Toshiba PCX2600 cable modem?

My guess would be that Toshiba didn't invest in a larger first production run than what they needed to get certified. After that, it's a matter of finding distributors and major retailers who want to carry it, which may not be very easy to do until either Comcast and/or RoadRunner start offering rebates on the modem to entice new customers. And right now, there are plenty of other products competing for Christmas season shelf space -- and many of the decisions have already been made. Until Toshiba gets enough pre-orders from the distributors and major retailers, they probably won't start another production run. I wouldn't expect that to happen until January -- assuming that Comcast and/or RoadRunner come through with some rebates. Maybe you'll see them in the online stores before then, but why should it matter? Marketing copy at the Toshiba website, and reviews from paid reviewers and reviewers who never saw a product they didn't like aside, there's nothing special about yet another DOCSIS 2.0 modem.

....unless it has a lower price than Motorola and D-Link, whose prices seem to have risen back to levels seen earlier this year. Fortunately, I can wait. Thanks for the insight.

Thanks for the info. I was wondering why the prices for the D-Link and Motorola cable modems had drifted back up to their initial prices seen in July. Maybe the expected competi- tion from Toshiba was what brought them down, and their prices will stay up for a while until another manufacturer introduces a DOCSIS 2.0 cable modem. I also wonder if the high recall rate seen with Motorolas by your ISP was with the SB5100 model - the one with the Broadcom chipset. Maybe that's why Motorola later went with the Texas Instruments chipset for their SB5120, a model that has identical features as described on Motorola's website. Right now, the only feature that leans me toward the Motorola is the quick disconnect button on the top that allows one to quickly disconnect if there appears to be unexpected internet traffic occurring (spyware?, spambot? virusmail?). Do you know if any of the other DOCSIS 2.0 cable modems sport such a "panic" button?

You can always put your LAN connection in the tray and right click on it and disable the connection. Of course that only works for the computer you're currently working on.

Tim, You're going to be waiting for a ship that has already sailed. The PCX2600 has already come and gone. Toshiba has gotten out of the cable modem business.

After much research I decided that was the model I wanted, though, so I hit eBay and found one at a great price. If you buy one you'll be pleased. There are no bugs or deficiencies in either the hardware or the firmware. You just won't ever find one in a retail or online store unless you find a place that has some old stock.

If my PCX2600 died tomorrow I'd move heaven and earth to find another one.

And what some people say about all DOCSIS modems being alike is not true. Some have troublesome ethernet ports that cause glitches hooked up to some routers. Some lock up or reboot under heavy loads like BitTorrent. Some are victim to lots of line errors. Some have hardware problems like the RCA modems that have troublesome power connectors that develop shorts.

Some say you can't go wrong with a Motorola. I almost bought one. At the last minute though I thought it'd be wise to call my ISP and ask them what they recommended to be used on their network. Their reply was "Buy anything except a Motorola. We have had an extraordinarily high amount of service calls & trouble tickets with those."

So, thank you very much, but I'll stick with the PCX2600 till it's rendered obsolete.

I have a firewall icon in the system tray, and it takes 3 or 4 seconds to reach for the roller ball, move the cursor to the icon, rt-clk, select Disable, and left-clk. A quick reach to slap a top-mounted button works much faster.

Of course that should have been "select Block Traffic".

What would you do if the modem was upstairs ? :)

Good point! Maybe I'll have to resort to the old RJ45 A/B switch box that I used to use. It's a manual rotary switch that I used to switch my PC between DSL and cable, and it has a center OFF position that can be used to cut the connection. It cost me $15 at Fry's Electronics a couple years ago.

That would work too. ;)

Don't limit your looking to just D-Link and Motorola. Linksys, Zoom, Xyxel, Scientific Atlanta, and RCA all offer cable modems. If I were you I'd call your cable company and ask them what they use, what they recommend to be used, and what they recommend to not be used.

My ISP never used Motorola modems. I've been with them since their inception and they initially used Nortel modems for their first couple years and then they moved to Scientific Atlanta modems & that's what they offer to this day, just newer models.

They just told me on the phone that they have had many support calls from people who bought Motorola modems on their own from Best Buy, Circuit City, whatever...they never gave me specifics, but I do know that some Motorola modems have trouble interfacing with some routers & the workaround is to put a hub between the two, but I don't know if that was the problem my ISP has been running into or not.

The opinions on the Broadcom vs. TI chipset issue are split. Some people will swear the 5100 is better than the 5210 and some will swear the opposite.

Just as an FYI, that PCX2600 you were eyeing sports a TI chipset.

No, I don't know of any other modems with such a "panic" button, but it really strikes me as a non-feature anyway. Most people nowadays are going to have some sort of router and/or firewall behind their modem & it's going to filter out all that poo anyway.

If it is still a concern to you then make your own panic button. Just plug the modem by itself into a surge supressor power strip and just hit the power button on that when you "panic."

I'm restricting my search to those which comply with DOCSIS 2.0 so I don't have to upgrade in another 6-12 months, and not all manufacturers have offerred products complying with DOCSIS 2.0. Zoom does, RCA doesn't, etc.

I subscribe to Comcast service, and like any large utility company, it only lists what is "compatible" with its system, and that list is for DOCSIS 1.1 compliance. It does not list recommendations or reliability experience, and it does not release any field experience it may have on various manufacturer's products. Believe me, I've tried to wrest some information out of them, but they remain tight- lipped and/or ignorant.

RCA cablemodems starting with the DCM315 are DOCSIS 2.0 compliant.

They focus on DOCSIS 1.1 compliance because that's what they require if you're connecting a new modem to their network. Note that a DOCSIS 2.0 modem also complies with DOCSIS 1.1.

You'll never get them to bad-mouth a vendor that they may need to do business with in the future, nor would they ever want to say something that could not be backed-up with statistics.

Reliability is as much a function of how the customer treats their modem as anything else. For example, the RCA models that used the molex-type power connector did not do well in homes where the modem or it's cable was frequently moved, but they were, for the most part, rock-solid in other homes.

Even the crappiest constructed modem that passes the testing, and makes it to the allowed modems list will do fine if you take care of it. And even the best constructed will fail sooner if you abuse it.

When it comes down to it, a good, solid, well constructed modem can be had for under $80 before any rebates. Comcast charges $3 a month to lease a cablemodem. Even if you pay $80 for a piece of crap modem, in 26 months it won't matter. Go buy a SB5100 or SB5120 for $60. There's no reason to believe that you won't get at least 20 months of reliability out of it, and it's DOCSIS 2.0 compliant, which is more than Comcast requires now. There is little chance that it'll be obsolete in less than 20 months.

And let's say after a year it dies, or it becomes obsolete. What have you lost? $24. If your time is worth $10/hour, how much have you already spent researching this minor purchase? And how many more months did you pay to lease a modem by taking your time researching?

You're not getting many answers because few people analyze such minor purchases with such scrutiny. A trip to the grocery store often costs more, and has more possible pitfalls.

The next time you're near Radio Shack, Best Buy, Circuit City, or whatever, just buy it. Or decide not to buy it. The consequences of even the worst choice are not worth the trouble. But turning the research of cablemodems into a hobby might just be worse than making the wrong choice.

Interesting. There seems to be only ONE web retailer carrying that modem (known as model DCM315R), and a search of the RCA website didn't bring it up, although it does seem to have a webpage which describes it:

Yyeeeessss..... I know that....

Yes, that was my point - getting info about modem reiliability is impossible from a large ISP.

The cheapest retail price for a SB5120 is $75 shipped.

Thanks for the advice on prioritzing my values. But that was not part of my request.

Maybe. The RCA website says: "Resident BPI+ certificates enable future upgrades to advanced DOCSIS 2.0 features." See:

Circuit City, $39.99 after rebate:

Thanks. How did you ever find this 6-day rebate? Unfortunately, the Google archives have too many horror stories about Circuit City rebates. I think I'll just go with price since I don't need the rebate aggravation. I'd still like to know how you found the rebate, though.

Tell you what - buy it at Circuit City and send me the receipt/UPC/etc and I'll send it in. I'll send you the $5 difference from your $75 cheapest deal and keep the other $35 for myself.

Fantastic! Thanks.