Replacement modem router - Asus or TP-Link?

After having connection problems recently, I am considering replacing an old Netgear DG834G v2 modem router with something more modern. My budget is up to £100.

The following seem to be good options (both available from Currys):

Asus DSL-AC56U (£79.99)
TP-Link Archer VR400 (£69.99)

The Asus looks like a better router with gigabit LAN and a USB 3.0 port, but I have read that there may be potential modem stability issues.

Any opinions? Is there anything else I should consider?

Only looking at ADSL2+ ?

Hi Nick,

I would personally recommend the TP-Link.
Both routers are Gigabit Ethernet and both have ADSL/VDSL modems built in.
As you said the Asus has USB 3 so if you plan to use the port for shared storage it may be the better option.
I sell TP-Link routers to any home users that require a better than ISP supplied router and the VR400 is one of the most popular.

Kind Regards
Daniel Hyde

Currently I am on an ADSL2+ product with Zen and paying just over £30 per month. Cheap fibre from Vodafone, PlusNet or SSE is becoming increasingly tempting. However, Zen have been very good in the past with no noticeable contention at peak times. I am slightly worried about the performance of a cheaper product.

I am constantly losing connection, and Zen can't find any fault on my line. They warned me that I could face a charge if they called out an Openreach engineer, so I thought that the first step would be to upgrade the modem router. Then if the problem can't be fixed migrating to VDSL2 is an option.

Daniel,

Thanks for your advice.

Yes. The TP-Link has 1 gigabit LAN/WAN port - the Asus has 4 gigabit LAN ports.

https://www.tp-link.com/uk/products/details/cat-15_A...
https://www.asus.com/Networking/DSL-AC56U/specificat...

I probably won't be using the USB port anyway so that is why I was considering both routers.

Nick.

The TP-Link has a Broadcom chipset which is generally the preference for VDSL2 i.e. should mean G.INP and vectoring support

Moving to dual band wireless should help as the 5GHz band is less prone to congestion/interference even if when we are talking about ADSL type speeds

You could check what make of cabinet you are connected to as it makes sense to use a router that works well with the cabinets chipset. See Kitz website.

I wouldn't touch ASUS modems, they aren't the best for reliability in my experience and quite some others too unfortunately.

TP-Link is probably your best option of the two.

Broadcom and Lantiq chipsets are the best, but their performance varies depending on your line and the chipset the DSLAM uses. For my line, I find the DrayTek (has a Lantiq chipset) works best compared to Broadcom.

Edited by Ixel (Wed 30-May-18 17:24:39)

Go with the TPLINK - I've got the v900 V2 - great speeds , only downside is the GUI and limited support for stats - TPLINK are a bit [censored] for that side for that sorta thing.

It is a Huawei 288/384HD FTTC cabinet, which means a Huawei MA5603T line card with a Broadcom chipset. I am about 600m away.

So I assume that a TP-Link also with a Broadcom chipset would be a sensible choice if I decide to upgrade to VDSL2 in the future?