In reply to a post by billford:

I'd have thought you'd have checked that

That's why I mentioned it. It's basically no help to the OP. I guess you're trying to start a flame war?

*eats his popcorn*

In reply to a post by BatBoy:

I guess you're trying to start a flame war?

Not me...

Sorry, I'm unable to recommend a modem/router. I have several gathering dust here as I'm on fibre and I use a PC running pfSense router software. My VDSL modem is provided by Openreach.

In reply to a post by billford:

They don't have enough ratings to be included in the comparisons, I'd have thought you'd have checked that before making yourself look uninformed...

That's a bit harsh Bill. Especially as I'd have thought you would have known that Aquiss aren't on the tbb (limited) list of providers for rating .

I haven't looked at a comparison for a while - I see the Speed rating has been replaced by an Overall satisfaction one.

Just to add to the data from the comparisons though, I've added in another couple.

In reply to a post by nish81:

Their exact words were 'no router hardware is provided by ourselves', so I don't know whether they meant a router in the technically accurate sense of 'we give a modem but not a router' or not. And I didn't ask about a modem in the first place

In general the term Router is used to mean a modem/router if talking about ADSLx, (which is what you are looking at), and a true router if talking about VM Cable or Openreach FTTC. There are occasional exceptions, which we just have to spot when they occur.

In the case of Aquiss I'm sure that for ADSLx connections they mean they don't supply any hardware that is or contains a modem.

On FTTC all users of all ISPs are currently automatically supplied with a VDSL2 modem/router with a single usable Ethernet output port, which is locked into bridge mode so performs as a pure modem. ISPs may or may nor provide a suitable router for FTTC to go with t.

I expect that you already know that even what we call a router with no modem is almost always not just a router anyway . It pretty well always also has in the box an Ethernet 4-port switch and usually a WAP.

Edit - and by the way, you are right, Aquiss have a good reputation here. Just that being purely a reseller of various services they don't qualify for listing on this site.

Edited by RobertoS (Tue 02-Jul-13 23:48:16)

There's a thread here which looks promising http://forums.thinkbroadband.com/entanet/f/4228745-v...

It appears the ISP may be able to suggest a good modem/router.

Edited by deleted (Tue 02-Jul-13 23:56:39)

In reply to a post by nish81:

i'll be on ADSL (this is for a new place I'm moving into). I'd definitely upgrade to fibre or cable or whatever, as soon as possible, but I'm pretty sure that the phone line in my place runs directly to the exchange, not through a cabinet, so fibre doesn't seem likely in the immediate future. but having a router that could handle that would be good as then I could just keep it for the long-term

If you're going for ADSL you'll need a ADSL2+ modem/router. You can buy the modems standalone or go for a combo router (with or without wireless) which has a modem built in.

Standalone ADSL2+ Ethernet modems are available on Amazon for £10-£15. Which you can then connect your computer (or separate wireless router) to directly by ethernet cable. If you're using a separate wireless router, you connect your desktop computer into the ethernet port on the back of the wireless router.

Many of the ISP's offer:
1) The "no router" option. Buy your own.
2) A 'free' combo router (maybe with delivery charges).
3) Sell you a combo router.

The only problem with the combo router option is if you don't like the wireless router functionality or performance you're often stuck with it unless you buy another complete unit.

The alternative is to get just an ethernet modem (for cheap) to run the internet service and then buy your own wireless router to run your wireless network. The wireless router is usually the more expensive part of the package anyway.

Then when you change your ISP you can take your wireless router with you no matter whether it's cable (which requires a cable modem) or fibre.
Be aware that some providers still own the equipment that you pay to be installed/delivered.


I would recommend checking out what alternative ISP's you have in your exchange:
http://www.samknows.com/broadband/exchange_search

Here's an example of mine: http://www.samknows.com/broadband/exchange/WSLAN

Also you can check which cabinet number you're on (or not) from here:
https://www.dslchecker.bt.com/pls/adsl/ADSLChecker.A...

I'll have one desktop connected by ethernet, up to 3 laptops connected by wifi simultaneously, 2 smartphones, and a tablet. that's probably the upper limit. most of the time it'll just be a desktop, a laptop, and a phone.

Your smartphones and tablet may do 5ghz band. They'll certainly be 802.11n. So I'd recommend at least an N class wireless router to match the performance of your devices. 802.11g is much slower (54mbps) but you could end up with 1mb-20mb/s performance out of that, due to communication overhead and inteference.

Also because you're going to be using a few devices simultaneously, even though your internet may be only 20mb/s, in order to make it work well it's good to have a little more juice for transfer around your local network.

You might decide to download movies onto a USB hard-drive that's connected to the back of your wireless router. Then anybody can stream those movies over the wireless network, as long as your router has streaming capability.

For this reason I'd recommend a simultaneous dual-band router. Dual-band means it can do 2.4ghz band and 5ghz band. Simultaneous means it has two radios and can do both at the same time. Which means people can be web browsing on 2.4ghz and others streaming on 5ghz band with no slow-down.

5ghz is also recommended in close city areas, particularly in flats because most of your neighbours will be using 2.4ghz band. That means there's going to be lots of inteference on that band to slow you down. Maybe making your games lag, your videos jerky and slow down web browsing.

These are just some suggestions to make you aware. You could probably get away with a lot less if you were on a budget.

The Asus RT-N66U is probably 5x peformance and features wise what you need for a 20mb/s ADSL service, but it pays to plan ahead. The weak link can often be someones poor choice of wireless router, even though their ISP performance is ok.

The Netgear R6300 is the generation beyond that, so more than I even need right now.

You could just get the ISP's hub and be happy. It's really up to you how far you want to push the wireless technology and what you're satisfied with performance wise.

(I'm assuming that 'ultrafast wireless' is the 900 Mbps it mentions on the amazon product page)

The Netgear R6300 is waayyy beyond that at up to 1750mbps, 450mbps for 2.4/5 ghz and 1300mbps when running in ac mode. Bear in mind these are theoretical maximums under ideal lab conditions. Actual performance is a lot less.

You'd also be surprised how quickly it adds up. If you get a basic wireless router that can do simultaneous dual-band. Which is hard to find at £50. That's now 300mbps for the 2.4ghz +300 mbps for the 5ghz (i.e. 600mbps), or 300+450 (750mbps), or 450+450 (900mbps).

If you're only using 5ghz band (300mbps) because the interference on 2.4ghz is causing problems. Now take away communication overhead (divide by 2) and 5ghz still has some interference from other sources so maybe the useable throughput is anywhere from 10-120mb/s (120 being in ideal conditions in the same room). In the next room you might get 10-60mb/s. Further away less.

Which is no where near as reliable as 100mbps ethernet.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

In reply to a post by nish81:

Their exact words were 'no router hardware is provided by ourselves', so I don't know whether they meant a router in the technically accurate sense of 'we give a modem but not a router' or not. And I didn't ask about a modem in the first place

In general the term Router is used to mean a modem/router if talking about ADSLx, (which is what you are looking at), and a true router if talking about VM Cable or Openreach FTTC. There are occasional exceptions, which we just have to spot when they occur.

In the case of Aquiss I'm sure that for ADSLx connections they mean they don't supply any hardware that is or contains a modem.

On FTTC all users of all ISPs are currently automatically supplied with a VDSL2 modem/router with a single usable Ethernet output port, which is locked into bridge mode so performs as a pure modem. ISPs may or may nor provide a suitable router for FTTC to go with t.

I expect that you already know that even what we call a router with no modem is almost always not just a router anyway . It pretty well always also has in the box an Ethernet 4-port switch and usually a WAP.

Edit - and by the way, you are right, Aquiss have a good reputation here. Just that being purely a reseller of various services they don't qualify for listing on this site.

Thank you for the info. Clarifies the matter, but I think I'll still check with them regardless, I mean it's just a 5minute phone call (or a 1minute email)