Yet another "which router?" thread

I have Plusnet Fibre which included the BT Openreach VDSL modem and a [censored] Technicolor router which I immediately replaced with my Billion 7800n router which are arranged near the master socket as shown in the following pic which my wife not-so-lovingly refers to as mission control.

I plan on replacing both with an all-in-one VDSL router, but I'm not sure which one to get. The Netgear and Asus VDSL routers come highly recommended but given my wife's preference to have the broadband equipment hidden out of sight, the router will end up in the office upstairs and therefore a router with a very good wireless signal is a must so that the rest of the house downstairs will get decent WiFi through the walls and floor.

On that basis, can anyone recommend a suitable VDSL router?

My home is fully cat5e wired so feeding the VDSL signal from the master socket to another room in the house isn't an issue as I've done it before over the cat5e wiring.

Netgear D7000 Nighthawk not cheap at £139.99 (usually £164.99) but does it all in one and in theory with the AC and beamforming should be about as good as you can get from a single box solution.

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

Netgear D7000 Nighthawk not cheap at £139.99 (usually £164.99) but does it all in one and in theory with the AC and beamforming should be about as good as you can get from a single box solution.

Sorry Mr S but the D7000 is soooooooo yesterday. OP, if you want the latest & bestest onesie then go for the Netgear D7800, the wifi on this will blow your brains away. Its an Atheros Qualcomm chipset 4x4 stream MiMo VDSL2 router, I have the Linksys EA8500 which is exactly the same minus the VDSL2 modem.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/D7800-100UKS-Nighthawk-Wirel...

Edited by deleted (Wed 30-Dec-15 17:16:42)

In reply to a post by baby_frogmella:

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

Netgear D7000 Nighthawk not cheap at £139.99 (usually £164.99) but does it all in one and in theory with the AC and beamforming should be about as good as you can get from a single box solution.

Sorry Mr S but the D7000 is soooooooo yesterday. OP, if you want the latest & bestest onesie then go for the Netgear D7800, the wifi on this will blow your brains away. Its an Atheros Qualcomm chipset 4x4 stream MiMo VDSL2 router, I have the Linksys EA8500 which is exactly the same minus the VDSL2 modem.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/D7800-100UKS-Nighthawk-Wirel...

That's way above my budget for which the D7000 is a more reasonable suggestion. I did check out the D7000 recently but I might take another look at it.
Thanks all.

I see PC World have the Asus DSL-AC68U AC1900 VDSL2 for under £110 and also has the beam forming technology of the Netgear router.

In reply to a post by baby_frogmella:

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

Netgear D7000 Nighthawk not cheap at £139.99 (usually £164.99) but does it all in one and in theory with the AC and beamforming should be about as good as you can get from a single box solution.

Sorry Mr S but the D7000 is soooooooo yesterday. OP, if you want the latest & bestest onesie then go for the Netgear D7800, the wifi on this will blow your brains away. Its an Atheros Qualcomm chipset 4x4 stream MiMo VDSL2 router, I have the Linksys EA8500 which is exactly the same minus the VDSL2 modem.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/D7800-100UKS-Nighthawk-Wirel...

Have netgear finally sorted their firmware though? Or is it still cack as it has been for at least 10 years?

In reply to a post by joconnell:

I see PC World have the Asus DSL-AC68U AC1900 VDSL2 for under £110 and also has the beam forming technology of the Netgear router.

If you use the code NETWORKING10 at checkout you can get it for less than £100. Bargain really

I'm currently looking for a new router myself but think i'm going to wait for a bit more information on the new Billion 8900ax-2400/1600. Suppose to be released in January, but they've been delaying the release for months now.

Do that beam forming technology really work? I know someone on Vodafone and they have a the new router which have thew technology and he says it don't, but then only one of his devices have 802.11ac and even with that it makes little difference.

I am thinking of getting a new router myself, my old TP Link seems to have a problem with keeping itself up and running for some reason and I do not like the Sagecom one Plusnet sent me.

I did look at the Asus one, but it is a bit pricey to be honest, I know it is feature rich and have some of the newer Wi-fi specs, but i only have three devices on Wi-fi, my tablet, e-reader and my phone.
I am thinking about another TP-Link, maybe this one

Hi

Beam forming is mostly marketing, and there is no beam being formed or the router following around us and our mobile device as we move, it doesn't really work that way.

Throw 2 stones in a pound and the ripples spread out, at some point each circle of ripples meet, at the point they meet they might cancel each other out, (destructive interference) or amplify (construction interference). Beam forming is just sending the signal out in all directions as normal from 2 antennas, and by delaying the signal slightly from one, the aim is to make the "ripples" (radio waves) meat up at the devices antenna as constructive interference, so the signal appears stronger at the device than it otherwise might. As you can see, there is no beam involved at all, but that's marketing for you. This might help with one device, but when you have several devices connected, adjusting those ripples to benefit every device is not going to happen.

Like most things to do with Wi-Fi, marketing takes over the reality, which is why no one achieves the speeds printed on the box outside of a lab!

Regards

Phil

My Asus router is fine, but the modem part is rubbish; I have to use the Openreach modem and use my Asus in router-only mode. If I use the Asus router in 'all in one' modem/router mode my TBB-measured download speed is halved to ~30Mb/s. When I put the Openreach modem back the speed immediately jumps back to 60Mb/s. There is a 60+ page thread about the Asus on the Overclockers website. Some people report the Asus as OK but many have problems. I am running the latest firmware, which makes it a bit more stable and reduces the number of dropouts down to only once or twice per day. It insists on running at an SNR of about 12dB, regardless of where I set the target SNR!

My advice is to steer clear of the Asus and go for the Netgear.

My provider is BT Infinity 2