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Been reading through this forum and its pretty clear that there is something really wrong with the Arris TG862G. Regular phone service works fine for me as does basic LAN connected Performance tier internet connection of ~27MB down and 4 up. But WiFi is slower always than that, with limited range. And for the past 24 hours has been effectively useless with speeds ranging from under 1mb to dropped connections to an occasional spike up to 20MB. Netflix viewing over WiFi is impossible on a TV or through Apple TV, and iPads continually lose and need to reacquire a WiFi connection.
Calling customer service was a long painful disaster similar to what others have described.
I'd like to understand what are my options. It seems like:
1. I can put the Arris into bridge mode which will require a customer service call. Then I can connect a dual band wifi router. Can someone confirm that this will actually solve my wifi problems? It kills me to have to still spend $7 a month to rent a modem from these guys and go buy a new wifi router....
2. Assuming this is the case, then which router would people recommend? Here is the #1 rated one on Amazon, will this work for $49?
Medialink Wireless-N Broadband Router with Internal Antennas (300 Mbps) - 2.4GHz - 802.11b/g/n - Compatible with Windows 8 / Windows 7 / Windows Vista / Windows XP / Mac OS X / Linux
Can I get away with this one instead for $25?
NETGEAR RangeMax WNR1000 Wireless Router
Do I have to have a dual band and if so would this one work for $45?
WD My Net N750 HD Dual Band Router Wireless N WiFi Router Accelerate HD
3. Assuming I can just get rid of Comcast's rental fee completely and buy a cable modem, given that I have phone service as well, if I understand these boards correctly, I will need a cable telephony modem like the following for $81. Is that right?
ARRIS / Motorola SurfBoard SB6141 DOCSIS 3.0 Cable Modem - Retail Packaging - White
Assuming so, then I will also need a WiFi router because the telephony modems don't seem to have one built in and given my trouble with the Arris, I guess all in one devices don't always work out.
Thanks in advance for your thoughts.
> ... if I understand these boards correctly, I will need a cable
> telephony modem like the following for $81. Is that right?
> Arris-Motorola SurfBoard SB6141 DOCSIS 3.0 Cable Modem ...
The Motorola SB6141 is NOT a telephony modem. For Comcast
VoIP telephone service, you're pretty much stuck with Arris -- but
not with the TG862G modem/router/WiFi/disaster.
I traded-in my TG862G for a TM822G voice modem -- without the
router/WiFi. I couldn't find one (from a reputable source) for under
$200-ish, so I'm renting it from Comcast -- at least until the price
or selection improves. It makes no sense to buy one at current
prices (with no warranty and no comcast support if/when it fails).
Too soon to know whether the TM822G is problem-free, but
ANYTHING is likely to be less quirky/braindead than the 862.
good luck,
Looby
I have been dealing with the same issues for weeks, now finally figured out the TG862G is a piece of junk!! I am ticked off that I got rid of my old set up because I felt pushed to do this upgrade because Comcast said it was better. I should have read the boards before I made the so called "upgrade." I too am using their phone system and pretty much stuck with their equipment. I do plan on bridging the modem so I can use another router and hopefully this takes care of the problem. I will post the results once I get everything set up and have a few hours to make the call to comcast support to have it bridged (and yes they have to do it from their end). Oh and btw the older Arris worked much better and came with a backup battery to make phone calls for up to 30 mins without power. The "upgrade" TG862G has no battery and comcast makes you buy one from them and charge you extra!! Now you know why they want you to upgrade. And to answer your question ANY modem/router will be better then what you have now.
ndstreet,
I have also experienced horrible wifi connection speeds and poor reliability with the Arris TG862G. I have a second computer connected by wifi only 35 feet away in my home (only 2 drywall partitions between it and the Arris), and it hardly ever tests above 1mbps and drops connections all the time (I have the "Performance" package (25 mbps down, 5 mbps up.) My main computer, connected to the Arris via ethernet, always tests at least 25-30 mbps.
Rather than bridge the Arris as in your alternatives 1-2, I can confirm that you can bridge a wifi router instead, without having to mess with Comcast customer service. My office "gifted" me a couple-year-old Linksys/Cisco EA4500 wireless router that they no longer needed after upgrading their wireless network. I found out the EA4500 could be easily put in bridge mode, disabling DNS, then plugged into the Arris - turning it into a very nice wireless access point!
The difference is amazing. With no changes to the Arris, I ran a short 6-ft cable to the EA4500 from one of the regular ethernet ports on the back of the Arris, and now I have an additional wifi access point, much more configurable (has dual band, and guest access) - that tests at about 20 mpbs, with a very strong signal throughout the house. Also connects instantly to all my "iDevices."
An EA4500 is about $100 new, but I bet you could find some really good deals on older or refurbished ones. There may be cheaper alternatives, but I can confirm this one works like a charm.
If you're going to pay rent, you might as well keep the Arris, since you'll need a cable modem with telephony support (or a separate VOIP bridge), and yes, a wifi router anyway. The Moto SB6141 doesn't appear to support telephony, and doesn't have a phone jack like the Arris. Maybe you can hold out for a wifi fix to the Arris, or a new model.
If you want to buy, I'd wonder about finding a reasonably priced Comcast-supported DOCSIS 3.0 modem with telephony, and ipv6 for future. If you get it from Comcast, then I bet their own user interface would be tweaked to eliminate features they don't want you to have. And for $7 a month, you can rent it for a couple of years before having reached the price of buying a new gateway, which will probably be obsolete by then...
--OD
OperaDad,
Just want to make sure I understand your solution. Use a wifi router and that you can disable DNS and put in bridge mode itself, that effectively becomes a new WiFi access point. If I understand that right, then you don't have to call Comcast to turn off the Arris, just plug the new modem into the LAN ports in the back of the Arris and make the adjustments to it.
I know you mentioned the EA4500 unit but I think a number of modems, if not all relatively new ones, allow this to be done. That sounds like a good solution to me. Especially since you can get a pretty good Netgear modem for $25 and even a dual band one for under 50 right now on Amazon. And I would imaging both would allows this to be done. I guess I don't love the interference of the Arris still sending out a signal. But I guess its ok.
I have a technician coming in for a service visit tomorrow. It will be interesting to see what he says. At the moment, I can't get a WiFi signal three feet from the Arris. I'm actually hoping it stays that way until tomorrow when he gets here but given the flakiness of the unit, who knows.
ndstreet wrote:OperaDad,
Just want to make sure I understand your solution. Use a wifi router and that you can disable DNS and put in bridge mode itself, that effectively becomes a new WiFi access point.
[correct.]
If I understand that right, then you don't have to call Comcast to turn off the Arris, just plug the new modem into the LAN ports in the back of the Arris and make the adjustments to it.
[correct.]
I know you mentioned the EA4500 unit but I think a number of modems, if not all relatively new ones, allow this to be done. That sounds like a good solution to me. Especially since you can get a pretty good Netgear modem for $25 and even a dual band one for under 50 right now on Amazon. And I would imaging both would allows this to be done.
[makes sense to me, but I can only vouch that the EA4500 works...]
...I guess I don't love the interference of the Arris still sending out a signal. But I guess its ok.
[I haven't noticed any interference. They seem to keep clear of one another. The TG862G uses 2.4GHz; the dual-band EA4500 uses that, simultaneous with 5GHz, which probably helps with interference. It could be 2.4GHz interference, in addition to the weak signal, that's causing all the problems people are posting about.
If you notice interference, I suppose you could manually select a single broadcast channel for the Arris. I couldn't find a way to just turn off wifi using the Comcast-supplied mortal human interface.]
Regards,
--OD
I see lots of interference from the TG862 WiFi. It appears to be determined
to use a 40 MHz channel width, effectively doubling interference overlaps
with other 2.4 GHz g/n access points. A well-behaved 2.4GHz WiFi station
should notice potential interference problems and reduce its own channel
width to 20 MHz. My $60 dual-band Netgear does exactly that -- so why
is a $200-$250 (street price) TG862G so drain bamaged?
BTW, if you have a Mac, the "WiFi Explorer" app can be a real eye-opener.
The TG862's signal strength is far less than that of my cheap Netgear
(7-8 dB weaker @ 2.4 GHz to be exact). That's anemic enough to cause
WiFi coverage problems, but still strong enough to seriously degrade
the performance of nearby 2.4GHz APs.
Relying on 5 GHz from a dual-band doesn't help much if you're looking
for longer range. 5GHz is fast at short range, but doesn't touch 2.4 GHz
for distance.
The TG862's default (and "recommended") security mode also appears
to be responsible for its jerky downstream speed and dismal upstream
performance. Mine frequently couldn't even complete speedtest.net's
upstream test, it bogged down at < 0.2 Mbps and eventually timed out.
Yes, you can "work around" that problem in admin mode -- but it comes
back when the router resets. ...and Comcast support droids LOVE resets.
...the best application of a TG862 is as a paperweight -- IMO, of course,
Looby
"One measurement is worth a thousand expert opinions."
Looby,
Thanks for the info. I'm not really sure why my setup is working, it just does.
In my case, devices near the Arris still work using its wifi, but the ones in the bedrooms don't - they work great if I connect to the bridged wifi router. I did not try changing the default security mode for the Arris. (I've read other posts that said they had better luck doing that, but seems less secure).
I do have a Mac, and I'll look into WiFi Explorer. I like to learn about this stuff.
--OD
Update from my original post.
Had a Comcast Tech here today. Very pleasant guy. Very friendly. I am not quite sure his fix makes any sense but here is what he said.
He stated that he has seen similar issues in Arris TG862G which have been caused by a change in network ID and/or password. That is correct....he said by changing your network name or password, you somehow caused a problem in your WiFi connection from the Arris.
I questioned him on this, trying to explain how ridiculous that sounded. I pointed him to these forums where many have expressed issues.
He replaced my Arris with a new one, and everything works perfectly for now. I have not changed the network name or password on his advice. I am not confident that this has anything to do with the Arris issues.
My new strategy is to call Comcast as soon as I see the first glitch and make them replace it. Then again and again until someboday does something, or I get fed up and buy a dual band router. But I'm just not certain that resets of the Arris or other issues will just make that problematic as well.
This has been a very interesting thread. I ran across it after experiencing problems trying to connect a Windows 7 laptop with the Arris TG-862. While I can get online with the modem, when I go to view the network map in Windows network explorer and click on the modem icon, I get a "connection failed" message. I cannot see or connect to any of the other devices on the network (which are set to shared operation).
Also, when logging into the modem setup (which I can do through IE), at least one of the devices connected to the modem did not show it's device ID name. Very bizarre.
Have had no problems with the particular laptop (an HP Mini 1104) on other Wi-Fi networks.
What a hassle....
Wow Comcast!. How many people have to complain before you realize that you need to stop using useless equipment? Your service is not cheap pricewise but quality wise you are not what you claim. FYI I have used many types of routers and can never seem to get good constant wifi. Now just using the Arris and some of my devices are not compatible plus still having wifi issues. Thus keeping to just one source is not solving anything. Last point is that the over seas customer support is also a failure.
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