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Review on ARRIS Surfboard S33 Multi Gigabit Ethernet by Ryan Marx

Revainrating 5 out of 5

Tiny and fast for computers and accessories

I'm used to big and bulky modems of the past, so I was surprised at how small it was when it arrived. Physical installation was easy as it only has one RF connector and two Ethernet ports. The instructions provided were easy to follow in terms of accessing the interface and setting things up there. I couldn't activate it from the Comcast activation page. This will now direct you to use the app which has repeatedly refused to accept the MAC address. I ended up contacting Comcast support and was able to activate them after about half an hour of texting and emailing to verify account ownership and confirm the activation "order". I blame Comcast for all this wasted time and effort because activation used to be a very easy and do-it-yourself process. Routing through the application, which doesn't appear to have an up-to-date list of approved modem MAC addresses, appears to have been added in the last year or so. Getting back to the modem itself, did I mention it's tiny? It's been running for weeks now with no issues after I was finally able to activate it. I ended up buying a hub to increase the number of ethernet ports for some of the older hardware we still use and a PS4 that had Wi-Fi stopped working. The only thing that worries me is the price since it is a single purpose device. Device. Yes, it has the benefit of being DOCSIS 3.1 compliant, but it's not exactly a new technology at the moment. $99.99 seems more reasonable. On the plus side, I no longer have to spend $13/month to rent an old Comcast TG1682G that I didn't use WiFi on anyway.

Pros
  • New to my collection
Cons
  • Makes me nervous