(Edit - I see you have ordered the TP-Link while I was typing. I hope it goes well for you).

It means you want something with a Broadcom chipset.

Mid-December I bought a Billion 8800NL R2 from Amazon, to replace an Openreach HG612 and also a ZyXel VMG1312-B10A that originally went with the HG612 but I later reconfigured into modem/router mode. I also tried a Draytek Vigor 130 modem which made a right mess of my line!

So far I'm very pleased with the Billion. It seems very stable and is suggesting I will get a considerably higher connection speed than the HG612, once the newfound stability persuades DLM to remove the banding it placed on my line months ago.

You can of course return the Billion to Amazon if it doesn't show an immediate improvement. My Draytek went back within five days .

Edited by RobertoS (Sat 31-Dec-16 12:00:07)

Cheers mate - I'll buy it if the TP-Link doesn't give any benefit.

In reply to a post by dalryc:

Good news about the chipset match - it's already ordered.

Yes, the Hub One is based on the HH5A IIRC, and doesn't match the Huawei chipset - it's better on an ECI cab.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

So far I'm very pleased with the Billion. It seems very stable and is suggesting I will get a considerably higher connection speed than the HG612, once the newfound stability persuades DLM to remove the banding it placed on my line months ago.

Aside - do you have that Billion set as a modem or as a combined modem/router? I'm wondering about a backup/replacement if my HG612 fails. Cheers.

Combo.

Only minor drawback is its only 2.4GHz wifi. Which I could get round by using the ASUS RT-N66U as a WAP if I felt like it.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

Combo.
Only minor drawback is its only 2.4GHz wifi. Which I could get round by using the ASUS RT-N66U as a WAP if I felt like it.

Cheers, just seen it can be put into a modem mode. Might grab one and give it a try, as my RT-AC68U is AC wireless (exceptionally good 5ghz) and CPU is a lot faster than the N66 that I had to start with.

In reply to a post by dalryc:

Cheers mate - I'll buy it if the TP-Link doesn't give any benefit.

Let's be clear, your line is long and the estimates are low, regardless of what hardware you buy the speed is not going to be much faster than your ADSL was. As long as you realise you will only get very modest speed increases, if any at all, then that's fine... I personally wouldn't buy additional hardware instead I would be reporting that 3.1Mbps was below the estimate and asking to be placed back onto ADSL (assuming significant cost saving).

I know my line is long.
However, changing the microfilter from the Plusnet supplied to the integrated Openreach faceplate provided a 0.8Mbps difference.
That's a big swing on a line at my speed.

In reply to a post by jchamier:

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

So far I'm very pleased with the Billion. It seems very stable and is suggesting I will get a considerably higher connection speed than the HG612, once the newfound stability persuades DLM to remove the banding it placed on my line months ago.

Aside - do you have that Billion set as a modem or as a combined modem/router? I'm wondering about a backup/replacement if my HG612 fails. Cheers.

FWIW I went the same route as RobertoS but chickened out of switching out my HG612. So my 8800 is just running as a router. My HG612 gives me over 65Mb/s anyway so I'll went until it actually shows signs of distress before I use the Billion as a modem.

It's showing attainable of over 67Mbps, where both HG612s showed a bit under 60Mbps even when the one hit exactly 60,000 for many weeks and a couple of re-sync's in those weeks. The other never sync'ed as high as 58Mbps, with around that as the attainable.

The modem in the ZyXel when subject to the 60Mbps banding also showed attainable above 67, as did the Draytek.