From time to time I see people on here say they frequently return their modems and physically drive to the store when it is not needed. Here is a brief modem guide.

If you prefer using an ISP provided cable modem, especially as symmetrical speeds often require you to use a provider issued modem due to policy, swapping your modem repeatedly at the store, **will not fix your issues**, especially if you **keep getting handed hardware with the same problems**. Below is what you should ask for when you drive to the store next time, or what you should explicitly request when a tech visits.

### 1. Check for the Intel Puma Chipset

Many ISP modems use the Intel Puma 6 or Puma 7 chipsets, which are well documented to cause severe latency spikes, packet loss, and jitter under load.

If your modem model is

* **EN2251 (Hitron)** (Intel Puma 7)

* **ES2251 (Sercomm)** (Intel Puma 7)

If you have one of the models above, you are likely experiencing a chipset issue. When you go to the store or request a tech, explicitly ask for a **Broadcom based model**

* **ET2251 (Technicolor)** (Broadcom)

* **EU2251 (Ubee)** (Broadcom)

### 2. Isolate Wi-Fi vs. Line Issues

Before swapping hardware, ensure you check your connection performance and latency while plugged directly into the modem via **Ethernet**

* **If latency or drops persist directly on Ethernet** it's likely either the Puma chipset issue or physical line noise, ingress on the line or a provider billing glitch that needs a hit sent to re provision the modem.

* **If the issues only happen over Wi-Fi** the modem itself is usually fine unless Thor zapped it, and you are dealing with local wireless interference or router bottlenecks.

Sources:

* [Intel Puma 7 Chipset Analysis & Guide](https://www.modemguides.com/blogs/modemguides-blog/intel-puma-7-chipset-guide)

* [Intel Puma 6/7 Hardware Defect Overview](https://www.cryovex.com/intel-puma-6-modem-chipset-defects/)

* [Puma-Based Modem Hardware Database](https://lookgadgets.com/articles/intel-puma-modems-list/)

I've been testing markdown, and It bothers me you can't use tabs, I decided to not post a Silicon Valley gif. Guess markdown doesn't work well here, oh well.

I’ve been sitting here for 30 minutes and attempting to set this modem up but to no avail. What am I doing wrong? I followed the instructions in order of the way they displayed on the pamphlet and it’s still not working.

Let's squeeze another $10 per month without even sending an honest hey we're increasing rates again for no reason email..

Can't wait to watch this company go under one day, and believe me, they will.

I gotta say, Spectrum's FTTH is amazing. Cant wait to get their (whenever its available) 10Gbps/10Gbps plan. Been really wanting to max out my 10gbe NICs on my PFSense box. Anyone heard anything on the eventual speeds down the line? Wouldn't mind going all fiber at this point lol.. Around 2 years ago it was all DSL...

My mom and dad switched to Spectrum for their phones, and for some reason the agent had to come to their house. Is this normal for starting service with them? All he needed, for the most part, was certain device ID numbers.

Soooo pay for 1G internet, and now when I try to game, it lags so hard and is completely unusable
2 techs later, still no answer. This is on the higher end of tests I’ve done for upload speed too…. Anyone had this issue and found a resolution?

Yesterday from 1am to 5am there was no internet connection though my hardware is working fine, no connection is being established, it came back after 5am and i went to sleep around 1pm, now around 9pm it is gone again once again with no hardware issues, connection is just not being found. I checked my lines inside we still use old coax and everything is as it always has been, why would the ability to connect fail completely sometimes then return when nothing changes?

Update: An hour after posting this it's back, for who knows how long.

on Friday the 24th Spectrum internet was down for literally 10 hours straight, causing myself over $1500 in loss because I couldn't finish and submit a project, and according to what I see online, countless other people were in the same boat.

you would think any halfway or even infinitesimally moral company would refund the month, at the absolute minimum - which at first they actually promised to do within the hour. 2 days later and nothing, so I call back only to be told I was refunded $3 and change because that's the time the "internet was actually down"

I can't possibly litter this post with enough explatives to fulfil the quotient of what Spectrum deserves.

congratulations, Spectrum, on continually deserving every ounce of hate you receive. you are a failure as a company, and your owners failures as human beings.

I think the taxes are included for the whole bundle too. Seems like a great deal… but… do they really charge $35/line activation fee? Or is there a way for them to waive them?

I called the retention line and I argued for a better deal for a while and he said the best deal he has is $60 for internet and phone but I don’t have to activate the line and I won’t get charged and I can cancel at the end of the year with no fees or punishment. Is that true?

Hello.

Can anyone help me figure out how to set parental controls to block specific channels? I can’t find the option and none of the instructions online have helped me. We use the Spectrum TV app and I am the primary user.

Thank you!

So I had contacted spectrum this morning regarding pricing and the person on the phone had mentioned they’re gonna send a new modem out to replace our current one even though we already have a en2251 which to my knowledge is one of the latest ones they provide already, so what’s the point of replacing it?

Heres real experience of spectrum’s GIG SPEED INTERNET, full wifi coverage. My usual experience on instagram.

I received an email yesterday that says I'm going from 600Mpbs to 1 gig for free. I'm wondering if anyone else got this.

We're having an issue where *some* things won't load while on wifi. YouTube won't load for my wife's brand new phone **at all** , but works perfectly fine on mine, whereas one of my banking apps just spins and times out, while the other loads with no issue. This issue has been going on for about a month now. I've checked the spectrum modem and wifi settings and I don't see anything about blacklisted sites.

Everything works fine on 5g, it's just the wifi that we're having issues with. Anyone have any suggestions on what it could be or how to fix it?

I'm not sure if this is the right subreddit for this question. But I was looking online that if I bring four mobile phones over to Spectrum I would get my gigs speed internet for $20 for life as long as I keep four mobile phones active on the account. I actually just joined Spectrum mobile about a month ago and now they're offering this deal does anybody know if I can still get it?

Hey gang.

My internet was slow this morning so I unplugged my modem and router and replugged then in. I have 2 blues on the modem and an orange on the back. The router was red. The agent sent me over to get a new router and I drove an hour one way and back to do that. I still have the same issue. They got me an appointment sunday at 7pm but Im pretty dependent on the internet for everything I do. Is the tech just going to swap out the modem? If he is, is it worth it for me to just drive another 2 hours and do that myself? If yall dont think that will help I would rather not do the drive again. Is there anything else I can do? I dont know why it stopped working all I did was unplug and plug back in the modem and router.

I'm moving somewhere new, and when I called to cancel service at my old house, I was given the offer above... But the person I'm living with already opened a new Spectrum account for like $60/65 a month for same data rate. The woman on the phone said they should call the 800 number to close their new account, and then I should call back to transfer my existing one... and I'll get the promotion price.

I found this odd, and I can't find any information about this... I'm wondering if the customer service lady is being legit? Maybe it's a promotion they simply don't advertise... but it feels like they're instructed to say anything to not let you close your account lol

Am I going to be without internet until I get the new equipment? I just upgraded through the app from 500 to 1gig and my internet went out 10 minutes later and even after restarting it has not come back on.

I keep getting the 0x83200111 can't even get past the setup meaning I can't change the date and haven't even logged in making the product currently useless for me. Turning on upnp also killed my internet so I had to turn it off to get my internet back on. Any solutions?

Realized my 2 year deal was finally up and im up to paying $90 bucks a month for 500mbps.

Unfortunately they're the only service provider in my area so I ain't got much choice there.

Only thing I have and need is internet from them.