Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I was switching internet to Comcast Xfinity and decided to purchase my own cable modem to avoid the $10 a month rental fee. Initially I was looking at an all in one router combo, but decided it would be in my best interest to purchase a separate router and cable modem. The issues I found after researching are that a lot of those all in one units have problems with the wireless degrading over time and they're expensive to replace. The biggest issue is that cable modem firmware is not controlled by the end user or owner, the cable company is the only one who can upgrade it. Therefore you can not apply your own patches and fixes from the manufacturer. With that out of the way I ultimately decided to purchase this Asus CM-16 16x4 cable modem due to price and the fact that the 16x4 Arris Surfboard SB6183 has a few crazy reviews. Apparently the Arris Surfboard SB6183 runs extremely hot and sometimes gives off a nasty burning smell. This modem was going to be in my living room and regularly around young children so I opted to try this Asus CM-16 cable modem. The tech who installed cable services to my house called in to have the modem provisioned and initially they tried to tell him that the modem was not an approved device, but backed down once I told them it was on their approved list of devices. Once it was provisioned, about 3 resets later and I was up and running. The technician complimented me on the modem twice saying he could not believe how quickly it rebooted and came back online. He said their normal modem they provide usually takes about 5 minutes to reboot and resync, while this Asus CM-16 was taking about half that time. I've only been using the modem for 24 hours now, but so far it is providing the internet speeds I am paying for and it is not putting off much heat at all. I paired this cable modem with an ASUS RT-ACRH13 Dual-Band 2x2 AC1300 Wifi 4-port Gigabit Router with USB 3.0 and the wireless network smokes my old internet provider's 2-Wire modem both in range and speed transferring between devices. I'll update this review after I have spent more time with the Asus CM-16 16x4 Cable Modem. ::Update 1 - 3 Weeks:: I've been using the ASUS CM-16 16x4 Cable Modem for 3 weeks now. Other than once when there was a Comcast outage in my neighborhood, it has worked perfectly. I have not reset the modem at all yet and there is no crazy heat or funny smells. The cable modem is barely even warm every time I've touched it, even when it's downloading large Xbox One games or updates. So far I am very happy with my cable modem purchase. ::Update 2 - 2 Months:: We still have not had any major issues with this Asus cable modem. We've lost power a few times one night, but it worked fine once the power was back up. It still is barely warm to the touch, silent, and quick to reconnect to Xfinity. The LED lights are a little on the bright side some nights, but they do not seem to bother my kids in their rooms. ::Update 3 - 3 Months:: Still going strong. I did reset my router and cable modem the other day because I was having some difficulty with the internet. Everything came back up though. ::Update 4 - 13 Months:: Over the past year I've reset it 3 times I believe. Once there was definitely something going on, because the internet came back up afterwards. Still no issues with heat or smells. Extremely happy with my purchase. I did NOT get this modem at a discount for my opinion or any of that garbage.