Has anyone here done the Comcast modem upgrade, and what were your experiences?
One stumbling block for me is that the new modems have wifi included. I have a perfectly good wifi network based on Apple hardware, and it’s not clear to me how the new modem would impact that. I have zero interest in spending time troubleshooting wifi problems; heck, that’s why I bought Apple stuff in the first place.
A second problematic area: It seems that the new modems automatically create a second wifi access point, intended for the use of Comcast customers who are away from home. It seems, from reading the Comcast forums, that this second wifi has an adverse effect on one’s internet speeds (because of something called “channel sharing”), and there were numerous postings about wanting to turn it off.
The positive benefits are a little unclear.
Comcast makes vague statements about “supporting the range of speeds”, but it’s not clear whether my internet speed would actually improve. They never flat-out say that “Your internet speeds are going to double”; and if that were really true, you’d think they’d shout it from the housetops.
And, I confess, I have a basic mistrust of Comcast; it seems to me that they’re pushing this awfully hard, which makes me a little suspicious.
So:
Reinforce my misgivings! Or tell me about your excellent experience!
The benefit is all to Comcast. They get to advertise that they have Comcast/Xfinity hot spots all over the place. There is no benefit to you.
Unless you have a really old modem, your speeds will not improve. The newer modems allow Comcast to throttle you if you actually use a lot of that speed and bandwidth that they advertise as being available to you.
Comcast sucks. If I had any realistic alternative I would drop them like a hot rock.
I’ve done the Comcast modem upgrade. I would recommend NOT doing it if you don’t have too. The speed doesn’t seem to be any faster, and I get Internet connection drops about once every hour which sucks.
My father had it done recently, and he’s had one problem after another, where they have to reboot the device remotely. I have been there when it happens. Power cycling does nothing, call tech support and they fix it. For a while.
I have a competing fiber service, and I have been much happier with it since I dropped Comcast.
Well, about a year ago, I got sick of their bullshit with the modem I was renting, so I bought my own and let them have theirs back. I’m going from memory here, but I’m pretty sure they aren’t allowed to require you to rent a modem from them. So I don’t see how they could force the upgrade on you. But I could be wrong.
I’ll also add that this thread is the first I’ve heard about this upgrade… so maybe they haven’t been trying with me because I don’t rent a modem from them. (?)
I also own my own modem and use Comcast cable. But the modem is an older model. In the last couple months I have been getting emails from them saying I ought to (not need to) upgrade to a newer model to obtain all the speed I’m subscribing to. The email includes links to 3rd party sites where I can buy any one of several models from several well-known vendors.
The specific technical issue they cite is upgrading to “DOCSIS 3.0” which wiki says is a cable modem capability standard.
I don’t *think *those newer modems would include remote management from their end and a guest network that I couldn’t prevent.
I’ve been procrastinating on upgrading it since the old one is OK. I’ve considered calling them to ask how much cheaper it’d be to subscribe to just the speed my old modem can handle. If it ain’t broke …
While there are factual aspects to this topic, the OP also asks for personal experiences. It’s had some time in GQ to get the factual aspects addressed, so let’s move it over to IMHO.
Moving thread from General Questions to In My Humble Opinion.
Wish everyone had been so forthcoming when I was asking this question.
I mean, it seems to work fine, unlike others’ experiences, and my old modem WAS pretty damn old too, but I would’ve at least thought some more about it.
Several months ago Comcast sent me a new modem in the mail.
I’m a cable/internet/phone subscriber.
Before the new modem, I had a separate wi fi…um…thingamabob. With the new fangled device, it was all in one.
Whatever.
I’ve seen the new commercials advertising the doubling of internet speeds with Comcast on “select” plans. Whenever I see “select” my brain translates it to “not me.”
A friend told me that he got the doubled speeds…all he had to do was unplug his new modem and plug it back in again.
Pff. Yeah, right.
I went to speettest.net and tested my speed. 30 mbps.
I unplugged my modem and plugged it back in again. Waited for it to boot up.
60 mps.
I went to my brother’s house and did the same thing. Boom bam. Doubled his internet speed.
shrug
I used to complain about how I couldn’t stream Netflix in HD with a hardwire connection. Now, I stream it in HD over wifi with Roku.
I’ve always owed my own modem to use with Comcast. I did use their third-party list and upgraded a bit more than a year ago. I went from DOCSIS 2x to 3x. For me, my modem connection is more stable, even though I am aware that Windows 7 does have a tendency to go funky with its wireless system (I have my own wireless router, too.).
With my own modem I can log in directly to the modem to check status, signal, addresses, configuration and logs.
About, hmm, a year and a half ago, I started getting letters and then recorded phone calls from Comcast about my old, obsolete, bad (!) modem and the need, NEED to upgrade to DOCSIS 3. Like anyone else, I crumpled up the letters and hung up on the calls as everything was working fine.
One day, I found my ‘service interrupted’ and all my web browsing redirected to a Comcast page about upgrading the modem. I wound up buying (get up to check) a Netgear CDM31T which has been fine. I wanted the Motorola but it was pretty expensive.
Here’s their list of compatible devices: http://mydeviceinfo.comcast.net/
For what it is worth, I don’t recall any pressure to use one of their modem/WIFI hotspot dealies. I called 800COMCAST to register the new modem, sat on hold for 20 minutes, finally got through only to be given a different phone number to call which was annoying. The goddamn redirect page could have mentioned this secret phone number, I mean, anyone landing there was going to need it, right?! In fairness, it was actually fairly easy after that and no problems since.
Based on what you guys have said so far, I think at this point I’m going to stand pat until I get the redirect page jnglmassiv mentioned, and then probably buy a third-party Ethernet-only modem. (I am definitely not an Early Adopter )
Every time Comcast has to come to my home for upgrades, it’s a huge headache. In the past, they taken as many as three separate visits to hook up service, they broke one of my televisions, and most recently, in the context of an “upgrade” the tech was a complete douche, cause extensive (but not serious) cosmetic damage to my home, and I was completely without service for several days. In three words or less: Comcast sucks balls.
I ignored the Comcast warning to upgrade my modem, and I noticed our internet connection getting wonky. Called comcast and they said it was because I needed a DOCSIS 3.0 modem. It was the perfect motivator to finally buy my own modem. Modem only, not wireless, since I already had a wireless router.
After doing some research I settled on a Motorola modem which had the best review for the money. It was simple to install- remove the old modem, install the new, give comcast the MAC address and serial number, back in business. The biggest hassle was driving across town to the nearest comcast center to drop off the old modem.
New modem cost ~$90. Now that Comcast is raising modem rental to $10/month(!?!) it will pay for itself in no time. And the satisfaction of paying those thieving, nickel-and-diming bastards a little bit less each month s priceless.
A Motorola 6121 is the gold standard for this, and it’s available for about $70 at discounters like Sam’s Club, and a bit less on line (Amazon has it for about $65).
Highly, highly, highly recommended. Especially as Comca$t’s increase comes with the wonderful new supermodems that make you part of their public wifi network. (Okay, semi-public. But fuggem.) And their equipment is still cheap-ass stuff that will fail back on speeds before ever telling you it’s broken.
I have been completely confused about this very issue. I had a router and the old Comcast modem and it was working fine. But I finally gave in and got this xfinity modem. I am not supposed to need the router anymore right? I am still using it though. My phone connects to wifi called “xfinitiywifi” but my apple tv won’t work with that wifi. It uses my old wifi that is now running through the new modem and my old router. Everything works fine, but I don’t feel like I have set this up right. Any insight?
I didn’t upgrade, I was a new user who got the new modem when I signed up. Turns out there was an issue with XBox consoles connecting to the new modem’s Wifi - it’s a known problem. After trying every troubleshooting step I could think of I found out that I had to just have them disable the Wifi on the box so I could just use it as a modem and then use my old adapter for the Wifi.
Also, you cannot disable it yourself, you have to specifically contact them and they have to do a server side push to disable it. It can only be done by an escalation tech not the regular level techs.
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