Well now. Is everybody with an Arris happy? Probably not. Like the saying goes, “You can fool some of the people all of the time, but you can’t fool all the people all of the time.” Yea, I got fooled, but only for about a week.
I bought an Arris G34 DOCSIS 3.1 to replace a perfectly good DOCSIS 3.0 that was no longer supported by my Internet Provider. I reviewed a dozen or so sites (like CNET, PC Mag, etc.) that review and rank combo modem-routers. The Arris G34 was consistently ranked at or near the top of nearly every review. So, the choice was obvious – Arris G34.
Following the setup procedures (including contacting my Internet Provider) I had the G34 setup in about 30 minutes. Great, it was much faster than my old 3.0. The base G34 ‘seemed’ to work very well, that is until I tried to connect it to my wireless devices. It connected solidly to my TVs. But, unfortunately (for Arris [and me]) it would not connect to my printers or any of my other devices (including 2 devices in the same room as the G34 that were less than 10 feet away from the G34). Additionally, and quite concerting, is the ability to change my initial username and password. Apparently, Arris doesn’t think that YOU should be able to change YOUR username and password. That’s kind of selfish don’t you think (sounds like Arris saying, “it’s all about me”). Oops, that’s pretty insulting to Arris customers don’t you think?
I attempted contacting Arris support. But as you may have expected, that was pretty much a dead end. I ‘joined’ the surfboard community looking for answers. And sure enough, there were more questions and comments, than I would have thought, regarding printers failing to connect to the G34. I followed suggested fixes (changing MAC address and other) posted on the community page, but without success. The G34 is faster than my old 3.0; but, my old 3.0 could at least connect to all of my wireless devices. Hmm, speed vs connectivity? That’s an easy one.
It seems as though all of the ratings (from product review sites) I had previously seen online were incorrect or more accurately FALSE. So, I conducted another review of only actual customer reviews. I was surprised to see that (according to actual customers) the Arris G34 was consistently rated LESS than 4.0 (3.9 was repeated often and seemed to be the average). It was my mistake in the beginning to forego customer ratings for what appears to be questionable ratings by ‘so-called’ product review sites. I won’t make that mistake again. BTW Arris, how much is the going price to get a higher than deserved product review?
Less than 2 weeks after buying the G34, it was replaced by a Netgear Nighthawk CAX30 which setup in less than 30 minutes and connected to ALL of my wireless devices in less than 30 minutes.
Arris. Cool name, but that’s about it.
C.P. Hutcheson
