What's new

What is the best cable modem?

  • SNBForums Code of Conduct

    SNBForums is a community for everyone, no matter what their level of experience.

    Please be tolerant and patient of others, especially newcomers. We are all here to share and learn!

    The rules are simple: Be patient, be nice, be helpful or be gone!

Manny

Occasional Visitor
Hi all,


What is the best cable modem?


I was looking to upgrade my cable modem from Surfboard extreme SB6120, I am looking at the
ARRIS SURFboard SB6183 DOCSIS 3.0 Cable Modem

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00MA5U1FW/?tag=snbforums-20

What do you think? It has 16 download channels and 4 upload channels.

Edit: Just found ARRIS SURFboard SB6190 DOCSIS 3.0 Cable Modem.
It has 32 download channels and 8 upload channels

http://www.amazon.com/ARRIS-SURFboard-SB6190-DOCSIS-Cable/dp/B016PE1X5K/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1455168465&sr=1-1&keywords=sb6190

All suggestion are welcome.

Thank You,
 
Last edited:
I own the 6183 excellent modem. The 6190 also gets good reviews but it's unlikely you will have 32 downstream channels any time soon, on comcasts network most have 16 there are a few areas that have been upgraded to 24 but I have seen nothing higher yet.
 
The Motorola/Arris DOCSIS 3.0 modems all seem pretty decent...

I've got a SB6141 retail (white housing) and it's been solid for 2+ years now... I've heard good things on the 6183 model.
 
Then this modem will be future proof for at least one to two years at least.
ARRIS SURFboard SB6190 DOCSIS 3.0 Cable Modem. Will be a good upgrade…


Thank You,
 
In my case, the best modem for me depends on the internet plan my isp provides. Since Comcast has no competition where I live, our internet plans even with TV are rather expensive. The 16x4 modems are very fast but the newer 3.1 DOCSIS are coming soon, so if you want to future proof you might want to wait a bit.
 
Manny:

I enter the conversation late, but if you haven't yet made a purchase, it's important to check which cable modems your cable co. will support. Most cable co's have lists of those modems they will support, and while that may seem trivial, in order to properly provision whatever modem you purchase, your cable co has to have the proper firmware to download to the modem. So check your cable company's list of supported modems, and make sure they support whatever you're considering.

I know that both TWC and Comcast support the SB6183, and since I'm on TWC, getting their 300/20 tier of service, I purchased my own SB6183 early in 2015 (right about the time TWC increased speeds to what they call "Maxx"). The 6183 has functioned flawlessly.

Be forewarned that if you are on TWC, the SB6193 (which is a 32 x 8 modem) at this time is NOT supported by TWC, and from what I know, in order to support it, they're going to have to get rid of close to 100 duplicate digital or unused tv channels to create the additional 256 QAM download streams needed to provide full capability for this "gigabit" modem, and that isn't going to happen, at least not on TWC for quite a while, possibly not until after the Charter merger/takeover comes to fruition (assuming it will). According to several people who have reported on the TWC Forums about their experiences with the SB6193, TWC doesn't have the proper firmware package to properly provision the modem, and at this time, you'll be limited to a max download of 100 Mbps, far from it's potential capacity, and worse than the performance you'll get from the SB6183. So if you're on TWC, at this time there's no point in buying the 6193, and you should go with the 6183 instead.

I believe that TWC also supports the Netgear CM600, which is a 24 x 8 Docsis 3.0 modem, which is capable of speeds close to, but not quite gigabit speed, but even so, all you'd be getting with the CM600 (which costs about $40 more than the SB6183) is something that might eventually be useful for speeds greater than the 300Mbps download which TWC currently offers. If you're trying to "future-proof", you probably won't see that future (in terms of higher download speeds) for quite a long time from TWC. A 24-channel modem could deliver 912Mbps downstream, and 32 channels could boost that to 1.2Gbps. But again, sadly, neither TWC nor Comcast are offering speeds anywhere near that because both are bonding only 16 channels down.

Also, keep in mind that the 6183 is capable with the 16 bonded channels presently provided, of reaching speeds of around 686Mbps down which is literally twice the max speed now offered on TWC, but again, TWC isn't going to offer anything faster in the near future. Even if they doubled their download offerings, the SB6183 is going to be perfectly adequate for the foreseeable future.

For the money, the SB6183 is a no-brainer if your cable co supports it. I highly recommend it as a first-rate, top-quality product.
 
Last edited:
Hi all,


What is the best cable modem?


I was looking to upgrade my cable modem from Surfboard extreme SB6120, I am looking at the
ARRIS SURFboard SB6183 DOCSIS 3.0 Cable Modem

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00MA5U1FW/?tag=snbforums-20

What do you think? It has 16 download channels and 4 upload channels.

Edit: Just found ARRIS SURFboard SB6190 DOCSIS 3.0 Cable Modem.
It has 32 download channels and 8 upload channels

http://www.amazon.com/ARRIS-SURFboard-SB6190-DOCSIS-Cable/dp/B016PE1X5K/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1455168465&sr=1-1&keywords=sb6190

All suggestion are welcome.

Thank You,

SURFboard183 is a good choice for a cable modem, with some caveats.
Here's the reason why.
It gets weirdly too hot.
It only has 1 ethernet port.

That being said, if you're comfortable with both of these barriers, it's a good cable modem to buy
 
I am in an old TWC Max area which is now Spectrum with a 300/20 connection. My Ubee modem developed a problem recently. I bought an Arris SB8200 modem. It is not fully supported yet but it works very well. Amazon had some returns for $160 which I bought one.

You probably do not want to buy any puma Intel chipset modems as there is a problem with the chipset which Intel has acknowledged.

I just realized this is an old thread. The SB8200 was not available one year ago. It is real new.
 
Last edited:
I believe that TWC also supports the Netgear CM600, which is a 24 x 8 Docsis 3.0 modem,
Look for sales....I picked up the CM600 for only $10 more than a 6183 from Amazon when I was looking.

Also, stay away from the 6190....Puma chipset which has been having problems.
 
Really, John, replying to a post from March of 2016? Ok. Yes, both the CM600 and the SB6183 are really inexpensive now (I've seen ads for the 6183 for as low as $79 at BestBuy). And just to bring this topic up to date, I hope everyone knows TWC is no more, and both Brighthouse and TWCi merged last year with Charter and are all now branded as "Spectrum". The services offered have not changed much (a few tiers of service formerly offered by TWC are no longer available) but the upper tier service is still stuck at 300/20, and from what I've heard from company employees, the prospects of consumers getting 1Gig speeds have been greatly diminished with the debt load taken on by Charter with the merger, and with consumers fleeing to other providers in the face of rising subscription fees.

BTW, I'm still using my 6183 and it is solid.

AlbertRalph95, I agree with Kal-El's observation (or his question): Why is only 1 Ethernet port an issue (or something to consider as a caveat/warning to buyers?). You can only connect the modem to a single router, so I just don't get why you see this as an issue. In case you're not aware, the SB 6183 is only a modem; it is not a combo modem/router, so it only needs a single Ethernet port to connect it to the WAN port on a router.

Also, not sure what you mean "weirdly hot". Mine never gets hot at all, weirdly or otherwise. :)
 
Really, John, replying to a post from March of 2016?
OK....so sue me :) I was reading an active thread and didn't notice the date of the first post that was flagged as 'unread' for me.

One other thing...Arris/Motorola ticked me off by removing the reboot/reset commands from the gui instead of properly password protecting them. Netgear still has them available after login.
 
Last edited:
It happens some times...

Anyways - The Arris/Moto 6183/6141 models are solid - I replaced a 6141 after a power hit with a 6183, and have been very happy with it.

At @jegesq - Best Buy runs sales on the 6183 periodically, and Costco carries it for the same price last time I looked if BestBuy isn't local.
 
OK....so sue me :) I was reading an active thread and didn't notice the date of the first post that was flagged as 'unread' for me.

One other thing...Arris/Motorola ticked me off by removing the reboot/reset commands from the gui instead of properly password protecting them. Netgear still has them available after login.

Yes, the removal of the reboot button in the GUI also made me mad as well, but then I learned the reason it was removed had to do with the way the modem would be accessible to potential threats if the ISP enabled IPv6; apparently, with IPv6 implemented, the firmware was accessible to being rebooted (and injected with malware) from malicious sources. This was the reason that TWC (prior to the merger) actually disabled IPv6 on the SB6183 for a period of over a year, while they tested and worked with Arris to see if Arris' firmware update solved the issue. TWC was really bad about working on the update, and as I said, it took them over a year to get it done, whereas other ISP's got it implemented properly in about 2 or 3 months from the time Arris issued the firmware update.

The bottom line though is that I've never really had to reboot the modem from the firmware, and any reboot can be accomplished simply by unplugging it from the power source and then plugging it back in.

The bigger annoyance was the fact that for over a year, there was no IPv6 working with TWC for the SB6183 at all.

The reset button, in and of itself is a minor annoyance for some, but doesn't even rise to that level in my experience.

@sfx2000-- Yep. We're both in Southern California, if I recall, and the price for the SB6183 fell pretty dramatically earlier this year when TWC...er, Spectrum, decided to officially support the SB 6193. I wouldn't encourage anyone to get the 6141 now. A great modem in its day, but only 8 bonded channels down, so not recommended for any service tier over 100Mbps (it will actually do about 130 down, if I recall, but no one is offering that speed, and Spectrum now only offers 100 and 300 down for their fastest tiers (no more 200).
 
Last edited:
Yes, the removal of the reboot button in the GUI also made me mad as well, but then I learned the reason it was removed had to do with the way the modem would be accessible to potential threats if the ISP enabled IPv6; apparently, with IPv6 implemented, the firmware was accessible to being rebooted (and injected with malware) from malicious sources.

there was another reason - the WebGUI had a cross site scripting vuln that would send the the command - and that didn't need ipv6 :D

brief writeup here --- https://www.securityforrealpeople.com/2016/04/arris-motorola-surfboard-modem.html
 
Just a FYI. You can still find the factory reset buttons in the 6183 and other affected modems by simply unhooking the coax from the modem then reboot it. As long as the modem dont sync to the provider the reset buttons are visible and usable. Just in case for what ever reason you may need a hard reset.
 
Yep. We're both in Southern California, if I recall, and the price for the SB6183 fell pretty dramatically earlier this year when TWC...er, Spectrum, decided to officially support the SB 6193. I wouldn't encourage anyone to get the 6141 now. A great modem in its day, but only 8 bonded channels down, so not recommended for any service tier over 100Mbps (it will actually do about 130 down, if I recall, but no one is offering that speed, and Spectrum now only offers 100 and 300 down for their fastest tiers (no more 200).

CoxHSI down here in San Diego... and yah, the SB6183 prices did come down pretty fast.

15/2 - Essential
50/5 - Preferred
150/10 - Premier <-- this is the one I'm on - it's the Goldilocks plan, just right for home office workers...

They just rolled out a 300/30 (Ultimate) plan for their DOCSIS 3.0 areas - Cox does support the SB6141 across all these plans, but for Premier/Ultimate, they suggest for customer owned gear to go with the 6183 or similar...

For rental - they've been pushing hard on the Netgear CM600's for CM only - and some actiontec/netgear stuff for all in ones... they used to push a lot of Arris/Moto stuff, but that's dropped off lately.

Looking at the 6141 specs, it can do up to 343Mbps - but I think this might also be dependent on the MSO's CMTS headend equipment - and that rate would assume a ideal line...

They are doing their Gigablast 1G/1G, but very limited availability there - mostly for captive complexes (MDU's) where they can run fiber in....

I'd agree though - if shopping for a new modem, the 6183 in our market is a good choice...

Just stay a long way away from the problematic SB6190 (Puma6) - have heard of serious tales of woe on that device across multiple cable operators, not just Cox.
 
CoxHSI down here in San Diego... and yah, the SB6183 prices did come down pretty fast.

15/2 - Essential
50/5 - Preferred
150/10 - Premier <-- this is the one I'm on - it's the Goldilocks plan, just right for home office workers...

They just rolled out a 300/30 (Ultimate) plan for their DOCSIS 3.0 areas - Cox does support the SB6141 across all these plans, but for Premier/Ultimate, they suggest for customer owned gear to go with the 6183 or similar...

For rental - they've been pushing hard on the Netgear CM600's for CM only - and some actiontec/netgear stuff for all in ones... they used to push a lot of Arris/Moto stuff, but that's dropped off lately.

Looking at the 6141 specs, it can do up to 343Mbps - but I think this might also be dependent on the MSO's CMTS headend equipment - and that rate would assume a ideal line...

They are doing their Gigablast 1G/1G, but very limited availability there - mostly for captive complexes (MDU's) where they can run fiber in....

I'd agree though - if shopping for a new modem, the 6183 in our market is a good choice...

Just stay a long way away from the problematic SB6190 (Puma6) - have heard of serious tales of woe on that device across multiple cable operators, not just Cox.

My SB6190 has worked perfectly from day one and I've had it for quite some time. I have Comcast as my provider


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

Similar threads

Support SNBForums w/ Amazon

If you'd like to support SNBForums, just use this link and buy anything on Amazon. Thanks!

Sign Up For SNBForums Daily Digest

Get an update of what's new every day delivered to your mailbox. Sign up here!
Top