Airport Extreme / Motorola Surfboard 6141 Disconnecting

Thanks Brian. I picked up a Zoom 5341J last evening and installed it. So far, so good. I'll monitor it over the weekend and post my findings.

I can speak with experience that the Airport Extreme 5th gen. is comparable with the Motorola SB6141. I installes the Motorola unit about a year ago and I have not experienced any connectivity issues. I went though the Comcast self install process and was up and running in 15 mins

In addition to Internet service for my MacBook Air the AE SB6141 supports a Nest thermostat that is online 24/7.

I installed a new Zoom 5341J cable modem to replace my Motorola SB6141. The new modem is flawless so far at 1 day 22 hours. I ill continue to monitor over the weekend and post if I experience drops or disconnects. Otherwise, assume the new modem has resolved all my drop / disconnect issues.

Here's my setup -

ISP = Road Runner via Time Warner Cable in San Diego

Router = Airport Extreme (A1521) as DHCP with and hardwired AirPort Express (A1392) in bridge mode at the other side of the house

Perhaps some of the issues people are experiencing are simply out of their control. From some of the things I have read in various forums it looks like some locales the issue may be due to the systems their ISP have in place.

Thanks to everyone for sharing your knowledge. Best of luck to you in finding your solution.

Not sure if anyone has posted this solution --- My airport extreme had worked perfectly with my old modem, but I could not get it to connect with the Motorola Surfboard SB6121 ---- not the same modem I know but same brand and issue. No one I called could help and I was frustrated to the max and just started messing with the router's settings. For me, the AE was set to "Off (Bridge Mode)" for it's Network - Router Mode. Once I switched that to "DHCP and NAT" the connection to the modem was made instantly and my internet began working (for half hour now...) flawlessly. Worth a try as it took 2 seconds.

Best of luck.

I posted a request about a month ago for any updates on compatibility issues with AirPort Extreme and the Motorola SB6141 and got no replies. I recently updated my modem to the SB6141 and am considering upgrading my wireless to the Extreme and possibly a couple of Expresses. My ISP is Comcast Xfinity. Any thoughts?

I posted here pretty extensively (not sure how to find the thread right now) about my experience with an Airport Extreme (5th Gen) and a Motorola SB6141. Long story short, after about 2 months of frustration with Time Warner Cable, Apple and Motorola support and a mysterious problem where the internet only would drop (not the network, just my ability to connect to the internet), I spent $70 and got a Zoom Cable modem. I have not had a single problem since.

My connection worked fine for about 6 months before I started having the problem. It was rock solid. My only conclusion is there was a software update that caused a compatibility problem between the modem and the Airport Extreme. Apple replaced the Airport Extreme (twice) during the course of the troubleshooting.

I think some Motorolas work fine with Airport Extremes. I'm not saying you shouldn't try it, but if you have issues, consider trying the Zoom modem.

Thanks Brain. I'm not that skilled in troubleshooting these sorts of things but I'll give its a shot. I have big a old house and am hoping to expand the wifi coverage. I plan to use the AirPort Extreme as my primary then add a few AirPort Expresses to broaden the coverage.

Brian.

You can't possibly believe how timely this forum discussion is for me! 🙂

I've been thinking of switching to Time Warner Cable from ATT's DSL. ATT is charging too much for a speed of 1.3 mbps. When talking to a couple TWC installers about saving money on the modem leasing, they said to get a Motorola DOCSIS 3 modem. After checking TWC's website, the Motorola SB 6141 appeared to be the right one...at least until reading this post! Seems as though the 6141 is a bad choice especially if I have the round spaceship Airport Extreme.

As you see by my screen name, I'm looking to avoid being frustrated and to prevent that, I might just be better off leasing the modem from TWC, making them pick one that works and when I feel certain that one works, go and buy that exact one. TWC's Everyday Low Price(w/ modem) is $21 which is about half of my DSL bill and runs about 40% faster.

Do you agree with this train of thought? What other thoughts or suggestions would you liked to offer?

From what I've gathered, there is no modem with wireless router built in that works directly with a MacBook, as the manuals all say "Ethernet Connection Only." Do you think theTWC installer might only be responsible to see that the modem works with the computer via ethernet and not even try to see if the modem works with the Airport Extreme?

Many thanks for this post and saving me from the possibility of the huge headaches people here have already experienced! 🙂🙂🙂

KeepItSimple,

A lot of people have been happy with the Motorola modem (and just for record I have a fifth generation Airport Extreme the one that looks like the old Apple TV or the Mac Mini). It did run great with my Motorola SB6141 for several months. So, I'm not saying I wouldn't try the Motorola modem. It's just that, for me, months of playing with settings, changing out hardware and hours and hours of time on line with support was solved when I traded out the modem for the (cheaper) Zoom. I can also tell you the guys at MicroCenter were very enthusiastic about the Zoom as not as much about the Motorola.

I bought my own modem because I hate Time Warner's policy of charging you month after month after month for gear that becomes very dated and which they will never replace/update until it breaks. Both modems I have bought are more current and faster than the one I had from Time Warner, which was the original one from probably more than a decade ago.

From my research I would not recommend an all-in-one modem with wireless router. It's better to keep them separate to make it easier to upgrade the functionality you need when the time comes.

If I were doing it today, I'd go with the Zoom modem.

Brian,

Thanks a ton for your reply. It is appreciated. To keep it simple, I talked to an ATT Customer Loyalty representative and since their U-Verse in not available in my area, they gave me a one-year plan of Phone and Internet for a combined price of $37 p/mo before taxes! I took it (since I already had a modem) and made a note to review it in 11 months and to be willing to switch again when the deal ends. ATT for phone and TWC for internet would have been about $50.

With your help, knowing the Zoom 5341J was the cable modem to buy, I had the confidence to assure ATT I was more than willing to leave them!

Many, many thanks to you and will update you in about a year!!!

"The best portion of a good man's life: his little, nameless unremembered acts of kindness and love." -William Wordsworth

I've had a similar issue.

I have TWC, and a SB6141 modem. Used an Airport Extreme Gen 5 as router for a long time with no issues. Recently upgraded to Airport Extreme ac, moved the AE Gen 5 to be a down-stream switch, and suddenly had problems streaming Pandora to my Yamaha receiver. Pandora worked fine on every other device in the house. Wired or Wifi, same issue with Pandora and Yamaha. Went through multiple troubleshooting steps, checking network, wires, firmware on all devices, contacted Pandora. No resolution. Finally put the old Airport Gen 5 back as router, and moved the AE ac to be the switch, and it works fine.

There is some problem with the SB6141 and the new Airport talking to each other. All components work, except when AE ac is immediately behind the SB as a router.

I just installed a 6141 to replace the Oceanic (Time Warner) Ubee that I had set up in bridge mode so my AEX would provide NAT/DHCP

(Aside, the Ubee pretty much ***** doing NAT/DHCP)

The installation was easy, but the 6141 would reboot and my AEX would end up with "Double NAT"

I thought the 6141 was a "stupid cable modem" but it turns out that it can provide DHCP in the 192.168.0.0 range.

So my AEX was confused and the cable modem was confused.

FWIW: look here, you may find some interesting stuff.

http://192.168.100.1/

I plugged my laptop into the cable modem directly and it received a DHCP address directly from the Oceanic server. It was working fine and the 6141 was not rebooting. I was talking to the Oceanic tech at the time (using the Ubee as my eMTA [or whatever it is to get phone service]) I was wondering if the Ubee was somehow providing a DHCP address over the cable. (Note: One has to install a splitter on the Oceanic cable so that service is provided to both the Ubee and the 6141. NOT All splitters are the same. I "just happened" to purchase one that would support the 1GHz 6141 requirement)

After uselessly debating with the Oceanic Tech about where the DHCP address assigned to the AEX internet ethernet port was coming from and having my laptop connected directly to the 6141 (over en0) for about 30 minutes, when I moved the ethernet cable back to the 6141, it was able to obtain a DHCP from Oceanic. Things are now working "just fine". (I even sometimes get my 100M download, but that is a different issue to look at).

I found this links helpful:

http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r20910726-TWC-How-to-Disable-DHCP-on-Surfboard-M odem-

It specifically said to re-read the 6141 configuration concerning DHCP:

"When the Cable Modem is disconnected from the Internet, users on the LAN can be dynamically assigned IP Addresses by the Cable Modem DHCP Server."

Well, that means the 6141 was NOT syncing with Oceanic as tech support claimed.

This page provided some interesting information concerning Power Levels

http://forums.timewarnercable.com/t5/Connectivity/Please-remove-the-Motorola-Sur fboard-6141-from-your-list-of/td-p/12475

I find my power levels are currently 0dB. I think that's "good", but I'm not a Hardware guy.

I know my Signal/Noise are better than what is listed in this thread. So I'm just wondering what Oceanic did on "their side" to fix things

or if it just took the two systems that long to figure out what was happening.

Also, FWIW, when I first connected the 6141 to Oceanic (via the splitter) it came up right away. There was no problem with it rebooting until I connected the AEX. And it rebooted several times as soon as the AEX was plugged into the ethernet port on the 6141.

Sooo.... I'm suggesting that folks -may- have success if they plug a laptop into the 6141 and allow it to get a DHCP address from the cable provider. Let things stabilize for a bit. Then move the cable back to the AEX that is also configured for DHCP/NAT. "I have no evidence to back this up" (as a former Presidential candidate said) but things are working quite well at the moment.

I am looking for a way of turning off the automatic feature on the 6141 (IMHO a stupid idea that some engineer didn't think through very thoroughly.) The configuration page suggest that there are several manually configurable parameters. But I do not see how.

At this moment, I feel like the 6141 is going to have been a good move on my part.

IMHO you guys all need to read this link.

http://thewirecutter.com/reviews/the-best-cable-modem-is-the-motorola-sb6141/

IMHO the problems that many see are because the 6141 provides DHCP addresses if it doesn't sync up with the cable company right away.

If someone figures out how to "turn off" this "feature" we could make a lot of progress.

Check out your AEX for a "double NAT" error, especially if it suggests its DHCP address is in the 192.168.0.0 range.

Hi, just want to know, what generation of AP EXTREME you using.

Because I want to find a modem that works well with the 6 gen AP EXTREME, I am with Comcast Xfinity service.

Thanks so much.

How about the 6 generation?

Because I saw many posts that they are having problem with setting up the Motorola Surfboard 6141 with apple airport extreme.

Thanks for replying..