Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I purchased this cable modem three months ago, primarily because I wanted to try MoCA within my house. Things have generally worked out well. The admin interface to this unit is of extremely high quality. This is the first home network device I've used where I can tweak WiFi radio settings (aggressively) without having to undergo a reboot / power cycle. In fact, I can make configurations settings on the 5 GHz network even if I have a large number of clients working from the 2.4 GHz network or multiple family members streaming video over MoCA connections. Similarly, I can change my firewall settings without causing any service disruption to the house. Excellent engineering, folks. Unfortunately, Comcast pushed a firmware update to its customers this February. Beyond rebranding the admin UI from Motorola to Arris, it broke several features. One example is MoCA throughput reporting, which has since registered as zero bps. I assure you it's still working well, and I can only assume it's still clocking in at around 237 MBps, as reported prior to the update. (1080p video streaming still works well, even when I have two endpoints watching different content, via MoCA.) Another example is how this unit "forgets" its reserved DHCP IPv4 addresses. Lots of us do this on fixed endpoints to ensure we have a solid, predictable network in our homes. Should the power get reset, this cable modem dumps all reservations as if there had been a factory reset. Since returning my old DOCSYS 3.0 rental cable modem and employing this, I've enjoyed a noticeably better experience with Netflix and Amazon Instant Video. There are still times when I experience rebuffering or very low quality streams, but those are almost always during prime time, where I now suspect my cable provider, the content delivery network, etc. This is a big improvement. And now for WiFi... 5 GHz has been a profound disappointment. It's fast, provided you're within twenty feet of the unit and don't have walls, doors, or floors/ceilings to contend with. This really defeats the point of AC-- something I paid a premium for. Beam forming is interesting, but I've grown used to a roughly ten second lag between two bars and full bars when I connect to the network. 2.4 GHz has performed reliably. That said, neither WiFi radio on this unit is particularly strong. I had to invest in a WiFi extender to cover both floors of my house. I had disappointing results with video streaming, which is where MoCA has saved the day. My pricey AmpedWirelsss WiFi extender (dual band, wireless N-AC) drops its connection back to the Arris many times a day-- both 5 GHz and 2.4 GHz-- but most commonly 5 GHz. This triggers significant frustration in my family on a daily basis. Getting full bars and no connection to the gateway is not okay. Sadly, it's the norm for several minutes at a time, despite all sorts of permutations in settings, channel selections, spectrum analysis, location in the house, etc. I've lost several weekends trying to get this working reliably, and I've become familiar with every neighborhood router by name, band, and signal strength. Regardless of what I do, this cable modem to repeater link is flaky and frustrating. Were I to do this over again, I'd think twice about any solution which incorporates this cable modem, a WiFi extender, and attempts to deliver N-AC. In practice, it's a simple solution with distinct shortcomings. MoCA is undersold, though. I am very pleased with its performance and reliability. UPDATES! --------------- I've had to downgrade my review to two stars after a series of painful disappointments. First, the back doors built into these routers are wholly unacceptable. I got owned at least twice and ended up having to drop the router into "bridge" mode and standing up a more robust ASUS router behind it. Second, the wireless reach is sub-par, presumably because one cannot adjust the orientation of this device's 2.4 and 5 MHz antennae. I would definitely NOT recommend purchasing an all-in-one. I took a chance and got burned. So frustrated. login: admin password: motorola 192.168.100.1 Simply ridiculous. Well documented on the web. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but perhaps you will learn from my missteps.