Home Internet - force firmware update?

I've had really spotty speed and even complete drop out. I've called in to Support a lot about this and I get various apologies/excuses (upgrading towers - congestion in my area). Two days ago the tech said he was remotely upgrading the firmware to 1609 but apparently it didn't work since I still show 0178 when I log on to the gateway IP address. This is very frustrating since I signed on because the speed was supposed to be 25 or better. Sometimes, rarely, I get speeds like that (and above) but most of the time speed is below 5 (even below 1). And "factory reset" screws up so many devices I have that it can take 2 days to get everything working properly after the reset.