Modem question... From the Desk of Scott Fiore

Hi,
I own a Motorola Surfboard 5220 modem (about 1 1/2 years old) that I
connect to my Airport Express. I received a call from my internet
provider this morning notifying me that because this modem is being
discontinued by Motorola, it will soon stop working and I will need to
buy or rent a new modem. Does this sound right? I don't see why a
modem would just stop working because the manufacturer discontinues
the model. Any ideas? Thanks!
-Scott Fiore
PowerMacG5
1.8 GHz

On Thu, 26 Feb 2009 14:40:29 -0800 (PST), Scott Fiore
<scottfiore@ymail.com> wrote:

>I own a Motorola Surfboard 5220 modem (about 1 1/2 years old) that I
>connect to my Airport Express. I received a call from my internet
>provider this morning notifying me that because this modem is being
>discontinued by Motorola, it will soon stop working and I will need to
>buy or rent a new modem.

And your internet provider is ??? Sigh. Running RDNS against your
IP of 24.117.111.40 yields cableone.net. Is that correct?

I'm really impressed that Cable One would call you on the telephone to
inform you that the end of the world is near. Normally, such things
are gone by email, notices on their web site, or via USPS snail mail.
It's also not exactly standard practice to swap out modems with almost
zero notice. Perhaps you've been ignoring email and mail from your
ISP?

The SBV5220 modem has already been discontinued:
<http://broadband.motorola.com/consumers/support/default.asp?supportSection=DiscontinuedProducts>

From the FAQ at CableOne:

What does “End of Life” mean?
A cable modem that is specified as “End of Life” was once a
recommended Cable One cable modem. Due to the discontinued production,
manufacturer support changes, or other technical issues, these cable
modems are no longer recommended. At present, these modems will
continue to operate normally on our network and are permitted to
complete the Cable One registration process. No dates have been
specified to retire these modems from our network at this time. We
suggest that at some point in the near future subscribers replace
these cable modems with Cable One Certified cable modems @
http://help.cableone.net/cable/cm/.

CableOne does have a support web site:
<http://help.cableone.net/cable/>
The SBV5220 isn't listed on this supported modems list:
<http://help.cableone.net/cable/cm/Certified_Modems.aspx>
However, the SBV5220 is listed as a "certified" modem on this page:
<http://help.cableone.net/cable/cm/>
Toss a coin? Perhaps a call to your ISP (cableone) support department
might be useful to untangle the muddle.

>Does this sound right? I don't see why a
>modem would just stop working because the manufacturer discontinues
>the model. Any ideas? Thanks!

I do. If if your unspecified ISP is switching to DOCSIS 3.0, you will
need a compatible modem. The SBV5220 is only usable with DOCSIS 2.0
and below. It may also be a the result of a security issue with the
modem, where the manufactory does not want to fix the firmware and the
ISP does not want to live with the problem. It may also be the result
of a high modem failure rate, where replacements are not easily
available.

Incidentally, this has nothing to do with wireless internet. Please
find a more appropriate usenet newsgroup, forum, or mailing list to
ask your support questions.

--
# Jeff Liebermann 150 Felker St #D Santa Cruz CA 95060
# 831-336-2558 jeffl@comix.santa-cruz.ca.us
# http://802.11junk.com jeffl@cruzio.com
# http://www.LearnByDestroying.com AE6KS

"Jeff Liebermann" <jeffl@cruzio.com> wrote in message
news:gpbeq4lr42ajkh3683vs1jihu9fehbhf7i@4ax.com...
> On Thu, 26 Feb 2009 14:40:29 -0800 (PST), Scott Fiore
> <scottfiore@ymail.com> wrote:
>
>>I own a Motorola Surfboard 5220 modem (about 1 1/2 years old) that I
>>connect to my Airport Express. I received a call from my internet
>>provider this morning notifying me that because this modem is being
>>discontinued by Motorola, it will soon stop working and I will need to
>>buy or rent a new modem.
>
> And your internet provider is ??? Sigh. Running RDNS against your
> IP of 24.117.111.40 yields cableone.net. Is that correct?
>
> I'm really impressed that Cable One would call you on the telephone to
> inform you that the end of the world is near. Normally, such things
> are gone by email, notices on their web site, or via USPS snail mail.
> It's also not exactly standard practice to swap out modems with almost
> zero notice. Perhaps you've been ignoring email and mail from your
> ISP?
>
> The SBV5220 modem has already been discontinued:
> <http://broadband.motorola.com/consumers/support/default.asp?supportSection=DiscontinuedProducts>
>
> From the FAQ at CableOne:
>
> What does "End of Life" mean?
> A cable modem that is specified as "End of Life" was once a
> recommended Cable One cable modem. Due to the discontinued production,
> manufacturer support changes, or other technical issues, these cable
> modems are no longer recommended. At present, these modems will
> continue to operate normally on our network and are permitted to
> complete the Cable One registration process. No dates have been
> specified to retire these modems from our network at this time. We
> suggest that at some point in the near future subscribers replace
> these cable modems with Cable One Certified cable modems @
> http://help.cableone.net/cable/cm/.
>
> CableOne does have a support web site:
> <http://help.cableone.net/cable/>
> The SBV5220 isn't listed on this supported modems list:
> <http://help.cableone.net/cable/cm/Certified_Modems.aspx>
> However, the SBV5220 is listed as a "certified" modem on this page:
> <http://help.cableone.net/cable/cm/>
> Toss a coin? Perhaps a call to your ISP (cableone) support department
> might be useful to untangle the muddle.
>
>>Does this sound right? I don't see why a
>>modem would just stop working because the manufacturer discontinues
>>the model. Any ideas? Thanks!
>
> I do. If if your unspecified ISP is switching to DOCSIS 3.0, you will
> need a compatible modem. The SBV5220 is only usable with DOCSIS 2.0
> and below. It may also be a the result of a security issue with the
> modem, where the manufactory does not want to fix the firmware and the
> ISP does not want to live with the problem. It may also be the result
> of a high modem failure rate, where replacements are not easily
> available.
>
> Incidentally, this has nothing to do with wireless internet. Please
> find a more appropriate usenet newsgroup, forum, or mailing list to
> ask your support questions.

Interesting point about the underlying encoding or delivery technology
driving what "modems" will continue to work on a given ISP.
Same could maybe be said for DSL at some point.

But all the smart folks hang out here - and we learn so much together :)

On Thu, 26 Feb 2009 23:09:23 -0600, "ps56k"
<pschuman_no_spam_me@interserv.com> wrote:

>Interesting point about the underlying encoding or delivery technology
>driving what "modems" will continue to work on a given ISP.
>Same could maybe be said for DSL at some point.

That's already happening with AT&T DSL. The new and improved setup
script tends to only work on DSL modems that have the PPPoE login and
password stored in the DSL modem or in the computah, but not where
it's stored in an "unsupported" router. I ranted on the topic
recently in ba.internet. Short version... some older
Speedstream/Siemens 5100 modems don't quite work for initial setup or
reconfiguration.
<https://pbells.broadjump.com/registration>
Fortunately, I have a partially tested workaround. If you want to try
the above URL, be sure to have the computah audio turned on for the
full multimedia installation experience.

There are also issues with ancient DSL modems such as the Alcatel
1000. There's no way for the DSLAM to query this modem for statistics
and quality info. Same problem when the ISP uses AT&T line tools.
These modems are justifiably banned.

Legacy modems are a more serious problem in cable modems. With DSL,
there's no real security in the transport system. DSL has a dedicated
line to the DSLAM at the CO. Short of wiretap protection, there's no
security needed. However, cable is mostly a bus or ring topology,
where everyone is on shared connections. Security is paramount and is
imbedded in the modem with BPI+. The modem also needs to be remotely
managed. This is available for DSL modems with SNMP, but the various
DSL ISP's seem reluctant to use it. In general, when there's an
upgrade to the cable service, there's also an upgrade to the privacy
and management features, making maintaining legacy modems a problem.

>But all the smart folks hang out here - and we learn so much together :)

I'm not very smart. However, I'm very sneaky and sometimes evil.
I'm also into Learn By Destroying.


--
Jeff Liebermann jeffl@cruzio.com
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558

On Feb 27, 1:04*pm, Jeff Liebermann <je...@cruzio.com> wrote:


Jeff I hope you can share your question and answer with the group at
"unlockingmodems-com"