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Spectrum Gig Plan with CM1200 - Activation Difficulty

mark1210
Tutor

Spectrum Gig Plan with CM1200 - Activation Difficulty

Hey All -

 

I hope this is a one off but thought I'd share my experience and hopefully have y'all validate if my provisioning is now correct.   Long story short, I didn't want a Puma 7 chipset, I wanted Broadcom for many reasons and was told to visit a local spectrum store.   They didn't have anything other than the Hitron modem with the Intel Chipset.   I went to another store, and the representative there seemed more knowledgable and guided me towards the "top of the line" CM1200 modem for future proofing.   I purchased the device, took it home and connected it... it would not obtain a WAN IP.

 

Next up, I called Spectrum Customer service - was told the device was not compatible with the service speed.   I mentioned the box specifically states it's compatible with Spectrum and that "...works with all the Internet Speed Tiers" as per the verbiage on the box.   The technician didn't budge and essentially told me I had a paperweight.    Is this normal?   Why would this kind of guidance be acceptable if the box states it's compatible clearly someone at Netgear had to get that marketing approved by Spectrum to have their logo on the box??

 

Second call next day, was told that they can't guarantee the performance of this customer purchased modem and after being placed on hold several times was told their system wasn't liking the change and there wasn't anything more they can do.   It's almost like this practice is discouraged...

 

Third attempt later that day - got with a superivsor, 30 minute call and the device is now active and pulling a WAN IP.    I'm no expert on understanding the channels and bonding but the upload section seems strange.    Can an expert take a look at these screens and tell me if this is normal for Spectrum?   To me, it seems like 31 channels are bonded, but the upload is not.   

 

Lastly, hopefully somoene from Netgear has a contact at Spectrum and either update the Spectrum site or get Spectrum on board for properly activating these modems....

 

 

Model: CM1200|Nighthawk Multi-Gig Speed Cable Modem
Message 1 of 11
FURRYe38
Guru

Re: Spectrum Gig Plan with CM1200 - Activation Difficulty

Some ISP like Spectrum seem to now work with or like users having there own modems. First level support just follows a script and wont deviate from it.

@vkdelta 

Message 2 of 11
vkdelta
NETGEAR Expert

Re: Spectrum Gig Plan with CM1200 - Activation Difficulty

Unfortunately Spectrum is a pain to deal with for lot of customers (and you are the not the only one). They go to great lengths to make it difficult for the customers to activate their own modems.

 

CM1200 is listed on their website as approved device

https://www.spectrum.net/support/internet/compliant-modems-charter-network/

 

we did provide them samples and got the device fully approved by them before putting the logo. 

 

Now that you have activated it and it is working, Looking at your power levels:

 

31 QAM downstream channels is ok. It is a limitation on the CMTS vendor and should not impact you in anyway

you have 1 OFDM carrier which is good. 

your Power levels are on higher side (you could buy a 6dB or 10dB pad to lower it). This should not impact you in most cases

US QAM is 4 channels which is ok

you dont have OFDMA carrier which is current state with all the ISPs. No ISP I am aware of has deployed OFDMA

Message 3 of 11
mark19801
Aspirant

Re: Spectrum Gig Plan with CM1200 - Activation Difficulty

@vkdelta 

 

Hello -  so does this mean that the CM1200 should be able to be activated with Spectrum on their gig plan?   I ask because I was unable to get it activated (was told I could only use it on 400M and below) and ended up returning the device.  I would much rather prefer to keep the Netgear and would purchase it again....if I didn't have the difficulty getting it activated.  

 

Too bad there's not a customer website or phone system or something where we can activate these ourselves and avoid all the headache.

Message 4 of 11
vkdelta
NETGEAR Expert

Re: Spectrum Gig Plan with CM1200 - Activation Difficulty

try https://activate.spectrum.net/ 

 

spectrum would not confirm this for us inspite of us asking them.

 

 

Message 5 of 11
Sheep9000
Aspirant

Re: Spectrum Gig Plan with CM1200 - Activation Difficulty

I just had a long, long chat with spectrum. Here's what they're saying
It's not that Netgear hardware isn't compatible. They're saying Gig speed specifically only allows Spectrum ISSUED hardware.

Their computer system, so says both the tech and a supervisor over the phone, throws an error code when non vendor issued mac addresses are added to customer accounts with gig. Maybe this is new, but at any rate, they have now actively excluded the CM1200. The tech I was talking to was just as confused and irritated as I was.
The supervisor claims it's a control thing and it's been the policy forever .

Diving into it, I pushed them on whether their Network is true 3.1, it's a standard, it really is an activation lock on their side . The CM1200 is compatible but their arbitrary ban stands. They'll add it to an account with under gig speeds though...

Netgear should have a chat with Spectrum because as of now, all speeds are not allowed based on their asinine policies .

All above though with a disclaimer, Not saying the right tech with the right convictions with the right system access can't find a bypass, but through supervisor level in activations they're 100% locked by the system itself.
Message 6 of 11
FURRYe38
Guru

Re: Spectrum Gig Plan with CM1200 - Activation Difficulty

@vkdelta 


@Sheep9000 wrote:
I just had a long, long chat with spectrum. Here's what they're saying
It's not that Netgear hardware isn't compatible. They're saying Gig speed specifically only allows Spectrum ISSUED hardware.

Their computer system, so says both the tech and a supervisor over the phone, throws an error code when non vendor issued mac addresses are added to customer accounts with gig. Maybe this is new, but at any rate, they have now actively excluded the CM1200. The tech I was talking to was just as confused and irritated as I was.
The supervisor claims it's a control thing and it's been the policy forever .

Diving into it, I pushed them on whether their Network is true 3.1, it's a standard, it really is an activation lock on their side . The CM1200 is compatible but their arbitrary ban stands. They'll add it to an account with under gig speeds though...

Netgear should have a chat with Spectrum because as of now, all speeds are not allowed based on their asinine policies .

All above though with a disclaimer, Not saying the right tech with the right convictions with the right system access can't find a bypass, but through supervisor level in activations they're 100% locked by the system itself.

 

Message 7 of 11
vkdelta
NETGEAR Expert

Re: Spectrum Gig Plan with CM1200 - Activation Difficulty

do you have any chat transcripts or recordings of this conversations? We would love to have one. 

Please PM me !

Message 8 of 11
mark1210
Tutor

Re: Spectrum Gig Plan with CM1200 - Activation Difficulty

There really needs to be something done to decrease the level of friction we (end users) encounter when trying to use a 3rd party modem with Spectrum.  Either that, or removing the logo and relevant information from the boxes would be a good step in the right direction.

 

Obviously Netgear can't dictate Spectrum's policy but they can elect to not support Spectrum's network and remove the branding from the box or can establish some kind of back channel means of communicating with the Ivory Tower in Spectrum land to make this fully supported and perhaps even automated in terms of activation.

 

The difficulty encountered when attempting to activate as well as the loss of control over firmware updates when it's customer owned equipment certainly makes for a frustrating experience...if it's this difficult to get activated I can only imagine the enthusiasm for any firmware updates to be pushed by Spectrum to users of this modem.

 

 

Message 9 of 11
TexHex1385
Initiate

Re: Spectrum Gig Plan with CM1200 - Activation Difficulty

Had the same issue the modem would not activate from the website said its not an approved modem. I called and talked with technical support and gave him the cm Mac he put it in the system but it still wouldn't work even though he was getting a signal from the modem and all the lights were coming on. I ended up having to return I'll just wait till the cax80 becomes available cause they have it as approved on their website.
Model: CM1200|Nighthawk Multi-Gig Speed Cable Modem
Message 10 of 11
Y8C
Aspirant
Aspirant

Re: Spectrum Gig Plan with CM1200 - Activation Difficulty

Had the same issue - Needed to call support to get the mac address added to the spectrum system. I now get a connection but circa 100mb. Not 400mb as advertised. Tech is coming on Tuesday. Suspect that the tech will just want to swap out the CM1200 with the Spectrum device but will update after the visit.

Model: CM1200|Nighthawk Multi-Gig Speed Cable Modem
Message 11 of 11
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