In reply to a post by sambe:

Okay, so not a great time to be future-proofing. Do people generally agree that TP-Link devices are more favoured (e.g. vs the Netgear and Draytek I mentioned, or the Technicolor offered by Zen)?

Get a Netgear DM200 or Draytek 130 xDSL modem, hook that up to a high quality router such as Netgear R7800 or Asus RT-AC88 and Bobs Yer Uncle If wifi coverage is important stay away from technicolor or zyxel routers.

I've struck out the content of my post, from what you say . Leaving it visible in case anyone thinks of the other ASUS ones.

My Draytek 130 didn't like my line at all. May or may not have been to do with IPv6, but it clobbered DLM.

Is this cabinet-related? I'm surprised it makes a difference for what are presumably certified devices, but I've seen people commenting on cabinet types elsewhere.

In reply to a post by sambe:

Ah, right, so Virgin/FTTP/G.FAST would require a different modem anyway (nothing currently supporting multiple technologies)?

To add to baby_frogmella's answer, the ONT for FTTP is provided by Openreach and Virgin provide the cable modem for their DOCSIS broadband services. You must use these vendor provided devices and do not have the option to substitute them for your own. Both present the service on Ethernet.

I don't believe there is any clarity at present on whether Openreach will launch G.FAST commercial service with a requirement to use a device they provide, or whether "wires only" will be available as is currently the case with VDSL2. I certainly wouldn't pay a lot of additional money for G.FAST support, especially if you are only looking for a modem bridge to use with a separate router. You can get devices that should be perfectly acceptable as a VDSL2 modem bridge for less than £40. That should be fairly easy to write off when moving to a different technology.

If you buy a more expensive device that will also act as a router, make sure it supports WAN on Ethernet, including PPPoE support. That should mean that you can use the router with FTTP or DOCSIS using the vendor provided devices, or with G.FAST using an external modem bridge.

Which ISP? Can you not just use the ISP issued device to get the connection + maintain it and your Apple Airport device connected upto this. Obviously the modem aspect will be handled by the ISP router and depending on configuration DHCP etc. You could alternatively just setup the ISP router to place the Apple Airport in the DMZ, turn off DHCP on the ISP router and have all DHCP handled by Apple Airport.

See the original post.

Of course that is possible. I've read about issues with all the suggested (not free) devices (in addition to bad experiences with supplied devices in the past).

I found the opposite on my line (vs the Zen-supplied Zyxel VMG1312-B10D freebe). I ended up with a massive amount of interleaving, additional 8ms delay, and speeds reduced of ~55Mbps with the Zyxel, maybe it was just lucky timing but when I reverted to my trusty Vigor 130 modem and old Draytek 2820Vn router the interleaving was turned off in a couple of days and I now have a 65Mbps sync achieving >60Mpbs throughput. If I put the Zyxel back on, it syncs at 60Mbps at best.

As I want to have a play with IPv6 I've just bought a Draytek 2860 (basic model, no WLAN as I use a separate AC-capable Ubiquiti AP for that), not yet connected it and not yet decided whether to use it with the 130 or using its integrated VDSL2 modem... you can get the V model with SIP integrated, but I've gone away from using the SIP integration in the router to using a Gigaset N300IP SIP/DECT base instead.

Current cabinet is ECI, but until early March was on Huawei with G.INP active, Draytek (with latest UK firmware) has been good and reliable with both.

It was wanting to get IPv6 working properly that led me to a Draytek, as the AAISP-supplied ZyXel VMG1312-B10A, (note A), was unreliable on it with a known firmware bug.

I ended up with my current Billion 8800NL R2 which is great, but wouldn't suit the OP unless they added a G-bit switch to its only gigabit ethernet port.

No need for G-bit switch, but I thought no point in having a sub-G-bit port with a G-bit switch on the other side. However, consensus appears to be that 100Mbit is enough for now because better line requires new modem anyway.