Review: Motorola MB8600 Cable Modem

Good day all, this is the Angry Systems Administrator. For the last few months, I’ve been slowly updating our infrastructure. Yesterday, I put in place a new cable modem, the Motorola MB8600.

This modem replaces our old Netgear CM500 cable modem, which I installed several years ago. The old modem was beginning to act up, and we were seeing more and more connection drops. When I bought this modem a few years ago, we were seeing the same thing happening, and at that time I assumed, (Wrongly as it turned out), that it was that cable modem that was having a problem. (Turned out that there was a hole in the line coming from the street into the Anger Central Data Center)

The Netgear worked fine, however it has always run a bit hot. This concerned me, especially on those long hot summer days when that tight with a penny Webmaster would shut off the air conditioning. I suspect that the heat issue may have finally started frying the circuity inside the modem, and that was when I started researching a replacement.

This led me to the Motorola MB8600. It is a more capable modem, able to handle greater download speeds then the original Netgear mode. (Although that modem was hardly being taxed even with the speed upgrade from Comcast a month or so ago) It’s also running very cool. The case isn’t transferring any heat and the vents at the top of the modem are barely showing any hike in the ambient airflow. The old Netgear was so hot you could fry an egg on it. (Ok, a big exaggeration, but it was hot to the touch, both the casing and the vents on top)

I’ve also been reviewing the log files in both modems, and in a 24 hour period you can see major differences. The old Netgear was showing constant drop and reconnect messages. The new Motorola is showing only the initial connection when I contacted Comcast to have it provisioned.

This brings me to another issue. Comcast support is making itself more and more difficult to contact. It used to be you would call the support number and get in line. (and usually sit there for 40 minutes) Now you log into the Comcast support page and fill out a form to have them call you back.

The problem with this is that in order to prepare for the provisioning of the new modem, I had to disconnect the old one and connect the new one. When that happened, our connection to Comcast dropped. (No surprise, their system rejects strange devices as a matter of security) I had to use my phone to get to the Comcast support page and fill in the call back form. That page is not set up for mobile devices.

I will say that the call back occurred within 2 minutes of hitting the submit button and I only spent 2 minutes on hold. The tech on the other end is local to us which made things even easier. (While he was doing his thing, we were chatting about snowblowers and wondering where that global warming we ordered from Alexandria Occasional-Cortex was)

The entire provisioning phase took only about 10 minutes, the only hiccup being that I had forgotten to turn the router back on once the modem was connected to Comcast. (That took a few minutes to connect and synchronize) I am seeing better performance, and doing some speed tests show we are meeting or exceeding the download/upload rates from Comcast. (Those tests should always be taken with a grain of salt.

So far, I’m happy with what I’ve purchased. Granted it’s a bit on the pricey side, but sometimes it pays not to go cheap. (Something that blithering idiot should learn. How many times have we been bitten because he was to cheap to spend a few extra dollars?) I recommend this modem and hope you will purchase it.