Router for FTTP (Belkin N1 Vision)

Hello, 1st post here, so please be kind

I live in Milton Keynes, and after much searching, phoning & emailing, I've managed to find a company that will sort me out with a FTTP connection - wohoo! (currently get <1mb)

In their email to me, they say I need a PPPoE router. They say they can provide one - but for £120 - which is a bit much for me really
I currently have a Belkin N1 Vision Modem Router for my adsl connection

Does anyone know if it's possible to disable the modem element of this router, and use this, or do I need something different - any suggestions? (The one they were wanting to sell me is a Zyxel one I think)

Thanks for your help!

Edit:
OK, so the router they're offering to sell me is the Zyxel NBG-460N
It works out about £130 if I buy from them, or about £100 elsewhere.

So, is there a good alternative / or can I convert my existing router?

Edited by aldredd (Wed 27-Apr-11 17:40:00)

Hi,

Not sure if you can convert the Belkin N1, we've done similar with Thomson routers, you can convert one of the LAN ports to be a WAN port on them but the only other router we've done that on was a Cisco. Not tried anything else.

For FTTP we're supplying Netgear WNR3500 and ZyXEL NBG4604 routers but any wireless N cable router should work fine but assuming you're getting the 100Mbps FTTP you'll need something capable of 100Mbps WAN to LAN which means it would need to be wireless N 2x2 and not one of the entry level N routers (some are only capable of 60-70Mbps WAN to LAN which is fine for FTTC but not fast enough for FTTP).

Think we have customers using other higher end Netgears, Apple Airport Extreme/Time capsules, and Thomson TG789 routers.

Thanks Dave - appreciate your help.

Looks like my safe bet will be to go with their recommended router then (or the Zyxel one you mentioned) - I think there is still a good bit of value in my current router, so can claw some money back!

A tad OT, but are you the same Dave from the plus net FTTP thread? Is it correct that you're no longer adding people to the trial? Spent ages emailing, and speaking to people, and was told it all ended in January

I am the same Dave and we are still taking customers on, if you PM me who you spoke to our side I'll make sure they're updated. We changed the FTTC trial in January to charge for it but FTTP is still going as was.

Thanks Dave - PM sent

I and a few others are using the Buffalo Nfiniti WHR-G300N. Seems fine to me and so far as I know the others are also happy.

The LAN is only 100Mbps ethernet. There is a similar one with 1Gbps LAN but the posts about it here have been less than encouraging.

Thanks RobertoS

Quite keen to have gigabit lan

The other one you refer to I think is the G300NH?

Also like the look of the AGL300NH - what's the advantage of dual band? (I guess if I have to ask I don't need it!)

The Netgear 3500L seems to tick most of the boxes - I like the usb port on it!

In reply to a post by aldredd:

Also like the look of the AGL300NH - what's the advantage of dual band? (I guess if I have to ask I don't need it!)

Dual band is only any use if you have any wireless devices that can use the 5GHz band (or may get in the near future). I use a dual band router but I have two machines that have dual band wifi (iMac and Macbook Pro). The advantage for me is that no one else within range of me is using the 5GHz band so my laptop gives a solid 300Mbps connection. The iMac is wired and a speedtest with either machine gives full throughput.

Interesting, thanks for the clarification.
As it happens, I think my laptop does indeed have dual band - it's a few years old now but uses the intel 5100 wifi chip, which reading, does appear to be dual band.

Quite interested in this particular router now - quite like the almost retro look of it as well!

Shouldn't be any reason why it won't work on an FTTP line, is there?
ISP guys reckon any router ought work, with a 2x2 n wireless for best output - though I think many are 3x3 n now (including my existing one, I think)

As long as the router can do PPPoE it should work. (I use an Apple Airport Extreme, works well but pricy).

Thanks.
Although, sometimes trying to find out for sure if some of these routers do or don't have PPPoE can be a challenge!

I've found another one I like again - Linksys e4200 - certainly looks the part! Failing that (ie if I can't make the budget stretch that far!) the Linksys e3000.

Now just need to wait for OR / the ISP to get on an set it all up! Can't wait - very excited (esp as I usually struggle to even get 1 mbps!)