hhahn
join:2011-06-25
Marlton, NJ
1 edit | Customer-provided modems on Business Class When I signed up for service 6 months ago, I was told by all Comcast representatives that I ABSOLUTELY MUST rent a modem. In disbelief, I ran circles around multiple departments every day for about a week, and every person said the same thing. Eventually, I settled for the rental since I was getting nowhere.
With the recent increase in the past month for the rental fee, I called today to dispute it. I was actually shocked when only about a minute into our conversation, the nice woman on the other end informed me that I actually did not have to use the modem I was being forced to use. It turns out that in the past few months, Comcast has begun allowing Business Class customers to bring your own modem! She said that the procedure for provisioning my own modem would require me to call their support and submit a service ticket for them to provision the device. After which, I can drop the SMC trash off at the local service center, and the rental would be removed from the bill within 24 hours.
So it’s awesome that you can now use your own modem. However, she also mentioned that the modem must be “approved” by Comcast. She said that the SB6120 is the ONLY modem that they currently allow customers to provision on Business Class (also, the only one listed here: »mydeviceinfo.comcast.net). This is fairly unfortunate in my opinion, since the SB6120 is a little old, and it has had its share of problems (slow upload in some cases, so I hear). I was hoping I could purchase either the newer SB6121 or even an 8x4 modem such as the Zoom 5341J.
I want to know if anyone has had any success getting any modem other than an SB6120 provisioned on Business Class, and if there’s any you would recommend. The qualities I’m looking for is really “generous” PowerBoost on both the downstream and upstream. I'd also like to know if using a modem that is not on their list for supported modems would cause any problems with my provisioned speeds. Of course, there’s also the concern of reliability…I don’t want to ever have to unplug the modem to reboot it due to degraded performance or a total freeze. 8 channel downstream bonding would also be nice, but it’s not a necessity since the other two factors far supersede bonding.
Again, after hearing good things about the Zoom 5341G, I was looking to get the 5341J, but I haven’t heard enough reviews on it. There’s also the issue of using an “unapproved” modem on Business Class which I need to be concerned with now.
Edit: I should also say that this applies for customers with dynamic IPs only. If you have a static IP, unless you can figure out where to purchase the SMCD3G, you're stuck with renting. |
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 CyberscottHe Who Walks The Winding Road
join:2001-03-31
Douglasville, GA | Thanks for this info, hhahn! I had switched to Business Class from residential last October and had accepted the fact that I had to rent their SMC Modem.
As it turns out, the modem I used for my residential service was the older SB6120. I plan on calling them soon to see if I can have it provisioned and then take the SMC back and save $7 a month. 
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A verbal agreement is not worth the paper it is printed on. |
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 NetFixerFreedom is NOT freePremium
join:2004-06-24
The 'Boro
 ·Vonage
 ·Cingular Wireless
 ·Comcast
 ·AT&T Southeast
| reply to hhahn
That used to be a commonly used option for dynamic IP address acccounts (and if memory serves me correctly, for single static IP acccounts too...but maybe that was before Comcast took over the local Nashville area franchises). I do know that in the past, it was once fairly common for me to hook up a standard cable modem to a WAN port on a customer's router (or to a secondary router) as a backup connection for a traditional telco circuit, but then suddenly only the SMC gateways were being used.
If that policy of allowing a standard bridge modem is now being officially implemented again, that is good (especially for residential customers who have migrated to business class because of the bandwidth cap, and had not previously had to contend with the cascaded NAT that using the SMC gateway forced them into).
I just wish that Comcast would change their static IP assignment method/policy so that I could use a simple bridge modem in front of a real router with a real firewall so that I would not have to waste one of my static IP addresses on the SMC gateway with its extremely limited firewall capabilities.
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History does not long entrust the care of freedom to the weak or the timid.
-- Dwight D. Eisenhower |
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| reply to hhahn
No issues with the 6120 in my neck of the woods.. No issues since I had it since it became available for consumers to purchase. |
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| reply to hhahn
I've been using a SB6120 with my business service since I signed up for it a year ago. I had the same issue initially, but when the tech came to set it up, I asked him about it. He then called his supervisor to verify, who reluctantly let me use my own modem. It definitely seemed to be hit or miss for other people in other areas though.
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KI6RIT |
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| said by n_w95482:I've been using a SB6120 with my business service since I signed up for it a year ago. I had the same issue initially, but when the tech came to set it up, I asked him about it. He then called his supervisor to verify, who reluctantly let me use my own modem. It definitely seemed to be hit or miss for other people in other areas though.
so you don't have equipment fees in your bill then, right? |
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biomeshPremium
join:2006-07-08
Tomball, TX | I just called in to get my pre-business class SB6120 activated and I was given no hassle and was told that the $7 modem charge was removed from my account. |
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| said by biomesh:I just called in to get my pre-business class SB6120 activated and I was given no hassle and was told that the $7 modem charge was removed from my account.
so you had an SMC before and you called in to replace it with an SB6120?
can you detail what steps you took? |
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biomeshPremium
join:2006-07-08
Tomball, TX Reviews:
·Comcast
| Originally I had a 8014 for just a few days when I originally started with Business Class. I had a tech come out and check some line issues and I asked for a non SMC modem and he got me setup with an Arris WBM760A. I have had that modem for a while, but since I saw this thread, I called in to business class tech support and asked about a customer owned device and referred to the comcast device URL. They said sure, and I had my old SB6120 reprovisioned and they said the $7 charge was removed. I just returned the modem at my local service center.
I guess I will wait and see what my bill is like next month. |
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| said by biomesh:Originally I had a 8014 for just a few days when I originally started with Business Class.
I guess I will wait and see what my bill is like next month.
how long have you had Biz class?
My first year of a 2 year contract will be in April and I was wondering if I could do this too....only thing is, my initial investment for the modem and a good router will be substantial and I know will be recovered in at least a year and a half vs. paying monthly equip. fees... |
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biomeshPremium
join:2006-07-08
Tomball, TX | Since Aug 2010. This was for a three year contract. |
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keasonPremium
join:2002-05-02
Ann Arbor, MI | reply to hhahn
Re: Fairly easy to switch - took 10 min with comcast support I called business support and was able to switch from the SMC Gateway to a Motorola SB6120 for 22/5 dynamic service.
The tech had to switch modems in an alternate system.
According to the Comcast web site, only the SB6120 is supported. |
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| I need to start shopping for an SB6120 and a router then..... |
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NetFixerFreedom is NOT freePremium
join:2004-06-24
The 'Boro Reviews:
·Vonage
·Cingular Wireless
·Comcast
·AT&T Southeast
| said by asjamias:I need to start shopping for an SB6120 and a router then.....
Make sure that the router you chose supports native dual stack IPv4 and IPv6, because while Comcast will be forced to either upgrade (or replace) their SMC gateways on IPv6 crunch day, you are on your own if you use your own router.
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History does not long entrust the care of freedom to the weak or the timid.
-- Dwight D. Eisenhower |
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| How can you tell if the router will do ipv4 and or ipv6?
Also, when do you think the ipv6 crunch day be? |
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NetFixerFreedom is NOT freePremium
join:2004-06-24
The 'Boro Reviews:
·Vonage
·Cingular Wireless
·Comcast
·AT&T Southeast
| said by asjamias:How can you tell if the router will do ipv4 and or ipv6?
Check the forums on this site for comments, and check the vendor's documentation? If the vendor does not mention IPv6 (or just makes vague claims like "IPv6 ready"), chances are that the product will not really support full native mode IPv6 (checking an on-line emulator or downloading the user manual may also reveal the difference between "IPv6 ready" claims, and real IPv6 capability).
Here is a list of Netgear resi/soho routers that currently support IPv6: [IPv6 Compatibility on NETGEAR Routers], but they are somewhat ambivalent about IPv6 support on their business class routers with multiple WANS and VPN support.
One would think that with IPv6 being used already in China, and most network gear being manufactured in China, that IPv6 support would be more wide spread, but...
said by asjamias:Also, when do you think the ipv6 crunch day be?
I have no idea, but I expect it may just suddenly happen overnight with no real advance notice from Comcast. Comcast could easily push an IPv6 firmware (and the appropriate config changes for static IP accounts) to the SMC gateways on Sunday, and activate native IPv6 on Monday. That is why I have taken my IPv4 only Cisco RV082 out of service in preparation for that day. Cisco expects me to buy another expensive router from them rather than them upgrading the firmware in my current router, but I have news for Cisco...It ain't going to happen.
My Linux and Windows servers already have separate WAN and LAN interfaces, so I will probably eventually just setup routing software in one of them for the rest of my LAN after the IPv6 turn-on day.
Right now, I am just using the Comcast supplied Netgear WNR1000 wireless router for my non-server devices. And since Netgear's own firmware for the non-Comcast version of that same router already fully supports IPv6, I may also just recompile the GPL code that Netgear published (to make it compatible with the Comcast specific router), and continue to use that as my LAN gateway device (if Comcast does not supply their own IPv6 firmware for it when the time comes).
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History does not long entrust the care of freedom to the weak or the timid.
-- Dwight D. Eisenhower |
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| reply to asjamias
Re: Customer-provided modems on Business Class said by asjamias:so you don't have equipment fees in your bill then, right? That would be correct. Here's a snippet from a PDF copy of my latest bill.
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KI6RIT |
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| said by n_w95482:said by asjamias:so you don't have equipment fees in your bill then, right? That would be correct. Here's a snippet from a PDF copy of my latest bill. Do they have the 22Mbps tier for $99 where you are? That seems like a lot better deal than 16 for $89. If you don't need the speed 12Mbps for $59 also sounds better. |
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| reply to hhahn
When I signed up for Comcast Business they gave me the SMC modem free of charge, no rentals.
I just upgraded to their 22/5 service, and asked if I would be getting a new doscis 3 modem, and they thought I already had one. They sent out a tech next day with a new smc and installed it, once again no charge or rental.
All the other Comcast business customers I have talked to in my area, have never need to buy or rent their modem from Comcast, they have always given it to them. |
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| said by feffrey:When I signed up for Comcast Business they gave me the SMC modem free of charge, no rentals.
I just upgraded to their 22/5 service, and asked if I would be getting a new doscis 3 modem, and they thought I already had one. They sent out a tech next day with a new smc and installed it, once again no charge or rental.
All the other Comcast business customers I have talked to in my area, have never need to buy or rent their modem from Comcast, they have always given it to them.
and where is your area? |
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