Review on Motorola SURFboard Gateway SBG901 Wireless by Patrick Gibb

The Motorola Surfboard Gateway SBG901 wireless cable modem was initially very disappointing. I called the cable company to set it up and at first they couldn't find it. I tried a rented modem for troubleshooting and they were able to set it up. It was my first call to them. After that call I played around with the modem and found that I had to hold down a button on the front for it to recognize the cable connection from the jack. After that all the lights came on and stayed on, great. So I called the cable company a second time and was able to activate it by connecting directly to my computer via ethernet. I was glad it worked, so I completed the setup, now with WiFi. Then it got really embarrassing. The "built-in" router is terrible at best. In my office nearby (I live in an apartment) there was a streak on my computer. I figured it was something with a computer connection so I tried my iPad, same thing, 1 strip, went to bedroom, one maybe 2 strips power, no wifi in study or bedroom. So I went to the living room where it was working at full capacity, but the internet was slow as hell on a 15 megabit cable connection. The first night of installation I was so upset that I wanted to return it if I didn't break it first. Then I thought maybe it would work as a standalone modem with a powerful separate router attached. So I tried that and turned off the wifi and it worked great. To sum up, if this was a standalone modem I would give it 4 or 5 stars, the modem functionality works great. But it's not a standalone modem. I got it BECAUSE it was a WIRELESS MODEM and I'm sure many others would buy it for the same reason. Recommendation: If this is the cheapest cable modem you've seen and you already have a wireless router, go for it, as mentioned before, you can disable WiFi. However, if you rely on wireless capabilities, don't waste your time, money, and frustration. I haven't tried other "wireless" cable modems, but this one doesn't work.