Description
The SURFboard mAX(TM) Plus is a tri-band whole home gigabit Wi-Fi 6 mesh system with Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) on all 3 bands! With the SURFboard mAX Plus your home will experience system speeds of up to 7.8 Gbps and provide up to 400% greater range than existing Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac) mesh systems.
From the manufacturer
Take your home Wi-Fi faster – and farther:
Now you can bring those Wi-Fi enabled devices upstairs, downstairs, in the back yard, or out on the deck. The new SURFboard mAX Mesh Wi-Fi 6 System unleashes your home wireless network like never before. After all, what good is Wi-Fi without the freedom?
mAXimize Your Wi-Fi with SURFboard mAX
The SURFboard mAX is a tri-band whole home gigabit Wi-Fi 6 mesh system with Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) on all 3 bands! With the SURFboard mAX Plus your home will experience system speeds of up to 7.8 Gbps and provide up to 400% greater range than existing Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac) mesh systems. The SURFboard mAX Mesh Wi-Fi System future-proofs your home with Wi-Fi 6 technology and is backwards compatible. It uses an 8-stream Wi-Fi 6 design to connect all of your 5 GHz and 2.4.GHz devices to the internet. This 2-unit system provides up to 6, 000 square feet of coverage!
Simple setup and management with SURFboard Central App
Setup has never been easier. Simply download the SURFboard Central app and follow the on-screen instructions to manage your network and connected devices. The app brings all of your digital systems – anything connected to your network – into one dashboard letting you view your devices and customize their Wi-Fi settings in one place.
Next-Gen Wi-Fi
Tri-band Wi-Fi 6 technology provides efficient network traffic management resulting in true gigabit Wi-Fi speeds. Wi-Fi 6 technology enables up to 400% faster speeds and greater range than Wi-Fi 5 to support high-bandwidth applications.
Matt –
ExcellentI upgraded to these from an old router I bought about 10 years ago. I was a little skeptical seeing reviews on all mesh routers saying they dropped satellites all the time or it never really worked.I have a 1600 sqft house. I have the main router at the back corner of the house, the satellite is at the front corner of the house. I NEVER have them lose connection from each other or give weak signal.I went with a mesh system so I could get a good wifi signal in my detached garage and stream stuff on my TV in there while running on the treadmill. This worked great for that. Before my TV would show 1 bar for wifi and not even connect. Now it shows full bars and streams like I’m next to the router in the house.I get great wifi signal anywhere in my yard now (only .33 acres) and in any room in my house. This system is really fast and I’ve never had an issue. When the power goes out these come back on with out me having up do any sort of set up either.I have had no issues with these at all and would recommend them.
G. Brown –
I keep reading bad reviews but it is not my experience so farI just packed up my Orbi RBK43 system to return. I gave it two weeks and still could not make 3 units work together even using ethernet as the Backhaul (unit to unit connection at 1gb). Buying the Arris for some is just an extension of the Surfboard modem(s) we have used for yearsSo far it took less time to set up this Arris system including the satellite. Just FYI the initial setup uses Bluetooth so don’t walk to far away and make sure Bluetooth is enabled on your phone.I have a cable with 1000 mbps down and 40 up. the router connects to mt modem with optimum speed at around 930 Mbps maybe because I am also connected the Arris SB8200 modem.The backhaul is faster than my wired network basement to second floor distance, several floors and walls.What has improved after removing the Orbi RBK43 VS the ARRIS Surfboard mAX Plus1. The basic down load on the router connected to my modem increased from 860 to 930 mbps. The Orbi is not a good router but the Arris is.2. My 3-year-old laptop went from 90 mbps to 300mbps Plus where I use it.3. All of my devices re-connected easily without any input including all of amazon’s devices, echo’s and 4K fire sticks. I did need to restart some devices to connect at 5Ghz but no password resets even though the default DNS server is 192.168.7.1 and not —.—.0.14. Only two units running instead of 3.5 Didn’t ask me to buy anything additional once the setup was complete. (no ads)Notes:1. The units are not small2. The software is phone based only and very limited. I would say its plug and play for those who don’t care to get inside your wireless network.3. I like the blue light lets me see if its running from a distance (you can turn it off).4. Has other features like parental controls, antivirus (?) and works with Alexa commands. All of which I do not use or need so I did not check these.Very little information exists on the web for this device. I wish Arris would promote it so some people can read more reviews. Its unfortunate most of the Amazon reviews are from people who didn’t have a good experience. Given the price point here I have found nothing comparable. Anyone who has used a surfboard modem as I have for many years trusts Arris so I have some idea how their equipment works over the long haul.Update:These units have a constant 2.7Gbps connect between them (backhaul) which is much faster than any wired network. My laptop is connecting to the internet at 300-400 Mbps @ 5Ghz but again that is through the router and out to the internet for a speed test. I am happy with these speeds.My phone says 500Mbps plus on a wireless connection and I have much better voice calling over wireless as I can now take a call in the deep recesses of my basement.I had one disconnect not sure what happened.I also noticed that the router does not readily reconnect to the modem when unplugging. It does if you use the mobile app reset button? If I unplug the unit, I also need to unplug the modem. I have been reconfiguring my network into a rack mounted setup so the reason I have been playing.Ordered som flat ethernet cables as the space underneath is very tight. The cable work fine. the unit comes with oneI noticed that you may need to reboot both units to reestablish a good backhaul especially after moving the units or playing around with your setup.
HHN –
Fast Wifi and Got Rid of Deadzones On My PropertyI have the ARRIS SURFboard mAX Plus Mesh AX7800 Wi-Fi 6 AX Router System paired with ARRIS SURFboard SB8200 DOCSIS 3.1 Gigabit Cable Modem (white). I decided to get an upgrade due to the poor coverage I was getting with the stock Xfinity modem/router. For my situation its a little overkill but decided to upgrade nonetheless. The router was easy enough to set up. All that is needed is to download an app with a device that has an active data plan. It was fairly simple enough the app walks you through everything. The whole process took a few minutes to connect and set up both routers. Soon after I was getting WI-FI speeds 50 mbps faster than what I pay for in my plan. The coverage reaches all prior dead zones with a strong signal and really good speeds. Even my front yard and backyard are now both completely covered. The two routers provide enough ethernet ports to hardwire up to 7 devices. At least for my situation it means no need for a switch. I cannot speak much on the WI-FI 6 feature except that for compatible devices like phones get 6 on the WI-FI icon. Video streaming and Online gaming on multiple devices at the same time have been a breeze. Setting up smart devices with Alexa required setting up a guest network specially for those devices that are only compatible with 2.4 GHz WI-FI signal. I’m also happy to have the routers be Alexa compatible.Pros-Fast speeds-Stable-Good coverage-Light on router can be turned offCons-PriceOverall the routers have been nothing but a pleasant experience and a good product. The App can be considered limited but it is simple and has port forwarding so again it fits my needs. The reviews found on this device can be cause for concern but for the time being I can only recommend these routers. If anything changes I’ll be sure to update my review.
Amy –
Solid hardware, TERRIBLE softwareI purchased this mesh unit when I moved into a new house in December, 2019. I was a little disappointed at the lack of ability to configure most of the router options I was used to. I have over 20 years of IT experience configuring/installing routers of many types for many people/businesses. I like my options, but I was okay with the lack of options when I got the bandwidth/speed I wanted for my family. The inability to truly configure guest network or general security options was frustrating, but again livable.I had occasional issues where I had to reboot the routers when response dropped, but nothing more than I am used to on heavily used systems. And then, sometime in the last month, all changed. I historically have all lower security items (firesticks, TVs, smart plugs and switches, etc.) on my guest network just as a nice separation from those items and my NAS/computer storage on the main network. Suddenly, the guest network starting dropping and my family could no longer access our many smart items in the house. The guest network started dropping every few days and could only be revived by shutting unplugging and rebooting the routers. This became daily and then started happening every few hours. I would have checked the configuration, except the app is terrible. The only options for guest network are enabling/disabling, naming the network, and setting the password.I cannot tell if this all changed with a firmware upgrade (they are silent in the background) or something else. The online information/FAQs are nearly completely worthless and generic. The phone support is effectively inaccessible (and not for free) due to “high volume of calls due to COVID” which is reasonable, but useless to the consumer. Finally, the online support chat was worthless. After every text exchange, I would wait 2 minutes to get a response. The responses were the standards: 1. Reboot it. 2. Turn features on/off 3. Reset to factory defaults. I had already done all of those, but tried again for the sake of politeness. When none of those items worked, I was told “sorry, that’s all I know to do” and the exchange ended.If this were almost any other router available, especially those at this price range, I would have had a legitimate software interface to use to try to configure/fix my problems. This software cannot do any of the normally expected standard router functions. You cannot configure security beyond password selection. You cannot monitor individual devices. Well, you can, but apparently all of my devices never send or receive any data regardless of what I’m doing on them. The monitoring is minimal and doesn’t even work. If you want to setup QoS, too bad. If you want to have multiple networks setup for multiple levels of access/tracking, too bad. If you want to control NAS and setup rights, nope. If you want advanced controls/features, do not get this router. The hardware is good. Perhaps excellent. The fact that the only way to configure it is through a lousy phone app prevents any power user from ever knowing.If you want a fast AX mesh router for very basic use, this is a fine router. You will get speed. If you want to use a router for anything more than a broadband spigot with no modern configuration/features, this will be fine. If that’s the case, though, there are still cheaper options. Hopefully the software will be upgraded one day to something comparable to the industry standards. If so, I will happily come back and edit this rating/review. I hope that happens, but won’t hold my breath. More likely, I will be reviewing another brand mesh router system before the end of the year when I finally give up on Arris.
Amazon Customer –
Don’t bother buying if you want access to router settings through web interface. There is none.I suppose this router is okay for so many knows nothing about networking and has a mobile phone. For anybody who wants to use this Wi-Fi router bridge for anything other than just setting up to watch Disney+ I would highly recommend not buying this and finding a true Wi-Fi router that actually gives you some control over the settings other than through a silly smart phone app. Coverage is pretty good I’m very happy with it but trying to manage it in different scenarios but I net worth is truly frustrating the point where I am not going to use it except for the most simple of configurations. For what I wanted it for it was a waste
Jarrett J Talley –
Not gigabit WiFi.I bought this Arris Surfboard Max Plus mesh system in hopes of taking advantage of the WiFi 6 capabilities and my gigabit fiber connection. The setup was fairly simple, you download an app and it walks you through the process. One thing that did bug me was the fact that there isn’t a way currently to configure the LAN IP to a custom IP of your choosing. Perhaps future firmware updates will change this?So, the main reason I purchased this router was to use with my new iPhone 11 Pro which has WiFi 6 capabilities. Since I have gigabit fiber, and the Arris Surfboard Max Plus product page claims “true gigabit WiFi” and “400% faster AC WiFi” I assumed I would get close to gigabit WiFi on my iPhone 11 Pro. I get about half of that when connected to the main unit about 5 feet away. However, when connected to the satellite unit, I still get about 500Mbps, which is great, but not gigabit.I’m still on the search for a WiFi 6 router that will deliver close to gigabit speeds over WiFi 6. It seems as if it is not on the market yet, or the correct firmware hasn’t been released, but the search continues. It would be great if these router companies would stop advertising crazy fast WiFi speeds, when in the real world, you’ll only get a small percentage of what’s advertised at best.Another note that I feel needs to be added is that the app shows a backhaul connection to the satellite unit at 1.3Gbps, but when hardwired with a laptop to the satellite unit, the Speedtest speeds are about 500Mbps down and about 700Mbps up. Not bad, but why it’s not closer to a gigabit wired is confusing to me? After all is said and done, the coverage is fine and the speeds are about half of a gigabit plan on WiFi using WiFi 6 clients. I docked some stars since it does not deliver what it advertised.
Susan T –
Amazing speedWe had the 2 pack of these and they were flawless but of course they both died 3 months after the 2 year warranty expired. I bought this one thinking I could use at least one of the other two as a satellite but unfortunatly they both knock the wifi out after a few minutes no matter how many times you factory reset them.That said, our two story home is oddly shaped and the modem – router hookup is upstairs. With every other router we can’t get wifi in a large part of the house. With just one of these we get more speed than the 600mbps we pay for and around 350mbps in the farest reaches which is perfect.
Gavin Johnson –
Extended signal radiusI replaced my Apple Airport Extreme Base Station with the ARRIS SURFboard mAX Plus Mesh AX7800 Wi-Fi 6 AX Router (W30). Kudos to the package design team that made it fun to open! Set up was relatively easy although the QR code in the set up manual took me to an app that told me to download a different app. Awkward but understandable, things change after product release.I saw almost a 100% increase for devices in other rooms and outside the home! (About 120 Kbps) That is a huge benefit for making the change, especially these days when we want to be outside more and distance learning/working from home requires us to be in different rooms to do that. There was a moderate speed increase for devices within sight of the router.The app is pretty cool. It is able to show what devices are connected and their status. The parental controls can simply block or schedule internet on or off for specific devices. It really could be much more robust since it is challenging for even tech savvy parents to set up controls and there are SO many different avenues to achieve that. I think it would be a big selling point if an easy parental control solution was baked into the app/product! At minimum it seems it could track sites visited.Overall, the big increase in speed further away from the router is worth it. That is what I was going for.
Stephen F. –
Bathed in fast internetWe have gone from suffering blank spots around our home to being fully bathed in fast wifi access. Where previously we had interference from other wifi sources and intermittent connection issues this has now all gone. The product met all our expectations and more.While I would have gone for the pro version was it available it likely would have been overkill for our needs, with the plus system providing us with great speeds, and from what I understand, the same backhaul speeds between units.While we have only had it going and installed for two days we are impressed so far with the speed. The units were easy to set up, going through a step by step process with the first unit and then adding the second.There is limited configurability with only a single wifi network and possible additional guest network (which I believe is totally separated), but in reality that is all we needed. There is also something for parental controls which can limit times for chosen devices, but we have not tried this.Once set up it seems to work flawlessly. Very happy, and so is the family.The only downside is that now Minecraft is at every corner of the house.The only improvement I could suggest is the ability to turn off the colored ring or to just glow if there is a problem. At least it does not flicker like our router but gives a nice steady blue glow. Just we would prefer no glow at all.Update: the app allows the LED light to be turned off, so now it is the perfect device.
William –
The mobile app required to configure this product is terribleThe device, once configured works fine, but the process to install this product with the mobile app is so bad, I wouldn’t recommend buying the product. Once deployed, I among many customers, cannot manage our network again, rather the mobile app thinks I’m installing a new network again, with all sorts of error codes shown in the mobile app, both on Android and iPhone. It is so frustrating to use the mobile app, that I can no longer encourage anyone to buy this product. Phone calls to Arris technical support could not resolve the mobile app issue on either Android or iPhone.