Upgrade to XB6 from XB3 or not?

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@CCAndrew wrote:
Impossible to say but if your XB3 doesn’t have issues why would the XB6.

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It has been my experience when I upgrade equipment it often means the new equipment needs everything else in the system to be upgraded to work properly. New equipment is more demanding. 

Hmmm. Says here 700 ???

https://www.xfinity.com/support/articles/broadband-gateways-userguides

Thanks for the reply. I don't understand what "rated" means. I was told the 3961T can handle 700Mbps. How will upgrading improve my performance? Any downsides to the XB6? Some of the lines in my apartment building are earlier Comcast cable would they have to be upgraded to get the XB6 to work properly? I was told by Comcast if I wanted Gig speed I would need a tech come in and balance my lines and unfortunately the landlord isn't interested in pulling new lines in the building so I don't want to upgrade past what the current lines can handle. Any suggestions?

But you don't think the XB6 will have problems with 10 year old Comast wiring in my apartment building?

When my last 2 year contract was up I went with the Signature tier rather than Gig speed tier because I didn't think the wiring in the apartment building would handle Gig speed and I didn't want a hassle with the landlord. Then Comcast gave us a speed bump from 400 to 600 and everything seems to be working so I thought I lucked out I got the bump without upgrading the modem.

I'm looking through other threads on the XB6 and I see others having trouble with thinks like Panasonic phone connections (which I have) etc so I guess I need to do more reading.

@WindsurfMaui 

If you can get 600 with the current coax cabling, you'll get it with an XB6 too.

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@CCAndrew wrote:

Hmmm. Says here 700 ???

https://www.xfinity.com/support/articles/broadband-gateways-userguides
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@EG
That’s true but we (as techs) were told we HAD to use XB6 for anything 400 or over. Different markets have different tiers, we only had a 250, a 400 and Gig tier.

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Understood Andrew. And I have heard that mentioned elsewhere in the past as well. The device does offer 24 bonded downstream channels, so it is technically capable of 700. Approx. around 912 actually.

Let's have a laugh.

So I read other threads about XB6 issues and finally decided that I probably won't have a problem if I upgrade to the XB6. So I go to the email sent by Comcast to see what they would have me do to upgrade. I click on the button about upgrading and it takes me to a page that says "I have the latest equipment" with a cute little green check mark at the top of the screen. So I guess I could get the XB6 if I wanted it but now Comcast isn't recommending that I need to upgrade. So why send me the email? They know what my equipment I use. Are they confused? I certainly am.

For the WiFi performance alone, the XB6 is a far better choice than the XB3. The XB6 has 8x8:8 Integrated Dual Band Concurrent 5GHz 802.11 ac Wave2 radios. 

It only has two Ethernet ports, but that's easily remedied with an inexpensive ethernet switch. 

I upgraded to the XB6 and here is some feedback.

Picked up an XB6 at local Xfinity store and that was the easy part.

I followed directions and hooked it up  and then logged in via wifi using the login/password on the bottom of the XB6. I would have preferred to use my hardwired computer and the instructions that came with the XB6 said I could use the computer but I guess not if it was hardwired since neither computer had access. In any event, I used the xFi app and went through the activation steps. I guess I didn't go all the way through because the house phone didn't work. I tried rebooting both the XB6 and the phone base but that didn't work. But the hardwired computers got access so I logged in on the computer. I logged into the my Xfinity account and it told me the activation wasn't done and took me to the web version of the xFi platform and finished the activation. Then the house phone worked.

Next I opened the 10.0.0.1 utility page and changed the password. Then went to the WiFi modules and added in all my WiFi devices. then came the problems. I wanted to modify the SSID for both the 2.4 & 5 frequencies as well as the password for each.  I didn't want to go with the same SSID and password for both frequencies. I know it says I will get better service but I want to stay logged into the faster frequency and not drop down to the slower frequency if I can help it. but that was the problem I couldn't get the change in the SSID or the passwords to take  in the 10.0.0.1 utility. I have done it many times before in the old modem but it just wouldn't take in the XB6. But then I used the xFi website on my computer and it took the changes in a second. Not sure why the utility wouldn't take the SSID changes.

So the results are too early to tell. All my hardwired computers are showing the same speed 625 as they did with the old 3941T. My phones and tablets are also getting the same speeds as with the old modem. That isn't a complaint I'm fairly happy with the speeds but  I assume the new XB6 gives me more growth for the future than the old modem..