Router Comparisons

Anyone come across any comparisons between Vidafone's THG3000 and Plusnet's offering please?

Particuarly interested in WiFi performance and power consumption.

You are going to choose a provider based on their router? Most providers routers are more or less the same as performance goes, they are a basic unit built to a price, some providers like BT may stick a lot of bloat in them, but they are all still built to a price.

Best to get your own, TP -link produces some good routers for around £70 mark, you may need a modem if you are on FTTC, but can get one for eBay pretty cheap. You can buy a VDSL router, but best to buy one with no modem, then you can use it for fibre when you change.

I thought the OP was meant to be leaving Vodafone as he claimed the FTTP service wasn't working properly?

In reply to a post by mbames:

I thought the OP was meant to be leaving Vodafone as he claimed the FTTP service wasn't working properly?

Yes he is but his jumping to PlusNet, that's why he is looking for a comparison.

Lets hope he doesn't rely on PlusNet wifi for any broadband speed tests.

Edited by deleted (Thu 27-Jul-23 12:04:11)

No, I have already chosen my provider. I simply wanted to know if it is worth getting/using the router they supply?

I'm on FTTP, as per my signature, so what TP Link unit do you recommend?

He is.

I'm glad someone is keeping up.

In reply to a post by hk11:

I'm glad someone is keeping up.

Probably the 3 Weetabix's this morning 😂

Found this :-

https://fairinternetreport.com/compare/Plusnet-vs-Vo...

Doesn't really answer my question, but assuming the testers are using the hardware supllied by the ISP .........

Edited by hk11 (Thu 27-Jul-23 21:32:39)

How did you know I had weetabix for breakfast? LOL

In reply to a post by hk11:

Fiund this :-

https://fairinternetreport.com/compare/Plusnet-vs-Vo...

Doesn't really answer my question, but assuming the testers are using the hardware supllied by the ISP .........

I don't get the average download and upload speeds on there. The upload speeds are way more than is possible with FTTC so must include FTTP. But the download speeds don't reflect that at all.

In reply to a post by hk11:

No, I have already chosen my provider. I simply wanted to know if it is worth getting/using the router they supply?

I'm on FTTP, as per my signature, so what TP Link unit do you recommend?

i have an Archer AX53 , i used it with Plusnet FTTC via a modem and now using it on Zzoomm FTTP with no problem at all, can also buy mesh extenders for it if needed. Saying that the Plusnet router Wi-fi was not too bad, but it was the older router.
would it not be best to see what the router is like first and then decide if you need another one?

In reply to a post by dect:

Yes he is but his jumping to PlusNet, that's why he is looking for a comparison.

Lets hope he doesn't rely on PlusNet wifi for any broadband speed tests.

Should not rely on Wi-Fi for any broadband speed tests anyway. Depending on the device you test it on, the speed difference can be a lot.
Use my mac wi-fi and i get around 450Mb/s, Ethernet I get over 500, if I do the same test on my phone using Wi-fi, I get just over 100

Thanks.

Your last sentance is fine assuming :-

A) I get a Plusnet router
B) I don't get any feedback as to how Vodafone's compares to Plusnet's offerings.

None of the figures seem to make sense. Another example is the quoted latency: 13 is different to 13?

I think the UL and DL include ADSL for Plusnet and 1G for Vodafone, so would explain the odd figures there. Not very clear though.

Edited by hk11 (Thu 27-Jul-23 23:52:13)

I found this website that compares the two. https://broadbanddeals.co.uk/hardware/vodafone-conne... and https://broadbanddeals.co.uk/hardware/plusnet-hub-tw...

Vodafone WiFi Hub

Wifi Standards:802.11ac (Wifi-5) / n (Wifi-4) / a / b / g
Dual Band:Dual-band (2.4GHz / 5GHz)
Top Speed:Not specified
Antennae:7
Ethernet Ports: 4 x Gigabit
USB Ports: 2

Plusnet Hub Two

Wifi Standards:802.11ac (Wifi-5) / n (Wifi-4) / a / b / g
Dual Band:Dual-band (2.4GHz / 5GHz)
Top Speed:Not specified
Antennae:7
Ethernet Ports: 4 x Gigabit
USB Ports: 1

Both of the specs look pretty much the same based on this comparison with the exeption of the extra USB port for the Vodafone.

More specs found here. https://selectra.co.uk/tv-broadband/providers/vodafo...
https://www.fasterbroadband.co.uk/broadband-reviews/...

Vodafone WiFi Hub

Dimensions: 275 mm x 170 mm x 70 mm
Ports: 1 x ADSL/VDSL/g.fast (RJ-11), 4 x Gigabit Ethernet LAN (RJ45), 1 x Gigabit Ethernet WAN (RJ45), 2 x FXS for analogue phones, fax, pos (RJ11), 2 x USB 2.0
Wi-Fi: WiFi 11ac: 5GHz 4×4 / 11n: 2,4GHz 3×3 dual-band concurrent with MIMO & beamforming; 2.4 GHz: BCM4360.2, 3×3; 5 GHz: BCM4366e, 4×4
Memory: 256 MB NAND Flash / 512 MB DDR3
Extra features: SIP Voice for analogue phones

VS

Plusnet Hub Two

1 Smart wireless feature – will scan to find the least congested frequency automatically
2 Modem type - ADSL, ADSL2+ and VDSL2
3 Network protocol - IPV4 and IPV6
4 Simultaneous dual-band
5 Supported frequencies - 2.4GHz (3x3 11b/g/n/ac MIMO), 5GHz (4x4 ac) Wave 2
6 Data transfer rate - Max Physical interface rates are: 2.4GHz = 217Mbs | 5GHz = 1733Mbs
7 Beamforming (Implicit and Explicit Beamforming)
8 7 internal antennas (3x 2.4GHz, 4x 5GHz)
9 3 x 1 Gigabit Ethernet ports 1x WAN port
10 USB 2.0 1
11 1 x RJ45
12 Encryption WPA2, WPA (Auto)
13 Built-in 4G filter - Designed to block interference from adjacent 4G signals

To me they both look very similar with same number of WiFi antennas giving you similar WiFi strength. Except it appears that if you are on FTTP the Plusnet Hub 2 means that that WAN port cannot be used as a LAN port due to it requiring the modem for FTTP. But on FTTC the WAN port can be converted to a normal Gigabit Ethernet port like in the case of the BT Smart Hub 2 where the WAN port is used as a gigabit port in our case currently with FTTC.

The final user experience may be different depending on the service. You could have the best router in the world but if the ISP is not performing as well as it should you won't get the best speeds/latencies, etc.

Your last post regarding the latency showing 13 for both. That's the average lowest latency for both Vodafone and Plusnet. But how it translates in real life based on your location, devices, etc may be higher or lower than the figure shown.

For example me living in the South of England (London), I'll get lower latency pinging to France compared to someone living up in the North of England. One person might experience better performance with one ISP and another person might have a completely opposite experience!

Your only bet is to try them both and see what your experience is like. But that also means properly monitoring speed tests/latency and reliability over the course of a year or two before switching to the other. But of-course by then either ISP might release an upgraded version of their routers making it difficult to make an accurate comparison.

In reply to a post by hk11:

Thanks.

Your last sentance is fine assuming :-

A) I get a Plusnet router
B) I don't get any feedback as to how Vodafone's compares to Plusnet's offerings.

But you will get a router from the provider you go to and if you have already made your choice, does it matter?

Confused, I am.

Thanks!

It's not easy is it? For a start my Vodafone hub only has one usb port, so may not even be the same model.

Looks like Plusnet are sending me their hub anyway, so, as you, say suck it and see.

I was unsure about getting a router with my new order as I read you had to request one.

Of course it matters; the main reason for changing providers was to get the best out of the new line.

Looks like your first link is for the FTTC & ADSL hub, which explains mine (FTTP) only having one USB port. Wish they'd use the model names rather than meaningless "Vidafone hub" or similar.

Accountants are involved in the decisions of what router to supply "for free" - it will be the one that they can get at lowest cost per unit. But remember price is not linearly proportional to the quality.

All your other posts seem to point at massive wireless congestion in your location - you could have the best performing wireless system ever but since radio is a shared medium, it will still perform suboptimally where you are. Ye cannae defy the laws of physics.

Sure but there must be "wiggle room" between the providers offerings?

Never had a problem with ADSL, but I guess the forced installation of fibre is done without thought to what customers get for the extra money they are compelled to spend?

Edited by hk11 (Fri 28-Jul-23 15:39:07)

In reply to a post by hk11:

Never had a problem with ADSL

Those who use to live in caves didn't either but other than Mr Fan Caveman no one else is complaining.

There are some very nice caves about. :-

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=k__jV62Yv_0

Not so you'd notice realistically - unless you have someone like Zen providing an off-the-shelf device that you could otherwise buy yourself) - the devices that are offered are either unique to them (Sky, BT) or slightly different to the standard model (custom firmware etc).

So in summary: no real difference between ISP suplied routers?

I know Plusnet supply a re-badged BT router, but apart from that .....

In reply to a post by hk11:

I was unsure about getting a router with my new order as I read you had to request one.

Of course it matters; the main reason for changing providers was to get the best out of the new line.

As far as i know, most ISP send a router to new customers.

In reply to a post by hk11:

So in summary: no real difference between ISP suplied routers?

I know Plusnet supply a re-badged BT router, but apart from that .....

Plusnet router as far as i know is internally the same as the BT one, but uses different firmware. On my Plusnet router i preferred the firmware than the one that is in BT routers. BT routers are full of gunk that is not needed.

In reply to a post by dect:

Those who use to live in caves didn't either but other than Mr Fan Caveman no one else is complaining.

I never had any faults with ADSL apart from the speed or lack of it. Oh with AOL I had a problem, for some reason they could not get the speed to 3Mb/s and i ended up as slow as when I first had ADSL with 512Kb/s, so I dumped them after a month.
But apart from that it was pretty reliable for me, so was FTTC for that matter, apart from one issue I had.

In reply to a post by hk11:

There are some very nice caves about. :-

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=k__jV62Yv_0

Now that I like.