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?
Related Posts:
2 Responses to “Motorola SB5120 SurfBoard Cable Modem Review”
I don’t really like cable modem internet service, and here’s why:
-Cable modems are power hogs, compared to DSL modems
-Cable modems are BULKY (have you compared the size of the SB5120 with, say, a ZTE ethernet ADSL modem from ZTE, the size of a pack of cigarettes?).
-ADSL2+ offers better speeds than cable
-The Phone network is much more reliable than the CATV one, at least were I live, the phone network goes underground whereas the cable TV network uses the light poles in the street.
-Network topology (design) is much better on the phone network vis-a-vis the Cable TV network.
-On the phone network your phone cable is YOURS. You’re not sharing it with anybody. On the Cable TV network, you and all your neighbors share the same cable. In case of storm or other accident if the cable gets cut == the entire building loses service.
- DSL uses tried RJ11 wiring. Have you seen the bulky RG58U cables used by Cable TV? Have you tried to make this thick cable make a 90-degree turn?
- DSL modems often come with software that gives you statistics on signal-to-noise ratio on the line
-most DSL modems feature an ON/OFF power button
-The SB5120? No power button, it just sucks power all the time.
-It’s possible on ADSL used with a home router/firewall to establish and cut internet access on demand, obtaining a new IP address, on the Cablemdodem network, IP addresses are assigned over DHCP using your cable modem MAC address. That means that switching IP address is often not easy, as you have to wait for the DHCP lease to expire. Even if you cut power to the cable modem and replug it (as there is NO POWER SWITCH), you often get assigned the same old IP address you had before.
FC
Fernando, I don’t dispute your claims as I don’t know enough about ADSL2+ versus cable.
In the US, at least in the part of it where I live, ADSL2+ isn’t an option. The DSL we have available is much slower than cable. I had DSL for a while and it was slow and I experienced lots of downtime. I constantly had to reset the DSL modem, etc. I have a friend who uses a different DSL provider and he has the same problems. With cable, I almost never have problems and on the rare occasion I do, it’s not the cable modem’s fault.
Network topology-the phone network was designed to carry low bit-rate, poor quality voice traffic…not high bandwidth video like cable so I’m not sure how the design is better. DSL was created to use the existing slow lines in a way that was faster so people could use the old infrastructure.
I’m not sure the wiring difficulty is much of an issue. I don’t need cables to make a 90 degree turns so who cares if they can’t. Typically, houses are pre-wired for cable and telephone so end users don’t care about which medium is easier to work with. Besides, if I’m installing a home network, I’m going to use my coaxial or RJ11 cable to get Internet access to my gateway (modem) and then complete the rest of my network with the industry standard RJ45. Have you seen a switch or router that accepts anything other than RJ45?
Where I live the phone and cable lines are mostly over poles so both DSL and cable share the same disadvantage.
The shared line is a valid concern but typically cable is still fast enough to provide Internet access to everyone sharing it than DSL is capable of providing as a dedicated line (again, where I live).
Most people like getting the same IP address every time they connect their modem. That way, it’s easier to access your home network remotely or run services. The reason services like dyndns are so popular is because DSL and other users constantly get new IP addresses.
As far as speeds go, I think FIOS is the future. Can ADSL2+ touch 50 MB down and 20 MB up?
Honestly, I don’t care if people use DSL or Cable. I recommend people use what works best for them where they are and get what they can afford. I just wanted to provide some pros for cable so this post isn’t too one-sided. I appreciate your feedback.