Customer Ratings & Reviews

I was excited for this product, but I am a bit disappointed, partly because I love Arris products that I have used in the past. The setup is pretty straightforward, but the app is horrible. The app seems to have been made as an after thought to the product. This is terribly disappointing because the app is a key element to the product itself. They go hand in hand and if one is 'weak' then the entire product suffers. The app is the only way to control the product and the app gets less than 1 star in my book. Simply terrible. It only offers basic features and those are not smooth. I hope Arris seeks to improve the app going forward. Out of the box the limited ethernet connections is not acceptable at this price point. Today there is a need for greater ethernet connections not less. To skimp on that aspect of the product is terribly short sighted. Sure I can buy a switch and add more ethernet connections, but really why should I have to ? Having said that I wanted to keep my current router and use these as an access point, but that does not seem to be possible. I am going to contact Arris and see if there is a work around to allow that. Again, the weak app doesn't allow you to do anything except basic movements and thus no tweaking seems possible in any shape or form. The product is sleek. There are 2 identical units in the box. Once you set up the first, "node " ( their words not mine ) the 2nd sets up quite easily. Connections take place in the bottom of the base. The ability to use my existing password from my old router is a great feature because I hate having to reset all my devices. Now for some great news. The range of this mesh system is amazing. I get complete coverage in every corner of my home on both floors as well as the basement and garage and in the yard too at some distances from the home. The range is second to none. That is a certainty. The future is built into this system as it is Wi-Fi 6 which is the newest latest standard so you will be buying the latest in technology. If Arris can fix the app and in future editions add ethernet ports to the unit that would go a long way to getting this product to a higher rating. It is good, but not great. Had such great expectations. I would recommend it to friends, but I would point out the pluses and minuses in doing so.

This is a rather difficult review to write. Over the many years that broadband has been available for me I've owned somwhere in the range of 20-30 wireless routers, and at no point have I been as disappointed in any of them as I am with this set. I will write this review ignoring the fact that one of my two devices has a hardware problem that has, as of yet, not been addressed by Arris customer support, who unfortunately is extremely slow and asks for unreasonable things in the troubleshooting process. I'll touch on this as it is unavoidable that some will have to deal with customer support anyways, but I can tell you that this is a one-star system no matter how great or terrible the customer service could be. To start with, the one positive: This is fast. Very fast. All over my house I get superb speeds and excellent coverage. This is the last good thing I will say about this system. Now for the issues. The 2-pack ships with two identical devices, and either one of them can be set up as either the primary or the satellite, and honestly the setup is relatively painless. I did have to power cycle the device twice during setup for it to complete, but that's no real surprise, I dont know that I've ever owned a router that has a completely pain free setup. During setup it asks for the SSID of the network and it tells you not to reuse a previous SSID which I thought was somewhat strange as I've used the same SSID for every wireless router I've ever owned. So in this case I did as well. I had already shut off my old router so I figured there would not be any issue. And immediately my devices connected. Great. The second device sets up much as the first does, although I had some difficulties getting it to locate a couple of times, though it finally did. So I start to try to navigate the configuration options, of which there are extremely few, especially for so expensive of a device. What's missing? You cannot change the subnet from 192.168.7.x - so if you have any device in your network you've hard coded IPs to, you will need to re-IP them (I had a handful - printers, a server, a managed switch and wireless bridges) The router does not act as a DNS gateway, it automatically uses Google DNS servers, these can be changed but it just updates what it sends down via DHCP The router does not have a web interface, you can configure it with the app ONLY You cannot copy/paste anything within the app, so that includes making IP reservations which, shockingly, it does support, you have to type in both the MAC address AND the reserved IP address You cannot manually update the firmware, it does it automatically There are ZERO logging capabilities, so if you have any issues with the devices there is no way to tell what happened The satellite essentially has 3 wired bridge ports, the WAN port cannot be used as a LAN port even on the satellite. If you choose to connect your satellite as a wired AP then you only get 2 bridge ports. The app claims you can configure the devices remotely, however whenever I would launch the app off the network it told me I had to connect to the network to view or configure All of these above missing items are more than enough to knock this down to one star. For a set to cost as much as this does and have absolutely zero customization options is basically unforgivable. I've owned devices in the past that had both a basic and an advanced setup option to allow for both the ease for those without networking experience and the advanced options for those who know what they are doing. I'd much rather have just about any other device than be pigeonholed into a one-size-fits-all configuration, which really didn't fit my setup. Now what can you do that they don't expressly tell you that you can do? You actually CAN use one of the routers as a remote WIRED access point. I have ethernet run through my house and when I connected the satellite on one of the LAN ports (you cannot use the WAN port to do this) it changed over from WIRELESS to WIRED. So in the event you have this option and the devices are too far away for the wireless backhaul to connect, it does give you the option to have a remote wired AP. Now to my problems: The satellite repeatedly crashed. Within 3-4 hours of being set up or power cycled each time it would crash. The main router was fine and it never had any problems. In working with Arris support they required me to change my SSID to something different claiming that having reused an old SSID is what caused the instability (as I've said before I've had 20-30 routers over the years and I've used the same SSID on every single one of them, so if this was actually a thing, that means this expensive set cannot do something every other router I've ever owned can do). Fortunately that's not what caused it (I already knew this). I changed the SSID and the satellite continued to crash. At no time did the main router crash. To ensure it wasn't just the fact that it was in satellite mode, I swapped the primary and satellite devices with one another (went through the whole setup process again). Within 3 hours the primary router crashed (this is the one that was originally the satellite) and it took down the whole network. I've since flipped back and have the original primary router in place and it has been going strong for 4 days. In that time I've had a case open with Arris support to do something about the satellite, preferably an RMA, and have yet to hear from them. Even after re-contacting them with my case number to find out status, they just told me to continue to wait. Final word: If you want something that is extremely fast out of the box and is really set it and forget it, then this will do, however at such an extremely high price with zero, and I mean ZERO, configuration options, I really cannot recommend this when there are many equivalent options, even in the AX range out there that cost the same or less with more customization options.. With the many sins of the missing configuration options having earned this a single star rating, the insult to injury of having both a hardware malfunction and poor customer support means to me that no one should buy these devices.

Bought this and downloaded app. Was supposed to be an ease. Not so. Called arris. And they had me on hold for an hour and still didn’t work. Stay away

Despite the Pro in its name, the SURFboard mAX Pro offers basic AX mesh router functionality. The speeds are excellent as well as the range despite just 2 units. However, router management is only done through the app. The app itself does not have a lot to offer. The 2.4 and 5GHz bands are consolidated and with my apartment, the devices that are compatible work best on the 5GHz band. I have no way of making sure they stick to that 5GHz band as far as I can see. This was one of the first AX mesh routers released and at this point in time, you have better options. Linksys' Velop AX mesh router allows router administration via app and web browser. Netgear's Orbi is another great option. Skip this unless it's on sale and being on the 2.4GHz band doesn't give you any performance issues.

I read some reviews and decided to go for it. All it did was keep slowing down and having to be rebooted. I took it back quickly.

This system is incredible! I have used several other brands of mesh Wi-Fi systems. However, I think this Arris mesh system beats out the others I have used. Primarily, the range is incredible. We have an almost 3000 square foot home, and have no issues with reception either in our home or in our front/back yard. Love it! With other units, I noticed that in certain spots it might be patchy and start to slow down - this Arris system has not had that issue. The other crucial aspect of this Arris system is that it handles multiple things flawlessly. I can be downloading media on my laptop, use our Apple TV to stream Netflix, and someone can be in the other room on our PS4 playing online - no hiccups! All in all, I absolutely love how well this system works. It's as simple as that - it just works. Highly recommended - you won't be disappointed!

But its total automation has drawbacks with certain devices. My La Cross weather station requires it be set up from a device on a 2.4ghz network from a device on that same 2.4 ghz network. But I cant select a band and my phone is a newer device and automatically selects the 5.0 ghz bands. I had to setup my Ring Doorbell and my MyQ for the garage doors and light modules all over as if I were doing it for the first time. Roku, Fire Stick. phones, Nest and computers were a simple enter password and your good to go. No dead spots and great signal strength inside and out even having a brick house with double pane windows. Getting the router and satellite online were no issue and relatively easy, but having no manual settings that I have found yet for band selection is a major disappointment

With my previous WiFi network, I had good coverage throughout the house, but once I got outside my signal would drop. For the most part it wasn't an issue, but if we were streaming music while sitting on the deck it would get choppy and annoying. Now I can get a solid WiFi connection from the street. I'm not sure when this will ever be beneficial, but for those with larger homes or lots, this could be a nice to have. I didn't expect to see any speed improvements as I'm on a 100Mbps connection and could achieve that with my old equipment. Where I did notice an improvement was streaming from my Plex server. Before the upgrade, there was a buffering before the show would start. Now the show starts instantly. Also, if we had to fast forward, it'd buffer for a few seconds before resuming play and now that's gone. Even my wife noticed the change. I've read some reviews where people complained about the mobile app and the lack of features. I'm an IT guy, but felt the capabilities were fine for the average user. I can see where a network person with enterprise gear might find it lacking, but for the normal person there is actually a lot of information available. Personally, I like the feature set layout of the app. One cool feature is the built-in speed test where you can see your up/down speeds as well as the connection between the two Surfboards. As far as recommending this to a friend...it's a lot of money for WiFi gear. That said, the build quality is top notch and setup was super easy. It has been rock solid for the two weeks I've been using it. If you have the funds and need coverage in a large house, it's a solid purchase.

The ARRIS SURFboard mAX Pro Wireless-AX11000 Tri-Band Mesh Wi-Fi 6 System is AWESOME. The mAX in the name is for the ax designator in the wi-fi spec 802.11ax making for a very apt name. I have used it to connect a variety of devices. The connection is consistent and provides good range through a complex environment. The satellite is used to handle several Ethernet connected computers. SPEED is superb and is running around 3 times as fast as my prior mesh system. I am on a 1G service and all family members can stream active content simultaneously including 4K. The four Ethernet ports are being used with one connecting to a router to handle more hardwired connections. The speed increase with 802.11ac devices is awesome and provides a solid connection so far with no drops. FAST, FAST and MORE FAST!

This system was easy to set up as long as you follow closely step by step. The app is the only way to manage, you're unable to use any browser to manage, so that stinks. This system only allows one primary SSID and one guest SSID, but that seems to be the norm among these early adopter WiFi 6 systems. Overall, speeds have been excellent on my Galaxy S10 with Wifi 6, hitting over 800Mbps on my 1Gbps connection.

It was super easy to set up using the app. It walks you through every step and even tells you when you have the satellites placed for optimum coverage efficiency. I saw an immediate improvement in the wifi coverage and speed throughout my home. I was experiencing dropped coverage and slow speeds in a few areas. This seems to have addressed both of those issues so far. If you don't need lots of features or administrative functions, just a no nonsense easy to set up and use MESH system, this is a great choice.

UPDATE - We have been using this for a few months and it keeps dropping the internet connection. I think it tries to switch between the 2 units and drops. You cannot specify which unit to connect to as the network is the same name. So we end up rebooting the router several times per week. ORIGINAL: With all of the devices (~25) on our network I have been wanting to setup a mesh network for awhile. We were using an Asus RT-AC3100 router and it working well. But we have a TV and a printer in our lower level that would drop off the network occasionally, even with the extender I had purchased. There are no instructions included in the box. Just a note saying that you need to install the app on your phone (Android or iOS) to setup the network. Installing the main hub was easy and I had that running in about 5 minutes. The satellite unit was harder to place. I kept moving it around the lower level and was just about to give up when it worked in the back corner by a window. There will only be one name on your network (no 5Ghz or EXT) as the devices will connect to whatever unit is the best signal. The main unit has 1 WAN and 3 LAN (one of these labeled LAC – Link Aggregation Control). The satellite unit will be 4 LAN. You will only use LAC if you network is over 1Gbps (2Gbps preferred). Most devices easily connected to the network. Google Home was a little picky but it finally connected. Because it is an automated network you cannot select a lower speed for devices that don’t operate on 5Ghz; i.e. smart light bulbs. I didn’t test that but we have been thinking about some smart bulbs. The advanced user will not be happy with this lack of user control and customization. We have been having some TV issues with this setup. It is slow when opening apps on the TV and sometimes we wait up to 30 seconds for the program to start (with a black screen). We never had this problem before. And it is with all of the apps. I setup a system to record TV from my antenna as well and it has been interrupted a few times. It might have been that an auto update was processing from the router – it has no manual option. All of my other devices are manual update for that reason. Pros: Guest Network Capability Speed is very good but little improvement over my previous router Kept my Alexa TV controls (which were a pain to setup) Cons: No advance settings Must use app – no web interface No wi-fi pairing button Auto Update – no manual control No customized LAN IP address Too few LAN ports – had to use a hub Need to reboot router several times per week Drops internet connection

The speeds were a big improvement but the set up of the mesh systems and connecting to the 2nd mesh wifi wasn't the easiest. It helps if you have some troubleshooting experience other wise the setup is a little frustrating

Easy product to install, very strong coverage throughout the house. This operates our VR, several computers and video streaming easily. Excited to have this product installed now!

Super-fast, I may buy another unit to make it 3 routers in my home. .