When Lauren and I moved to a larger town earlier this year, I finally had the opportunity to get Cable Internet and join the 21st century with broadband. Technically, I was in the 21st century before I moved because I did have Digital Subscriber Line (DSL). However, I was never totally satisfied with the local DSL provider because I would randomly lose my so called always-on Internet connection for long periods of time and the connection speed could have been better (only .5 meg a second). So I had my heart set on switching to cable Internet as soon as I had the opportunity.
Instead of renting a modem from my Internet Service Provider (ISP), I opted to purchase one from Newegg or Amazon (can’t remember which). I decided to purchase a modem instead of rent one because after several months of renting I would have paid for a modem and once I reach the break even point, I’ll be saving a few bucks each month. Before buying I did a bit of research to determine which cable modem was the best for the price and was approved to work with my ISP. I settled on the Motorola SB5120 SurfBoard.
Its hard to write a review on a cable modem since you don’t really interact with it much. Its not like a wireless router where you have a complex configuration page with lots of options. A cable modem basically just has to be plugged in correctly to work. So as long as it works most people are happy.
Well, the Motorola SB5120 SurfBoard works. I suppose I can expound on this statement and write a positive review. I mean I haven’t had any trouble with the modem whatsoever in the last three or four months of use. The modem is virtually silent (which is probably a common trait of cable modems). It also has handy status indicator lights to let you know what’s going on with your connection.
One of the coolest and my favorite feature is the ability to put the unit in standby mode. In essence, Standby mode lets you temporarily disconnect the modem from the Internet while still letting you Local Area Network (LAN). The standby button on top of the modem makes this task really simple. All you have to do is hit the button to switch into and out of Standby mode. With this modem there is no reason to disconnect any cables in order to suspend your Internet connection.
One of the reasons I can think of using the standby feature is security. You can’t be hacked from the Internet while you’re not connected to the Internet. If you limit your connection time, you in effect limit the opportunities for an attacker. Of course, this is really for the paranoid people out there.
One of the big features of the modem Motorola pushes is the ability to use either a USB or Ethernet cable to connect the modem to your computer. I however do not see how this is that useful. First off, I’m not about to connect my cable modem directly into my computer. I, like most people who would be reading this article, have a small home network so I want to share my Internet connection. Therefore, I plug it into my wireless router which uses an Ethernet connection. Moreover, the wireless router servers as NAT router. Using a NAT router offers some great security benefits over having a modem connected directly into your computer such as only allowing incoming connections that were requested (assuming proper port-forwarding settings). Enough on this, I’m starting to go off topic on my review.
As far as improved connection speeds go, I can’t really make a judgment since I’ve never had cable Internet access without this particular modem. I can comfortably say I don’t think this modem has slowed anything down. If anything, it might be a little faster. I know non-peak connection hours, I have almost doubled the 6 meg a second download speeds advertised by my ISP. I’m not sure if this is due to the modem or if its simply because I’m not fighting for bandwidth with other cable Internet users.
To sum up my review, I’ve been really pleased with the Motorola SB5120 SurfBoard Cable Modem and would purchase it again. Although all cable modems serve the same purpose and users have no reason to interact with them once setup, the SurfBoard will continue to be trouble free and do its tasks well. What else can someone wish for?