Fibre routers

boliston

i have the technicolor and it seems like a really good router and works well with the openreach modem (i'm with aaisp rather than plusnet) - I notice aaisp have now changed their stock router from technicolor to the ZyXEL VMG1312-B (60 pounds retail price) (might be worth a try) so i'd imagine there must be some improvement as they spend a lot of time testing new routers and are very fussy about the spec

TadleyBaggie

Robisere wrote: »

Denwyn the reason why you had a separate BT modem and that horrible Plusnet router, is because you have the FTTC fibre service and not the FTTP service

That is not true, I have FTTC with three providers, Sky, BT and Plusnet; only the Sky setup had an Openreach modem and separate router. When I switched to BT the router supplied (HH5) worked without the modem. The same is for my current Plusnet setup too.

denwyn

Can't see us getting fibre to the house at all. The fibre we have is OK for me, just want better WiFi signal, be it with my present BT Modem and a new router, or what looks the expensive way a all in one box. Been with Plusnet for a long time, always been helpful in past, but was so annoyed that I would have to pay for new model router. I'm going to go and see what's available in PC World later this week. Looking online is for a suitable router is a minefield for someone not so techie.

debitcardmayhem

What devices do you have that need "good" wifi , are they all 802.11ac or a mixture of b/g/n/ac , fast line in(76mbps fibre) does not mean fast on a 802.11g lappy (max 54mbps sitting next to router with a wind behind it) nor does 10mbps ethernet on a wired cable.

denwyn

With fibre needed for laptop, three mobiles,two iPads, one Nexus 7. Two smart TVs. Not all used together. If one using iPad, then catch up TV tends to buffer, using three on WiFi for browsing is not good.. Signal strength not great at all, have moved router to try and improve, makes little difference. Just want something a little better, not expecting to be playing games etc.

kwikbreaks

debitcardmayhem wrote: »

802.11g lappy (max 54mbps sitting next to router

11g was even worse than that - you'd only actually get a shade over 20Mbps despite it being advertised as 54Mbps.

There are a lot of 802.11n devices that can't keep up with 76Mbps even when close to the AP.

debitcardmayhem

denwyn wrote: »

With fibre needed for laptop, three mobiles,two iPads, one Nexus 7. Two smart TVs. Not all used together. If one using iPad, then catch up TV tends to buffer, using three on WiFi for browsing is not good.. Signal strength not great at all, have moved router to try and improve, makes little difference. Just want something a little better, not expecting to be playing games etc.

Wire where you can, lappy and tellies , as for the rest thats why you need to get out more:rotfl:

bluesnake

How about second hand one from ebay. I would go for Draytek Vigor. These routers are usually used for businesses, rather than home, and new ones cost hundreds last time I looked.

I do not use fibre, but apparently you can connect the first modem into the second input of the modem on the old 2820N (now obsolete), but still cost about £30. The 2830 may also be obsolete, but is a much better router than mine as it supports a bigger nat table.

There are also versions which directly support fibre and other setups connections. Find out what works for you before you buy anything.

These have many more settings to fiddle with compared to many ISP routers. They also do not support ISPs plug and play configuration utility, so you are on your own.

Mine is set to reboot itself every day at certain time. Also whenever i get connection problems, my router is the first place I look because is so easy, but I rarely find anything as it is so reliable.

Another router hardware that people rave about is the netgear Nighthawk AC1900 Model R7000, but they flash this router with different firmware, usually DD-WRT, or tomato. There are newer here https://www.flashrouters.com/blog/tag/best-pia-router/

However there is only so much signal these things are able to push out. Just because these may push out a strong signal, does not mean your laptop will produce an equally strong signal so that the two devices can start to communicate.

All this buffering could be the isp rather than the router.

After playing with torrents and uploads, i found that of i push my connection ti about 800k up, then i only get about 200k out of 14Meg down.

denwyn

Wiring would be good, but far to much of an upheaval to do. Some of the WiFi if stuff we have is only used when kids home from uni, it's normally just TV iPad and laptop. Plusnet one router should be here by Friday,will try that, if no good it's off to PC World to see what they have.

THANKS FOR ALL ADVICE

JJ_Egan

PCW no go to Amazon and read some reviews first .