David,

No, sorry to say, but you can't upgrade via firmware.  New docsis 3.0
uses something of a MIMO-kind of muxing of multiple upstream/downstream
channels, much the way 802.11n does, or some of the bastard hack
variants of 802.11g do for "speed boost" resulting in increased
bandwidth.  This requires more granular/precise clocking, faster
processing, whole new chipsets, and a gigabit ethernet port (150mb/s
theoretical max downstream) to achieve this.  The only modem I know of
on the market currently is the Motorola Surfboard 6120, which frys sells
for around 90 bucks.

If I'm not mistaken, I think 2.0 is good to around 12-15mb/s tiers
because it does some channel-bonding itself, just not to the level to
get the 25mb/s down cox is starting to roll out, or the 50mb/s
charter/comcast are on the east cost.

-mb


On Tue, 2009-07-28 at 17:19 -0700, David Munson wrote:
> Anyone know if existing 2.0 compliant cable modems can be updated to
> support 3.0 (presumably via firmware), or will I have to get a new
> cable modem once 3.0 is rolled out in my area?
> 
> I have a Linksys BEFCMU10 cable modem and it's served me well for the
> past 5 years, but I haven't seen anything from Linksys (geared for
> home use, anyway) that's DOCSIS 3.0 compliant.
> 
> On Tue, Jul 28, 2009 at 2:03 PM, Michael Butash <michael@butash.net>
> wrote:
>         Most any will work, just avoid the really cheap/off-brand ones
>         (best-data frys specials are known by cox to have issues with
>         latest
>         infrastructure code, now unsupported).  I'd recommend making
>         sure it's
>         at least docsis 2.0 capable, and if you want the really high
>         tiers of
>         service (15mb+) get a motorola 6120, as they support docsis
>         3.0 which is
>         rolling out now.
>         
>         -mb
>         
>         
>         
>         On Tue, 2009-07-28 at 12:54 -0700, Jason Holtzapple wrote:
>         > mike havens wrote:
>         > > that was probably a stupid quesxtion; is a cable modem a
>         cable modem...
>         > > meaning any of them will work on any system?
>         >
>         > If cox is the provider, they have a supported list:
>         >
>         > http://support.cox.com/sdccommon/asp/contentredirect.asp
>         >
>         > I have and use a Motorola SB5101 and have no issues.
>         >
>         > --Jason
>         >
>         
>         
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