Motorola SB6141 DOCSIS 3.0 Cable Modem

I have had no trouble with this cable modem since January, 2015. There is a procedure to replacing a rental modem with a consumer-owned one, so here is my experience. If you access the Web via a cable modem, you might be paying $7-$10 per month + various taxes to the cable company to rent that equipment.  Fine modems can be purchased online.  Comcast offers a list of approved cable modems and even includes a link to Amazon: http://mydeviceinfo.comcast.net/ No doubt other cable companies do the same. Always buy a cable modem from your cable company’s approved list, or expect hassles. Make sure that it supports the DOCSIS 3.0 standard to future-proof you.  This standard can automatically handle much higher speeds than you can purchase now as a residential customer.  If prices fall, that could change and you may desire blazing speed.  The latest wireless standard, 802.11AC, can provide speeds within your home much faster than the cable speed to your home that can now be purchased.  You’ll get “AC" in your future devices as you replace them (right now only my wireless router is AC capable, everything else is the previous “N”, still plenty fast).  For residential users, faster speed quickly becomes a diminishing return on investment, since much of the time you wait for a web page to load is in waiting for the page server and intermediate hardware, not in transmission speed on the last link to your home.  Unless you’re a deeply serious gamer, or need to download vast amounts of software daily, or stream several simultaneous movies, very high speed is a waste of money and just a "mine's faster than yours" macho exercise. The modem paid for itself in a few months.   Do not buy any black version; that is made exclusively for ISPs and any units available for purchase by you, maybe on eBay, will be used equipment. Any equipment named here may be succeeded by a newer version. —— I don’t recommend a cable modem that integrates WiFi.  I use two products for different functions, so if one fails the other is still with me.  If the WiFi router goes down, I can plug the cable modem into my iMac and configure the iMac to be a temporary wireless router replacement; If the modem goes down, we can still work offline and access the wireless printer while scooting in a replacement modem.   Power and TV cable plug into the modem, and a short Ethernet cable connects the modem with the WiFi router that has its own power cord.  Some routers also allow USB connection to a shared disk for backup purposes.  That did not work so well when I tried it with two generations back from the current router, but I plan to try again. —— If you have a cable “triple play bundle" that includes TV, Internet and phone, mine is not the modem for you because it does not handle voice.  This one does: http://www.amazon.com/Arris-TM822G-Touchstone%C2%AE-Ultra-High-Telephony/dp/B00721TUNS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1419716706&sr=8-1&keywords=Arris+TM822G+Touchstone%C2%AE+DOCSIS+3.0+8%C3%974+Ultra-High+Speed+Telephony+Modem The magic term is “EMTA”.  Your cable local cable monopoly may not allow you to buy a modem that also handles voice so you have to continue renting, or you may have to buy it from them and also pay an installation fee—check with them. That changes the economics.  OTOH, by renting they will always replace a bad unit for free. —— Whatever you get, your new modem must be registered with the cable company. For Comcast this can be done via a web page, or by telephone.  See http://forums.comcast.com/t5/Basic-Internet-Connectivity-And/Change-from-Leased-Cable-Modem-to-Owner-Purchased-Cable-Modem/td-p/1202305 The correspondent named Baric there knows what he’s talking about.  I used the web page method with no problems.  Always faster than dealing with a human at “customer service” (in the animal husbandry sense). Here’s the recipe (MY ADDITIONS IN CAPS): 1. Disconnect the old cable modem completely. 2. Connect the new cable modem to coaxial cable (to the cable company), ethernet cable (to computer or wireless router, and power. 3. Reboot your computer or wireless router. WAIT AWHILE FOR THINGS TO SETTLE DOWN. 4. Using a browser, try to go to any website. You should be redirected to your cable company’s registration page. THIS CAN TAKE AWHILE. Follow the directions from there. I WAS PREPARED WITH THE NEW MODEM’S MODEL NUMBER, SERIAL NUMBER, AND MAC ADDRESS (ON A STICKER ATTACHED TO THE MODEM), BUT ALL THAT GOT TRANSFERRED AUTOMATICALLY. 5. If #4 doesn’t work, your cable company has a phone number where you can interact with a human to get this done. 6. After your new modem is operating properly, return the old modem to the cable company, get a receipt, and watch your bill to see that the rental charge is gone. You should incur no service charges of any kind. —— I did the recipe with the new modem connected directly to my computer. Then my wireless router (Apple Airport Extreme) did not want to play. My current network is named “GoAway”, connecting to 8 devices. I did a hard router reset, and used the Airport Utility to rebuild GoAway in about two minutes, and everything came alive. —— Although Comcast is widely considered to be the worst company in the USA, there have been widespread reports that Time Warner Cable messes with your speed when you substitute your own modem.  Consider your options in the face of dastardly corporate activity. You can always test your download and upload speeds at sites like http://speakeasy.net/speedtest/ to see any changes. A utility, "namebench", (search online for it) will identify DNS sites that are the fastest for your location. (In OS X, you need to go to System Preferences-->Security & Privacy and allow apps downloaded from Anywhere, at least temporarily.) Replace the current servers with the fastest ones identified. Recently I got a 30% speed increase in DNS lookup but, that's in the noise compared to the time you spend waiting for a web server to deliver a page. —— Here’s another reason to own your own cable modem!  Comcast (and other?) cable modems include a public WiFi hotspot that ANYONE (up to 5 users) can use, if you buy a speed of 25Mbs or greater (I was pressed hard to do that, I did not).  This article shows how to disable the “feature” by logging in to Comcast.   http://www.pcworld.com/article/2363389/to-xfinity-wifi-were-all-hotspots-but-you-dont-have-to-be.html Why should you care?  I am not sure of the security implications, but it just seems like a problem waiting to happen--a prominent security expert who I know agreed that it’s a bad idea—and Comcast makes no security claims.  But if you own the modem, it will not have this “feature.”