ISP automatic forums » Metrocast Communications → Which modem to buy

So I have a bunch of Christmas cash and plan to use it to upgrade my home network to take best advantage of the impending speed increase to 25/2.

Right now I have the cable coming in to the house and in to a two way splitter one goes to a second three way that then goes to my two HD PVRs the other is a home run to my eMTA Docsis 2 phone/Internet modem. The signal is not strong enough to split it again and install a Docsis 3 modem.

So my plan is to buy a modem and place it in the basement and connect it to one leg of the first splitter and move the eMTA to the third leg of the second splitter.

For the MC techs here am I right if I am only running my phones off the eMTA the lower quality signal due to it now being on the second splitter will not be a problem?

Next I am buying a router that has 10/100/1000 ports on both the Wan and Lan and will be placed in the basement near the new modem. Then cat5 will run to my main wireless router upstairs. So at that point I will be Gigabyte everywhere.

BTW the reason for the router in the basement is as of right now I have an old 10 only router down there feeding my Roku and I sometimes work on virus infected computers down there and that keeps them off the main network.

So do I save 5 bucks and buy the Motorola SB6120 or do I go with the Motorola SB6121 because it is well one better?

I'd be curious if anyone did any tests of the SB6120 vs. SB6121 specifically on the Metrocast network. It appears there is no performance difference on other networks. The SB6121 does ship with a newer firmware.

Skip CAT5 and buy a spool of CAT6 cable just for future-proof sake. For a $100 you can get 1000' of CAT6 that should allow you to run cable from the attic to the basement a few times.

I would look for a modem with more than 4 channels down. You are future proofing yourself that way.

The SBG6580 does 8down, 4up, with a built in gig switch and 802.11n. If you want a seperate router, you can bridge it and send it to your own router.

My $0.02

I bought a 6120 because that was all that Target had. Like you, I have an eMTA and according to MC, they will not have an eMTA that supports DOCSIS 3.0, so it was either rent two modems or buy one, so I bought one.

I find that speeds are more solid. Right now I'm pretty much always getting 15/16 down on a rated 17 down line.

Well the Cat5 was run years ago so I don't think I would change it.

I am one not to want to combine router and modem but it would save me 20 bucks now and as you say future proof. I will take a closer look.

Me neither, that's why I would shut the firewall off (which I know you can do with the 6580) and just plug it into your own router. The problem is, I can't see a consumer modem with 8 downstreams that doesn't have a built in firewall, unless you can find the Cisco DPC3010 or Motorola SB6141 or SB6180 online.

With the combo modem router on Amazon the reviews say the first thing you have to do is go in and turn off IP Flood Detection as it will kill your connection the longer it is on. Not a good sign that they left a default on that kills your bandwith.

Also the stand alone router I am looking at supports DD-WRT

I will have to ponder this for a bit.

ahh, yes, good ole dd-wrt. I have had many an experience with that =D

What router is it? I am just curious more than anything.

TP-LINK TL-WR1043ND Ultimate Wireless N Gigabit Router 58 bucks at amazon

I use a SB6120 with a D-link 825 N GB router. I prefer my devices to be separate. Runs DD-wrt as well.

i am using SB6120 as well, but using Linksys with tomato