Surf SOHO MK3 fix with Arris /Motorola SB modems?

Hello

I’ve been looking for a new router for my Home office and I was excited to hear about the Surf SOHO.

I headed over to the Peplink forum and started reading about a WAN connectivity problem that others have experienced when pairing with their Arris SURFboard / Motorola SB model cable modems. I saw a fix posted on a peplink forum thread here:
SB6121 Cable Modem.

After reading on though, I discovered other user’s tried the fix without resolving the problem and I started to wonder whether this fix has resolved the connectivity issue on more models of Arris SB cable modems.

Some users stated they had not been able to resolve this with the fix posted on this thread:

I really am interested in purchasing a Surf SOHO MK3, but I happen to own an Arris SB 6183 and if these two don’t play nice together, I may need to find another comparable router somewhere. I’m not looking forward to have to go through hours of troubleshooting, only to learn I might have to settle for a workaround to resolve this issue as a permanent fix.

I’m looking to drill down and find out if Peplink can say they have tested and resolved to date this issue since the last posted fix in January '17 which worked for some people, while for some others it didn’t.

Thank you in advance

Gemini,
I just recently upgraded from a Surfboard 6121 to a 6141. The problem is better with the fix that manually selects the gigabit speed on the router but it’s not perfect. What I have found is that almost every time either the router or modem are power cycled or rebooted, they both have to be simultaneously power cycled. This also goes for changing the WAN network settings on the router. So if the modem runs into trouble and reboots itself or the cable company reboots it for some reason, you may be off the air until you recycle both modem and router simultaneously.
A bigger concern may be the router’s throughput. It’s claimed to have 120Mbps aggregate throughput across all ports. If you have a lot of the security features enabled, it may be slower than that. If you have a cable connection faster than 100Mbps you may end up paying for service you can’t use.

1 Like

Thank you for taking the effort and time to reply.

Since my intention is to pair the Surfboard Arris modem, the forum didn’t continue in some thread on whether a resolution after the fix had been implemented for some users.

Since your reply, I’m understanding that if an occurance such as when either the modem or router necessitate a re-boot, or if the WAN network settings were changed on the Surf SOHO, then even though the ‘fix’ was implemented by the user prior to a WAN connection loss, it’s been tested that the connection in such a case can be corrected through simultaneously power re-cycling both devices.

In regard to the speed concern, I read on the forum users experiencing a drop after enabling security settings and then re-gaining speed back through dis-enabling some of the features. I assume the users are referring to the speed issue you mentioned.

100Mbps is the connection (tier) for cable service. The tested speed for the service I pay varies.

Best regards

This discussion has been over a year ago, but I am wondering if there are still any issues with using the Surf SOHO MK3 router coupled to the SB6121 modem? Some threads mentioned a firmware update to fix the connection after a power cycle, but that was using firmware versions 7.x. I see that the latest firmware is now at 8.0, but I don’t see any discussion of use with the SB6121.

Thanks for any info. I am considering getting the Surf SOHO MK3.