The best Modem or Modem/Router for FTTC on a Huawei Cab

Hi all,

I may have posted about this before a year or so ago but it wasn't Huawei Cabinet specific so I wanted to get some fresh recommends. I've been using the Smart Hub for the best part of a year now and it's suddenly on the blink so in market for a new one.

It would really be great to get peoples recommendations and views on a modem or modem/router that work best with a Huawei cabinet. I currently have a TP Link VR600 in place of the Smart Hub however the UI is really slow, the router dies every so often and doesn't really provide much insight into line performance.

Effectively just after a rock solid model that's proven to work well!

Thanks in advance

Any with a decent Broadcom chipset in. What's your budget? Billion and ZyXEL are renowned for being good manufacturers. The Billion 8800NL R1 (NOT R2 as it has a very poor chipset), 8800AXL R1/2 and ZyXEL VMG8324/8924 are very good.

Edited by deleted (Mon 10-Dec-18 17:08:21)

Something like the 4 stream Billion 8900AX is your best bet, I would stay away from Zyxel routers if wifi is important as wifi range isn't that great on them.

That's very expensive!

In reply to a post by WilliamGrimsley:

Any with a decent Broadcom chipset in. What's your budget? Billion and ZyXEL are renowned for being good manufacturers. The Billion 8800NL R1 (NOT R2 as it has a very poor chipset), 8800AXL R1/2 and ZyXEL VMG8324/8924 are very good.

Agreed on the Broadcom, the VR600 has it in as it's really good - such a shame about the janky firmware and the constant hardware crashes! Billion 8800NL is definitely in the shortlist so far - if anyone has any first hand experience with this, reviews in the thread would be very much appreciated!

In reply to a post by baby_frogmella:

Something like the 4 stream Billion 8900AX is your best bet, I would stay away from Zyxel routers if wifi is important as wifi range isn't that great on them.

WiFi range isn't too much of an issue as the current set up is with 2 access points around the house, all via CAT 6 - sorry I should have been clearer on that earlier! I've been looking at Billions range for a while and heard good things though, with the above in mind and based on mid range WiFi and modem capabilities, is there anything slightly lower priced you'd recommend?

Yeah the Billion 8900AX isn't cheap, its Billion's flagship router with high spec (4x4) wifi radios along with a new-ish Broadcom DSL chipset. Its similarly priced to other high end modem/routers such as the Netgear D7800, TP Link VR2800 and Asus DSL-AC88U. Like with most things in life you get what you pay for

In that case go for the Billion 8800NL. Its rock solid (uses a broadcom chipset) and is reasonably priced @ < £100.

I can certainly concur with the recommendation for the Billion 8800NL. It's been highly reliable in the several years I've been using one; it isn't particularly expensive and the firmware is perfectly adequate for my limited purposes.

Yes, I used to use a Billion 8800NL before I upgraded to the AXL R1 and now R2. It was rock solid and worked well with multicast etc. I've also tried both the ZyXEL VMG8324/8924, but the firmware is so buggy, and support for mobile devices is virtually non-existent.

You could go for the 8800AXL R2, but it's more expensive. The NL only has 2.4 GHz 802.11n whereas the AXL R2 has both 2.4 GHz 802.11n and 5 GHz 802.11ac.

Edited by deleted (Tue 11-Dec-18 08:51:32)

Hi

As others have said any with a Broadcom chipset is going to be okay. I'm using a Zyxel VMG1312-B10A (bought cheap of a certain auction site) in modem only mode, this is currently showing an uptime of 158 days. Can't recall why 158 days ago it was rebooted, but likely we had the power off. So it's rock solid.

Then I'm using a pfSense home built router, you can also buy them as a hardware router. Again it never needs rebooting its rock solid for months and months, and typically only is rebooted for updates. I suggest this as with your own Access Points you might be up on networking enough to appreciate all the options pfSense has over very limited domestic kit. This may be a more expensive route initially, but it allows you to upgrade or change out the modem without having to set everything else back up (for example move from FTTC to G.Fast or FTTP if you are lucky to have those options).

Since getting a pfSense box I've not looked back, it has a great UI which works on mobile devices, can be set and forgot about, seems to escape all the various security issues of domestic kit, plus gets regular updates, has options for plugins, you can easily turn on and have your own DNS resolver rather than go out to third party servers. It has some fantastic diagnostics built in including packet capture should you need it.

The only downside is usually you will also need a switch as they are just routers typically, however given all the kit we have these days 3 or 4 ports on a typical domestic router is probably not enough for an increasing number of people. I got a 16 port switch and only have 6 ports left (printer, Hue hub, media server, computer, access points, TV..and so on, they soon add up).

Overkill for many people sure, but just giving another option.

Regards

Phil