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Linksys BEFCMU10 Cable ModemIf you're tired of the slow & frustrating performance of 56k modems & dial-up Internet providers, then your salvation is here...
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If you're tired of the slow & frustrating performance of 56k modems & dial-up Internet providers, then your salvation is here in the form of the Linksys BEFCMU10 EtherFast Cable Modem. With a cable modem you are always connected to the Internet & you will experience speeds many times that of standard 56k modems. And it's easy to use. Just plug the plug-and-play device into any USB port on your PC.
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17 Reviews from Shopping.com
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Good basic product
| Author's Rating: |
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Pros: High quality. Appearance. DOCSIS 2.0 support.
Cons: Price. USB 1.1.
The Bottom Line:
Good middle of the road performer. Worth buying if you can get it on sale.
Disclaimer: I work for a cable company, so I have access to back-end information not normally available to most end users.
I picked up the Linksys BEFCMU10 cable modem "surplus" from my employer, mostly because I have other Linksys gear (a WRT54G and a 16-port workgroup switch) that stacks neatly with this guy. It is rev. 4 hardware, and rev. 2 firmware. I use Ethernet exclusively (although, read below for USB observations).
Our standard cable package is a DOCSIS-1.0 package, with 8M down and 384k up. I live at the edge of a node, so my signal quality is marginal.
The Linksys cable modem has worked flawlessly. Even considering I live near the fringe, it is able to sync up perfectly, and I get speeds close to what I'm supposed to get.
My particular cable company also has a new DOCSIS-2.0 plant, with speeds of 8M down and 1M up. On a lark, I also tested the device on the new plant, and had no problems. I also opened up the modem completely, no bandwidth caps, and was able to get nearly 20MB/s down in testing.
I read other people's reviews here regarding speed problems, especially compared to Motorola devices and thought I'd check it out. Compared to a Motorola SurfBoard SB5120, I was unable to detect any differences using speed test tools from BroadbandReports. Curious, I decided to dig deeper.
After some testing, I suspect (and the previous reviewers did not indicate) that they may have been using USB. The Linksys uses the slower USB 1.1 interface, which can dramatically affect performance. I observed that the Linksys device was slower than other devices, most of which now support USB 2.0.
In the month and a half of service here, it has performed flawlessly. In discussions with co-workers, and in examining our back-end performance metrics, Linksys modems appear to be good strong devices, especially compared to "cheapo" cable modems.
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