Hi, there. The Panoramic modem will not give you faster speeds. Your bandwidth is fully available under your current modem and there would be no speed advantage.
The core of your question might have to do with how Cox handles mid-split in regards to faster upload. I have tried to ask Cox here if there are any special requirements or even just to n certain areas where a mid-split compatible modem is either required to get the higher speed or helpful in getting the speed more often but I was told it was outside of scope and either escalation didn't work or wasn't attempted. That's how Comcast does it and not only does Comcast help make the docsis standard, but Cox uses a lot of their other technology. The only technical requirement to get maximum upload speed is for a modem to have the capability of connecting to a upstream of ofdma channel. There isn't anything from a hardware standpoint that Cox can do to make their gateway better or your retail modem worse, but there are some things they can do or not do at the firmware and config file level. Everything seems to be plug and Play with how Cox does things. There is no list of special modems that you need for faster upload speed packages. The only requirement above having DOCSIS 3.1 is if you have a package with speed above 1 Gbps then you need a device with at least a 2.5 gigabit Port. So long story short, no, there is no documented difference in using a retail standalone modem and their gateway in bridge mode other than support and compatibility issues with their other products like TV. I am actually rather impressed that the moderators did not push the gateway harder. Maybe it has something to do with Cox being bought out and the platform the gateway uses going away.
See Reddit post below for further discussion on Cox and mid/high split but the whole conversation may be irrelevant now.
https://www.reddit.com/r/CoxCommunications/s/U0yNZ9tkSY
I might pick up an S34 at some point and compare it to the S33. I read a similar situation on Reddit to mine where the S33 maxed out at 90ish uploads, and the S34 raised it a bit. However, the person also reported, the difference not really noticeable. So, at this point for 100 to 114 Mbps upload, it's probably not even worth bothering with since it's stable. If Cox ever got higher than 100 upload speeds, then it might be worth it.
Yeah, it's tough getting to the truth of the matter since Cox doesn't document the issue and a lot of the people on Reddit are just speculating based on inaccurate data. I think user error is playing a big role. Like doing the speed test on Wi-Fi or just going by the speed that they're getting uploading to a certain server or even just getting megabit and megabyte confused. I'm not saying that's what's happening in your case. I'm just explaining why I haven't had any luck in finding both how it works now and how it was going to work with the new DOCSIS technologies coming out like high split and DOCSIS 4.0. spectrum pushes the user to use their non-retail but it is still a standalone modem that they offer. So it's possible that either when the shift to spectrum happens, any requirements will be made by giving out the necessary modem and not by having certain retail modems that you have to buy. Either way, I would wait until the transition happens before you buy any new hardware.
I was actually happy to hear about the merge. Spectrum was my provider before I moved, and before it became Spectrum, my provider was Brighthouse Networks, and then it merged with Charter and became Spectrum. I had their modem and things worked perfectly. I had planned to keep Spectrum across the move, but Cox was the provider for this area I got a place in. Sounds like I'll be able to switch back once things are done.
Sounds good then. silver lining. You may want to post your signal levels though. You can get them at 192.168.100.1 but for exact instructions, use your search engine of choice to find arris's support page. I would link to it but if you can't already tell from my atrocious, spelling and grammar I'm using speech to text on my phone. Threw my back out doing lawn work. Most problems are somehow related to signal problems as in the DOCSIS signal going over the coaxial. Even a situation where their gateway works better can come down to a physical problem with the wiring or some problem at the node or cmts. Looking at the logs and signal levels is helpful. You can also use the spectrum analyzer at the same IP as mentioned above but on Port 8080 to see what spectrum is being used by Cox in your area. It's hard to read though and I have no experience reading it cuz I've never had to so I can't give much input but it's something you may want to look into. Finally, you can look at Cox's FCC broadband label which I think is custom to your specific address to see what the max speed in your specific area is. This can sometimes give you an idea of what kind of technology they're using. But yeah if you see strange things always start by looking at the logs and signal levels. If you know what to look for it can give you a lot of data. If you don't know what to look for, it can lead you down a lot of wrong paths and lead to a lot of irrelevant questions. That is one of the reasons why spectrum doesn't allow customers to see that diagnostic data. However, I think it's better to teach how to fish than to give fish even if you give just enough fish for the person to hang themselves if that makes sense.
Actually, the web portal isn't an option. The newer revisions of the Arris modems seem to have the web interface disabled while connected to Coaxial. I can only access the modem's interface if I disconnect the coaxial cable, and power cycle. This goes for both directly connected to the modem, or through the router.
Really? That wouldn't be anything arris is doing. That's something Cox is doing. When you reboot the modem, you're clearing its configuration file. Without the configuration file from the ISP to either disable or break the diagnostics gui then it works. As soon as the modem boots up and connects us to Cox's Network, it has to download the config file to know what kind of service you get and when it does so you lose the ability to access that page. I hear that. Port 8080 is still open like when you do a scan but I don't know if the UI works. And either way, that data isn't as important as the signal level and logs. What model modem do you have exactly. The s34. What hardware version? Also, do you know if you could access the diagnostics with the coaxial plugged in but before you registered the modem with Cox? I wonder if they modified even the default config that loads to lock you into the walled garden that asks you for either your account information or to pay your bill. The main modem I heard about doing this was the sb8200 which is also an Arris modem. I think the only reason they chose to do it with this modem is because is probably one of the most popular retail modems that there is. I think there's only two, maybe three different DOCSIS tuners made by either broadcom or Intel that all the different manufacturers use. Everything else comes down to things like the heatsink the case, the size the firmware basically little stuff. Even the gateway that Cox uses isn't made by Cox of course. There are actually two different manufacturers of the hardware and I think it depends on what area you live. But there may also be some overlap. They're pretty much identical though I have not heard of a single difference. The cheaper modems these days seem to use Intel chipsets so I have to think Intel chipsets are cheaper. But it could also have something to do with licensing or other things that come into play like how cheap it is for a particular cheap design to scale up. There is talk that there will be a strong push away by the isps away from using retail modems with DOCSIS 4.0. I hope more isps invest in fiber then trying to squeeze any more juice out of the copper Stone.
The modem is an S33, on the box it says v3, so it's newer than the v2 people talk about on forums.
Have never owned an S34. I only mentioned it as a possible future purchase to compare mid split technology.
