It plays nicely with our router, and has caused no problems in constant daily use on a home network with 4 computers.

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I have been a Comcast high-speed Internet customer for about 5 years. The modem Comcast provided as part of a package deal was a Motorola Surfboard 4100. About 4 months ago, I noticed that I was getting barely more than 1/2 the speed I was paying for, which was 6Mbps. I complained to tech support. They sent a technician out and within 3 sec. after walking into my office, he said, "Oh...I know exactly what the problem is; you have an 'end-of-life' modem. You need to upgrade to a 2.1 DOCSIS modem, and I would recommend a Motorola Surfboard as one of the best." So I got on my favorite shopping site, Amazon, and bought one. Not only did it work perfectly from day one, my average download speed on Speakeasy.net is ~22Mbps -almost 6 1/2 times what I was getting with the old Surfboard -and the upload speed increased from ~364Kbps to ~1.6Mbps.

Would other brands do as well? Probably, but I stuck with Motorola because the last one was 100% reliable; never had a problem. The only reason it was not delivering the speed is because Comcast's system had changed and the old modem's software could not keep up with it. I also like the fact that Motorola moved the standby button to the top where it is more easily accessible. I have a new Vista computer and have to put the modem on Standby after putting the computer to sleep, because (not sure why) Internet activity tends to wake it back up.

I found it disappointing that Comcast apparently does not alert its customers when their modems are obsolete. If you're having a similar problem, check with your ISP. If you need to upgrade your modem, I highly recommend this one.

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I purchased this cable modem to replace a combo cable modem/wireless router from my internet provider to save money as I already had a wireless router. I use Charter Cable and the installation was very simple with them. First I plugged up the Surfboard modem, and powered up and connected the cable, and then plugged in my laptop and started IE. Charter loaded up a simple page where you indicated you were replacing their hardware, and all you had to do was enter your account # and their modem's MAC address and that was about it. I did install the Charter browser applet just to make the setup easier but that's all there was to it (I'll uninstall that later). A couple of reboots to the modem and reloading the IE browser and it was up and running with internet access. Then I plugged in my Netgear WGR614 wireless router to the modem. That took a couple of reboots to get all the IP addresses worked out between cable modem and wireless router and laptop, but it pretty much came up on its own with minimal effort. And all worked fine together with no added or installed software or patches. I will try and remember to update this post after it's been up and running a while with new info on how it performs over time. But initially I can only say good things about this modem, and connection speed is very good as well.

It's a simple cable modem and only has one ethernet connection at the back so if you want to connect multiple PCs/laptops then you'll need an additional router. It does have USB connection available as well.

For the price and ease of setup and installation it's great and all that we needed for our house.