Customer Ratings & Reviews

Pro 1) Simple to setup. 2) Large wifi coverage and no dead spot inside the house. 3) Own an iphone 11 and able to utilize wifi 6 standard. Phone connection is a beast. 4) Very fast latency compared to my last router. RT-AC5300 5) I have over 20 smart devices connected to the router and is able to handle all devices with no problems. No drop connections. I have a xfinity 1G. 6) connect to setup router using phone app and bluetooth. 7) Now using for a month with no problems. Cons 1) Kinda expensive 2) Router control settings are limited. This is not a con for me since I am not a network engineer and need to control every aspect of the router. 3) will need a modem, I suggest a DOCSIS 3.1 for 1G plan. 4) Only 2 Ethernet out connection. Will need a switch.

These routers are the best AX routers in the industry in my opinion. Speeds are screamingly fast, devices on your network interconnect almost instantly, and any type of video streaming works with ease. The Surfboard mAX app needs SO much improvement, especially since it’s the ONLY way to control these routers. Satellite mesh router doesn’t display, app doesn’t show what devices are connected reliably, and there is very little room for advanced network tweaking. I except MUCH more from Arris given the price of these routers.

The router has impressive performance and potential to offer a lot more, but the lack of features on the application hinders the ability to optimize the unit. Instead, the Arris uses an approach that is set it and leave it alone, which works for some users that don't want to have any customization. I wish Arris would just adopt the application to be more like Amplifi or Linksys to offer some basic features. The unit has excellent ventilation and easy accessibility to the bottom ports. My mesh units both had a strange marking that I can't seem to clean off on the outside, which reduces the appeal of the unit. Arris, please fix your application and maybe do some quality control on your outside appearance as most users judge products by appearance too.

This product could be good. By default (at least mine), all downstream and upstram channels are locked. Normally, you calk Arris, and they unlock the channels with respect to your location, device, serve, etc. Arris refused me service (my warrenty wasn't active) and after activating my warrenty they have been radio silent. Their hours are from 7 to 7, and calling during those times means nothing because they still dont answer. I have perfectly good routers and because of horrible service i cannot have wifi

The ARRIS SURFboard mAX Pro Wireless-AX11000 Tri-Band Mesh Wi-Fi System is the fastest wireless system I have ever used but is marred by a difficult install and somewhat buggy app for setup and management. This system replaces my Linksys Velop setup which was a great system. It is my first Wi-Fi 6 router. The setup process was extremely frustrating and difficult for me. To be fair, it was made more difficult because my phone’s battery was depleted when I got home so I decided to use my Android tablet for the setup process. My Android table does not have a cellular data modem so it relies on a home network for internet access. Setup uses the SURFboard mAX app that requires internet access for signing up to an ARRIS account. Naturally, the installation process requires you to replace your current router with your new ARRIS SURFboard mAX unit. Guess what happens when you remove your old router? You lose internet access until you can set up the new router. But you need internet access to finish setting up the new router! Everything seemed to be going great when I started out. I swapped out my old router with the new one. I downloaded and ran the SURFboard mAX app. The app was able to easily detect the new router. I’m assuming it uses bluetooth for this because that is what the Linksys Velop uses for detection and setup. The app then reported that it could not continue with the setup because there was no internet connection. I spent hours trying to figure out a way to get around this roadblock. By this time, my phone had been recharging and now had enough battery life for me to use it as my setup device. I downloaded the app to my phone and it detects the ARRIS SURFboard mAX and then proceeds to connect me to the ARRIS account where I enter my email address. I was finally able to proceed with the installation! However, ARRIS next sends me a verification code to my email address. I use the Android home button to get to my email. Then I go back to my ARRIS app where I can enter my verification code. The app says I entered an invalid code. Huh? I go back to my email app to make sure I entered the correct code. I’m pretty sure I did. I go back to the ARRIS app to reentered the code. Again, it says the code entered is invalid. I go back to my email app and noticed that ARRIS has sent me multiple verification codes. It turns out that every time I switch out of the ARRIS app to look at my email and then back to the app, it sends a new verification code. So, I’m always entering an invalid code. Then I get locked out of my ARRIS account for an hour because there were too many attempts. After two more failed attempts and lockouts, I discovered that if I use another Android button (I don’t know what the button is called but it displays a screen of running apps) to switch out of the ARRIS app to my email app and back to the ARRIS app, then it won’t send me a new verification code. So, I’ll take the blame for this but if I can make this frustrating mistake then I’m sure I’m not going to be the only one. I was finally able to enter a valid verification code and proceed with the installation. The app then tries to update the root router with the newest firmware (the app said the router already had the newest firmware). It then registers the router with ARRIS and now I’m finally connected to the internet! Yay! Now to set up the satellite node. The app easily found the satellite and I think it said that it updated the firmware. I thought that was weird. Why did it update the firmware on the satellite but not on the root router since they should both have been identical? Maybe I imagined it. Anyways, the app kept aborting when trying to register the satellite. I tried multiple times to set up the satellite without success. By now, it was pass 3:00am and I had to go to work the next day so I decided to try again tomorrow. The next day I decided to unplug/replug my root router before trying to set up the satellite router. This seemed to do the trick. I was able to finally register and setup my satellite router. I was immediately impressed with the app’s visual display of the root router and the satellite router showing a connection rate of 1.2 to 1.6 Gbps between them. I was also slightly disappointed in the amount of customization options available in the app and there doesn’t seem to be any possibility of using a web browser to access a page to manage the router. The app also displays a list of devices connected to the mesh system that seemed to be more accurate and useful compared to the app for the Velop mesh system. The Velop sometimes incorrectly identified a device that was physically connected by wire as wireless and vice versa. Unfortunately, the app only worked for one day as the next day the app now only shows the root router and no connected devices. In fact, it tells me that I have no satellite routers connected. But this is clearly incorrect since the satellite router is displaying a solid blue light and a computer that is physically connected to satellite using an ethernet cable has internet access. So, the satellite is definitely connected to the root router. I have tried unplugging and replugging both routers to no avail. I really don’t want to reset the routers and start the setup process over again because everything else does seem to be working. All my computers and devices have fast and stable internet connections. It just would be nice to have a working app so I can check on the status of things. I have been using the ARRIS SURFboard mAX Pro Wireless-AX11000 for about a week now and am impressed with the speed and general stability of the system. Compared to my previous mesh system, I have noticed improved range and signal strength. One computer in my upstairs bedroom used to report a signal strength of 27%. Now it is reporting a signal strength of 65%. My tablets (Galaxy Tab S4 and Fire HD 10) and phone all show full signal strength upstairs and are working great (I live in a 3 level townhouse). Running WiFi Speed Test on my Samsung tablet shows a link speed that varies between 790 and 866 Mbps with measured WiFi speeds of 451.72 Mbit/s. I am able to achieve the full speed of my 100/5 Comcast plan with measured 100.15 Mbit/s download and 5.78 Mbit/s upload speeds. My streaming boxes (TCL Roku TV, nVidia Shield, Apple TV, Fire TV, TiVo Bolt, Microsoft XBox One S) have all been stable and have exhibited no problems while streaming videos from Netflix, Vudu, or Amazon Prime. I have noticed some improvements while streaming. In the past, when streaming from the NBC app, the show would start off a little pixelated but then improve to HD quality as if it took awhile to buffer the stream. With the new ARRIS mesh system, the video starts off at HD quality. I have multiple PCs with wireless adapters using different chipsets. They all report a rock solid link speed of 866 Mb/s. The ARRIS root router is at my basement and the ARRIS satellite router is in my upstairs office. They are connected using WiFi 6 as the backhaul. A computer in the upstairs office is physically connected to the ARRIS satellite router using an ethernet cable. The upstairs computer can transfer files to/from a NAS in the basement at about 50 MB/s which is about what I have gotten using ethernet cable directly connected to the NAS. Below are four different wireless adapters that I have used with different computers showing the maximum reported link speed as well as the measured speed of transferring files to/from the NAS. Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 3168 (Max 433 Mbps) 18 MB/s Realtek 8812AU WiFi USB3.0 (Max 866 Mbps) 30 MB/s Netgear A6210 WiFi USB3.0 Adapter (MediaTek's MT7612U chipset) (Max 866 Mbps) 50 MB/s Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX200 (Max 866 Mbps) 50 MB/s The interesting result is from the adapter using the Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX200 chipset. This is a Wi-Fi 6 wireless adapter that I recently purchased just for the purpose of being able to see what the new ARRIS SURFboard mAX Pro is capable of. I was disappointed in that the link speed was only 866 Mbps as I thought that Wi-Fi 6 was supposed to allow me to go pass this limit. Also, it’s interesting to note that the Velop also reported a link speed of 866 Mbps with the AX200 adapter but it got a slightly higher measured transfer rate of 55 MB/s to/from the NAS. This was the only case where I saw the Velop beat the ARRIS. For all the other cases the ARRIS SURFboard mAX Pro reported a stronger, more stable signal and slightly faster transfer rates compared to the Velop. I have also encountered some other weird oddities. One computer that was using wired ethernet kept losing internet access. But after switching it to use a wireless connection it was fine. Another weird thing is that I can’t seem to use Alexa to turn on my TCL Roku TV anymore. Alexa tells me she is having trouble communicating with Roku and to check the connection and power supply of the device. But I can use Alexa to turn off the TV. I never experienced this problem when using the Velop. During my week of using the ARRIS, I have noticed that connection rates seem to be improving as the days go by as if the ARRIS was optimizing the network. Overall, the ARRIS SURFboard mAX Pro provides improved speeds (except for that one weird case) and better range over my previous mesh system. So far, it has been very stable. I’m hoping that ARRIS will provide good support with frequent updates to the firmware and app to address any bugs or problems that the system currently has.

The ARRIS SURFboard mAX Pro AX11000 Wi-Fi 6 system has an eye catching design but I found it a little clumsy for routing wires. Once you have your Ethernet cables and power connected, I suppose it is ok but if you need to unplug or plug again, you literally have to pick the unit up, flip it upside down and then remember to route the cable above the built-in stand and not below it. I’ve certainly seen simpler ways of routing Ethernet cables into these routers but again, this is a unique and fun design and there has to be a trade-off. I was hoping for one more Ethernet port on each router – 1x WAN and 3X LAN is not ungenerous but my main router location has need for 1X WAN and 4x LAN (a couple of switches and a couple of direct runs to rooms). It’s not a deal breaker as you can easily run another switch in between but I have seen other Wi-Fi 6 routers that have this capacity. The two units that ship in the box are identical except one will be the master and the second will cover another part of the house and be a node. They both have reset buttons if you ever need to start again which are activated with a paper clip underneath, while the power is on and after about 12 seconds, they reset and show a different light pattern on the band that runs around. Using the SURFboard mAX app on an iPhone, I was able to set up my master router very quickly and easily. Within the app, you can name your network and the location of the router so you can differentiate it from the second unit when that is set up. The setup wizard will also make sure that if there is a firmware update out there, it downloads and installs this before you start to use the mesh network. This was a very quick update and the unit also restarted itself as part of the process without much assistance from me. The second unit setup was fairly smooth. The app setup wizard offers to setup other nodes you may have (I had one more in this two pack) which I set up on another floor of the house, some distance away from the router. It went through all the steps and appeared to make contact with the router at the end and supposedly everything was set for a wireless back haul. I think the app made sure the router and node were on good channels but it reported back that it had not changed from the defaults. I ran a speed test from the app which showed that I was getting about 538 Mbps download and close to 18 Mbps upload. I pay for 500 Mbps from Comcast so this looked very promising. However, when I ran SpeedTest myself on my phone, next to the second node, I did not get anything like these speeds and when I checked, my phone would only connect to the main router some distance away and not the node next to it, so my reported speeds were a fraction of what I expected them to be. The reported back haul of the connected node was 1.20 Gbps which is decent but I have seen better reported. Perhaps other's nodes are much nearer and have less obstructions which admittedly I do have in my house, between the nodes. I tried a couple of restarts of node, router and both but could not see any devices wanting to connect to anything other than the router. Not sure what causes that and I need to troubleshoot further but my experience with other mesh systems is not as difficult as this was turning out to be. I tried hooking up the node with an Ethernet cable, to see if that would speed things up with a faster back haul or help with connections but it made no difference which is surprising. I will continue to try to figure this out and see what technical support ARRIS has to help but it is a bit of a head-scratcher. Had everything connected up as expected, I would have been quite complimentary on the simple setup process but it seemed to fail a bit at the end, at least for me. I miss not having a web interface to further adjust settings on the network with – other devices and particularly Wi-Fi 6 mesh routers I have seen offer this but ARRIS seem to be going for the super simple approach and have left this out. For most users, this is probably ok. You can only make changes in the app and can't do other things like set priorities per device or even change the icons of your devices so they don’t all look the same. They do at least let you change the names from the cryptic names devices give themselves, if you can figure out what each one actually is from its MAC address or some other identifying feature. I did not try the parental settings but it looked like you could limit devices to connect during certain windows and this is a good feature to include for parents. I also did not try to setup the guest network yet but I am sure it is like most other setups where the guests get their own sub-net, sharing some bandwidth but unable to connect to any of your devices on your otherwise private network. I still think this is a good system and it did a better job with the wireless back haul than some other Wi-FI 6 systems I have seen but it is only deserving of five stars if I had a perfect setup experience and that was not the case, sadly. That said, once I see devices connecting to and using that second node, it should be a great system for my 50+ devices.

Works great in a large hurricane certified House with Techshield and metal straps. Purchased 2 of them and used 3 towers for 3700 SQ ft. Before we couldn't hold wifi signal or do wifi calling and we had boosters, pods you name it and we tried it. Everything else failed. Best solution yet. TK

The ARRIS is crazy fast. Setup was easy, took about 10 minutes. I've seen reviews that mention the app is a problem but I experienced no issues whatsoever. The price is the only drawback but that depends on what you're willing to pay for a major increase in speed. We have fiber to the home so our connection was pretty good already but we have 28 devices connected to our wifi network and occasionally experienced some lag. After hooking up the ARRIS I connected to our regular network from my Galaxy S9 and a speed test showed 21.4 Mbps download and 3.35 Mbps upload. Next I connected to the ARRIS network and the same test came back 46.8 Mbps download and 50.5 Mbps upload. That's pretty impressive. Since the installation we have experienced zero lag even while 5 or 6 devices are streaming simultaneously. Yes, the price is high but you usually get what you pay for and the ARRIS is worth every penny.

If you want the fastest router with no disconnects and the biggest range, get this. This system replaces an orbi mesh, and a previous wifi6 router i bought just yesterday. The range of the Surfboard reaches my entire 2100sf house and my outdoor 1080p wifi cameras with no disconnects. I can go the end of my driveway and the end of the backyard with fast speeds still. All the kids can do their homework or internet surfing without buffering. My wife can watch movies on the Apple TV, and I can do my office work in peace. It took 3 different router systems, but the Arris Max Pro will be my last router. Easy setup and reliable speed. Look at the picture below for speedtest. thanks.

I've been running this mesh system for 2 months now. It replaced my Netgear Nighthawk that seems to love overheating, and giving me only 10Mbps on a VPN across my xfinity gigabit service. Yeah, 10Mbps. Off the VPN, I'd occasionally get up to 180Mbps on any host. Also, I was burdened with more than 60 smart home devices. But 10Mbps.... I rage purchased the SURFboard mAX AX11000 based upon the salesperson's recommendation. As for the setup, piece of cake. Simple. Almost too simple. I hardwired it to my Netgear CM1000 and downloaded the app. I passed through the firmware update and just followed the prompts. I placed the satellite about 7' from the far edge of my home, The main unit is necessarily in the center-most point of the house, which puts it in the basement Harry Potter room. But there are some construction anomalies I won't get into. So I got to choose between the garage or the other side of the house, 7' from the far edge...anyway. A bit more setup and firmware updating and BOOM. My mobile phone is getting upwards of 500Mbps. A couple changes to my laptop and I regularly top 400Mbps. Speed from the main unit to the internet was just pennies shy of 1 Gbps. But all is not pretty here. When changing AP units in the past, I could configure the SSID to the same name/security and it was seamless. Not so much with the Arris. Two months later, I come across a smart light that doesn't seem to be registered with my Echo. I need to reset each host with that problem. Speaking of Echo, I set up a multi-room audio system. It worked once, then tells me that my Plus and my Studio are on two different networks. They both connect to the Satellite at 5Ghz, according to the mobile app. There is only one SSID (and it serves both 2.4 and 5 seamlessly) to which they can connect. But they cannot seem to sort out the whole mesh thing. So no Echo multi-room anything. That's a big sad face. Though one might think it's Echo's mishandling of mesh, I'm very skeptical. This worked fine on my old Netgear system. I could be wrong, but I'm pointing at the mesh, and I'm pointing with minimal material evidence other than it worked on Netgear's wifi5 and it craps itself on mesh/wifi6. There is no windows or mac interface. The only management is via mobile app. And when I say management, I mean it's a pretty interface where you can generally see which hosts are connected to which unit. You can restart the unit, and you can test network speed. A couple other fluffy little features and you've reached the mAX of what you can do to manage your pricey new mAX. Want to put your smart lights on a vlan? Don't hold your breath. Want to set up parental controls? Well, you can do that. If you go to the Settings feature, it's basically your email address and name. QoS? Nope. Port forwarding? Nope. DMZ? Nope. Firewall? Nope. In fact, the mobile app for the mAX is a whole lot of nOPE. I really hope they change that up. The potential is amazing to think about it. But for a whole ton of absent functionality and configurability, the performance is just undeniable. Another speedtest on my laptop just gave me 345Mbps. I cannot deny it. I love the performance. I just wish it had some more options for configuration. So the lacking functionality really drags this down two whole stars. If even some of this stuff existed, it would be easy to go 5 stars for this system.

We recently upgraded to faster 1GBs speed with our provider. Originally started with the eero with the two beacons and was getting subpar performance for the speed that we were paying for. When I went back to Best Buy the rep recommended that I add more beacons or purchase the more expensive eero Pro 3 pack. I did some research and opted for the Surfboard Max since Wifi 6 will be the next thing of the future. Hardwired I did average 1.2 GBs speed. On wifi I averaged 650-850 depending on what room I was in. We have a 4 bedroom 2500 Square foot home. This two pack can handle and cover better than the eero. I have to say to I am very impressed! Now design wise they are big but they are still sleek and pleasant looking. The app is easy to use and setup was also simple. You just follow the instructions on the app and you will be up and running in less than 10 minutes. The app also shows you what devices are connected how much data it has used. You can also set up a guest network if you choose to do so. One thing I did like about these devices is you can hard wire into each receiver. One less item on wifi should decrease congestion for your other devices.

I was in the market to replace my current WiFi mesh setup since I was getting horrible coverage even WITH 3 NODES, to be fair I purchased my current mesh system about 2 years ago but at a premium so I was hoping it would last longer than 2 years before looking for a replacement, pretty disappointed. Anyways, back to the SURFboard mAX Pro Wireless-AX11000 Tri-Band Mesh Wi-Fi. Out of the Box: Pretty basic, you're getting 2 SURFboard Max nodes, one will connect to your router and the other will be the expanding wifi node. A cat 5 cable for connecting one of the units to the router and 2 power supplies for the Surfboard units. Setup: The setup up is taken care of by the mAX app, the entire SURFboard mAX is pretty much all covered in the the app. So it will instruct you on exactly what to do. Unfortunately, it did not go as smoothly as the app instructs. I had to do some resetting on both my router, and close the app before be able to correctly setup everything 2 days later. Actual Use: The SURFBoard mAX WiFi mesh system works perfectly, I noticed it's significantly faster than my older system, sorry no actually numbers to substantiate my claim, but definitely can say it's significantly faster. In addition, some of my mobile apps didn't work on my old mesh system due to the security protocols it used so I would have to disable my WiFi when browsing 9gag (don't judge). Can happily report that 9gag works perfectly with the SURFboard mAX Pro Wireless-AX11000 Tri-Band Mesh Wi-Fi. Pro: Fast, Tri-band, Security protocols compatible with more apps, and best of all COVERAGE. 1 node works better than 3 of my previous WiFi mesh nodes. Con: Setup didn't work correctly, may need to get tech support, Did not have a quick starter guide. Conclusion: I'd definitely recommend this WiFi mesh system.

Hardware is great. Once i got it going the wifi speeds are ridiculously fast. However the support is completely abysmal and refused to help on the day of purchase because they could not prove I had warranty. Eventually I figured it out but dont count on Arris support to assist with anything. The app that controls the mesh system is total garbage and many critical functions cannot be changed.

Because this a new technology I do expect some bugs. Frist, I had a Asus Mesh (Asus ROG 5300 and ASUS 1900), was very stable but slow at time watching NETFLIX AND Prime. The Surfboard Max Pro dual pack 31 is very easy to set up but it is limit with only the Phones, or IPAD. I have a Three Stories Townhouse, and Verizon FIOS (400 mbps up and 400 down). Now I get 514 and sometime 600 mbps up and down. Yet the Wifi Speed is slower. 3rd Floor is slower than 1st and 2nd floor. I have lost connectivity to the Satellite at 3 times. I have 2 help desk tickets open with Arris right now 1 for the Apps and the other for slow wifi speed on the 3rd floor. My home only 1750 sq feet and this cover 6000 sq ft. I know that walls and other item need to be consider. We just knows last night (29 Aug 19), how some devices just down it connections. I have set the up the network twice now (reset the Pro 31 to factory default). I would wait before purchasing Pro 31. I love the speed when it is stable. I work as network admin, so I am a little tough. Another thing you truly do not any control over the routers (can not change IP address, not a problem, but I would like to see how to deleted devices that is no longer being used or block Ip ADDRESS.

Great Product. It extends so far out with the signal. They look Great and was Easy to set up. They look Very Futuristic and the signal strength is AMAZING!!! I have SEVERAL devices using iy from My Ring Door Bell, Smart Lights, Lap Tops, IPads, Alexa's, Phones, etc. I Recommend this Product.

I have better than gigabyte internet service and needed to upgrade to get the most out of my investment. I was excited to install a Wifi 6 Mesh System. I have a large home and even with 3Google Wifi units had spots where coverage was suboptimal and speeds low. The AX11000 is eye-grabbing - both in terms of design and specs. Unfortunately, they appear to have a ways to go before this system will function as promised for the average consumer. Initial install is detailed on the downloadable app. The initial questions are a bit confusing but I was able to negotiate that. Following the instructions to install the primary router to my xfinity modem resulted in an error - the app reported detecting multiple Max Pro units though I had not unpackaged the satellite. Customer service was reasonably prompt. They recommended I call Xfinity and confirm the gateway was in bridge mode and promised to call back in 30 minutes. I confirmed with Xfinity and never got a call back. I trudged on by myself and after hitting retry about a dozen times was able to connect the primary. I had the same issue with the satellite. About 2 hours trying to get it set up. Everything worked beautifully for about six hours. Download speeds and coverage were amazing. BUT then the app started reporting passwords exceeding the limit. After another 20 minutes with customer service, they recommended a hard reset. And by the way, once you've onboarded with a specific email you can never use that email again if you need to restart as I did. Suffice it to say, another hour on with technical support without ever getting it up and running. I finally gave up, returned the system, and am now up and running with an alternative Wifi 6 Mesh System. I really had hoped Arris would have this together. I suppose it was telling that the tech support agent acknowledged several times that the system and app is a work in progress and still needs development.

I recently upgraded my internet speed to 1GIG, but realized that while my cable modem could handle the speed, my Apple AirPort set-up, purchased more than 5 years ago, could no longer keep up. I did some research, and while the ARRIS-SURFboard mAX Pro Wireless was among the more expensive tri-band mesh wi-fi systems available, it did have the best reviews and more important to me, consistent Wi-Fi speeds throughout the house. The iOS APP makes it a simple set-up. I removed my old AirPorts, and installed the new system, and I was up and running within minutes. The APP guided me through the entire process, and if you keep the Network Name and Password the same, it makes for an even easier transition. I've had the product for about a month, and I am quite pleased with its performance. My cable modem is also an ARRIS, SB8200, so it made it easy for me to trust this brand already.

The installation was a bit painful via the mobile app. Make sure you have bluetooth enable so the device can communicate with your phone. The next part was where it got frustrating. The router wasn't able to connect to the internet via the cable modem. Over an hour later, I unplugged the router and cable modem and waiting a minute. Plugged them back in and bingo. Connection found. I got to hand it to customer service. They picked up the phone twice in a matter of minutes and walked me through the setup on an early Saturday morning. Paired this package with the Arris S33 cable modem and WOW. I now get speeds close to what I'm paying for with Xfinity's gig internet plan. I have a 3 level home, main router is on the first floor and I placed the satellite on the top floor. Full strength in every corner of my house, even in the basement and in my shed 60 yards away. Three days without any issues so far. Upgraded from Netgear's Nighthawk X6. Performance and reliability doesn't even compare. The Arris SB app is OK but does it's job.

Setting up the base and connecting it to my Arris Surfboard was easy. The 4 port hub is a nice plus as most mesh units have 1 or 2 ethernet ports. One misconception most people have is that a mesh unit will increase their internet speed, that is not the case, Whatever your internet speed is from your provider is the speed you will get. The speed increase comes from communications between the base & satellite units and the subsequent devices connected to them, those speeds, in my case, are in the 350 to 500 Mbps, but my actual internet connection speed is 180 Mbps (Comcast Business Class). If you run a speed test (speetest.net) from your browser or the speed test app, you will see that your connection speed has not increased. Connection between the units is stable, some reviews I read said that the connection between units and devices would drop periodically, after a month of use I have not experienced this. Complaints: Several reviews referred to no firmware updates. I talked to Arris about this and they confirmed that there have not been any firmware updates in a very long time, its been at least a year since the last update. Other concerns: 1. I have 7 devices that are 5GHz Wi-Fi capable, half stay connected at 5GHz, the remainder, for whatever reason will drop down to 2.4GHz. Annoying example, my cell phone Wi-Fi is connected at 5GHz, I leave home, return and it reconnects at 2.4GHz. I know a 2.4GHz signal is stronger than a 5GHz signal which is probably why my phone reconnects to the 2.4GHz signal, it sees that signal first as the strongest signal and connects. 2. Software installed on phone or tablet, it connects to either unit but you have virtually no control over anything (ports, channels, etc). It is also not possible to connect/login to either unit, base or satellite, directly from your computer. The unit is smart, so it adjusts itself and learns so it does get better over time. When a firmware update eventually comes out, I hope the issues in 1 and 2 above will be addressed, if they are I will change my 4 star rating to 5. Overall though, I am happy with the purchase.

Start by using the reset button as the app had issues till I did the reset. App on my iPad Pro was not as effective as the android app at first. Very little to set up, just name it and I used my own open dns servers. Vizio 4K tv is now click and play with no wait. Every device was noticeably quicker. Can’t wait to get my intel WiFi 6 card. Will update after I install in PC. Neighbors WiFi no longer causes interference. No dead spots in house or yard. WAVE gigabit service gives 1.2GB through wire and between 700-900 mbps with 802.11ac clients in pc’s. Phones, both motorola, up from 118 to over 300 mbps. If you are into controlling every setting of your network, don’t get this. If you want to set it and forget it, this is the one.