Amazon.com: Customer reviews: NETGEAR Cable Modem CM500 - Compatible with All Cable Providers Including Xfinity by Comcast, Spectrum, Cox | for Cable Plans Up to 300 Mbps

Top positive review

Average Guy, not a techie

Reviewed in the United States on February 5, 2018

We have Comcast, this modem is supported by Comcast and it’s super easy to set up. It took less than ten minutes. If you have Comcast there are specific instructions to set it up. Very easy.
The modem works so far. Our internet speeds are where they are supposed to be.
Stop renting your modem and buy it!

As for technical stuff I have no idea what any of it is without googling something.
I paired it with a LINKSYS EA7300 wireless router and am now enjoying way better connectivity.

409 people found this helpful

Top critical review

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Stopped working after 2 months

Reviewed in the United States on August 17, 2018

This modem was great and behaved exactly as advertised, but only for two months. I started to notice spotty internet last week and blamed it on Comcast and then my internet went completely out 3 days ago. All the modem lights were on, my router was working fine, but I couldn't get internet. The Comcast technician came over for an hour today until we finally realized the modem wasn't responding correctly so I replaced this with my old modem and got my internet back.

So there you go bought Jun. 13, officially dead Aug. 14. Outside of the return period and now I'm stuck with a paperweight. The technician also warned me against Netgear modems too, he said they tend to fail earlier. I do NOT recommend getting this you can get cheaper more reliable modems (Arris). Thanks Netgear for disappointing me, you've lost a fan.

584 people found this helpful

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From the United States

Kate Rose Tyler

be cautious when buying this modem - heed the warnings from the rest of us

Reviewed in the United States on July 10, 2018

Style: 300Mbps Max DownloadVerified Purchase

I bought this modem with high hopes. we have a 4-year-old Netgear Nighthawk router for our 4-computer and 2-xbox gaming household. it's held up perfectly and still functions as well as the day we got it.

this modem, not so much.

I should have listened to the 50+ other reviewers who lamented about the modem working for 1-3 months and then continuously dropping connection, necessitating a power cycle/restart. ours did the same thing. we power cycled it four times and it worked between every power cycle for about 10 minutes, then would drop connection again. the same exact thing everyone else was complaining about.

we are a house of 4 online gamers (me less so, I mostly stream Netflix/Hulu and play Nintendo consoles, but I occasionally join the online fray). 3 of us built our own custom gaming machines and we pay for fast internet (Spectrum in San Diego is great, aside from Cox but they're not available in our area of SD). I don't want to sound like a snob, but we know what we're doing when it comes to computers and wireless devices.

this modem gets VERY HOT. we didn't have it in an enclosed space, it was free-standing on an open shelf. not smothered at all. it was hot within the first half an hour of us plugging it in for the first time. we suspect that the heating problem fries one a component inside the modem that controls the signal. I myself don't know a whole lot about modems, but I suspect what's malfunctioning is either the modulator or the demodulator (incidentally where the name modem comes from; MODulator and DEmodulator, swap the letters D & E), the parts that turn the signal you get from your ISP into data your computer can read, thus giving it its connection, and vice versa.

if you buy this modem, it will eventually fail. we turned it on for the first time on May 31st, and it failed yesterday, July 9th. Netgear normally makes fantastic devices, our AC3200 Netgear Nighthawk router has served us well for four years. eventually we'll have to buy a new one but four years is a long time for a router and I attribute its longevity and ability to handle massive amounts of traffic for four years straight to its superior technology and build. I highly recommend the Nighthawk routers, they are great.

we had to bust out our old Arris one and I am on the hunt for a replacement for this Netgear one. the Arris one is doing a fine job for now. my bf originally had it for his Cox connection where we used to live and it served him well. he plays games like DOTA 2, Fortnite, League of Legends, Rocket League etc so he needs a good connection. we have two people hardwired to our internet using our router as a switch to support the dual ethernet connections since most standard consumer modems only have one ethernet port.

run far away from this modem. the second star is ONLY because while the modem was alive, it performed perfectly. if not for the fatal overheating flaw and subsequent hardware fail, this modem would be fantastic. it allowed us 240mbps down with our 200mbps plan from Spectrum.

50 people found this helpful

Helpful

RyeLusion

Intel puma 6 chipset on CM700 increases latancy 10X over CM600. Dont Buy this!

Reviewed in the United States on January 12, 2019

Style: 500Mbps Max DownloadVerified Purchase

Most of you who follow tech related news are aware that this product contains the Puma 6 chipset from intel. Intel Puma 6 chip has been shown to have some latency issues with this and other 32 x 8 modems. The chipset just isn't up performing 32 x 8 tasks. A class action lawsuit has been filed and its clear the issue still exists. In short you don't want this modem because it will be slowing down your internet connection relative to other, better designed modems. This isn't a recommendation against netgear, many netgear routers don't have this issue, and other manufacturers used this bad chipset as well. But do yourself a favor and check if the device you are looking at has an intel puma 6 chipset before buying, you will save yourself a ton of headache and have faster internet response times if you opt for one that doesnt have this chipset in its specifications.

31 people found this helpful

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Ryan

CM1000 modem

Reviewed in the United States on March 2, 2020

Style: 1000Mbps Max DownloadVerified Purchase

This is a decent modem, but it is outclassed in specs and build quality by both the Arris SB8200 and the Motorola MB8600. It is also vulnerable to a critical exploit which can potentially leave your network open to others.

I originally chose the CM1000 because I had a great history with my CM600. Throughout the years I owned the CM600, the device never needed reboots, and my signal quality was great. It is currently serving as a modem at my parents home.

Now that I have gigabit internet, I needed a more powerful modem. The CM1000 disappointed me with the build quality. The base is made of plastic and feels very cheap and wobbly. I also think having a thin and wide plastic base looks less than appealing, but most people won’t be looking at their modem, so it isn’t a huge dealbreaker. The CM1000 has lesser specs than the competing 3.1 modems however, and this was very noticeable. The modem homepage loaded extremely slow, and during the 2 weeks that the modem was working, the connection was not always perfect.

I gave up on the modem after having completely lost connection to my isp. Upon further research into troubleshooting, I found out that this modem is susceptible to a vulnerability known as “Cable Haunt.” This is a critical security exploit which can potentially give an attacker control of your modem. This issue is made worse due to the fact that firmware updates are pushed out by ISP’s, and not every internet provider will update modem firmware. I was stuck with a modem that wasn’t currently operational, and one that had a security exploit that wouldn’t be fixed as my ISP (Suddenlink) does not push out firmware updates.

My solution was to switch to the MB8600, which has much better build quality, a surge protector on the coaxial input, more RAM, and is not currently listed as being vulnerable to the Cable Haunt exploit.

13 people found this helpful

Helpful

Trevor Williams

Died After Three Months

Reviewed in the United States on May 10, 2020

Style: 2000Mbps Max DownloadVerified Purchase

There was another review which pretty much echoes my experience except that my modem started to fail just after the three-month mark. It's a real shame because in the 10+ years I've purchased my own modems (just two prior to this one) I've never had one fail before, let alone fail in just three months of use.

Everything worked exactly as expected from when I received it on January 18th, 2020. It was only a few days ago when, out of nowhere, the modem just stopped working as intended. In summary, it could download content, but uploading became very inconsistent, thus making video conferencing all but impossible. On top of that, the overall connection became spotty at best, working for a few hours before completely staying dead for another few hours.

Given the shelter-in-place order my state is in right now, not being able to effectively work from home without a reliable internet connection was completely unacceptable.

Of course I blamed Comcast first.

A technician came to my home yesterday (very helpful, knowledgeable, and a DIY PC builder like myself) to inspect the hard line from the street, the line from the box on the side of my house to where it directly connects to the modem, and the modem itself. They upgrading some cabling in the box, but other than that the signal strength for them was strong and healthy. After several repeated attempts to get the modem to work, the conclusion was that the modem itself was at fault. After weighing the options and examining the evidence, I decided to accept their XB6 modem as a replacement.

I'm REALLY disappointed at my Netgear CM1200 modem crapping out, and so early into its life. Though I haven't rented a modem in a long time, I'd rather do that right now than risk spending another $200 on a Netgear product that might die within a quarter.

7 people found this helpful

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Private User

Worked well for 8 months, then died. Netgear unwilling to support w/o more $$

Reviewed in the United States on August 25, 2020

Style: 2000Mbps Max DownloadVerified Purchase

Install was easy and the device worked as one would expect for about 8 months. After 8 months it started having multicast ranging errors and the connection to my ISP would only stay active for less than a minute. Provider came out and checked the line and had full signal strength an top connection speeds, whereas the router connected to the modem was lucky to get 20mbps down and 0.5mpbs up. Previously speeds had been over 200 down and 14 up.

Lines and connections were inspected and tested and found to be in proper operating order. ISP replaced the modem with one of their modems and the speeds were back to normal.

Contacted Netgear support. It was past the 90 day warranty but within the 1 year hardware support window. Netgear said "not our modem's problem" and was willing to provide support for $130 for a year. I politely declined as that was far too expensive and beyond the my needs, plus if everything outside of the modem tests fine, the reasonable deduction is that it is the modem that is faulty.

4 people found this helpful

Helpful

Was great to start, but didn't last

Reviewed in the United States on June 3, 2018

Style: 1000Mbps Max DownloadVerified Purchase

Worked fine for 2 months now I am rebooting almost daily to get my rated internet speeds. 20mb/.5 before reboot, 175/6 after reboot. 31 channels locked down / 4 channels locked going up. Since I can fix my issue by rebooting the router I know it's not a ISP problem. For the price and the reputation of NetGear I expected much better.

14 people found this helpful

Helpful

Rob

UPDATE 2 days LATER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Reviewed in the United States on March 19, 2019

Style: 1000Mbps Max DownloadVerified Purchase

If you bought the 1Gbps speed from comcast and bought a Arris Surfboard......then you know the pain. I was lead to buy a surfboard of 1.4Gbps but its false advertisement and isnt docsis 3.1. You need docsis 3.1 modem for 1Gbps, and this netgear was the missing piece!

Install was easy, I plugged it right up and called the Xfinity agents up and this sweet agent did all the work after she put in the MAC address and Model number on my account to activate, then unplugged the router and BOOOM! 1GBPS!

Speed test confirms speed and im happy I now have what I paid for! EASY PEASY!!!!!

UPDATE AS OF 3/21/2019********

so the box didnt work consistently it seems. but it could still be xfinity! we had 1gbps straight line from the pole but then it went to 50 mbps download and 40 upload and stayed there forever. we tried isolating the router and speed testing the modem and still same speeds. xfinity guy tries to get my stuff to work for hours but no go. new xb6 modem installed for 15 a month and all my services work. who knows. maybe they secretly forced me into this as a conspiracy theory or the modem just didnt work! hahhaa. well who knows but right now my speed tests are 980 Mbps! im happy but all in all.......

BUY THIS WITH THE UNDERSTANDING THAT IT MAY NOT WORK WITH TP LINK AC2300 router since i failed with that setup and my modem coulda been bad aswell. Try it and be prepared to return if need be! Goodluck!

6 people found this helpful

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Cary in Va.

WIFI u stress me out Router ?

Reviewed in the United States on September 16, 2020

Style: 2000Mbps Max Download w/VoiceVerified Purchase

I fought this thing for 4 weeks, losing signal and having to Hard Power 0ff . Probably every 3 days. Losing signal meant my 5 Ring Devices would cease to perform. After pulling out my last Hair , I called the Tech Line. Where the Rep will be speaking with a thick accent , and my Va. accent was not helping either. So, I found out even though I had not had the Router longer than a month , it had 2 Firmware Updates that were not installed. Mind you the NetGear App you download on your Smart Phone has an Update Check to do for you. This does not function. It will say NO UPDATES at this time available. Even though I was 2 firmware updates behind. It looks like NetGear would have sent me a current firmware on this Router . No worries though, if you're up to 2 hrs. of Tech Assistance with someone in Baliwood . You will have to use your Lap Top, Desk Top , connected ( hard wired) with an Ethernet Cable directly to your Router, and start browsing for your Router IP address in 1 window and then open another window to go to your Netgear acct and download the current Firmware to your Desktop , Documents, etc. and go to the other window where you have your Advanced Tab and try try try to get it to update, I had given up and finally Rebooted the system and when it came back up it had the current firmware downloaded. Thank you Jesus . This appears that it has corrected the Hard Power off every 3 days, or so. So it was the out of date firmware causing the frustration. BUT they need to address why the simple tab to check for downloads on the iPhone app says it's current when it is not . That's why that option is included within the Netgear Nighthawk app.

3 people found this helpful

Helpful

MotownRock

Slow. Poor Support. Weak Warranty

Reviewed in the United States on December 11, 2018

Style: 300Mbps Max DownloadVerified Purchase

Bought this to replace the unit I was renting from Xfinity. Installation was on par with any other modem – connect the wires, quick setup, and activate with Xfinity. The problem was inconsistent, and at times, awful performance. When connected to a router that had been reliably connecting at 50 to 80 Mbps, with my old modem, this device often cut the signal to less than 10 Mbps.

I’ve been happy with multiple Netgear routers in the past and realize that tech devices can be hit or miss when they are mass-produced. The real issue with this purchase was Netgear itself.

I called the support line, and after holding for an agent, he had me reboot and quickly told me it was an ISP issue and to call Xfinity. Spoiler alert: The Netgear agent turned out to be wrong.

After long but productive troubleshooting call with Xfinity, we ruled out any line or compatibility issues. Switching between the 2 modems pinned the quality issues on the Netgear device with packet loss of 14-20% (over 5-10% is significant).

My next call with Netgear to get a warranty exchange was worse than the first. The rep provided inconsistent and very misleading information. My first questions were whether the replacement would be a new device and if I would have to pay shipping in either direction. The agent said that I would get a “working” replacement and that there was a “zero cost” exchange option. When pressed, she said the replacement would be refurbished that I had to pay for return shipping with “zero cost” option. If I wanted a refurbished unit, I could have bought one for less money instead of paying for new PLUS shipping. When I asked her to escalate the call, she said her manager was busy but would call me in “4 or 5 hours.” That would have been after 11pm so she promised that I would get a call the next day. That was 3 days ago and still no callback.

My take is that Netgear support will say anything to clear their call queue and company doesn’t fully stand behind its products. I actually got better support from the cable company. Think about that.

I wound up returning it to Amazon with zero hassle and paid a few bucks more for TP-Link modem with better specs. I’ve had good luck with a recently-purchased TP-Link router and am hoping for the same with their modem. As for Netgear, they’ve lost this customer and I encourage other potential customers to think carefully before buying Netgear based on their trust of the brand.

5 people found this helpful

Helpful

Timezone

CM1150V - Excellent Modem with Voice (but beware)

Reviewed in the United States on August 26, 2020

Style: 2000Mbps Max Download w/VoiceVerified Purchase

The Modem was very easy to setup and Comcast was even easier. In advance and before the setup I supplied Comcast with the two Mac addresses. The Xfinity.com/Activate did not work on my PC. I had the PC direct connected to the Modem. I know why it didn't work and will explain in a bit. I went to the Xfinity site on my phone. It has a connection to the mobile carrier. Xfinity web page knew I had a device to provision and in seconds it was provisioned. Except nothing worked.

I now have a better appreciation of link aggregation. I am very much aware this is a modem and NOT a modem/router. Without link aggregation only one device either a PC or Router can be connected to the modem. Otherwise it would be a modem/router. I get that but I still bought this assuming I could add multiple devices to the Modem. Which explains the initial problem I had getting my PC to work. The modem didn't like having all the ethernet ports connected to various devices. I called Netgear and got it up and running by removing all the ports except for the PC and we reset the Modem. Next I removed the PC and connected a four year old Orbi RBR50. It didn't work. I was still on the phone with Netgear and was able to get this working with some assistance. Changes to the Orbi setup fixed the connectivity issue. I also power cycled the modem. My Wifi is definitely faster with this modem but I can't prove it. I didn't run a speed test before changing Modems. Wifi speeds Download = 341 Mbps Upload = 12.1

Overall I am happy with this purchase. It is a future proof purchase because I won't come close to the allowed speeds on this modem.

Orbi RBR50 - No idea or guarantee this fixes all Router Manufacture or Models connectivity to the CM1150V
1. Internet IP Address - Get Dynamically from ISP
2. Set Router Mac address - Use Computer Mac address
3. Domain Name Server (DNS) Address - Get Automatically from ISP

*******UPDATE*******
About a week after the purchase the Modem died. All four ethernet lights were on even when I removed the router to it. The power light (red) and globe came on for a second and then shut off. Testing with Netgear proved it was dead. Amazon could not do an exchange. I got a refund. Despite my better judgement I bought it again but this time from BB. This product shipped from Amazon would have taken almost a week. I needed a working Modem. Happy with the refund from Amazon but when it comes to critical infrastructure items I wished Amazon had a better exchange policy.

The Comcast phone and internet worked right away. Around the same time the service dropped. Calling Comcast they had both my old and new modem on file and the Netgear was not active. Not sure why it worked for a week. I recommend not activating the modem using the online xfinity/activation process. Call Comcast to provision the equipment as others have suggested.

***To Netgear - it may be obvious to the network engineers of the world that these are not regular ethernet ports. The package states they are ethernet ports. Technically correct but with a special function. By not being clear on the packaging you are being deceptive. Even the description lends some doubt. "4 Gigabit Ethernet ports (allow 2 LAN aggregation to double wired speeds)" What are the other 2 ethernet ports doing?

One person found this helpful

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5 star		73%
4 star		12%
3 star		5%
2 star		2%
1 star		8%

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NETGEAR Cable Modem CM500 - Compatible with All Cable Providers Including Xfinity by Comcast, Spectrum, Cox | for Cable Plans Up to 300 Mbps | DOCSIS 3.0

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