Cisco-Linksys BEFCMU10 Ethernet Cable Modem

First I need to thank all of you guys who gave the Linksys cable modem 4 and 5 stars. If it had not been for your reviews I would have sent this great modem back to Amazon.I spent 6 hours trying to get this modem working, getting help from 4 different techs at AT&T. They told me that this modem was bad and that the cable light needed to stay on and that the Linksys modem would not register with their system. They told me I needed to send it back and get another one. {ALL FALSE} So finally I told them to connect my (their) old modem back up. Their modem worked fine.As I was getting ready to pack my new Linksys modem up to send it back to Amazon. I decided to try it one more time. Following the exact sequence they used to connect their modem. And would you believe it? It works!!!My problems:1. bad tech support.2. must remove router to register modem.3. given wrong registration address. (MOST IMPORTANT)4. computer must be turned off before you turn on modem.Fool proof procedure to be up and running in 10 minutes:1. Turn computer off.2. If you have a router, take it out of the loop. connect directly from your computer to the modem thru the ethernet port.3. Connect the cable.4. turn on power to the Linksys modem, allow it to boot up.5. turn on your computer6. go to the registration page to register your modem. You MUST do this twice, for some reason it does not work the first time. MAKE SURE YOU GET THE RIGHT ADDRESS FROM AT&T. They failed to tell me I needed to use "[...]" instead of "[...]" it won't work without the "s"enter your account # and registration #.7. You should be working. Reconnect your router.

I experienced an issue with my internet connection resetting every 4 hours ever since I purchased my Linksys cable modem. I called my firewall manufacturer, sent extremely detailed diagnostic logs, and ruled out the firewall as the cause. I then had the cable company check the line and they changed several connectors and removed a splitter to give me a very high signal strength. Still the connection reset every 4 hours. I called Linksys technical support and they recommended that I "unplug the cable modem for 120 seconds to clear out all of that bad packets and the that will fix the problem." Wrong, no change. I got a loaner Motorola SB5100 modem from my cable company and my connection did not go down one single time during a 14-day period (verified by my firewall and the cable company router.) Goodby Linksys DOCSIS 1.0 cable modem. I've switched to a much more reliable and more advanced DOCSIS 2.0 Motorola SB5100.

I've bought this modem because of my leased modem (Comcast, DPC2100 R2) had very serious troubles in my new apartment. The complex is very old (40+ years) and lines are bad and unreliable. Leased modem was loosing connection 5-10 times per a day which was very annoying. I've spent some time reading about lines quality and the particular modem DPC2100R2, the conclusion was the following: there are modems that work bad on bad lines and there are modems that work good. BEFCMU10 is the one that can work good on a bad line.Once it came from Amazon I've installed it in just 30 minutes, Comcast took 25 of them for modem activation. Btw, when Comcast guys say that activation will take 1-3 days send them hiking and insist on immediate activation. They can do this, believe me. So, once the modem get activated it start working like a charm. My line was really bad but disconnection rate dropped to 1-2 per a day. What is more important the status page of the modem (open in browser address 192.168.100.1) shows a lot of useful information. Using it I noted that when connection goes down the downstream power drops from 8.4dBmV to 4.0dBmV. That was finally an argument for talking with Comcast support (before this I called about 10 times to make them fix the problem with no success), they sent a technician who did some magic and increased the power to 13.9dBmV. I'm using the modem for 30 days already, and for the last 7 days since the downstream fixed there wasn't a single disconnection!I must admit that this modem didn't solve the root case of my problem but it helped a lot and proved that bad line is not a big deal for it. Highly recommended. Btw, it's price has risen recently, I've bought it for $80 which is good price for the device.

Unfortunately the unit that I received kept dropping its IP address frequently, about once every ten minutes. I verified that the problems originated with the cable modem rather than my computer or router. It also turned out to be hardware version 3, but was listed on a page for hardware version 4 devices (different DOCSIS specs). I returned the defective modem for a refund. It was labeled as "very good" condition, but had been obviously tampered with before. Theoretically, based on the specs, this is a very stable, solid cable modem for DOCSIC 1.1 and 2. Having owned various Linksys network gear I would think that a functional unit would be a stable, reliable cable modem. Make sure to get the hardware version listed as approved modems with your cable provider. Mine, for example, requires a rev4 device.