Top positive review
5.0 out of 5 starsSo Long Comcast Leasing
Reviewed in the United States on January 11, 2011
I have been a customer of my cable provider - Comcast - for more than four years, and during of these years I rented RCA DCM425 modem. Honestly, I cannot say that this modem was total waste of my money, because it gave me promised speed of my plan; however, this modem crashed quite often, and I spent time to reboot this thing. This problem was not a big deal for me, but in the last two months, modem took whole day to reboot, and my download speed was five times smaller than it should be. I chose to buy my own modem, but anyone who think about buying own modem should consider these two factors.
First factor, the major benefit of having own modem is concluding in paying leasing fees that turned from reasonable two dollars per month into seven dollars per month in my area. The second is major drawback of having own modem is concluding that if anything happened with your own modem, it is going to be your responsibility to take care for this modem instead of Comcast.
After my decision is made, I checked the list of approved modems by my Internet provider on the official web site. This is important, because if Motorola SB6120 was not in the list, Comcast won't allow me to use this model of cable modem. Also, users must check end of life date in order to get permission from Comcast to use SB6120 or any other models.
Well, after some information about buying vs. leasing information, lets talk about the modem itself.
Inside The Box:
Pretty much everything that you should have for connection your new modem to your desktop or laptop.
10 of 10.
Design:
Well, design of this modem did not change my view of modems as devices with office austere style. We have black color which fits almost everyone and vertical position - it may place horizontal too - that make our modem looks as a solid choice for almost all users. I also like power adapter which is smaller and weighs less than RCA power adapter.
7 of 10.
Installation:
The process of installation is describing in the install sheet, but there are two steps that users must know. Disconnect leased modem and router. Then connect new modem directly to PC - remember that router must install only after modem is fully configured - . Remember, simple connection of all required cables and cord is not enough for Internet connection. In order to get Internet, users should select one of four possible ways to do this task. First, users can call Comcast to arrange modem installation if they feel that they cannot perform this task without professional help. On the other hand, full process of installation is really easy for most users. Just making a phone call to Comcast office after you connect the modem directly to computer, and tell them correct MAC address of your modem and some other stuff. All process will not take a lot of time. Third, users can use special CD from free Comcast installation kit. Just follow instructions, and you will be set in minutes; however, users must know that with Internet installation, they also installed several programs that they might not need at all like Norton(tm) Security Suite and Comcast version of Internet Explorer. Also, installation with CD might perform only one time, because if something went wrong and users exit the program, and then come back, they will see the error message - it may be something wrong with my installation CD - . The last step which I did in order to make things work is automatically pop-up Internet Explorer window with Comcast Self Activation Page. First enter your account number, then install required software and select replacing modem option from the list. The whole process will take some time - do not turn your PC off during installation - and then you will see the window with message that installation is completed and your account information. Considered that you do need to install drivers for this modem, and four ways to get Internet, the installation is so easy. The only drawback in my opinion is lack of USB connection that might be a big deal for some users.
10 of 10.
Performance:
The great thing which I say about modem is it does not get hot as my old one, because of well ventilated body of modem. The same compliment goes to power adapter which is also well designed. The other good thing about this modem is nice front panel lights that inform users about status of the modem. The negative things of this modem are lack of power and reset buttons. The only way to reset this modem is unplug the modem from the AC. The same goes to turn off the modem. This modem has never crashed - I own this modem for only two weeks - but I really prefer to have these buttons. The next and most important thing for any modems is download and upload speed. As was mentioned before, I did get promised speed by Comcast in the last two months - the best I got once was 12 Mbit/s download and 1.5 Mbit/s upload while the common speed was 3 Mbit/s download and 1 Mbit/s upload - My promised speeds by the provider are 15 Mbit/s downstream and 3 Mbit/s upstream. According to Speedtest.net, my download speed is 20 Mb/s and my upload speed is 3.5 Mb/s which match with Comcast PowerBoost. In addition, the version of DOCSIS is being a great factor in Mb/s race, and it strongly affects your Internet speed. In this case, this DOCSIS 3.0 modem has backwards compatible to DOCSSIS 2.0. Honestly, I have checked yet what version of DOCSIS is being used in my local Comcast area, but even if it is 2.0 it is great to have newest technology standard for future time.
8 of 10
Value:
In conclusion, I say that I like this modem very much. The installation is easy, the speed is great, ventilation system is very good, and newest DOCSSIS 3.0 is a great option. Of course, for some users who do not mind using modem with DOCSSIS 2.0, because their Internet providers will not update the network in present future, and users who want to buy modem with wireless router feature might save 10 bucks or pay more 20 bucks more for more featured modem, but in my case I think that 77.79 is a great price for this modem.
10 of 10.
The final grade is 9 of 10.
