Cable modem upgrade

network-speed_home_20100321, originally uploaded by rob-the-org.

I joke w/ my wife all of the time that I get better speed at home on my Cable Modem then she gets at her office (where they have two T-1's for Phone and Data).

This was despite the original Motorola Surfboard that I had bought when I first got cable high speed back in Virgina (that supported the DOCSIS 1.1 standard). That modem was no longer supported by my provider - so I finally went ahead and upgraded to the new Surfboard modem that supports DOCSIS 3.0.

The upgrade was a snap. Connected it it up the cable line, powered it up, called Tech Support so they could update the MAC address of the new modem, reboot my wireless router - and I was on-line.

My next step was to perform a speed check to see what I gained. The download speed shown isn't the overall download speed - but the peak speed once the Download Boost kicks in (on larger files). The real gain - was on the upload speed. It went from 1.5 up to the 6.5 shown.

Either way - if your provider offers DOCSIS 3.0 compatible service - go ahead and upgrade to a new Cable modem. It is worth it.