Review on ARRIS SURFboard SB6190 DOCSIS 3.0 Cable Modem: Cox, Spectrum, Xfinity & more - White by Ashwin Patel

Yes, one star rating. I usually only write positive reviews for things I like, but this ARRIS SURFboard SB6190 Cable Modem is a must buy. In a wire cutting process, I gave up a rented Cox modem in favor of this ARRIS SURFboard SB6190. . Although not a DOCSIS 3.1 modem, it is 3.0 and supports 32x8 link bonding. Similar 3.1 modems cost twice as much, so I chose the best price. The SB6190 is based on the Intel Puma chip and the inscription "Intel Inside" is prominently displayed on the front of the modem. At first everything looked great, the modem combined 32 downlinks and 4 uplinks, our network speed went from 30 Mbit/s to 2, up to 80 down and 10 up - all while keeping the modem rental. I reckoned the modem would pay for itself in savings in 8 months. What can go wrong? Delay. Latency is something that can go wrong. At least that's what they write in the negative reviews about this device. From time to time the traffic just hung for 2 or 3 seconds - I call it "bursts", not lag. It's not a big deal for web browsing, email, and even Netflix streaming, but it's deadly for the kind of remote work my wife and I do. We both use VPN and remote access software like Putty ssh and Microsoft RDP for work. These programs require persistent connections, a 2 or 3 second network signal will break the connection. For ssh you have to log in again and you will lose your work, for RDP it will reconnect in a few seconds and you will keep working, but for VPN if you lose that session forget it. And these eruptions happened 2 or 3 times an hour. I was aware of the negative reviews about this modem and the Intel Puma chip before I bought it, but most of them were a year or older and I wanted it 32/. 8 binding. I assumed the firmware update already fixed the Intel Puma chip issue. I wanted to believe Now after 3 months of ownership I have given up. The constant drops made me angry and my wife absolutely rebellious. SB6190 had to go. After further research, I replaced the SB6190 with an ARRIS SURFboard SB6183 16x4 Docsis 3.0 Modem Cable Modem – Retail Package – White. The SB6183 is still a 3.0 modem but only connects 16 downlinks and 4 uplinks. It also costs about $20 less than the SB6190. Most importantly, the SB6183 is based on a Broadcom chip and not an obviously defective Intel Puma chip. Using the SB6183, the connection was 16/4 as advertised, but my network speed stayed exactly the same at 80/10Mbps. Unfortunately I missed the return period and am now stuck with a defective SB6190 cable modem. . You can see it for sale online, slightly used, at a very reasonable price.