Motorola Surfboard SB900 Wireless Cable Modem

Posts: 57 · Full Forum Member Joined: Sep 03, 2005 Posts: 57

Hello out there:

I am looking into buying this modem to use with my Vonage phone. I just want to hear if someone has this modem who is using it with Vonage to tell me what the experience is. This modem is going to cost me over $100.00 and if it does not work well with Vonage I am going to save the $100.00. Thank you!

Posts: 3198 · Posted: Wed Sep 14, 2005 8:26 pm Post subject:

I would save the $100, get yourself a motorola sb5100 (or just keep what you have) and get yourself a nice (wrt54g series) wireless router. no need to put all your eggs in one basket.

Posts: 57 · Full Forum Member Joined: Sep 03, 2005 Posts: 57

Thanks reebok. I understand what you are saying. I am in the process to buy a laptop and go wireless on it. I thought if I just buy a wireless modem, it would save me some space under the desk. I would just use the wireless modem and the Vonage router instead of my current cable modem, plus a wireless router and Vonage router. That would be a pile of hardware laying under my desk.

Posts: 1715 · Posted: Thu Sep 15, 2005 1:22 am Post subject:

I second the WRT54G (or GS). QoS is a mandatory feature in my book. Phone calls uber allis (sp)

Posts: 1424 · Posted: Thu Sep 15, 2005 7:20 am Post subject: Re: Motorola SB900

libbyloo wrote:

I thought if I just buy a wireless modem, it would save me some space under the desk. I would just use the wireless modem and the Vonage router instead of my current cable modem, plus a wireless router and Vonage router. That would be a pile of hardware laying under my desk.

Listen to reebok, having separate devices is a better idea although the SBG900 should work. Besides, since you are going wireless you can move the equipment to almost any location you want.

Posts: 4 · New Forum Member Joined: Aug 31, 2005 Posts: 4

I just thought I would pint out that the more pieces of equipment you have the more potential points of failure.

Posts: 3 · New Forum Member Joined: Sep 18, 2005 Posts: 3

The Motorola SBG 900 is Compatible to Vonage but all you have to do is disable the advanced firewall on the Motorola.

Here are the steps:

Steps to disable the SBG9000 firewall settings:
1. Launch the web browser from the computer that is connected to the Motorola SBG900.

2. Type in the IP address <http://192.168.100.1> on the address bar of the web browser and press “Enter”.

3. Login to the admin page of the Motorola SBG900. The default User ID is <admin> and password is <motorola>

4. After you have logged in, click on the “Firewall” option on the left side of the page.

5 . Select None.

6. Click On Apply

And this should work

Regards,

Kevin.

Posts: 1715 · Posted: Sun Sep 18, 2005 11:28 am Post subject:

VOIPHELP wrote:

I just thought I would pint out that the more pieces of equipment you have the more potential points of failure.

Normally I'd agree with that statement...but internet modems are a different story. The Westel Versalink combo modem/router/wireless AP device looks like a good idea on paper... but the hardware is woefully incapable of anything decent. The router drops packets if you start pushing any decent amonut of traffic on it, the wireless signal is poor at best. I ended up having to disable everything on it and run it in bridge mode (basically converting it to a modem-only device) and add another router to stop from dropping packets.

Posts: 3 · Posted: Sun Sep 18, 2005 4:20 pm Post subject:

Hi libbyloo:

I've been using an SBG900 for the last six months or so & I've found the stability & wireless quality to be top notch. I presently have my vonage router connected to an SB5100 & my network plugged into the SBG900, but I tested the vonage router with the SBG900 for a few weeks & ran into no issues, although if your upstream is limited or you're a heavy up/down loader you may run into some packeting issues due to lack of QOS on the SBG900.

If your isp allows you to have two external ip addresses and you're wanting to use the wireless gateway on the SBG900 for your webaccess, I'd suggest just putting your voip router MAC address into the SBG900 DMZ (/Gateway/LAN/nat config/) instead of disabling the the firewall as suggested above. This will allow you to use the excellent SBG900 firewall for your laptop & bypass the need to open ports on your SBG900 for your voip router.

Cheers,
Rob

Posts: 57 · Full Forum Member Joined: Sep 03, 2005 Posts: 57

thank you everyone for the suggestions and comments. I will consider all.

Best wishes,