Stupid routers :)

My Plusnet hub have decided it doesn't want to play any more, watching something on Disney plus and lost connection, noticed that no light was on the router. Changed socket, but no go. I am not having much luck with routers. so at the moment I have put the fixed Zyxel back in play, after a bit of time trying to get the Wi-fi working correctly.
so maybe time to get another router, maybe just a router not a VDSL one as it can be used if I do happen to go FTTP.
so what do people recommend, but not in the stupid expensive bracket, I will go to the ton if I have to. Not bothered about Wi-fi 6 as I don't have any devices that use it and I can't see myself getting any soon.

oh yeah i have a openreach FTTC modem just in case you wonder how I will connect a router only.

Cgheers peeps

"go to the ton" ?? Do you mean £100 ??

If so that is not very much for a router, you are better off calling Plusnet and asking them to replace the failed unit.

Quickest solution is to find a BT HH6 on gumtree or ebay, about £10 to £30, go and collect if you can find one near you rather than rely on our chaotic postal 'service'. I've had excellent service from HH6 over past year or two, far better than PN Hub One and easy to set up.

You could ring PN who may send you one for £7 p&p. A few years back I tried an £80 Billion, could not see much if any improvement in performance, wifi card burned out just out of its two-year warranty, common complaint according to forums. That's me finished with fancy routers.

In reply to a post by Malwaremike:

You could ring PN who may send you one for £7 p&p.

Would they really charge postage for a replacement if your existing one failed?

Maybe, maybe not. I'm going by the PN forum which often mentions a functioning Hub One being replaced by Hub Two for the cost of the postage. Regardless, rather than be stuck one poster found a HH6 close at hand so at least he has BB over the current holiday, there must be scores of routers stuck in the post.

The problem that I know of manifested itself when the router was switched off for a while and then switched back on. This happened to me when I came back from holiday. I complained, politely, to Billion and they sent me a new one, complete with the manufacturing update so that it wouldn't happen again. Billion support and service was exemplary. I'm not sure that they're still in the home router business, the market for routers seems to have shrunk, maybe most people are just using what they're given.

Agreed, I'm often impressed by the folk who demand all sorts of functions from their router and good luck to them, but I suspect the vast majority of users like myself just want a reliable connection device for BB and streaming -- even though it may be simple and primitive by enthusiast standards.

In reply to a post by JHo1:

maybe most people are just using what they're given.

This appears to be the case, and for those that want/need better WIFi the add-on market of access points and mesh options appears to be healthy.

Replacing the ISP provided router won't be possible once the phone service runs through the router, unless you have already moved to a third party VoIP provider.

In reply to a post by Malwaremike:

Agreed, I'm often impressed by the folk who demand all sorts of functions from their router and good luck to them, but I suspect the vast majority of users like myself just want a reliable connection device for BB and streaming -- even though it may be simple and primitive by enthusiast standards.

i reply to this, but I will also try to address some of the other posts.

I just want a simple router, I don't need anything special as long as it works, I am not even bothered about Wi-fi 6 as I doubt I will ever use it. I did think after i posted the original post that maybe built in VoIP would be nice since I could then take the old Linksys Pap2 adaptor out, but the few routers that do have VoIP seems to be very expensive.

The Zyxel I am using at the moment have VoiP sockets, but Plusnet have put their own firmware on it and disabled them

The Zyxel is at the moment working fine, I combined the wi-fi, something I did not know I could do on it as by default the 2.4 and 5Ghz is separate, and I think that what was causing some of the devices to lose connection when I last used it.


To answer other posts.

i could get a new router from plusnet, but they would want me to renew the contract and I don't want to do that at the moment, the main reason why is that my contract ends in June, 2 months after the price rise in March, so if I recontract now I will end up paying a higher price for another 18 months.

Bt router, thanks but no thanks, I don't like the BT router,


The Zyxel I am using now was one supplied by plusnet to replace the hub one since the hub one would not work on my broadband connection at the time due to a fault that Openreach could not solve, now it is solved and anything works. The Zyxel had a problem where it went pop and a mate fixed it. The problem with the zyxel is the UI is really slow.

I already use a third party Voip system I use sipgate, anyway Plusnet don't offer digital voice

I realise now that £100 is not a lot for routers these days, I just had a look at the price of my TP link wr1043ND in 2012 and it was £32, I suppose router tech have moved on since then.
I may get another TP link, at the moment the Zyxel seems to be working, but maybe it is time to get something a bit better, maybe look at a TP link or an Asus. What I want is something that will last a few years even if I update to Fibre.

cheers peeps

In reply to a post by zyborg47:

, I suppose router tech have moved on since then.

A little bit, back in 2012 most people had G wifi, and lots of the country was on "upto 8 Mbps" ADSL2+ services!! Lot of change in 10 years.

Amazon will sell you a TPLink suitable for low end use for £35... it may be complete rubbish!
https://www.amazon.co.uk/TP-Link-Wireless-Support-UK...

Utterly amazing you can get a WiFi 6 router from TPLink for £70 which would need an external FTTC/VDSL modem.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/TP-Link-Wireless-Support-UK...

In reply to a post by jchamier:

In reply to a post by zyborg47:

, I suppose router tech have moved on since then.

A little bit, back in 2012 most people had G wifi, and lots of the country was on "upto 8 Mbps" ADSL2+ services!! Lot of change in 10 years.

Amazon will sell you a TPLink suitable for low end use for £35... it may be complete rubbish!
https://www.amazon.co.uk/TP-Link-Wireless-Support-UK...

Utterly amazing you can get a WiFi 6 router from TPLink for £70 which would need an external FTTC/VDSL modem.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/TP-Link-Wireless-Support-UK...

I got my old TP-link for wireless broadband, the thing on the roof was a modem if you think of it, the Ethernet cable cam down to a small box that the PSU connected to and then another small Ethernet cable to plug into the Router, They would have sold me a router, but it was expensive, so I got the TP -link one, and it worked well and still works fine, but sadly I have too many Wi-fi devices and it doesn't pick them all up, it is only 2.4Ghz, but it done the jobs, here is a photo of it

i know someone who has the £35 one, they have had it for a while and it works fine for what they use it for. I did look at this one, it is at a good price at the moment.

"Lot of change in 10 years." For some,in fact for many, but for those still on a slower connection then wireless N still does the job. There's not much point in a high speed connection from your device to your router only to hit a slow broadband connection. 5GHz doesn't seem to work if you're out of line of sight (not in my house anyway) so 2.4GHz does a perfectly good job.

I realise that a lot of have changed in 10 years, technology does that, and ten years is a long time in technology, a very long time.
My router is in the living room below this room, and according to my phone the link is excellent and is connected at 433Mb/s, so not bad for a router that have been fixed and one that I always had problems with on the Wi-Fi disconnecting, but I think that was more to do with the default setting of separating the bands.

I must admit that Tp-link AX3000 that I linked to on my last post looks pretty good, down to £70 from £130, I know the router have been available for 3 years so better tech now, but it has Wi-fi 6, not that I am too bothered about that.

What do you think about this router.?

I have a openreach VDSL modem, in fact I have two, the original one and the Hauwei I got when I was having problems, if i go for Fibre at some point I can work with that as well and the price for the router looks really good.

Well it looks good to me but what do I know, I'm just some random bloke on an internet forum

Linking to the router at 433 Mbps is good but if your internet speed is 40, 80 (?) then it's no better than a 300Mbps connection. Or 200, or... Still, it does mean that when you get Gigabit FTTP you'll get some benefit out of it

"Linking to the router at 433 Mbps is good but if your internet speed is 40, 80 (?) then it's no better than a 300Mbps "

You do understand that people have more than one computer/device and the ability to move stuff around their own LAN quickly requires a fast wireless connection. Ethernet is preferable.

"i could get a new router from plusnet, but they would want me to renew the contract "

Is the router owned by PN, if so , surely they have to replace it and not force customers on to a new contract?

Yes indeed, though I would guess (and that's all it is) that the average user is browsing the internet, streaming tv, playing games. If you want to send stuff around within your network then faster is better regardless of internet speed, though wired is a good idea. Multiple kit? Oh yes but I commented on the connection speed of an individual device. A router running wireless N is going to support several devices at (say) 300Mbps, it doesn't say "I've connected one device at 200Mbps so a second device can only have 100 and a third one can wait".

You'd be lucky to get 50mbps on 'N' with a couple of devices.

As you only seem to post in order to disagree with people rather than contribute anything constructive I'll leave you to get on with it.

In reply to a post by JHo1:

There's not much point in a high speed connection from your device to your router only to hit a slow broadband connection. 5GHz doesn't seem to work if you're out of line of sight (not in my house anyway) so 2.4GHz does a perfectly good job.

Unless you do local backup and don't want to run cables, or stream across your LAN. I had a GigE ethernet LAN at home when my WAN was 512kbps, and so I jumped from G to N (and N 5 GHz) to AC and now AX (WiFi 6) to improve my LAN speeds. WiFi 6 (AX) also means most devices will support WPA3 which improves security again over WPA2. I had a gigabit WAN back in the days of dialup, first with ISDN/Home Highway, and then a much cheaper 5k modem with external dialler.

Maybe I'm the odd one

In reply to a post by jchamier:

Maybe I'm the odd one

Everybody is the odd one in their own way, that's the problem

In reply to a post by JHo1:

Well it looks good to me but what do I know, I'm just some random bloke on an internet forum

Linking to the router at 433 Mbps is good but if your internet speed is 40, 80 (?) then it's no better than a 300Mbps connection. Or 200, or... Still, it does mean that when you get Gigabit FTTP you'll get some benefit out of it

LOL. it does seem pretty decent, certainly for the price, As I have said before Wi-Fi is not a important thing to me as the only thing I have on Wifi that takes any bandwidth is my phone, one day I may get a tablet or a decent laptop, but I can't see it myself.
i do have a load of smart home stuff that uses wi-fi, but most of them uses 2.4Mhz anyway.

but for the price at least it is pretty future proof

In reply to a post by broadband66:

"i could get a new router from plusnet, but they would want me to renew the contract "

Is the router owned by PN, if so , surely they have to replace it and not force customers on to a new contract?

Maybe, but since I only have six months left they may ibe a bit funny about it. The Zyxel is going fine at the moment, in fact better than I have ever known it to work, not sure what my mate done to it, I know he replaced some cap. the UI is still as slow as hell, but then i expect that.

The router I linked to is a flipping good price and can be used with other providers if I change. Ah, if I change to now broadband, would it work with that? I will have to check

In reply to a post by jchamier:

[
Unless you do local backup and don't want to run cables, or stream across your LAN. I had a GigE ethernet LAN at home when my WAN was 512kbps, and so I jumped from G to N (and N 5 GHz) to AC and now AX (WiFi 6) to improve my LAN speeds. WiFi 6 (AX) also means most devices will support WPA3 which improves security again over WPA2. I had a gigabit WAN back in the days of dialup, first with ISDN/Home Highway, and then a much cheaper 5k modem with external dialler.

Maybe I'm the odd one :)
[/quote]

The majority of stuff I have is connected by Ethernet, only smart home stuff and my security cameras use Wi-fi, the NAs is Ethernet and it doesn't even come close to using the full bandwidth of Ethernet as it has Spinny drives in and no cache, it is a cheap Terramaster.
so no real need for super duper fast Wi-fi at the moment anyway, but at the price the router seems a steal and for me is pretty future-proof, even if I get FTTP I am not going to go anything faster than 150Mb/s and the only thing I have on Wi-fi that will cope with that is my phone unless get a laptop at some point.

In reply to a post by billford:

In reply to a post by jchamier:

Maybe I'm the odd one

Everybody is the odd one in their own way, that's the problem

That is true and I am certainly odd, and I am the first one to admit it, but then being normal is boring

Have a look at this and argue with them.

https://www.speedguide.net/faq/what-is-the-actual-re...

In reply to a post by broadband66:

Have a look at this and argue with them.

I see those numbers as worst case, and they've not updated for WiFi 4, 5, and 6 convention that the WiFi Alliance now uses.

i decided not to bother to change the router at the moment, the Zyxel seems to be working fine, in fact better than it ever did and the router I looked at don't support Mer (option 61), so it would not work on the Sky network if I decided to change to Now broadband after my contract runs out.
Mate is going to have a look at the Plusnet hub to see what happened to it and see if he can fix it for a spare i still have the old TP-link and open reach modem if the Zyxel does go play up again, I will just have to make do with pone less Wifi device

Thanks anyway peeps for the replies.

We were discussing the 'N' range.

In reply to a post by zyborg47:

i decided not to bother to change the router at the moment, the Zyxel seems to be working fine, in fact better than it ever did and the router I looked at don't support Mer (option 61), so it would not work on the Sky network if I decided to change to Now broadband after my contract runs out.

Only around 20% of Sky's network requires DHCP Option 61 (MER).
It's a limitation caused by some Openreach kit in the exchange.

Most of Sky's network can be used with a router that simply supports DHVPv6-PD.
Unlike Option 61 most routers do support this.

That 20% figure is falling as the FTTP network grows.

In reply to a post by j0hn83:

Only around 20% of Sky's network requires DHCP Option 61 (MER).
It's a limitation caused by some Openreach kit in the exchange.

Most of Sky's network can be used with a router that simply supports DHVPv6-PD.
Unlike Option 61 most routers do support this.

That 20% figure is falling as the FTTP network grows.

I was thinking more about now broadband than sky and as far as I know that does use (MER), not worth buying a router now and then realise it doesn't work on the provider I choose. Thanks for the info anyway.

The price of the router have gone back up in price, I will stick with what I have got until I make up my mind what I am doing, only have to last a maximum of 6 months and it seems ok. I may get a Dell wyse and muck around with one of the router OS on that.

Now Broadband IS Sky Broadband. It's just a rebadged Sky Broadband.

What I said above applies to Now Broadband. DHCP Option 61 isn't required on the vast majority of their network.

I hate Sky's the use of the term MER. You won't find it mentioned on many (if any) router. It's DHCP Option 61.

Edited by j0hn83 (Thu 12-Jan-23 09:47:43)

In reply to a post by zyborg47:

I was thinking more about now broadband than sky and as far as I know that does use (MER), not worth buying a router now and then realise it doesn't work on the provider I choose.

I know the old ADSL side of the Sky/Now broadband network works with PPPoA and the old login for the O2 customers they bought. The SkyUser website had the details, it may still work.