ARRIS SURFboard S33 DOCSIS 3.1 Multi‑Gig Cable Modem | 2.5Gbps + 1Gbps Ethernet Ports | Works with Xfinity, Cox, Spectrum | For Cable Internet Plans up to 2.5Gbps | Modem Only, Router Required

This is my second time buying the ARRIS S33 DOCSIS 3.1 multi-gigabit cable modem—because lightning apparently decided my internet setup was too good and struck down my first one like Zeus himself was having a bad day. RIP, my beloved modem, you lasted just long enough to show me what true speed feels like before being vaporized in a flash. But honestly? I’m not mad. The ARRIS S33 is a beast. It supports DOCSIS 3.1, meaning it’s ready for the next-generation high-speed cable internet—like, up to 2 Gbps downstream and 1 Gbps upstream (if your ISP and plan are playing along). It’s also backwards compatible with DOCSIS 3.0, so if your ISP hasn’t fully upgraded yet, no worries. Installation is impressively painless. Plug and play, with support for IPv4 and IPv6, and it handles channel bonding like a champ—aggregating multiple channels to maximize throughput and minimize lag. I’ve thrown all kinds of traffic at it: 4K Netflix, intense online gaming sessions, video calls where my face looks mostly presentable, and it doesn’t even break a sweat. The only caveat: lightning doesn’t play nice with electronics. So if you live somewhere prone to storms like me, consider a surge protector or UPS, unless you want to keep buying backup modems like this is a weird hobby. Bottom line: the ARRIS S33 is fast, reliable, and future-proof enough to handle whatever Comcast Xfinity throws at it. Just pray to the weather gods to keep your modem alive.

Hard to find in store anymore. But I refuse to rent a Modem from the cable company. Works perfect. My advice, make sure your surge protector is good enough. I use UPS backups. Their surge protection isn't enough. I bought a separate surge protector to plug my UPSs to plug into.

This Arris Surfboard S33 modem runs extremely, extremely HOT 🔥🔥🔥! The coverage is sporadic and glitches out to my router all the time. My Asus router works fine. Arris has a problem with this modem overheating. It does not vent well. It desperately needs revisioning. Start over, do it right! Don't cheap out on your customer to save a few pennies. They keep your business in business. Heat sinks or an internal fan or both need to be implemented and utilized. A better case to allow for improved air flow should also be considered. Arris must know about this design flaw and be okay with it. The modem will just eventually burn itself out. Electronics will eventually break down by continuous heat and overheating. This is just hot to the touch, and it is unacceptable. I am very unhappy with this company and their modem. It could even possibly be a fire hazard. I give it a negative rating and negative stars. I do not endorse this hunk of junk by Arris. Choose another company. There are so many other better options available. Learn from my mistake. This is a terrible excuse for what a modem should be. Update 1-10-24 This is the most dismal, disappointing modem that I have ever owned constantly dropping the connection. This morning, I had no connection to the internet. I had to unplug everything. I thought maybe if I rebooted the modem and waited 30 minutes and then plugged it back in, it might help clear it. IT DID NOT! I'm getting abysmal download speeds of 2 and 3 mb/s. It finally, finally connected to my router and 2 and 3 mb download speeds is what I have. It did not want to connect. This is an expensive disaster and Arris should be ashamed of the absolute inferior quality product they are putting out to the public right now. Absolutely enraged! 🤬 I'll be returning this item. I hope nobody buys this as a used modem.

The ARRIS S33 modem was a great upgrade. My prior modem was another ARRIS product and it worked really well. I've had several ARRIS products and all have functioned without issue. The only reason I upgraded was because my old modem was running DOCSIS 3.0 and I wanted to move to DOCSIS 3.1 to get the most out of the 1.2Gps service that I'm paying for. This new S33 modem improved my speeds across all devices by well over 100Mbps. On my M1 iMac I'm now getting 950 Mbps on average. The ARRIS S33 modem is a five star product. I'll summarize the rest of the story so you don't have to read it if you don't want to. You CAN use this modem with your Xfinity service. But you're going to have to work to get it done. The saga below is provided so if you decide to activate this with Xfinity, you'll have an idea of what you'll go through. Now for the ugly: installing this modem with Xfinity service... This is a simple modem. It's designed to be pretty much plug-n-play. Connect coax, plug in power, plug in ethernet cable then activate through Xfinity's app. All the connections on the modem are simple. I went to Xfinity's app to activate and the activation function wouldn't work. It said I had to contact an Xfinity agent directly. So I started the chat with an Xfinity agent. I spent over an hour chatting with the agent as they tried to figure it out. First they said the modem isn't compatible with Xfinity's service. I pointed out it's the recommended modem on Xfinity's website. Then they said they couldn't find the modem in their system so couldn't register it on my account. More haggling. They escalated the issue. Escalation agent had the same problems. After more than an hour they told me I'd have to take the modem to a service center because "the service centers have special tools to scan the modem into the system directly." He assured me no appointment was necessary with my case number. Off to the Xfinity service center I go. I get there and it's a 45 minute wait. The guy says their case number doesn't mean anything to them and I'd still have to wait in line. The guy calls my name and I walk up to the counter. As soon as I lay the modem box on the counter the guy says, "Oh, no. Another one of these." He proceeds to tell me he'll do everything he can to help but they've not been able to do anything with these modems in the service center. He says the service centers don't have any special tools and have to do the same things the online agents do. And he comments that he wishes the online agents wouldn't tell customers what the service centers can do, they're always wrong and just dump problems on the service center. Sure enough, the modem isn't listed in his system either. Nice guy and admits this situation has been causing a terrible customer experience with several customers. He escalates the case to some tech group offsite. He gives me a new case number and says they will have to try to manually configure the modem for my account and I should get a call within an hour. I walked out ticked off and skeptical that I'd get a call or that they'd fix it. 50 minutes later I get a call. A nice guy from the Xfinity tech group tells me he's got it configured and it should install fine. Just have to activate it through the app. I reinstall the modem and go to the Xfinity app to activate. Same error in the app as before and it makes me contact an agent. So I start the chat and explain the situation. The chat agent says to give him a few minutes to review and attempt the activation. He comes back on about 5 minutes later and says it's activated. Sure enough. The modem light is blue and I once again have data flowing. It took somewhere about 4 hours, two chat sessions, a trip to the local service center and referral to some higher Xfinity tech group; but it finally got installed.

Nice modem to use with Xfinity if you don't want to use their modem. I have it hooked up to my Orbi Mesh Router and it works as it should work and connects easily to ORBI

This product is excellent. It allows me to get the free extra bandwidth that Xfinity gives us when they over provision on gigabit speeds. My old modem capped me out at 960 Mbps even though they were giving us 1,200 Mbps of speed. With this new modem I now hit download speeds of 1,400 Mbps on my equipment that is capable of it. The reason I'm writing this review though is because I just recently had my modem quit working after about 14 months for no reason. The light on the front would stay solid orange with an intermittent flash of white about every 15 seconds but wouldn't go solid blue like it's supposed to do. It also had a very high pitched sound coming from inside it while it was trying to boot up. Had to call Xfinity out because they have been doing maintenance in my area so I/we thought they caused the problem. The technician spent 2 hours trouble shooting at my house and finally figured out that the ac/dc power adapter had gone bad. He read on the forums about it and it described my exact situation with what we were seeing and hearing. He did this by stealing the power adapter from my Asus router that just so happened to fit. He plugged it into the modem and it was up and on-line in about 2 minutes with a solid blue light. After the technician figured it out I contacted ARRIS who took me through some questions which described exactly what I listed above and they are sending me a new power adapter. That being said if yours is out of warranty here is the one you want to order on your own: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09QM8S6R7/ref=ox_sc_saved_title_1?smid=AXZD0AJNQX5UZ&psc=1

TLDR: ARRIS S33 modem: significant speed upgrade, perfect for 1.2Gbps service, but challenging Xfinity installation. 💻🚀🔄 Upgrading to the ARRIS S33 modem was like jumping to lightspeed in my home network. Coming from a history of using ARRIS products, which have always been stellar, this move was more about staying ahead in the internet speed game. The motivation? To tap into the full potential of my 1.2Gbps service. The previous modem was a faithful servant in the realm of DOCSIS 3.0, but the S33, with its DOCSIS 3.1 technology, has taken things to the next level. It's like unleashing the full power of my internet service. On my M1 iMac, I'm now hitting an average of 950 Mbps, which is phenomenal. It's a five-star experience in terms of performance. However, it's not all smooth sailing. If you're with Xfinity, brace yourself for a bit of an odyssey. The modem itself is designed for simplicity – a plug-n-play dream. But the activation with Xfinity? That's where the plot thickens. My attempt to activate through the Xfinity app hit a wall. The app was a no-go, and the chat with Xfinity agents turned into a marathon of confusion and miscommunication. From compatibility doubts to system non-recognition, it was a series of hurdles. The escalation didn't smooth things out either. A trip to the Xfinity service center, based on agent advice, turned into a waiting game and a revelation that the service centers are just as much in the dark. Despite the assurances and escalations, the solution still felt elusive. But, in a twist worthy of a tech thriller, a call from Xfinity's tech group brought the light at the end of the tunnel. The modem was finally configured, activated, and ready to go. The ordeal? Roughly 4 hours, multiple chats, a service center visit, and a pinch of patience. In conclusion, the ARRIS S33 modem is a beast in terms of speed and reliability, a definite upgrade for anyone looking to maximize their internet service. Just be prepared for a bit of an installation saga with Xfinity – it's worth it in the end!

I rented a Comcast router for years (how was I such a sucker!?) but when we recently upgraded our service to 1 GB speeds, I decided it was time to upgrade all of our hardware and stop paying $15 per month to rent their modem when I could buy one on my own! I did some research and this seemed to be the best option to take advantage of our new higher speeds. This modem combined with the Eero Pro 6 mesh routers system has lightning fast internet speeds reaching every corner of our 3,400 sq ft. house. I took this modem in the box to a local Xfinity store where they provisioned it to work with their service (they just needed the serial number and IP address) then took it home, plugged it in and used the Xfinity app to get it set up. It literally worked perfectly right out of the box and was super easy to get up and running. Just plug and play! My speed tests on my phone are coming back at around 950 MB/sec which is everything I could hope for! We've now been using this modem for about a month and have had ZERO hiccups or drops in service/connection. Internet is blazing fast and reliable, modem plays nicely with router setup. I truly couldn't ask for anything better, and now I'm not having to pay to rent Comcast's equipment! Yes it was a little pricey, but it will pay for itself within the first year, and I like having my own equipment now. I have nothing but good things to say about this modem so far. If we have any problems with it in the future I will absolutely update this review, but so far it's been an absolute dream. Anyone who says it doesn't work with Xfinity service or had a ahrd time setting it up either doesn't know what they're doing, didn't follow the directions properly or the problem is coming from Xfinity's end, because the modem worked perfectly exactly as it should right out of the box when you follow the directions and make sure to have your provider provision it for use PRIOR to plugging it in for the first time. I sincerely hope this review has been helpful to someone else! And yes, I paid FULL PRICE for it! Feel free to ask any questions.