Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

The signal to noise ratio on these reviews is unbelievable. I have no possible hope that my review could influence the overall score of this device, but I can tell you that if you are one of the lucky people who happen to stumble upon reading my review, please consider my review in the proper context. Part of my trade is a network engineer, but I do not want to bore anyone with technical details. I will try to explain things in terms that are very straightforward: Many cable modems are built with the same or similar components which are developed by chip manufacturers. This particular modem is built using a chip family made by Intel with the brand name "Puma" which is a low cost chip which integrates a lot of the hardware necessary to build a cable modem onto a single chip. Several manufacturers use these chips to build modems, and different models by the same manufacturer may use different vendors' chips. For the most part this is a good thing; the hardware cost is reduced and consumers can enjoy a better product with more consistent and reliable performance. Sometimes though this is not the case. Intel Puma chips have several severe problems which have not been addressed, and it is further unclear if the problems are even able to be addressed. The first problem is a security issue which allows anyone on the Internet to block your cable modem from sending or receiving traffic. The second is an issue where in certain common circumstances the cable modem will have problems sending or receiving data in a timely manner. Both of these problems can lead to temporary complete loss of service or can appear to simply be slow or unreliable service. Because people have come to expect that their home Internet service is occasionally slow and unreliable, these fundamental faults are often overlooked as trouble. Likewise certain types of testing which do not provoke the problems reveal a modem which appears to perform admirably in most circumstances, and so many are left with an overall favorable impression. I have no doubt that the people leaving good reviews about this modem are sincere; but I also have no doubt that they have experienced trouble and overlooked problems with their cable modem as problems with their connection or service provider. Sadly, answering the question regarding which alternate product one should purchase is equally difficult because it is highly dependent on your cable provider. It could be that a 24x8 Broadcom modem such as the Netgear CM600 is the best choice, but it could also be that a SB8200 DOCSIS 3.1 modem is the best choice. But there is one thing for sure: the SB6190 is to be avoided.