ARRIS SURFboard mAX Plus AX7800

I 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.