Motorola SB6120 Won't Connect: Update Firmware?

Modular

Diamond Member
Jul 1, 2005
5,027
67
91
Edit: Well wouldn't you know...it's up and running! The first 3 techs I talked to on the phone forgot to change the modem that they were trying to provision. Hence the fact that the new one didn't work. They weren't even trying to provision it. LoL

Anyways, speeds are 3x faster according to speedtest.net


So I've been on the phone with Comcast all day. After they sent me a letter saying that my old modem wasn't going to be supported anymore, I picked up an SB6120 to replace it.

Comcast can't seem to lock the thing in at all. The lights just keep cycling in this pattern:

Recieve: Blue --> Green (solid)
Send: Blue --> Green (solid)
Online: Green (blinking)

Then all three blink and the thing cycles through this again and again. I've seen others with this issue and have read through their solutions, but I don't understand half the stuff they're talking about.

Comcast support can't seem to figure out what it is and says that my modem is broken, but I disagree. I think they need to update the firmware, but I have no idea if they can. Is this something that I can do on my own? Is it even worth my time?

For the time being I just had them re-enable my old modem. It may be DOCSIS 1.1, but the damn thing works, and always has.
 
Last edited:

Modelworks

Lifer
Feb 22, 2007
16,240
7
76
You can't update the firmware yourself easily. Cable modems are updated by the provider using something called tftp. If you change to another firmware yourself it is possible they will just flash it back to whatever they want.

You need to pull up the modems diagnostic page and get the values off of it. That will tell why it isn't syncing.

Type 192.168.100.1 in the address bar of the browser
login should be admin, pass motorola
 

Pheran

Diamond Member
Apr 26, 2001
5,740
35
91
Wow, you got lucky. There really is a pain-in-the-ass issue with 6120s where some CMTS (the cable company head-end) won't talk to them on a certain firmware rev, and thus cannot do a firmware update to get them into a working state. This has bitten a whole bunch of users.
 

Modular

Diamond Member
Jul 1, 2005
5,027
67
91
Wow, you got lucky. There really is a pain-in-the-ass issue with 6120s where some CMTS (the cable company head-end) won't talk to them on a certain firmware rev, and thus cannot do a firmware update to get them into a working state. This has bitten a whole bunch of users.

Yup, this is what I was reading on the forums. I had no idea what a CMTS was, but other than that I was following what they were saying pretty well. I guess I got lucky. Speeds have been great thus far: wife watched Netflix while I played a few rounds of CS:S and there was no increase in my ping or lag. It was heavenly!