Netgear CM1000 Cable Modem Review: An Excellent Gigabit Choice

The Netgear CM1000 Ultra-High Speed Cable Modem is not new—among other things, its “Ultra-High Speed” notion is a bit of an exaggeration.

Indeed, the modem was first available for purchase in early 2017, and I bought my first unit in early 2021. Since then, I’ve ordered a few more, not as replacements, but for other homes and businesses, and all have been working well.

So this review is to reaffirm that this is an excellent choice for a Gigabit Cable Internet. In a way, the CM1000 is the bridge between the CM600, which is excellent for a sub-Gigabit plan, and the CM2000, which supports up to 2.5Gbps broadband speeds.

If you’re in the market for a new modem, at less than $150, the Netgear CM1000 is a safe choice. By the way, if you’ve been paying the monthly rental fee for using your ISP equipment, chances are you’ll get your money back less than a year after swapping that out. Get it!

Dong’s note: I tested the Netgear CM1000 with Comcast. While the modem works with almost all cable Internet providers, the experience expressed here is that of an Xfinity subscriber.

Netgear CM1000: A reliable and straightforward Gigabit-class DOCSIS 3.1 modem

The CM1000 shares the same design as the CM600. The modem comes in an upright design with a flimsy base at the bottom. Considering the coaxial cable is rigid, the modem can topple easily, but that’s the case with almost any Cable modem.

On the back, the CM1000 has a service connector and a Gigabit network port. The latter is the one that decides how fast of an Internet connection the modem can deliver, despite Netgear bragging that it can provide “10x the speed of DOCSIS 3.0”.

Fast broadband: Understanding Cable vs. Fiber-optic

That said, ultimately, the CM1000 will deliver about the same Internet speed as the CM600. However, since it supports DOCSIS 3.1, it will last longer in terms of support and possibly have better-sustained rates after overheads.

Like all DOCSIS 3.1 modems, the CM1000 likely supports all DOCSIS 3.0 broadband plans. However, it’s always the provider that decides which modems to support.

Convenient web interface, standard setup process

Like most cable modems I’ve tested, the Netgear CM1000 has a web interface at the 192.168.100.1 IP address. You won’t need to use this interface in most cases, but it’ll come in handy if you want to check the status of the broadband connection.

For a cable connection to work, the modem needs to be activated by the provider. The CM1000 shares the same activation process as any modem. You can call the provider’s tech support, give them the MAC address (printed on its underside) and have it activated.

Or you can follow the detailed steps in this post if you have a Comcast Xfinity cable plan.

Cable modem activation: How to swap ISP-provided equipment with your own

A side note: Over the year, Comcast Xfinity’s tech support has gotten worse and worse—it’s now extremely hard to get to a real human. I’d recommend you activate it yourself to save time and avoid frustrations.

Netgear CM1000 cable modem: Hardware specifications

Name	Netgear CM1000 Ultra-High Speed Cable Modem
Model	CM1000-100NAS CM1000v2
Standard	DOCSIS 3.1 (DOCSIS 3.0 30×8 compatible)
Top WAN speed	1Gbps
Ports	1Gbps LAN, 1x Coax
Top Internet Speed	1Gbps
WAN Link Aggregation	No
ISP supported	Comcast Xfinity, Time Warner Cable, Charter, Cox, Cablevision, and others.
Dimensions	8.8 x3.5 x 5.9 in (223.5 x 88.9 x 150 mm)
Weight	.95lb (431g)

Netgear CM1000 cable modem: Detail photos

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Netgear CM1000 cable modem: Excellent performance

I’ve used the CM1000 with a few Gigabit-class Xfinity plans, and all units have been working well.

It’s worth noting that Comcast tends to provision the speeds with some 20% extra—this is not always the case—so to get Gigabit download speed, you only need a plan of around 800Mbps.

However, if you do indeed have Gigabit plans, the CM1000 will only deliver 1Gbps because it uses a Gigabit port. That said, if you want to get the most out of a true Gigabit cable plan, you might want to get a modem that can deliver faster than 1Gbps, like the Netgear CM2000 or ARRIS SurfBoard S33.

But at the same time, there’s no point in getting a more expensive modem than the speed you pay for unless you plan on upgrading your broadband at a later time.

In this case, note that going beyond Gigabit requires a Multi-Gig network, which can be pretty expensive. Most importantly, Gigabit is more than fast enough for virtually all online applications.

Conclusion

With the current reasonable cost, the Netgear CM1000 Ultra-High Speed cable modem is an excellent choice for anyone with a cable Internet plan of 1Gbps or slower.

If you’re still renting the gateway from the provider, consider this modem instead and get yourself an excellent router or mesh system of your choosing.