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I’ve been using the Arris G54 and the Netgear RBE973S to test WIFI 7 and just wanted to provide some feedback on how the Arris performs so far. Its not a fair comparison as the Netgear has a few extra features/performance specs. 

Overall, its performance has been excellent. I have a 3200sq ft home and with it centrally located, it covers the whole home. I’m running around 60+ devices overall (40+ wireless) and I’ve had no issues or bandwidth concerns. I do have all but 1 of my 4k tv’s hardwired in because I prefer that for streaming. I do have the 10g port connected through a 2.5gig tp-link switch and it doesn’t have any issues saturating it. While the Netgear is faster on the peripheral (because of the satellites), the Arris keeps up in closer range and even will beat it on some tests. I’ve been able to saturate my multi-gig speeds over wireless. So if you have a mid-sided home, this should cover it great if you centrally locate it. 

What I like: 

  1. I like having the extra features in the GUI browser for navigation. Can be a little intimidating at times
  2. Has no issues hitting my full 1.4gig speeds over Xfinity for downloads. And it should support the higher upload speeds.
  3. Its quad band and so has 2x 5ghz bands. This is nice as most devices are still 2.4/5ghz. 
  4. One of the 5ghz bands designed for older WIFI 5 devices. Nice option for those that struggle with newer AX/BE specs. Really great features IMO
  5. options of guest network for any of the bands
  6. all-in-one design. This isn’t always a benefit as some prefer them separate
  7. Great coverage for a single access point solution. I’d have no problem recommending this for single router solutions in mid sized homes.
  8. Can saturate over wireless my 1.2gig speeds. On both 6ghz/5ghz
  9. Once Xfinity recognized it in their system, provisioning was super fast. Was automatic through the app. It took a few attempts as it wasn’t in their system being pre-production and that confuses their reps. 

Dislikes: 

  1. The Captcha needs to be removed. I’ve already logged into the device. I shouldn’t have to do a captcha every time I change a setting. Really frustrating
  2. The upload through xfnity hasn’t been bumped up to high-split speeds so I don’t get the 200mbps potential I do with my other modems. ***this is a pre-production model and the production model shouldn’t have issues I’m informed.*****
  3. I’d have rather seen the one BE 5ghz band have 160hz capabilities. Both are only 80hz wide. It’d give the BE 5ghz band double the speed capabilities. 
  4. Still locked into firmware the ISP supplies. Some other manufacturer’s are implementing a provisioning so you can upgrade the router side firmware and the ISP controls the modem side. This should be standard on all new modem/router combo devices since the ISP’s rarely update firmware .
  5. There was some issues with changing the ssid password but with the newer firmware, its been resolved. You can use whatever ssid password you need now. *Not a dislike but a disclaimer for a fixed issue.*
  6. With the internal modem only capable of 2.5g speeds, having a 10g port without any other 2.5/5g ports was a bit overkill. I’d have rather removed the 10g port and had the other ports all 2.5g. Or just have a couple 2.5g ports. A bit more multi-gig options would have been nicer than just the single 10g port and the rest gigabit. Yes you can connect a 10g switch to it but there prices are quite high compared to 2.5g switches.

 

WIFI 7 (BE) is still in its infancy and I couldn’t really test the full WIFI 7 capabilities because the phone with WIFI 7 I have doesn’t connect properly (phones issue, not the routers. Avoid Motorola phones if you want your WIFI 7 to work currently).  We really won’t see a whole lot of benefit to upgrade yet until we see more devices released. But with its quad band operations, it should future proof you for quite a while and let your older devices still function without issues. A great option and I wasn’t expecting to appreciate the 5ghz band for older devices.

Overall, this is a rock solid modem/router. I’m never trusting of ISP’s to upgrade firmware since it costs them $ to certify so I’d have really liked the separate provisioning of firmware. But it isn’t a deal breaker. Most who are buying combo devices, don’t manage their devices a whole lot. Having the ISP force updates might be a better option for them. Those that do want control, buy the modem separate. If you’re in need of a modem/router combo device, I’d for sure look at this as its the first WIFI 7 modem/router combo device released and performs excellent. 

 

If anything changes, I’ll try and leave a comment (if it stays open for comments)

 

Disclaimer "User received a commercially available or Pre-Production unit as part of testing and feedback process"

Update 2/9/24: My Moto Edge+ 2023 finally got updated for the wifi 7 in it to function. Speeds are fantastic. If I’m close to the router I can connect with 3000mpbs+ links speeds (understand actual throughput is going to be 55-65% of link speed). My speeds I pay for are 1.4gig and can hit that without any issues. With distance those speeds/links drop because of the nature of 6ghz. But its faster than any of my AX routers I have. I did pickup an Intel BE200 but its firmware hasn’t enabled actual wifi 7 speeds yet. 

Thanks for the update!  I’m definitely interested in all-in-one solution to reduce the office clutter.

Might you know what the processor speed is, and the RAM/memory?

And when compared to its peers, do those specs make any difference?

It is also my understanding the G54 does not have QoS feature, and I assume there’s no way to throttle  the bandwidth per device on the network.

The G54 has one less RJ45 port than the TPLink Archer BE800.

I’m trying to figure out what the G54’s limitations are when compared to TPLink Archer BE800 or Netgear RS700, for home/office use.  So far less clutter is very high on my list.  Not sure how much CPU/memory or software will make a difference.

 

Understood that your concern is less clutter but I’d still go with a modem separate from the router. Sadly, Arris/Commscope hasn’t yet implemented a good way to update the routers separate from the modem side. So the firmware is still part of the modem and has to be pushed by the ISP. With wifi 7 being so new and still being updated through certification, it’ll be a challenge to see how many updates it gets and how many the ISP’s push out. for that reason, I’d look at a modem separate from the router. Who’s your ISP? 

Good point.  I’m not in a big hurry since WiFi 7 is new and expensive, so I may wait 6-12 months.  Perhaps by then the firmware will be stable.

 

Who’s your ISP? 

Astound/Wave.

Good call n waiting

 Astound rarely updates so I'd for sure go a separate modem 

According to this post: 

5GHz band have 160MHz channel width?- G54 | Community (surfboard.com)

The g54 does have 160hz width. Which would imply that its only a 2x2 antenna design for the 5ghz. 

Not sure which I’d rather have, a 4x4 antenna design with 80hz or a 160hz 2x2 design. 

I couldn’t find any specific info on it to define what they were. 

It’d be much better if Arris put those in their specifications sheet so users would know what each band was for antennas and channel width. @SURFboard Moderator @SURFboard_Big_Kahuna 

Seems like found the same issue with 160hz and it being only 80hz wide. 

Makes me curious if it supports 160hz or 80hz. 

@SURFboard Moderator @SURFboard_Big_Kahuna 

Again, not having the actual specs for this is a bit frustrating

Seems like found the same issue with 160hz and it being only 80hz wide. 

Makes me curious if it supports 160hz or 80hz. 

@SURFboard Moderator @SURFboard_Big_Kahuna 

Again, not having the actual specs for this is a bit frustrating

 

The specification and User Manual PDFs are located at arris.com/consumersupport.com 

I reinstalled mine and the 160hz option is grayed out. Its not selectable for high/low band. 

And on “auto” a scan shows its only broadcasting on 80hz width. so its not 160hz width. 

 

As mentioned on the this post, enable DFS to get to the 160MHz option.

 

 

Ok. I was wrong. It does have 160hz but DFS has to be enabled. I’d love to modify the initial review/post to reflect this. I strongly feel like dfs should be enabled by default as most standard users aren’t going to know what DFS is. 

@plemans can you run a bufferbloat test on it?
You’d have to do it from a wired computer probably.  And make sure no other devices are using the network at the time.  One test is at https://www.waveform.com/tools/bufferbloat and indicates if your equipment’s firmware incorporates fixes to lower connection latency.

more info on bufferbloat https://www.bufferbloat.net

@jwms Right now I’m not using that setup as I’m testing other configurations. If I reattach the G54, I’ll be happy to. Is there something in specific you’re looking for? 

That waveform bufferbloat test will simply spit out a score of how well your equipment handles packet buffering.  There are a few other speed test sites that will do bufferbloat tests but that one just gives a grade (A+ to F).

The history is older Internet engineers recognized some deficiencies in how networking hardware has been designed to put network traffic into temporary buffers before sending a packet on its way.  If a router is a combination of several networking components and they each include some sort of buffering aspect, your network traffic flows through a series of buffers before being sent on.

So the old engineers came up with a programming fix that says ‘drive a little slower and there won't be as many traffic jams.’. Some manufacturers have incorporated these improvements and others haven't.

If the vendor has incorporated the change, there might be a feature in the router called “SQM, CoDel, traffic shaping, or QOS” that specifically has you set your maximum download and upload speeds in the router and that congestion algorithm will keep the network traffic from ending up in buffers on the device.

It's most noticable when streaming media, doing video conferencing, or playing games.  Any Internet usage that would be sensitive to latency.

.. So if you run that speed test and you get an A/A+ you don't have ‘bufferbloat’ but if it's a B or less, there is potentially a configuration change on your router that could be done to improve network latency.  But the modem may or may not have those features.

Looking at the manual, I get the impression Arris doesn't do any newer networking tricks.  It's like they only offer the basics of passing traffic.  I have a separate piece of equipment to encrypt the DNS traffic for my network and control bufferbloat whereas it would be nice to have them be checkboxes to enable on the modem.

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