Arris TM822g DOCSIS 3.0 Telephony Cable Modem [Bulk Packaging]

SO many reviews including explanations and processes in dealing with Comcast/Xfinity concerning getting them on board with the idea of no longer using their obligatory "little black box" telephony router/modem, so I will not bore you with more saga of the same. YES not much has changed in that respect, however, I will say "LEO" of Comcast/Xfinity tech support was only my 5th attempt to get them to recognise my new-found freedom from the tyranny of Comcast/Xfinity's stranglehold on WiFi quality and services for its customers. We continue to have an issue with them realising we do, indeed, intend to also have "land line" service extended through our paid and existing Comcast/Xfinity account. However... You want a review of this product? It arrived on time, with no instructions in the box, but wires were provided for all necessary and available hook-ups. The fact there was no literature arriving with the product was of little concern, thanks to the reviews here, of course, on the trial and error process, and even the product description by the seller, concerning what NOT to do when attempting to get Comcast/Xfinity to meet your needs in hooking all this to your account so it all works right. But THE BEST THING about this product? IT WORKS! Plain and simple, that's what I wanted, what our household was missing for the 5+ years we had been struggling for a consistent, reliable signal from Comcast/Xfinity, to access the internet and all that comes with the privilege of paying an ISP... this is THE FIRST TIME we have experienced the power and speed associated with the Comcast/Xfinity account we've been paying for all this time. If you are having issues with slow uploads/throughput speeds, dropped web signals, needs to reboot, and you have any of the provided Comcast/Xfinity routers that use a phone/cat5 cable to give you a way to access your old school "land line" phone at your house... YOU NEED ONE OF THESE. Worth every penny and then some! That's my review, and I will gladly recommend this product to everyone who has Comcast/Xfinity and doesn't already have one of these. Oh, and huge thanks to Alfonso at Best Buy for turning me on to this great product!

The modem seemed to work OK. It got registered for about a month or so in February 2016. The problem is getting Comcast to activate it and keep it active. I have tried several methods over the last 3 months to get them to activate it. They use every excuse to block the activation. Sometimes it will activate for a week or so and then drops from the account. After 3 months it deactivated again and I can't get Comcast to re-activate it. I've called and chatted several times without success. Unfortunately, Comcast doesn't want you to use your own modem and will successfully thwart your efforts to own one. The modem came with a page of suggestions on how to activate it but no way to contact the seller. In the end, either return it in the 30 days or get stuck with a modem that won't work.

As the seller warns, there may be some issues with comcast, but they are not the equip but comcast's policies. Before ordering this router, i checked comcast's "mydeviceinfo" page and found this modem approved for use. But because of reviews indicating comcast would accept it or activate it, i called into comcast curstomer svc and asked the rep to check that this unit (TM822G) was still approved - she came back that it was, but that as she had notes in her system about issues, it would be best to call in for activation, and not do it online. I received the unit this morning, called in and got a "Mac" in the phillipines, who, after taking all the critical info (the CMAC # and serial #), after 47 minutes on the phone with him, he tells me he cannot register this unit - NOT BECAUSE OF A MECHANICAL OR FIRMWARE OR EQUIPMENT PROBLEM, but that it's comcast policy to only register & activate rental units or units purchased from comcast (including TM822G modems). I had him confirm what i'd heard - that if i had purchased this unit from comcast, why he could register & activate it, but not since i had purchased it from amazon. I hung up, called right back in and got a customer svc agent that was a little more sympathetic - i indicated to her how i'd done my due diligence, even confirming with comcast rep that this unit was approved BEFORE i purchased it, and now that i have it, i'm being told i can't. I told the young lady, if this position stands, they can say goodbye, as i have flyers weekly from verizon offering the same package for $79.99 - and if i left, i would never be back. i asked her to talk her supervisor before telling me she couldn't activate it - she responded she didn't need to, she understood my frustration and she activated it. DON'T LET COMCAST BULLY YOU into buying it from them. The only reason i haven't left for verizon is that they are just as bad. The unit itself is working beautifully, i've noticed my download times have dropped, but this was an upgrade from a doscis 2.0 unit that was 5 years old. Warning on "porting" your telephone number to this modem from another carrier (i was with windstream) it can take 2 days for the "porting" to complete, so my phone line might be dead for a couple of days - but the old line is still active so i'm waiting for it to go dead, and that'll tell me the porting has completed (whatever the "porting" is). Hope this helps some