Macbook Air problems with Motorola cable modem (Surfboard 6580) - solved

I've just solved a pesky problem with our Motorola cable modem (Surfboard SBG6580). For a month now, my Macbook Air's internet connection was giving me grief. The main symptom was the very slow loading of pages like Google. The browser kept telling me that it was still "Resolving hostname," which was puzzling because our internet provider actually uses Google DNS.

The problem is an incompatibility between the firewall of the Motorola cable modem (DOCSIS 3.0 specifications) and the Macbook Air's built-in firewall. To solve it, you just turn off either firewall (that is, either turn off your Macbook's firewall or your cable modem's firewall).

Caution though. Turning off the firewall on your cable modem may result to attacks from the internet. So you have to understand what's happening. Simply put, a firewall is a "shield" that makes it hard for external computers (ie., hackers) from getting inside your home network. You have two main options:

• Option A. Turn off your Macbook Air's firewall. Go to System Preferences > Security & Privacy > click the lock icon (lower left corner) > enter your password > click Turn Off Firewall. (Read Caveat, below.)
• Option B. Turn off your Motorola cable modem's firewall. Login to your cable modem's admin page. You typically do this by opening your browser and typing the IP address of your cable modem (usually 192.168.0.1) at the URL box. Then type your admin username and password. Click Firewall on top of the page and choose "Off" in the dropdown labeled IPv4 Firewall Protection. Some also recommend unchecking IP Flood Detection, but it's up to you to do some tests whether this helps or not (I'm still testing mine as of this writing. So far my tests indicate that leaving it checked does not slow down my connection). Check the Motorola SB6580 User Guide here for more details. (Read Caveat, below.)

Option A. Turn off your Macbook Air's firewall.

Option B. Turn off your cable modem's firewall.

CAVEAT

Caveat for Option A. Turning off your Macbook's firewall makes your files and system vulnerable when you connect to another network (eg, in an internet cafe).

Caveat for Option B. Turning off the firewall on your cable modem will make all computers and devices vulnerable to external attackers.

Until Motorola or the DOCSIS specifications solve the conflict, this solution will have to do for me. Hope this solved your problem, too.

* * *

Behind the scenes. I nearly gave up on solving this problem since the real solution (that obscure Apple forum entry) didn't turn up in the usual searches. The initial keywords I used ("problems with Motorola 6580) led me to the wrong track that led me to the wild goose chase of checking signal strength and fixing cable connections.

What finally gave me a breakthrough was the realization that the other network users (mostly Macbooks and a Windows machine) weren't experiencing the slowdown. This led me to a new track and restarted by searching for "Problems with Macbook Air and Motorola 6580" that finally led me to the solution from an obscure entry in the Apple community forums.

This just goes to show that I need to constantly reexamine my assumptions. And that perseverance pays off, eventually. After surfing the internet and reading bulletin boards, I thought the problem was a weak signal coming from the cable provider OR a problem with the cabling. A long process of elimination with some experimenting eventually led me to a solution hidden in

Our Wireless Home

Or sorta (our desktop PC still has lots of wires connected to it). A couple of days ago, I finally had time to setup our very first router -- and a broadband, WiFi router to boot! I've been dilly-dallying and waiting and surfing the web on the best and cheapest routers, until I stumbled upon the Airport Express router.

Being made by Apple, it isn't cheap. But, being made by Apple, it's got features and simplicity that only an Apple product can give:

• Printer server: it's got a USB port where you can plug in your printer and share it in the network!
• Wireless sound streaming: plug in a speaker set and you can play music wirelessly via iTunes!
  
• Neat case: a very small box that looks a lot like the charger of a Macbook, but slightly larger.
• Best of all: it was totally easy to set up. It practically installed itself, after I plugged in the broadband wire. The only thing that slowed me down was that I needed to connect Data's wifi (her Windows XP laptop has old WEP capability, which limited our password options to five ASCII characters -- hope your nose didn't bleed on all that mumbo).

Having a wireless home is cool! ;-)

PS. I saw a review of a new non-Apple router that allows USB-printer sharing too, plus sharing of external USB drives! I heard that Apple's new BaseStation may have this ability too. Nice!

Airport Express!

I got my Airport Express last 10 August (thanks to friend Kenneth, who bought it from Singapore at about P4,800). Unfortunately, our lousy SmartBro is still down and no one has come to fix it!

Anyway, the router is still useful -- I plugged in our USB printer (Canon S600) and it worked smoothly.

I just had to realize that I needed to choose the wireless printer from the printer menu of my application (the default was the printer plugged directly to my Macbook, which did not work of course).

Then I plugged in the speakers and played music from iTunes wirelessly! Airport Express was very easy to set up (in fact, being techie only made it harder for me because I had too many preconceived notions).