CG3000DCR - Options/Alternatives?

Hello Trent and Welcome,

So you are having streaming issues and what is your current Business Internet speed?  In reality your issue sounds to me like it is your bandwidth unless there is something highly specialized with your streaming.  Fill us in a liittle on internet speed, type types you stream, etc.

Lool forward to hearing from you

Speed 16/3. Not the speed, as any buffered streaming works fine.  In other words, I can stream HD down from YouTube.  Or stream pre-recorded video up to a mobile device from my server without issue.  The problem is with live streaming.  IE. Skype, GoToMeeting, etc.  Basically with live streaming, there'll be random hangs on voice or on the screen share.  And random disconnects.  

As you can see below, from pinging the modem, there are random bursts of latency.  Just to make sure, I eliminated the possiblity of other things interfering on the network by removing all but a single machine hooked directly into the modem.  And eliminated the possibility of the machine being the problem by trying the same from different machine.  

Yes, this looks like the issue I and many others saw with the Netgear unit. See this thread about it:

http://forums.businesshelp.comcast.com/t5/Equipment-Modems-Gateways/COMCAST-Serious-Problems-with-all-Netgear-CG3000DCR-Gateway/m-p/5400#U5400

I never found any "resolution". I just switched to the Cisco DPC3939B gateway. It's latencies are slightly higher than I would expect from your average gateway, but they're consistent; none of this 1- and 2-second BS. I have streamed live security cam video through it many times with no problems.

Other than that.... just hope for a firmware update 🙂 There have been numerous updates to the Netgear firmware over time.

I called & said I wanted to upgrade to a gateway "that had wireless", and the CSR immediately put in a service call for installation of a Cisco; during the call he mentioned we should be "much happier" with it over the Netgear, and that many people have called in to swap from the Netgear to anything else. Be aware you MAY have to pay a $99 install charge, though there are reports of that never showing up on the bill. Also be aware that it has the "xfinitywifi" feature, which some report having difficulty staying disabled.

Yup.  That's exactly it.  

What's the easiest way to switch to the Cisco?  I'm worried I'll call up customer support, and be on the phone for hours, or dealing with the run-around for days.  

Hello Trent and welcome,

I notice that your ping test is specifically from 192.168.236.1 which is either an interconnected router or you reprogrammed the NG3K DHCP Server addressing schema, so could you clarify which it is?

The NG3G Forum reference that train_wreck provided was in the 2013 timeframe and there have been significant FW updates up to recently that have been targeted to resolve this and many other issues.  Also, I work with other business class customers who use NG3K Comcast Gateways for streaming and other video file processing that do not have any such issues with direct connection to the NG3K.

Look forward to hear ing you. 

Changed NG3K IP.  

Called in and requested a new modem.  Was told I could update to the latest hardware with wireless for $70.  Done. 

Will let everyone know how it performs after it's installed tomorrow. 

Hello Trent,

For the community can you tell us your new modem's model and make?

Thank you

DPC3939B

Doing well so far.  I'll be testing it tomorrow. 

Final Update.

Ping times are much more consistent now.  Averaging 10ms  with an occassional hiccup of 40ms or so.  Much better than the 1-2 second times.

Had multiple calls, and shares with no dropping. So it looks to be working great.  

Excellent. Yeah, i've noticed those one-off 40ms ping jumps before, it's never seemed to affect me, and it appears to me that it may just be ICMP de-prioritizing, as pingtest..net reports my jitter to be the average ~1-5ms that I usually see (their test uses TCP packets, not ICMP echos), and I don't really notice any latency impact on actual applications.