| Time Warner Cable Extreme - Own modem? I want to upgrade to TWC Extreme package 50 down / 5 up, but I was told by the sales rep that I HAVE to use their equipment to get these speeds, or else I'm only going to see turbo speeds of 20 down / 2 up, which doesn't seem right because my modem is perfectly capable of those speeds. Any insight? I own a Motorola SB6121 modem. |
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| The rep is flat wrong, as long as your have a DOCSIS 3.0 modem you will be just fine. |
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| Thanks, that's what I figured. Now as far as connection/stability, would my SB6121 be a better choice than the Ubee DDW3611 that Time Warner provides? |
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| The 6121 supports 4 channels while the 3611 supports 8. It really depends on where u live right now we have 4 channels in Rochester NY. If your area has more than 4 then the won't be able to get them. The more channels you have the more bandwidth available. |
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| Time Warner will tell you their Extreme or Ultimate services require a modem upgrade. They will tell you that you have *free* wireless routing. They won't tell you that you have to call and get tech support to activate it. They won't tell you that you have to ask for the wireless password from them. They won't tell you that you can't forward ports. They won't tell you how hard it is to get your wireless routing turned *OFF* and to get your modem put back into bridge mode (by only Time Warner). They may even forget they have to update their server databases with your new modem MAC address to get your digital phone working *and* they may forget to send signals to your modem to flash its eprom chips to allow you to get those speeds you are paying for. Forget about customer service with the Phillipines. They are hard to understand and they act like you asked them for the square root of an imaginary number if you ask them what their records show for your current MAC address. If you ask them why your wireless devices now have a slower intranet speed (as in file transfers from one wireless device to another), they won't understand your issue. They will tout their down/up speeds and they won't be able to wrap their minds around wireless adapter speeds being 50% lower using their wireless routing. They won't understand a lot. If you call back and try to cancel your service, you will be on hold for a while but when you connect, Time Warner will try to keep you. The retention folks know how to reset your modem for the proper speed and to get you to Level 3 support-where you must go to get your new MAC address into their servers so your phone works, your wireless routing turned off, and your modem correctly placed into bridge mode. Don't ever let the Phillipines support folks tell you that you have to call UBEE for the log in and password for your modem (Time Warner has this info and will never let you access their modem). Be sure your ethernet port 1 works on the back of your bridged modem so you can connect anything, including your own router, to it to get internet. The Phillipenes support folks will tell you the modem is working fine based on their testing; when you ask them to check the bridge settings, they will not understand you. Be prepared to spend two days on the phone with lots of people. If you just want their modem, maybe you will spend just one day on the phone getting the speed you are paying for. |
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| reply to decko47
I have 50mb connection with my own cablemodem. I bought it after having issues with my VPN router and their built in cablemodem/router. I realize now I just needed to put my personal VPN router on a different IP range and it would have worked, but yes, you can get full 50mb speeds with your own router, if it's new enough. (btw I don't have a regular VPN connection, I never got it running, and I'm not sure if they'd have any issue if they saw it)
I have the Motorola SB 6121 and the one they give me is a Motorola SBG6580 I never ran the SBG at 50, but it was what they gave me at 30, which they have since upgraded (same price) to 50. They lock that router down though, and don't give you config controls for it.
The connection is good for me overall, but Youtube performance still lacks in Kansas City and is very frustrating. Torrents, Netflix all run well. |
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| I also live in KC and have no problem accessing my 6850's features. You can also get the master password from the forums now for that one. But yes, youtube is craptasiclly slow along with anything that goes over http, such as file downloads. Strange thing is speed tests work fine. I have actually been monitoring and logging my speeds here along 152 and 35 and it appears it's a congestion issue, as they tank everyday around noon and come back to full speed around 1AM. I logged an issue in the direct forums since calling tech support is worthless. |
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