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CWaters75's avatar
CWaters75
New Contributor
7 months ago

Hardware upgrade REALLY needed?

Good evening everyone.

I currently have a Netgear C1000v2 on a 1GB plan. My current WiFi speeds are 465.2/115.5 according to Cox's Speed Test website. This is on both WiFi *and* Wired Connection directly in to the modem for testing. I was having some speed issues the last few months and finally "chatted" with the sales guy at Tech Support. He started telling me that my modem is old and the only way for me to get their truly advertised speeds is to upgrade to the Panoramic WiFi, which we all know is incorrect. The Tech Support Sales Guy also told me that they can't understand why I am not even getting 500MB on my 1GB plan, as it is 100% definitely a problem with my equipment. Even though they can't send any warm or cold hits to my modem from the Head-End, or communicate with it, but upgrading to the 2GB plan will solve all my problems. So here's my question.

Before the tech got here, I went and purchased an Arris S33 just in case. However, after him finding a bad ground block in the OPB, he said everything looked good and reverted back to my Netgear and stated it is running fine.

My question is this. I noticed some differences in the configuration screens of both modems, so I was curious if anyone knew what benefit I would get by actually keeping the S33 and staying on the 1GB plan (for now), and if I do decide to upgrade, what benefit one would give me over the other.

Config screen(s) from the Netgear C1000v2:

Upstream Channels:

Now, config of the Arris S33:

And the Upstream Channels:

I notice the S33 has more Downstream and Upstream channels, but don't know if that really means anything to the standard, regular daily usage.

The tech also had the problem today of not being able to do anything from the Head-End with the modem before he replaced the problem. Once he did that, he was then able to send warm and cold hits to the modem no problem according to him.

My girlfriend and I both work from home and are in IT. She is on Zoom / Teams calls quite a bit, and I am on Teams calls a bit and VPN (sometimes numerous VPN's) 100% of my day.

Thanks everyone!

Bandwidth Allowance
  • Darkatt's avatar
    Darkatt
    Honored Contributor
    7 months ago

    The S33 will allow you greater speeds, up to 2GB, which is 2x the speed your CM1000 can do. I have the CM2000, which is comparable to the S33

    • CWaters75's avatar
      CWaters75
      New Contributor
      7 months ago

      Thanks Darkatt..

      I know it will give greater speeds for input, but my main question is on a 1GB plan, what is the huge difference going to be between those two modems?

      I noticed they have different protocols they connect with, and I am not that familiar with either.

  • Anesti33's avatar
    Anesti33
    Contributor
    7 months ago

    There are many layers between your modem's channels and the TCP/IP applications you've described, and your post doesn't take into account your actual devices, their OS and apps, your router, or security considerations.

    Gigabit Internet is a marketing term based on your signaling rate. It's not predictive of the speeds you'll achieve across the Internet.

    You may have competition for bandwidth at any given hop. You don't trust Support, and claim that Panoramic WiFi is unnecessary, but I personally recommend it, because it will ease your management issues and you won't need to pore over numbers in a status report that tell very little of the whole scenario.

    But you're using the consumer home connection for multiple users in a commercial activity. Have you considered a Cox Business account with a properly specified contract and service level?