Rating: - So far so good!
Easy to set up and so far no issues whatsoever (knock on wood). So much nicer not having a cable modem plus a wireless router.
Rating: - Worked as advertised
The SBG900 Surfboard installed, configured and performed flawlessly. I am very satisfied with the unit.
Rating: - SBG900 Cable Modem/Router/Gateway
This unit has problems. I set security to High & I had major problems sending emails or changing between emails. Called Motorola twice. Tech's helped, but neither one had much knowledge about this unit. Wish I could remove whip antenna as I can not put on top of computer. I disabled wireless, so do not need antenna. Set up manual limited & no owners manual. I could not download the CD owners manual. So I downloaded it from Motorola website. Price varies on Amazon a lot. I ordered it after price increased to $117, then dropped again. SBG900 should be best Cable Modem/Router/Gateway available. Look for it < $110. If it screws up, best reboot & wait a day. Using Astound 6 Mb/1Mb for $30/month for a year. Tech was here 10/11/08. He could not troubleshoot slow cable problem. Obvious he had not taken A+ & N+ courses. Motorola should provide hard copies of their manuals.
Rating: - Motorola surfboard
This is a great product. Much simpler and more compact than seperate modum and router. For reasons completely unclear to me it isn't availible in any store I visited. Amazon is a great way to buy it,
I love this item! Setup was hassle free. I will caution those who are not tech savvy to call your cable provider customer support and give them the MAC Address of the device before installing it.. this is especially necessary if you have a phone service like Vonage. Comcast has a special customer support phone option to setup a store bought device.
There was a small glitch with the Vonage service if you turn on the modem firewall. This was easily fixed by making a special entry in the DHCP Leases page in the modem setup (do this BEFORE!! you turn on the modem firewall)... just add the ID address of the voice terminal (usually a copy and paste) then tell it to BYPASS THE FIREWALL. I have contacted both Motorola and Vonage about this workaround and both companies now have it for tech support. They can tell you how to make the change if you have Vonage as a phone service.
Although, if you have a decent software firewall.. you don't need to activate the modem firewall.
I do suggest that you use the WPA Shared wireless access feature. its just a matter of choosing the option setting and password.
The other item... Choose a name for your wireless network, then turn off the name broadcast feature. This will prevent strangers from stealing your wireless access.
The two items in question were not a challenge for me, because I am familiar with this kind of hardware. Which is why I provided the basic information here.