6 out of 6 people found this review helpful.
This modem should never have been released to market
Date of Review: Dec 10, 2004
The Bottom Line: Do not buy this modem. There are far better alternatives available at comparable prices.
After a power surge destroyed my original cable modem, (a Belkin)I went to Officemax to buy a replacement. The DCM-202 was the only one that was in stock at the time and the claims on the box looked impressive so I bought it. After I got home I called Cablevision's tech support to check compatibility and give them the MAC ID. They had no information on this model but they entered the MAC and it seemed to work properly. (For a while.)
It never would maintain connectivity for very long though. Most of the time all lights remained green but it would just bog down until all connection was lost. The maddening thing about it was that I had to use various means to re-establish a connection. I would pull the power connector on the modem, release and renew the IP address, use a winsock repair utility, reboot the computer, etc. Whatever worked one time may not work the next time. The length of time that I could stay connected decreased in an ever-shortening spiral until finally, after about 6 weeks, I'd had enough. I called tech support again and this time they said that this modem was on their "not compatible" list.
I went down to Officemax to buy a replacement but all that they had were more of these same modems but with a twist... the boxes had stickers placed all over them that said; (paraphrased) ... "New and Improved! Now works with Cable Networks!" They described it as if it was some kind of bonus feature! What the h3ll was it supposed to do before this improvement? Anyway, I didn't fall for it. Off to Super Walmart I went. (I have limited options in the rural area where I live.) I found a Motorola modem there and I am again in broadband nirvana.
Now that I am online again I did some research on the DCM-202 and found that they have a firmware upgrade available for Comcast subscribers. (I'm not sure if Cablevision is under the Comcast umbrella.) Presumably, the boxed modems with the stickers all over them have this firmware upgrade but I'm past the point of trying to salvage the piece of junk. It's going where it belongs... in the dumpster.
