Is a new cable modem helpful?

[Merek]

I'm using an Arris SB6183 that is rated for 686 mbps but for some reason Comcast only rates it for their 300 mb plan, they've sent me letters that I need to upgrade but I consistently get 350 mb which is the 300 plus their speed boost. I've always owned all of my modems and never really had to upgrade and the money I've saved from leasing their equipment has easily paid for all of the ones I've had. I was going to upgrade again but noticed that a lot of these newer units have lots of bad reviews but haven't checked other brands.

I did have a bottleneck once when using an old wireless router, it did have gigabit ports but couldn't handle the bandwidth when I had upgraded my plan, it was a Linksys E3000 and was limiting the throughput to around 200 mb but I've since upgraded to a Ubiquity gigabit router.

 

[nthach]

One word of caution and I’ve seen seeing this at work - some cable modems have Intel Puma chipsets known for lag and random packet drops. Arris and Intel tried to fix it with a firmware update. I have been recommending people at work try to get the newest and greatest gateways from Comcast and Cox(same thing, just different UX/UI), the XFi Advanced/Panoramic WiFi gateway. Almost all leased cable gateways have the Intel chipset.

Arris also sells modems with the bad Intel chipset - the SB6183 for speeds of less than 300Mbps is good. Avoid the SB6190 but you should be fine with the SB8200 and the newest version of that. Motorola modems, which seem to be the same as Zoom seem fine too.

 

[alarmguy]

One word of caution and I’ve seen seeing this at work - some cable modems have Intel Puma chipsets known for lag and random packet drops. Arris and Intel tried to fix it with a firmware update. I have been recommending people at work try to get the newest and greatest gateways from Comcast and Cox(same thing, just different UX/UI), the XFi Advanced/Panoramic WiFi gateway. Almost all leased cable gateways have the Intel chipset.

Arris also sells modems with the bad Intel chipset - the SB6183 for speeds of less than 300Mbps is good. Avoid the SB6190 but you should be fine with the SB8200 and the newest version of that. Motorola modems, which seem to be the same as Zoom seem fine too.

Ive been very happy with the SB6190. I read up on those threads about issues with the Intel chips, that was in the beginning, years ago.
Anyway, ours a year old maybe, always got higher then the speed we paid Spectrum for. Been dead on reliable, NEVER, EVER needed a restart.
Im now sold on intel chips! *L*

With that said as many know I am trying out TMobile Home Internet right now, so just stopped using the 6190 but maybe back to using it very soon, may have the chance to get 400Mbps for 2 years @$49... will see.

 

[Merek]

Mine has been good so far, I've looked at the 6190 and I too ruled against it. I don't know the exact model of the one at work that's similar and but it's an all in one unit and the lan connection is great but the wifi stops working and you have to power cycle it at least once or twice a month. It connects and you get an ip address but doesn't allow any traffic in or out and it just times out but after a reset it's always back to normal.

I am not a fan of combo units with the modem and router as one unit, they do work good out of the box but everyone I've dealt with has always ended up having issues at some point.

 

[alarmguy]

No I would never get a combo unit. 6190 is modem only and has been very reliable for us.