Airport Extreme / Motorola Surfboard 6141 Disconnecting

The Motorola SB6141 is not compatible with the Airport Extreme. Equally frustrating is that the Netgear CMD31T will not register with Time Warner even though the boot file from the server loads. The modem is listed on their site as being compatible but is even worse than the SB6141. Don't waste your time with Time Warner techs trying to get either to work. They finally gave me a Ubee and it works like a charm. No latency or drop off what so ever. Ask for this modem if you want Time Warner to work with your Aiport Extreme. Here is another post with links to techical support beyong tier 1 and 2.

Netgear CMD31T with Time Warner has been flawless for several months here....not one single connection drop....so your statement that it is incompatible with an AirPort Extreme is a bit puzzling.

The one I bought (and the one I got in exchange) both will not "handshake" with Time Warner. Somehow the firmware is not matching up with Time Warner's network configuration and the registration fails resulting in the network denying access. I will send a screen shot for you to see. I am sure that, if the CMD31T can get online, it will work.

The one I bought (and the one I got in exchange) both will not "handshake" with Time Warner.

Not my experience at all, so I'm not going to be able to do much troubleshooting when things are working fine. But, maybe another user can help.

Here is a screen shot. I removed the MAC and Serial #. As you can see network access is denied with the CMD31T. This is a pretty significant configuraiton problem between TWC and Netgear. I have a Tier 3 tech looking into at TWC and they admitted it had to be a configutation problem on their end. It would be interesting if you bought a new CMD31T in Texas and tried to get it to work. Perhaps it is a bad batch that is isolated to the Best Buy in Highland Hts, OH. I don't know, but it definitely is not working... Ubee is online and very stable. Once TWC figures out what is going on, I will swtich to the CMD31T. The SB6141 is for sure not the way to go.

The modem came from a Best Buy in the Dallas / Fort Worth area.

The Netgear model was recommended by the computer department manager after I tried two Motorola SB6141s, which would connect, but not maintain an Internet connection for more than several hours.

For what it's worth, he relayed that based on modem product returns from their customers, that the Netgear was being returned at a much lower percentage rate than other brands. That is the only reason that I tried the Netgear.

But, in the computer world anything is possible and something that might work for one user won't work for another. That is the nature of the beast.

My new Netgear modem CMD31T has consistent connection with ethernet only. When I connect it to my AirPort Extreme 802.11n Wi-Fi, the connection keeps dropping. Can you please share advice on what I need to check? Thank you!

Got the same connection drops with a SB6141 and AP Extreme. My temp solution is a switch between the WAN port of both SB and AP. Sounds like a port handshake issue of some sort maybe.

mrsbaer wrote:

Got the same connection drops with a SB6141 and AP Extreme. My temp solution is a switch between the WAN port of both SB and AP. Sounds like a port handshake issue of some sort maybe.

This has been one recommended way out of the problem.. and yes, some timing or port handshake issue..

Another easier solution cropped up .. be interested to hear if you want to give it a try.. use a crossover cable.

These are still readily available in computer stores.. although we haven't needed them for neigh on 10years.. they were often used between modems (cable in particular) and routers..

You can also get the pinout and make it up fairly easily..

Or anyone else who is having trouble.. try a crossover cable and tell us how it goes.

I'll get the crossover on Thursday and will test it.

Great stuff.. thanks!!

Hope the shops haven't shut down by Thursday.. along with US Congress and currency!!

I confirmed last week from TIme Warner that the Netgear CMD31T has a firmware flaw that will not handshake with IPv6. They have no intention of fixing it and I was told by a Tier 3 rep that Time Warner will be delisting the modem as IPv6 is rolled out en mass. I am using a Ubee and it has been stable through and through.

Certainly believe you that the Ubee works fine, it's CableLabs certified after all like all the other options out there.

But the Ubee is not listed on the approved modem list of TWC. It is only listed on the TWC list of rental modems.

Unfortunately those two lists are not in sync. Having a modem that's not on the approved list is just always making it a bit tougher when having a troubleshooting session with support..although we understand it should not make a difference for the cable.

Sorry, this is offtopic.

Well the $ still works and the post man delivered the cross-over cable today 🙂

So I have been running the cross-over between the AP Extreme and SB6141 for ca. five hours and 'only' had four connection drops in that time frame.

It is too early to tell if this resolves the issue vs. the standard cable but I think the cable provider here does have some brief outages sometimes which scewed the statistics.

On record so far:

AP <-> normal wire <-> SB6141: 7 days monitoring and 300 complete packet losses (between seconds to minutes)

AP <-> switch <-> SB6141: 1 day monitoring and 6 complete packet losses (between seconds to minutes)

AP <-> cross-over wire <-> SB6141: 5 hours monitoring and 4 complete packet losses (between seconds to minutes)

Excellent info.. thanks for doing this with detaied comparison.. so the cross over is not quite as good as a switch but hugely better than straight cable.

For cost and convenience a crossover is a good solution.