Review on ARRIS Motorola SURFboard SB5101U DOCSIS by Anthony Hobby

Like many others I was looking for a cable modem as Comcast recently increased rent. So it was either this SB5101U or SB5101. I think the only difference between the two models is that the SB5101U doesn't have a sleep button that allows you to turn off internet access. I'm not sure what the wait button means. It looks like your internet will go down if you accidentally hit it, and you could spend 30 minutes on hold with Comcast before you finally realize it! If I want to turn off Internet access, I can just DISCONNECT my cable modem! A wait button is not required. So I got SB5101U instead of SB5101. I've seen a few people say they've replaced their SB5120 modem (the same modem I rented) with an SB5101(U) and have seen a significant improvement in speed. That's not the case for me - all my speed tests show about the same speeds as with the old modem. I am disappointed with the ads on this new SB5101U modem. First, the PC/ACTIVITY indicator keeps blinking even when there is no internet activity. The old modem didn't. Also, the old modem had lights that flashed when there was a download/upload over the internet. I liked looking at the modem to make sure the web browser was getting information from the internet and not from its cache. I also wanted to know when others in the house were using the internet ;). But on the new SB5101U, all of the lights (except for the PC/ACTIVity light I mentioned earlier) are always green and never blink. So I can't tell when Internet upload/download is happening with this modem.