34 reviews for Motorola SB6141 SURFboard Cable Modem – Black

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1. Rated 5 out of 5

   Jonah B. – July 2, 2012

   I have Time Warner internet in the Raleigh/Durham area of NC. This is a DOCSIS 3.0 area.

   My download speeds have been shockingly unreliable ever since I started my internet service about 6 months ago. It is supposed to be 20 mbit down. Sometimes, it is actually better than this (25+ for short times), but more often than not, it is much worse (at times < 5, usually around 10-12). It also fluctuates wildly on a minute-by-minute basis. One minute I'll have great speed, the next it crawls. Even during a single speed test, it would fluctuate between about 5-25 mbit.

   TWC support was predictably unhelpful. The best I got from them was "that should not be happening." I pointed out that their own FAQ page says that a DOCSIS 3.0 modem is required for my service tier (so-called "turbo"). They said no, the old DOCSIS 2.0 Motorola SB5101 they gave me was fine. I got the same BS from the "normal" reps as well as the so-called "level 3".

   I asked if they would give me a DOCSIS 3.0 modem, even though they claim it is not "required". They said no, I would have to upgrade to "extreme," which would add $10/month for the service and another $2.50/month for their DOCSIS 3.0 gateway.

   So instead of doing that, I bought this modem (which is on the TWC approved device list). I called them, gave the MAC address, and I was up and running. When the modem connected, the downstream LED turned blue, which according to the manual, means that the channel is bonded. This is a very good thing.

   With this modem, I get 20 mbit on the dot, 24 hours a day. Every speed test I have run confirms (including the 200 MB test on testmy.net). Last night, I downloaded about 15 GB of data with a sustained 20 mbit rate the entire time. It's pretty amazing how effective it is.

   My speed is never ABOVE 20 anymore, but it is NOT BELOW either. I believe that the channel bonding makes it easier for the ISP to enforce bandwidth caps, but it also makes the connection more reliable. I'll take that deal any day.

   I HIGHLY recommend this modem for TWC customers in DOCSIS 3.0 areas. Don't believe the customer service reps — it absolutely is required. It sucks that TWC won't provide the hardware we actually need to fully use their service, but that's just the way it is.

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2. Rated 5 out of 5

   Wolf Britz – October 30, 2012

   I had buyers remorse after buying this router, but that soon changed.
   I am on Brighthouse and I got a letter saying they were going to start charging 2 dollars a month rental but that I could buy my own and gave a list of approved routers. I started researching some of the routers on the list and based on what others were saying about this router, I placed my order.
   After receiving the router, I called Brighthouse about installation. They wanted to send someone out but I told them a phone call would do. The next day I got the call and told the tech my MAC address, about 10 minutes later I was online with my new modem. This modem’s speed is consistent at about 30mbps compared to varying speeds from my rented Brighthouse modem which was usually about 13mbps, seldom approaching 20mbps and sometimes around 4mbps.
   A Windows 8 download using the old modem took about 80 minutes. Using Motorola SB6141, the same download took 11 minutes.
   Although the payback on this router by not renting will take over 5 years, my lowered aggravation level is priceless and my Ooma phone service seems much more stable. WHAT A DIFFERENCE!
   1-25-2013 UPDATE:
   My speed was running a consistent 30 mbps for the first 2 months that I had this modem. Now I am down to 20 mbps.
   Bright House says I should be getting about 20 mbps. They want 15 dollars a month more for a 40 mbps connection.
   My connections are still more reliable than with a thier rented modemm but it was nice to be getting 30 mbps before they throttled me back to 20!

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3. Rated 5 out of 5

   John B. Fisher – December 17, 2012

   In an effort to suck more of my money into their coffers, Time Warner Cable (and all the cable companies) now charge for the “rental” of their equipment. That would be acceptable if they actually kept their equipment updated. Unfortunately, they wanted to charge for the use of a five year old device (DOCSIS 2.0 standard, so not channel bonding). As a result, they wanted me to pay for a piece of gear that did not reliably provide either the upload or download speed for which I pay.

   So, it was time to “Stick it to the man!” .. Here in the Raleigh, NC area .. Time Warner Cable supports this device. I purchased it for a reasonable amount. I expect that in two years it will pay for itself .. if that replacement was the only thing I was doing. But I also changed from the Digital Phone to Ooma phone service. And in the upcoming year I will drop my TV service. Why? Well, this device provides consistently good throughput. So, we will switch to web access for some shows. We will use Netflix and Hulu Plus.

   That should cover 99% of what we want .. and it will be a LOT less expensive.

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4. Rated 5 out of 5

   Felix M. Lee – December 20, 2012

   I bought this modem to avoid being charged the rental lease fees that my cable company started to charge for using their equipment. So I spent a while looking a decent modems I could use. I pretty much had used more Motorola branded in the past so I knew which to stick with. The question was whether I was going stick with a DOCSIS 2.0 or 3.0 modem, but I chose the more expensive Surfboard SB6141 DOCSIS 3.0 modem for the preparation in the case I’d ever want to switch to a higher tier service as I am currently using the standard tier with my ISP. I know that the higher tier require a compatible DOCSIS 3.0 modem so that’s what I stuck with. It was fairly easy to plug in and install, the phone call only took me about an hour setup my MAC address with my ISP and I believe the reason my experience took so long was because my customer service rep. misheard and recorded and used the wrong MAC address and finally revised and fixed the issue. I preferred this modem as well because the higher models have a Wi-Fi enabled feature, which I do not prefer all-in-one modems with routers or Wi-Fi connections. I prefer just a usable modem with my own aftermarket wireless routers. Overall, there’s nothing I really disliked about the modem except maybe the pricing, which is on the high end, but seeing how this modem didn’t give me any issues during installation and still working to this day is showing that I have a great liking for this modem.

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5. Rated 1 out of 5

   AUSTX512 – December 28, 2012

   works better than the cable company’s (Time Warner) old one that they tried charge me for. The one they gave me had some issues and it was the 2 one i returned to them. but this one just works (i’m happy i didnt get a dud that some people have been taking about)

   it looks nice, is docsis 3.0, gaming is better on it ( no lags, unlike the cisco and the older moto 2.0 b4) and it plays nice with my Asus rt-n66u wireless router.
   hope it lasts more than 2 years….(#knock on wood)
   .

   [Update 11/5/2013][Buyer Beware!!! ->ESP TWC Customers]
   Ok, I spoke too Soon, Buyer Beware, while i am not sure about other ISP’s but TWC does not update this modem’s firmware in their system wide update (there policy does not support flashing customer owned equipment, since they do not want to be responsible for bricking it and having to replace it); and their is no other way to update this modem other than via ISP. With that said, this modem ships with with and outdated firmware from Nov 2011. To date there has been about 4 updates that fixes a some issues that this thing has (i.e it does not tolerate signal fluctuations very well and will drop connection Very Very frequently) if you operate servers like i do or game regularly this is gonna be a big issue.
   So yea i am having issues with this modem and with TWC’s poor service and response times you are gonna have nightmare when the dropouts begin to surface.

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6. Rated 4 out of 5

   Ian Rushton – December 29, 2012

   I just installed the SB6141 on my cable service this past week. The setup for this modem was extremely easy, just called the cable company with the serial number and they activated on my line, several minutes later it was up a running. It really performs well, I get about 23m down and 6.5m up pretty consistently, better than my DSL. The device is basically a black box, there are no real things to adjust. A couple of things to note if you are using Comcast, they do not allow the DHCP service to run so you have to put a router behind it for your home network. The second is a bit of a quirk, when I changed from a computer connected to the model to a router connected to the modem, I had to re-boot the modem before it started working. I thought this was a it strange, should recognized a change in the DHCP client and re-issue an address.

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7. Rated 5 out of 5

   R. Manning – January 13, 2013

   There are 2 reasons I bought this modem: 1) the Time Warner-issued modem I had been using was ancient (>5 years old) and 2) I was seriously irked by TWC’s new policy of charging users a “modem lease fee.” Really? For an obsolete modem I’d been using for years?

   Anyway, set up couldn’t have been easier. Attach TWC coax cable, run network cable from modem to wireless router, and power up. Then I called TWC technical support and gave them the modem’s MAC address printed on the bottom of the modem. They activated it and I was in business! For me, the speed increase was amazing. Running TWC’s speed test, I got a download speed of almost 17Mbps, which compares to results with the old modem of well under 10Mbps.

   All in all, I am extremely pleased with my Motorola Surfboard SB6141.

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8. Rated 3 out of 5

   M. Klein – January 16, 2013

   Based on prior reviews and pretty extensive research, I bought this modem to replace an SMC modem used for a Comcast business class internet service. From all I could tell this should provide somewhat better performance and should be a snap to get provisioned, now that it’s on Comcast’s approved device list.

   But I didn’t look closely enough, apparently. Comcast cannot (or, at least, does not) accept any non-Comcast modems for accounts requiring static IP addresses. That did not show up in any of the reviews I read, or on the product description. So back to Amazon it goes.

   Now that I know exactly what search terms to use (“comcast static ip cable modem”) it’s easy to see it won’t work.

   Caveat emptor. Static IP == Comcast lockin, $7/month modem rental fee + $5/month static IP. You might be able to try using a dynamic IP account and set up dynamic DNS at the cost of some complexity and occasional trouble when using secure access over SSH.

   UPDATE 06/17/2013: Comcast is now charging $10/month for the modem.

   UPDATE 10/20/2014: Comcast is now charging $15 for 1 static IP and $13/month for the modem. Time to find a dynamic DNS solution.

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9. Rated 5 out of 5

   rulrich – March 15, 2013

   my internet service also runs my phone and I could just not get good phone connections. ‘Voices were warped.
   I called Time Warner and they reset my modem.. it was better for a day or less… then SLOW again. sometimes VERY slow. I told them I thought it was their modem which I was paying an extra monthly fee for. They said we will see… I didn’t want to wait and see….
   So I bought this cable modem. Had to call TW to give them the MAC address so they can acknowledge it and set it to NOT run faster than the service I am paying for… which they did quickly enough. I have not had a problem with the speed since. I can’t get OVER what TW sets but at least now I get that consistently. On another note just because I hope TW reads these reviews, I took their modem to the service center they sent me which they CONFIRMED would take it, but of course that place did NOT take modems so had to drive to another service center. More reason to keep them out of the loop.

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10. Rated 3 out of 5

    Steven – March 26, 2013

    It’s a decent performer, but some of the other reviews which motivated my purchase related to the SB 6141 being a real speed demon. I should have known better. Unless you have a truly old garbage cable modem, you can’t boost your speed faster than your account allows with your provider.

    But the real disappointment is that the SB 6141 is totally Un-configurable. Unlike my router, you can’t login to this SB and customize in any way. It is a pass through and that’s it, per Motorola. I was having issues with some server software and want to adjust the SB and you can’t adjust a single thing. Surprising for a new top of the line device IMHO.

    But as an idiot proof box, it’s fine I guess. If you want simple plug n play. This is certainly at least that. But don’t be swayed to thinking you’re going to get new download and upload speeds unless your current modem is like DOCSIS 1.0 and you’re on a DOCSIS 3.0 system.

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11. Rated 5 out of 5

    A. Jerman – May 14, 2013

    I recently upgraded my internet with TWC to 50 Mbps down and 5 Mbps up, which meant I needed to upgrade from my old SB5100 D2 modem. Facing modem rental fees and terrible locked down wifi router/modem combos that TWC and other cable companies are sending out to D3 customers, I decided it was time to purchase my own.

    There’s not really too much to say here though. This modem has done everything it’s been expected to so far. It has the ability to bond to 8 downstream channels, though TWC only offers 4 in my area still. It never has issue connecting and bonding though. Paired with a new RT-AC66U router, this modem offers me rock solid 50/5 connectivity like I pay for. Most everything in the way of configuration is still managed by your provider when it sends it a config file, so you basically just set it up and if everything works, you shouldn’t even have to think about it again. I haven’t noticed any lag at all, let alone any that I could blame on the modem. No reboots that I’ve noticed. It just does what it’s supposed to and just works. As with any product, I’ve read issues that some people have, but so far I’ve had no and have been very pleased.

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12. Rated 5 out of 5

    Florida Panda – August 4, 2013

    Just wanted to put in a good word for the black SB6141. I’ve had this modem for more than 5 months now having bought mine back in February 2013. Can’t remember what type box it came in but my receipt does say it is OEM, and yes it’s color is black.

    At time of purchase the SB6141 was on the Brighthouse list of Approved Modems. I bought my own modem to avoid a newly implemented $3.50+tax/month modem rental fee.

    Using my browser, these are the particulars on my black colored modem:

    Firmware Name: SB_KOMODO-1.0.6.12-SCM00-NOSH
    Firmware Build Time: Mar 12 2013

    Since the firmware build date is a full three weeks AFTER purchase date I am assuming my ISP (Brighthouse Florida) is pushing updates to my modem.

    For the most part it has worked flawlessly. Oh yes, there is a rare disconnect, but hey, I’ve used cable modems for decades now and NONE have stayed connected 100% of the time. To me, this SB6141 is just as (or more) reliable than any cable modem I’ve previously used. It has NOT increased my download/upload speeds but I know for sure (using online speed testers) I am getting the speed I’m paying for.

    So for now, I am a satisfied user of the black SB6141 cable modem. Any questions?

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13. Rated 3 out of 5

    Joe K – October 31, 2013

    I bought this to avoid paying Comcast a monthly $8 fee for their modem. I have the Triple Play service, but I don’t use the phone service — I only have it because it’s cheaper to get a Triple Play package than a Double Play package. But I was assured time and time again that this was fine. In fact, every Comcast installed I spoke to said pretty much no one actually USES the phone service. Comcast lists this modem as compatible on their website. But I used this in two separate locations, and was constantly having connection issues. The modem would reset multiple times a day due to errors received over the line. Response times were awful. After many, many weeks of dealing with Comcast support, I was finally able to determine that it was because I had the additional phone.

    I tried to contact Motorola (now Arris) for support, and they were truly awful. Completely unhelpful and not willing to do anything at all to help me figure out what was going on. And rather rude about it, at that.

    Ultimately I sent the modem to my sister, who had Comcast, but doesn’t have the phone service. It works great for her.

    But ultimately I don’t recommend this almost exclusively because their tech support is so bad. I’m not sure if it has always been this way, or if it’s just recently now that they have been acquired by Arris. But whatever the reason, it’s not good now.

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14. Rated 5 out of 5

    Chris from Gahanna, OH – October 31, 2013

    I bought this modem for use with my Time Warner Cable Ultimate Internet service class of 50 Mbps down and 5 Mbps up. This modem is DOCSIS 3.0 certified, certification needed in order to get faster internet speeds if your service provider requires it.

    Important! You’ll need to call your Internet Service provider first and give them the MAC address of the modem in order for them to activate it on their network. Inside the box were several labels/stickers with the MAC address and it’s also labeled on the modem. TWC had mine activated in a couple of minutes.

    My modem arrived as promised in new condition with a AC power cord and Ethernet cable included. Also enclosed was a quick setup guide. But you don’t need it. After activating the modem with your service provider, installation was as easy as connecting the Ethernet cable from the modem to your router, connecting the power cord to your AC outlet, then waiting for a few minutes while the modem booted up and connected to the Internet.

    If you are a techie and want to see the modem’s configuration and system settings, you can connect to the modem’s online setup and status page from your web browser with the IP address […] But personally, I wouldn’t change any of the settings, as your service provider and Motorola have already configured them to work optimally. But if you screw something up, there is a button to reset the modem to all default settings and another button to restart the modem.

    The modem is reliable. The connection is always on. So far after a month and a half of usage, I’ve only had to reset it once by powering it on and off, and that was because TWC had a network service outage. I definitely recommend the SB6141.

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15. Rated 5 out of 5

    Toki – January 16, 2014

    I purchased one of these because it was an extra $10 or so a month to rent a modem with Time Warner Cable.

    On the day the technician came to set up the internet in our new apartment, he had no issues setting it up along with our Netgear N600 wireless dual band router; he was in and out within 5 minutes with the internet up and running. This model is on their website as one of the many modems compatible with their service,and it happens to be fairly priced as well.

    Keep in mind that there is no built in WIFI with this model and you need a router if you want wireless connection. I only purchased this model because I already had the router. I have had no issues pairing my modem and router (the model is above); our internet is not “spotty”, has not disconnected once, nor have I had to reset it…it is running at the promised speed (check out the other reviews, they go more in depth).

    I recommend this model if you wish to “hard-wire” your PC or already have a router for WIFI capability.

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16. Rated 5 out of 5

    CDRPROF – February 9, 2014

    Bought two of these as a way around the TWC monthly charge for their modem. Obviously, it will pay for itself in a little over a year. If you have VoIP along with cable and internet service you will have to make a pigtail (two-way splitter) adapter (one for a connection to the regular TWC modem which you will keep to continue your VoIP service and the other to send the TV and internet signal to the other devices in your house.
    Note: My device came the same day as my TWC technician came for a cable problem I was having. I asked about it and he said he would hook it up for me. I said OK. When these get hooked up you have to call TWC support to provide them the new MAC address, etc. Well he hooked it up and when I got my bill there was a $66 charge to change out the modem! BEWARE! Do it yourself, if you can. I could have done it but the way it sounded he was going to do it for nothing. Lesson learned!

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17. Rated 5 out of 5

    B. Gardner – February 14, 2014

    First off, know what you are buying before you buy something. Furthermore, do some research in regards to what your service provider supports.

    With that said, if you have a ISP that updates customer owned hardware, then the black SB6141 should not be a problem.

    I, for example, wanted the black SB6141 because it matches everything else in my office. Call it silly, but color scheme matters to me.

    That said, I purchased this modem from Amazon and received it last night. I recorded the modem info, installed it, powered it up, and called Cox. They asked for the model number, serial number, and MAC address. Within 15min of powering on the modem, I was good to go. However, I was not getting the speeds that I pay for. I called back and asked if my modem was provisioned correctly and whether or not I needed a firmware update. The tech said that everything was all set and that my modem would be automatically updated during the nightly maintenance window.

    I woke up this morning to an updated firmware but still slower than expected speeds. One more call to Cox resulted in an account fix and me getting the speeds I expected. My account was incorrectly flagged for having a DOCSIS 2.0 modem instead of a DOCSIS 3.0.

    As mentioned in these review, the black SB6141 is an ISP provided device and they do ship with OLD firmware. I cannot comment on whether these are new/used/refurbs as mine had all kinds of plastic wrap and nothing in the modem log so I can only assume that is it new or factory reconditioned. The old firmware was remedied by a firmware update from COX – my modem shipped with 1.0.6.3 and I am now running 1.0.6.13.

    The only downside is the warranty. From what I understand, the OEM boxed units don’t have a warranty. Honestly, I’ve never had a modem fail so I am willing to take the risk to have a black modem.

    With that said, I am pleased with it. My advice to those who want to purchase one – check with your ISP to see if they update customer owned modems.

    Good luck!

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18. Rated 5 out of 5

    Nizel A. – May 8, 2014

    I decided to upgrade my entire network once my Cisco modem started glitching out. The Motorola SB6141 looked to be the best on the market at the time so I added it onto my network and paired it with the new NetGear “NightHawk” R7000. Setup was quick and easy through Comcast with only one call.

    Note to buyers: the black ones are for non-consumers/businesses so they’re all used pretty much, but mine came with all accessories and had no sign of use. I believe the firmware shipouts have been fixed or Comcast auto-updated my firmware without my knowledge since mine was black and came with 1.0.6.10 instead of the bugged 1.0.6.3 firmware. The bugged firmware most likely caused a lot of returns which is why they’re able to sell these to consumers.

    Testing out the speeds I was able to crank out about 60mbps on what is supposed to be a 50mbps connection after configuring things (I have a super strong signal coming from my isp, just enough so that it doesn’t cause connections issues.) So far after a few months there have been no dropouts or slow down like with my old Cisco modem. Everything I download maxes out speeds and is finished within seconds if under 1GB.

    The modem is open-sourced, but the configuration page (if you can call it that) leaves something to be desired. On mine I can’t change the modem specific settings, it just gives me what its set to. On my old Cisco I could change quite a bit concerning signals and such. I’m assuming there’s another device to be paired with it that enables the changing of settings. So to be safe I’d reset to factory defaults (the only thing it allows) in-case someone was able to access settings and changed things.

    Overall a great top of the line modem, built to handle everything except Google’s insane fiberwire connection. Right now I’d say it’s king of the hill for those without Google.

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19. Rated 5 out of 5

    Shane – October 24, 2014

    What an amazing modem. There is no reason in the world to rent a modem from your thief of a cable company if they generally support DOCSIS 3.0 standard devices, and this one is so ubiquitous that not to support it should raise eyebrows. Not that they have to “support” it, so to speak, and you probably won’t either after you plug it in and call them up with the MAC address.

    My awful cable company that I have no choice but to use offers me 50/25; from the moment I plugged this modem in, I consistently get more than 60mbps down. I used to get 30 up, but I think several in my building of 300+ people are running seedboxes. That doesn’t really bother me since I know it’s not the hardware’s fault.

    Even with my terrible, awful provider, the link has only dropped twice in a year (probably due to a shoddy contractor unplugging me by accident while installing someone else) and never for more than a few minutes. Usually in the time it takes the modem to reboot, everything is fine again. That’s important for working from home.

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20. Rated 3 out of 5

    Manfred – July 14, 2018

    Still in use. Works. No Issues. Don’t have capability (or money) for higher performance. Arris – Motorola – Good name(s) – Arris, so far, so good. Hopefully they won’t compromise on design quality. They “were” the radio experts. Have installed a lot of Motorola transceivers in my day. They are REALLY good on the RF side.

    Note: This unit has a specific design spec operating limits (bandwidth/speed). Define and verify what you need and qualify your selection BEFORE you buy!

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21. Rated 5 out of 5

    WPS – October 26, 2018

    NO PROBLEM WITH MODEM . NOT IN USE AT THIS TIME AS CABLE COMPANY KEPT CHANGING SPEEDS AND RATES WITHOUT CONTACTING ME FIRST. I DROPPED THAT CABLE COMPANY AND AM NOW USING FIBER WITH PRICE FOR LIFE. IF THEY DO THE SAME THING WILL GO TO SATELLITE.

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22. Rated 1 out of 5

    Barb L. Meberg – November 23, 2018

    Be very careful purchasing this product. Bought and will not connect to our provider. Tech tested said it was bad right out of the box

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23. Rated 5 out of 5

    Master Iurii – December 11, 2018

    Bought for my friend’s parents! They are very happy with stable connection and speed.

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24. Rated 5 out of 5

    Customer – January 10, 2019

    Working great so far with xfinity.

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25. Rated 5 out of 5

    proman – January 13, 2019

    its a motorola surfboard…what more can i say

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26. Rated 5 out of 5

    Snickelfritz – February 2, 2019

    This has worked fine with Xfinity and a Net Gear AC1200 router. NO RENTAL COST from the cable company. I did need customer service help for the router, and they were a big help. I guess you don’t get customer support with the OEM brown box version, but I haven’t needed it.

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27. Rated 5 out of 5

    Robert Walters – April 11, 2019

    I would purchase again

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28. Rated 5 out of 5

    John – May 15, 2019

    Works well for a standard ranch style home with basement. Very few problems for general use and speed is very high whenever I’ve tested it, but I have had to cycle it on and off from time to time if it starts to stutter while streaming movies. Not often, only rarely, and I’m very satisfied even a few years later.

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29. Rated 2 out of 5

    Customer – July 16, 2019

    Difficult to install

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30. Rated 4 out of 5

    Michael Robertson – October 4, 2019

    It works and cheaper than Verizon

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31. Rated 5 out of 5

    arnold w hall – November 5, 2019

    works great with mediacom in southern california fpr internet

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32. Rated 4 out of 5

    Godzilla – November 29, 2019

    I use this and it support up to 300 mpbs with comcast internet blast! Great single and work well with there system! Quality is well and doesnt singal. Not great tech support

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33. Rated 5 out of 5

    Heather L. – December 19, 2019

    I have had this for about 3 months and have not had any issues with it. A good inexpensive modem. We stream two TVs along with 2 tablets and a laptop without any problems.

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34. Rated 5 out of 5

    Ryan S. – December 27, 2019

    Worked right out of the box. Simple setup. No problems in the last 2 months.

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