 "Worked great...for a while and then cost me more" | 2009-10-23 |
| - Reviewed By User: A1PCFZNXC36EOR |
| Picked up the SBG900 in January and it worked great until a couple of weeks ago when it would not hook up with the internet. Tried the old reboot that they seem to need every once in a while and that fixed it. Cool. Except that it happens 3-4 times a day now. I then jumped through the hoops with the Motorola techs and it was determined after a week that I was due a replacement. (don't use the e-mail approach, call them) But I have to pay shipping to get it and again pay shipping to return the defective one. So much for the great warranty. Amazon stands behind anything I have bought here, no fees for replacement of defective products. Go figure. No more Motorola in my future, too many other companies out there who would want my money. |
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 "Decent as a modem; wireless drops connections frequently" | 2009-10-19 |
| - Reviewed By User: A315RCPZW4DZ3R |
I bought this product a few months ago as a 100% mail-in-rebate deal from Comcast for signing on. As a modem, it works fine; my roommate has it hooked up to his desktop and it provides relatively standard speeds through the LAN. Setting it up was a cinch and generally foolproof. Also, the wireless controls are relatively intuitive and the control GUI has an extensive "Help" section to help you figure out exactly what you're doing. Range is relatively mediocre (apartment neighbor gets about two bars through two walls and a closet) and the firewall management could be more automated but is relatively easy to figure out.
The main problem with this modem/router combo, then, is the router itself. If I watch anything that needs the bandwidth equivalent to HQ (not HD) YouTube videos for more than 30 minutes, the router portion chokes and dies, requiring a reset. It also has trouble streaming flash videos and generally gives me a performance, in terms of loading speed, lower than my previous basic DSL (1MB down, 768KB up), which is somewhat inconvenient given that we are currently on Comcast's much faster basic cable package of 16MB down, 1MB up. Also, torrenting (legal, Creative Commons music, of course) at above 200kbps down, 80kbps up is out of the question, unless you want the pathetic thing dying on you after ten minutes. It's forced my roommate and I to go out and buy a separate router, which may or may not resolve this issue.
tl;dr - basically, if you need to use the wireless portion for anything more than very mild bandwidth, look elsewhere. If it's just you and it's wired to it through LAN and you're only really using it as a modem, you should be fine.
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 "Good but not what I expected" | 2009-10-04 |
| - Reviewed By User: AQW7368FFM6SK |
The modem is good... but with only one LAN outlet you will need
to buy a router so that you can add additional LAN based products
such as the wireless printer and skype phone. Is that
that difficult to have 3 LAN outputs? |
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 "Really Catch a Wave!" | 2009-10-04 |
| - Reviewed By User: A374ZG3PMQU3FG |
| 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. |
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| "Fine modem, poor wireless..." | 2009-10-03 |
| - Reviewed By User: A3VJUONAET2MKC |
| It works fine as a modem, but the built in WLAN is too slow. If I knew I it would be faster to port through my old Linksys WRT54G I could have saved myself half the price and just bought the modem only version. |
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| "Easy setup" | 2009-09-20 |
| - Reviewed By User: A1ZBJMQ19X8PZ7 |
| The installation and setup of this unit was so easy and fast though it took 2-phone calls to my service provider. After the second call it was up and running and the speed improvement WOW! The only snag was that Motorola does not supply drivers or any other help for MAC but MAC users don't let that stop you from purchasing this modem. It needs no drivers to manage the modem it can all be done from your internet browser. As with any WiFi device remember to secure your modem! |
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Expedited Available
