A decent Motorola/Arris modem plus some MikroTik/Ubiquiti makes for a decent network. Until Comcast phone is involved.

I've switched to Ooma for my home phone and also my (lightly used) office phone. It has been flewless.

Many of you have spoken of the near impossibility of subbing the Comcast device once phone is involved. What about Arris/Mikrotik/Ubiquiti with the addition of an Ooma? Would you offer it to a client?

The Comcast is only Internet phone - not a land line after all. Thoughts?

I've used the ARRIS TG862G-CT. Depending on the firmware, you can put the Internet side in Bridge mode or you may need to have Comcast do this from their side. This can be an arduous process if Comcast needs to be involved.

Question (from someone who does not have the pleasure of dealing with Comcast): why can't you have "just a modem" for internet and their crappy gateway for phone / cable box data?

Bridging ISP gateways is all fun and games, until it's reset or updated and reverts back to non-bridge mode and then you have two routers handing out IPs and double NAT.

It can be done, you have to ask the cable provider

If you haven't dealt with their exceptional customer service,  your life experience is incomplete. (And you may live longer)

You can simultaneously use both approaches -- and their own installers will sometimes install two different boxes if the phone and TV wiring are split to different locations. In many respects phone and TV are separate services -- each with its own tech support that one might need to deal with separately.

That's what I figured, based on experience with other cable/ISP.

Bridging ISP gateways is all fun and games, until it's reset or updated and reverts back to non-bridge mode and then you have two routers handing out IPs and double NAT.

For this reason, i usually leave the Comcast/Verizon router in factory default mode. I put my router behind it on a different subnet and run everything in the house off of that. I also put my router in the DMZ of the ISP device and all port forwards and remote access work perfectly fine. This way if the ISP factory defaults their router we should still be good to go.

Look into Comcast's CXI program, they have a team to help us out.

On more than one occasion we have used one modem for phone only and used our own modem for Internet.

Time Warner/Spectrum just installs a splitter on the feed, then connects a phone modem to one of the outputs and the gateway to the other. Generally works well enough. If the customer wants to use a different router, the procedure may be different, but the result is the same- bridge mode for Netgear/Other and disable NAT for the Arris. I haven't done this with an Arris for a few years, but it may include setting it to bridge mode, too.

ATT uses Arris for U-Verse and I know there's no option for doing this, nor do they offer a basic modem.

Don't be like ATT.

If the ISP factory defaults the router then your DMZ settings will be lost, so you've still got the same problem as using bridge mode. The other problem with using double-NAT via DMZ is that your primary gateway won't be able to use NAT loopback, so with something like a camera NVR that requires port forwarding for apps you'll be forced to have two site entries--one home, one away.

Comcast - add your own modem, leave their gateway for phone.

Purchase a modem that's on their approved list, call in and they'll add it to the account. (you'll need to be authorized on the client account, or have an authorized person available during the call).

Didn't say it was cheaper, but at least you won't be subjected to resets, etc. anymore.

What about the original question of using Ooma or some other VoIP replacement, so no Comcast gear is required?

if your using ooma then why are you paying comcast for phone? cancel that part of your contract, send the modem back and use your own!

otherwise just put the thing in bridge mode. works fine, never had an issue. I made the mistake once and told the client to get ooma and just use internet and tv from comcast. things got royally screwed up, client cancelled comcast before ooma could transfer the number so their home number they had for 20 years was lost.

Client blamed me, fired me and that was that. I learned to NEVER intervene and tell a client about his ISP options. thats between them and their provider.

If the isp defaults the system won't be down. The only thing they will lose is offsite access. Also it will only take 5 min to set back up with teamvirwer. Comcast in my area won't let loopback anyway but you can do it with fios.

I'm close by here in the South Bay and have the setup your asking about - Arris modem (bought at BB) Unifi USG router/switch and AP plus OOMA. It all works fine but not sure if that's what your asking.

I have seen what others suggest with a Comcast provided gateway for phone only and a modem only for the network. Works fine.

The comcast gateway is getting harder to deal with due to certain features I can't configure

- Comcast guest network that you can't turn off
- NAT loopback or hairpin NAT not supported means two entries for surveillance DVRs
- new one I discovered while trying to connect E Keypad Pro to an Elk system. The Comcast gateway hands out IPv4 addresses on the wired network which is connected to the Elk system but the wifi hands out IPv6 addresses to the phones and tablets so the two systems wouldn't connect while client was inside the LAN