Motorola SURFboard SBG900 DOCSIS 2.0 Wireless Cable Modem Gateway (Black)
by Motorola
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Our Price: $145.72 Availability: Usually ships in 2-3 business days Buy Used: from $58.54 (click here) Category: CE See more product details |
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Motorola SURFboard SBG900 DOCSIS 2.0 Wireless Cable Modem Gateway (Black)
Customer Review: Reliable and Secure
Summary: 5 Stars
Motorola SURFboard® Wireless Cable Modem Gateway (SBG900)
I've had the SURFboard since Sept 2005, replacing a brand new but dying D-LINK modem and separate but unreliable wireless router, and have not had ANY significant networking issues. The intentional combination of modem and router was unique and novel to me at the time of purchase. It simplified installation of the SURFboard to my the ISP and overall design of my home wireless network. Also, I only have to keep track of and troubleshoot one piece of equipment rather than two when network issues arise. And luckily, the SURFboard is so well designed that even troubleshooting the SURFboard requires little knowledge of networking. The online home menu is easily accessible and so intuitive, it is easy for a novice like me to figure out how to, for example, put up a network firewall or encrypt a wireless connection to a remote laptop. If you setup the firewall feature, the SURFboard also allows you to monitor and log outside intruders, which is essential for those households setting up home wireless networks in densely populated suburban neighborhoods. (You do not want adjacent neighbors accessing your wireless network for free, do you?). So far, no equipment failures, meltdowns, or blowups with the SURFboard. Hence, I give this product a full five stars with confidence.
Customer Review: not compatible with xbox live gold
Summary: 4 Stars
got it yesterday from amazon.
it didn't work right out of the box, but a couple calls to comcast tech support at got me going.
i set it up via wired connection to my vista laptop; then i unplugged the wire and tested the whole house: vista laptop, iMac, hp network printer, and iPhone are all connecting wirelessly. no problems except for xbox live.
to the best of my knowledge, it is not compatible with xbox live gold because you can't configure the NAT for uPNP.
out of the box you won't even get to xbox live silver until you type 192.168.100.1 into your browser and then under gateway/lan/DHCP config: change iMTU to 1500 (the default from Motorola is zero).
this is good enough for me so that i can download demos and game updates, but if you want xbox live gold then i think it requires a wired router to plug in between the SBG900 and the Xbox360? (i haven't comfirmed it but portforward.com says you need a static IP and the router would give you that without screwing up the rest of the home network:
http://www.portforward.com/english/routers/port_forwarding/Motorola/SBG900/Xbox_Live_360.htm
so overall it's a stable and fast cable modem!! but i am taking a star away because of the extreme geek headache it gave me while i spent a couple days trying to get my xbox to connect =(
Customer Review: Worked, then hit a wall
Summary: 1 Stars
I read the reviews here and don't agree with most of them. I'm a very technical, IT sort of person who just wants stuff to work. I don't update the firmware or do anything crazy, just work and this device doesn't seem to do that. It started when the device kept dropping wireless connections like my xbox360 and tivo and my laptop that I use to vpn into work. I called Motorola, they had me run some diagnostics and agreed to take the modem back. I was sent a new device. It worked flawlessly for a couple of months (like the last one) and now it's not dropping wireless connections but seems to just stop working. All lights are lit solid and I have to reboot it to get it to working order, at times, I can't even get into the web interface and have to unplug it. My ISP is Comcast and I live in MA. I'll be looking for a new device this weekend to at least handle the routing and try to keep this device just for the modem.
UPDATE 1/31/2009: I purchased an Apple Airport Extreme and turned everything on the SBG900 off to pretty much turn it into a modem only, hooked everything back up and now I have zero issues, more than twice the bandwidth and signal strength. Devices that listed 54 mbps and 2-3 bars are now 130 mbps and 4 solid bars. This clearly tells me that this product works flawlessly as a modem, but has serious issues as both.
Customer Review: Not compatible with Xbox Live!
Summary: 1 Stars
I bought this gateway for my home network, and for a direct connection to my Xbox 360 for Xbox Live. The network works great, Xbox Live only works with moderate success. The Live troubleshooter tells me I have moderate NAT, which means I have trouble connecting to some games and voice chat, as opposed to open NAT, the best setting. Xbox Live asks me to enable UPnP, which this device doesn't have. I have this problem even with the firewall off. After calling Xbox Live customer support, the best they can tell me is to buy a different unit, compatible with Xbox Live. I tried setting up port forwarding, but I cant seem to get a static IP for my Xbox to use with Comcast. My email question to Motorola has gone unanswered.
If I connect the Motorola to another router, and then to my Xbox, Live tells me that I now have open NAT, but I still have problems connecting to games. Therefore, I wonder if my configuration just fooled Live, without actually fixing anything. Even if the fix worked, what is the point of this router if you still need another one?
I don't know much about networking, so perhaps I have set up my network incorrectly. Nevertheless, why should it take a guru to set up such a common task?
If you just want home home networking - 5 stars. If you want online gaming with Xbox - 1 star.
Customer Review: Really Catch a Wave!
Summary: 5 Stars
I had never set up a wireless network and was worried about it being difficult. But my wife was tired of dial-up, and since we were going to high-speed and are total laptop users, I thought it was time to give it a try. The cable guy who came to install the high-speed connection said he had never seen a product connect so easily. And now after having my Surfboard for awhile, I feel like a regular pro at the wireless thing. At this moment, my wife is surfing the Internet on her laptop in one room, and I have mine writing this review in another. We now have a wireless printer that works flawlessly on our network, as well as does my smart phone in wi-fi mode. At any one time there may be up to 7 active connections to our surfboard, if our three boys are connected with their PSPs. I did have a little problem getting the security settings right with so many different devices, but now everything works without any issues whatsoever. If there is ever a time when we cannot connect (which hardly ever happens), all we have to do is unplug the Surfboard, and when it is plugged back in, everything is back to working perfectly. I am a very 'ticky' reviewer, and I don't generally give all five stars, but I do not hesitate at all giving these marks to this excellent product. I would recommend it to anyone.