ARRIS SURFboard SB6190 DOCSIS 3.0 32 x 8 Gigabit Cable Modem , Comcast Xfinity, Cox, Spectrum , 1 Gbps Port , 800 Mbps Max Internet Speeds , Easy Set-up with SURFboard Central…

I don’t like leaving negative reviews (there’s enough negative stuff in the world today), but had to leave my experience with this modem here.

THE PROS:
Price? Very reasonable. Size? Compact, not obtrusive. Heat? Only ever got slightly warm, not an issue.

THE CONS:
It doesn’t work. So if you’re fine with the above pros, hey, it’s a great deal.

After doing a great deal of research (which admittedly, I should have done before purchase), the chipset in these modems is apparently faulty. Moreso, this doesn’t manifest itself as something that renders the unit inoperable right out the box, but rather gets progressively worse post installation. It started with drops/reboot loops once a week, then once every couple of days, up until it was rebooting several times a day. Calls to Spectrum resulted in me being told the modem was not sending signal, that there was an unacceptable level of noise on my service (caused by jitter in the modem), and that a tech needed to be sent out (not optimal during these times).

When it finally got stuck in a reboot loop completely, I bought another (non-Arris) modem from a local retailer for curbside pickup. Installed, provisioned, and immediate difference. No noise on the line, rock solid performance, no reboot loops – it was definitely the modem. Mind you, the problem took just over 90 days to get this bad, so it exceeded both Arris and Amazon’s return policy. Missed the return window by 6 days. Now it’s an expensive doorstop that I’m not throwing away until it’s safe to drop at an e-waste disposal site to be responsibly recycled.

To be clear, this was not Amazon’s fault at all, but it irked me that Arris didn’t accept responsibility for what is clearly an issue. Oh, and side note – apparently, Spectrum is moving to DOCSIS 3.1 modems now, so you’re probably better off getting a 3.1 model anyways.

TL/DR – the savings in price is not worth the cost of finding out this modem doesn’t work.

This is long, but I had to get this off my chest since switching to this modem has made my life a BREEZE to the point I have so much more time in my day to enjoy vs struggling and troubleshooting ISP issued equipment every day.

This is outstanding. I read quite a few reviews about these being problematic but I’ve experienced no such issues or drops in connectivity. This modem does indeed top out at the advertised Mbps rating and holds steady going on a month now of non stop heavy heavy traffic. It uses the Intel chipset, not the other chipsets others mentioned that are problematic. This intel chipset really sets it apart from other brands and models in the past.
It does get a touch warm, but not as warm as others I’ve experienced.

Before this, I used the Spectrum(formerly Brighthouse) issued modem/wireless/router combo Sagecom units that are huge and bulky. Some were Sagecom, some were ARRIS, all the same shape, type, size and build. All using the same PCB Reference Desgin/Specifications, just different manufacturers.

Spectrum’s issued equipment, no matter the brand or type, is always 100% refurbished… Which isn’t always a terrible thing. All of them experienced the exact same issues no matter how many times I had Spectrum send a tech out or replace my equipment, it was like clockwork on the dot I could count down and predict when their equipment would just shut off all wireless access for a blip and cause major chaos to my work at home business.

It got worse and worse the longer I kept the same equipment to where I had to swap it out every 2 weeks on the dot.

The other issue is the error tolerance and sensitivity to signal strength and quality was atrocious with Spectrum’s issued equipment, the connection would drop and force the equipment to reboot which TAKES 10 MINUTES EACH TIME AND IT HAPPENS ALL DAY LONG.

I have had enough, hard wired or wireless was problematic to the point I wanted to kick babies in the throat. Spectrum techs and customer service played dumb, except for one tech that came out and told me that this will never be fixed by Spectrum and to just purchase my own equipment and he couldn’t have been more right.

Enter, this beautiful ARRIS SURFboard SB6190 DOCSIS 3.0 Cable Modem, that solved all of my issues out of the box, not to mention it was delivered within a day.

I purchased a TP-LINK Wireless Access Point(WAP), with a Protectli The Vault FW4B Mini PC to be used as my NAT, Routing, & Firewalling solution(to block ads, other threats and blocklists, and prevent Spectrum from snooping on my network like I always caught them doing with their official equipment, as well as to auto VPN specific devices on the network like guests and so on as well as throttling their bandwidth for guests.).

I called Spectrum, gave them the MAC Address on this new modem, they added it to my account, removed their issued equipment from my account(saving me about 7 bucks on my bill per month) which I turned in later that day, and hooked up my new ARRIS modem(super tiny and the same size as my Proectli Firewall for those interested in form factor) and they flashed their Spectrum Firmware to the modem and off it went! All this was done within 10 minutes on the phone with Spectrum from the moment it was delivered.

I haven’t had a single drop in connectivity since I switched to my own equipment that I manage myself(hardly, I just watch the logs on my firewall for specific reasons and to make sure spectrum service is not dropping out).

I now have a completely amazing and outstanding managed home network, thanks to pfSense and OpnSense, ARRIS, and TP-LINK’s Wireless Access Point(WAP)… and it’s 100% effortless and I forget its there because everything just works so perfectly together.

The Protectli, the TP-LINK WAP, and of course this ARRIS modem are all available for purchase on Amazon.com and 100% simple and easy to setup to get going on your own without the hassles of Spectrum’s really sh1tty equipment.

All problems have been solved thanks to this move I made. I have my wifi solution with the WAP, I have my routing and firewalling solution thanks to my Protectli Firewall, and I have my super stable high speed internet thanks to this ARRIS modem.

Not to mention I chose Protectli as my firewall for their one of a kind customer care and customer service, TP-LINK was chosen for their reliability and reviews which have held consistent with my experiences, and this modem thanks to the reviewers on here.

When I get back in my server room, I will snap photos of the specific setup I mentioned in this review for those to get an idea that are not all tech fancy.

Thanks for reading!