Arris NVG448b and NVG443b

Wireless 802.11AC DSL/Fiber Residential Gateway

This line of routers is currently used by Frontier for DSL services. There are versions that support DSL, Bonded DSL (two lines in use at the same time), or Fiber (FIOS). It has gigabit ethernet and is compatible with Frontier's "Triple Play" tv and telephone services. It should work just fine for Internet. The 448x and 443x are almost identical. The device is usually installed vertically so that it can cool from both sides. Do not lay it down on its side, as this means one side cannot cool.

 

Diagnostic Lights

We can tell the status of the device and of your internet connection by looking at the lights on the front.

Light	Meaning
	Power light. Green means your device has power. Red means bad device or bad power supply.
	Internet light. Blue means you are online. Red means error. If you hvae a blue light then everything is up and working. If you don't have this light, then check the dsl light (see below). If you have a good dsl light but no internet light, then it is likely a router configuration issue.
	DSL light. This means that you have a dsl signal. If there are two lights available (see picture above) this means two dsl signals are available. This would only be the case if you have a bonded line (25mb or 45 mb). If you have one dsl light then that's just fine. If you do not have a DSL light then either the line is down, or unplugged. That means we need to check cables or report line down problem.
	Wifi light. This doesn't mean much since your device always has wifi. If this light is off it means wifi is turned off in your router.
	Telephone light. This light is found on the 448b but not on the 443b. It means VOIP services are available. This light will probably either not exist, or be off, which is fine.
	WPS button. You can use this to connect devices. We normally don't suggest using this. Instead, you can connect devices by selecting the network and giving the correct password.

Rear View - Fiber Version

There are several versions of this router. The one pictured below is for use with Fiber services. The yellow jacks are places to plug in computers if you want to connect them to the router with ethernet cables. The red plug labeled "broadband" is for an incoming ethernet signal. The coaxial plug (the round one) is for incoming coaxial signal. The router should be able to detect automatically if the incoming signal is ethernet or coaxial. Frontier fiber devices (ONT) usually have a choice of ethern or coaxial. We suggest to use ethernet because it is faster. The telephonejack pictued below is NOT a dsl line input. It's a VOIP plug for telephone service. We do not currently support this service so you won't be using this jack.

 

Rear View - DSL Version

The DSL version is pretty much the same as the Fiber version, but it has two input DSL plugs instead of the ONT ethernet and coaxial cable plugs.

Broadband is where the DSL line goes in. "Phone lines" is for VOIP, which we are not using. Your router may or may not have this, but it doesn't matter much. COmputers can be plugged into the yellow "Ethernet" ports. The reset button is used to factory reset the router. We suggest that you NOT do this unless you are sure you can reprogram it after the configuration has been wiped.

The bonded dsl version will be similar, but handles two phone lines.

Configuration

Configuration is simliar to most other brands of routers. There is an internal web page where you make changes and then save them.

To connect to the router, connect your computer with an ethernet cable to one of the ethernet ports (yellow in the picture above). If you have an Apple laptop that has no ethernet prot, we recommend that you buy an ethernet adaptor for your laptop or else borrow a computer from someone else because this really needs to be done via an ethernet connection.

Open your web browser such as Safari or Firefox and go to http://192.168.1.254. If that doesn't work try http://192.168.254.254, If that doesn't work check to find the gateway address for your computer and use that because that will be the address of the router.

This should get you into the router configuration interface.