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New Shaw Wifi Modem (Arris XB6?)

28K views 26 replies 12 participants last post by  Hmm888 
#1 ·
Shaw is now offering the "Advanced Wifi Modem" (looks like Arris XB6) to new Internet 150 ValuePlan 150 customers and on $10/mo. rental to those on regular 150 and 75 plans. Has anyone been able to get a swap from an older Cisco or Hitron modem?

https://www.shaw.ca/advanced-wifi-modem/
 
#3 · (Edited)
That one actually makes sense - makes it so they don't have to provision the new modems on the old billing system.

One thing I noticed is it only has two Ethernet ports. One remaining for those like me with a Samknows Whitebox, so I'll have to use my gigabit switch

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#5 ·
You mean that the router section supports IPV6. So it should and probably contains a simple IPV6 firewall.
Note that if Windows 10 installed out of the box sees IPV6 available it will attempt to use it. That is that if the DNS for the website accessed shows IPV6 then Windows will use it. Seems like a good plan. Several of the 'big ' websites like Youtube, Microsoft,Wikipedia, Google and many others all use it now.


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#7 ·
Regular users should not notice anything different. The sites I mentioned all fall back to IPV4 with no messages or fuss.
The /56 just gives you the option of running an even sillier number of devices but spread across subnets. Normal customer routers will just attach all the devices to the first subnet.
Most people don't have a router that can set up subnetting on IPV6..
JamesK is the local expert I believe his router can set up subnets and he uses them.


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#8 ·
^^^^
If it's anything like the Rogers Hitron modems, a single /64 will be provided by default, along with a crappy firewall. What many do is put the modem into bridge mode and then connect to a router that supports DHCPv6-PD, which is used to assign the prefix to the router. On Rogers, the size of the prefix is user selectable, up to a /56, which provided 256 /64s. Each /64 can be assigned to an interface or VLAN as required.

I use pfSense, but many consumer routers now support DHCPv6-PD, as do the WRT routers. I currently have 3 /64s configured. ! for my LAN, 1 for a test LAN and 1 for my OpenVPN clients. Incidentally, a /64 provides for 18.4 billion, billion addresses.
 
#9 ·
Hello all, Im new to the forums, just a Hi as well as a question.
I am moving into a new house here next month in Okotoks AB. I have Fiber
running to the house but have been a Shaw user for years. Is Shaw still the
way to go or should I be looking at maybe Telus? Appologies if this should be
asked in a different thread. This thread just seems to be current.
Cheers thanks for any help.
 
#10 ·
Hi Wayne. I'm not sure of the service offering by each in Okotoks, but I imagine its the same as Calgary. I am a very content Shaw customer and I don't believe you can go wrong with them. Telus has been promoting their new fibre system and for the past few summers they have been trying to sign up new customers using summer contractor help. They don't get paid if they don't sign someone up and they may tell you fibre is in the area. Trouble is Telus often hasn't laid the fibre in an area. So before you sign up with them check their website to see if it is in your area.
 
#13 ·
Not as strong a signal as my old BellMTS 2wire box. Tend to lose signal soon as im outside the house. YMMV though.
That's why many people put the modem in bridge mode. They can then use their own choice of router and WiFi, instead of the crappy stuff that's built in. I have a separate access point, mounted in my laundry room, roughly in the middle of my condo. If you get a proper AP, it will often support Power over Ethernet (PoE), so that you don't need to have AC power handy.
 
#14 ·
I have been using a Hitron CGNM-2250 WiFi Modem that I had set to bridge to a Ubiquiti Amplifi Wi-Fi in an effort to get greater, consistent speeds from my 150 Mbps service. For whatever reason I never received advertised speeds before or after I made the change. As I own the Hitron and am renting a Hitron for the cottage, I decided to sign up for a new 2yr value plan that froze the cost of all my existing services for 2 years (except my movie add-ons). Shaw froze the cost of the now Internet 300 at $88/month (a loyalty promotion they gave me last year) and sent a tech out with the new XB6 modem, now being marketed as the Shaw BlueCurve Gateway. I'll be taking my old Hitron to the cottage for my seasonal 75Mbps service.

After talking withe the tech I learned that it uses the same technology at the Ubiquiti Amplifi (and others I'm sure) that 'blends' the 2.4 and 5.0G networks to give you the strongest possible signal at all times. Well, all I can say is so far so good. I am actually reaching speeds of 150Mbps over my WiFi and presumably the 300+ over the ethernet (I only have my A/V Receiver directly connected).

He also mentioned that today was the launch of the BlueCurve Gateway and BlueCurve Pods (Mesh Extenders) and the BlueCurve Home App to manage your Wi-Fi.
 
#15 · (Edited)
Shaw advertising for blue curve:

Surf the fastest Internet in Western Canada‡

Who has time to wait? You need to binge without buffering. You need to game without the lag. You need to surf without limits. With more speed and data, this is Internet that keeps up with your life.
I can't believe what I'm reading. Game without lag? Isn't that the biggest issue currently with their modems that have the Intel PUMA 6 and 7 chipsets? Binge without buffering? Isn't that a problem sometimes in congested networks?

You can't make this rubbish up! They advertise their biggest current issues as if it's a non issue? Pathetic!
 
#16 ·
Actually, there's two different versions of the XB6, and one has a Broadcomm chipset instead of the Intel one. More than likely they're still being used interchangeably and your comment is valid, but they're still going to market it as the best there is

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#17 ·
That's correct, the one you want is the Technicolor XB6. Avoid the Arris XB6 like a plague! That would require upgrading to 300 or higher package though. I wonder what modem they would provision for the new Internet 100 package. Hopefully not an Intel chipset based modem.
 
#18 ·
They still might be selling the Hitron ones for lower packages.

Edit - yeah, it would indeed be the Hitron (with PUMA 6 chipset). The description for that plan mentions "Advanced WiFi Modem rental" whereas Internet 300 & 600 mention "BlueCurve Gateway rental."
 
#25 ·
I may have mentioned before that I was planning on swapping out my owned Hitron for a rented BlueCurve at my primary residence and transfer the owned Hitron and replace the rented Hitron out at the lake in another province. I'd like to relate my experience.

I was speaking with Shaw retentions as I was trying to get a promotional discount on my seasonal internet service at the lake. Last year when I was going to cancel the service because we're not there 6 months straight, retentions convinced me to do a seasonal disconnect and they would give a promotion next season. That seemed fair enough until I determined I was being billed a rental fee over the winter. I can afford it, but $30 buck is $30 bucks! Meanwhile at home I was paying the same price that other were with their rental modem. But I digress. The retentions guy says well if you sign up for a new 2 yr value plan you can get a new BlueCurve and I'll keep you on the Internet 300 for what you have been paying (a previous loyalty award - $88 month) for those two years, and I'll upgrade your Shaw home phone service for free. Oh and your Popular TV package won't go up for two years. I said sign me up!

When it came time to move the Hitron to the lake I ran into troubles. First guy says, no can do (perform the switch) until you return the rental to retail. Second guy (via chat) says no problemo (until I switched modems and lost the chat). 3rd guy (gal) via chat stayed with me for about 3 hours in what was a very complicated process. He/she even put in a level 3 ticket to the back office team. In the end, I got it transferred and took the rental back to retail two days later. Apart from the first guy (whom I'm sure was reading from a script) the service was outstanding.
 
#26 ·
Shaw Arris XB6 versus Hitron CGNM-2250

I got the new Shaw Arris XB6 with BlueCurve 300 and it performed worse than the Hitron CGNM-2250 on WiFi. Plus it only has 2 ethernet ports as compared with 4 for the Hitron. The WiFi on the XB6 produced less than half the speed of wired devices when tested using Ookla. Slick marketing from SHAW on BlueCurve...I expected much better performance...but the reality is just not there! (They must have got a fire-sale on the Arris XB6...picked them up cheap and then put the marketing team to work on hype and hard-sell. I had a flurry of calls from Shaw agents on my answering machine over a period of a week or so...offering me this "great deal" on Blue Curve! Not what I am used to from Shaw, but I guess they are getting too big now.).
 
#27 ·
Another thing too... I just swapped my Hitron because I was told it had VPN configuration settings within the new modem. I thought that would be too good to be true. And I was right.

Speaking of VPN. In the US, XFINITY throttles you should you use a VPN. I noticed the same with the CGM4140COM Technicolor Arris XB6. Shaw likes this modem because it allows them to see more, but for the end-user, it offers less and no ability to backup your settings and more. I am going to arrange a swap back to the Hitron.
 
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