Suitable Infinity Router suggestions

Couple of questions if I may?

I want to replace the poor Home Hub 3b with something better. According to SSIDer, the signal strength varies enormously and it drops the linked channel after a couple of minutes. The interface is rubbish too plus believe it or not, the HH3 is reported not to handle multiple wireless connections very well! You can say that again as wireless conncetions sometimes dont show as connected via the interface!

So, anyone using BT Infinity, can you suggest an alternative, reliable wireless router? Preferably dual band, delivering a minimum 300mbps wirelessly, at least one gigabit port.

Also, does anyone find having the router plugged into a surge protected extension lead to be detrimental to performance? I read an article from 2 years ago, the writer stating VDSL routers should be plugged direct into a wall socket not, an extension. Thoughts?

Overall, Im quite impressed with my Infinity 2 connection. Im now outside the so called 'training period' and a phone issue caused Infinity to disconnect. I reported the fault as I had done many, many times on adsl but ISP \ phone provider \ BT said there was no fault. Well, the engineer who called around 2 days later spent over 4 hours trying to find the fault before actually doing so! He said there was a fault on the phone side in the exchange.

Hopefully he's right. Anyway, as a consequence, I've been doing speed tests. This morning, my speed is 54Mb for a line rated to deliver a max 54.5Mb!

Edited by deleted (Wed 10-Apr-13 13:44:23)

Check on the BT Forums and you'll find lots of suggestions, both in the Infinity sub-froum http://community.bt.com/t5/BT-Infinity/bd-p/BTInfinity and the other BB http://community.bt.com/t5/Other-BB-Queries/bd-p/Oth...
There was one partiuclar long-running thread with lots of suggestions, but I can't find it right now.

(HH3B is not perfect but has been fine for me)

When you say a minimum of 300 Mbps wirelessly, what do you mean?

300 Mbps as advertised on the box, or actual tests showing 300Mbps speeds.

If the later then you are restricting your choice to the absolute latest AC kit.

Thanks for the suggestions both.

Have looked on the BT Community forums and TBH, its full of 'experts' who while well meaning, are just self appointed. They seem to dismiss criticisms of the HH3 which is imho, absolutely awful.

As regards speed, no Im not looking for ac rated kit but something upto 300mbps on both bands if dual band ie 600mbps.

BTW, if this is in the wrong forum, can the mods move it to a more suitable one?

I have an ASUS RT-N66U which pushes upto 450 Mbps on both 2.4Ghz and 5.8Ghz bands. Obviously you need suitable adapters to even get close to those kind of rates.

I paid about £150 for it though. It's pricey but it's a great bit of kit. There's a firmware project by a bloke called Merlin who's putting a lot of effort into it too. Not to mention a load of releases by ASUS.

As per StephenTodd the HH3b has been 100% reliable for me too but there are a couple of minor points I would change given the chance. I have defended the HH3b myself as it just takes a bit of work to configure it correctly but I have no allegiance to BT at all. If there as an issue you can be sure I would mention it.

Consider how many customers BT have that will be using a HH3 and how many legitimate posts there are in the forum

If you are looking for a 300mbit wifi router you should be exclusively looking at 5ghz.
The Asus rt-N66 has already been mentioned and this is probably THE best choice around at the moment.
It is available for around £110 online.

Regarding the socket - Are you talking about the phone connector to the modem?
If so I would avoid anything apart from a direct connection to the master socket?

Edited by smouty (Thu 11-Apr-13 08:31:54)

I use an Apple Airport Extreme - 450mbps wireless. Just connect it to the supplied modem.

http://www.apple.com/uk/airportextreme/

http://blog.macplaza.co.uk/2012/05/using-an-apple-ti...

Edited by deleted (Thu 11-Apr-13 09:00:55)

In reply to a post by smouty:

As per StephenTodd the HH3b has been 100% reliable for me too but there are a couple of minor points I would change given the chance. I have defended the HH3b myself as it just takes a bit of work to configure it correctly but I have no allegiance to BT at all. If there as an issue you can be sure I would mention it.

Consider how many customers BT have that will be using a HH3 and how many legitimate posts there are in the forum

If you are looking for a 300mbit wifi router you should be exclusively looking at 5ghz.
The Asus rt-N66 has already been mentioned and this is probably THE best choice around at the moment.
It is available for around £110 online.

Regarding the socket - Are you talking about the phone connector to the modem?
If so I would avoid anything apart from a direct connection to the master socket?

Thanks. The reasons I think the HH3b is rubbish are because the thing doesnt hold linked channels ie say 2 + 6 for more than a few minutes. Once dropped, it doesnt pick up the dropped channel again.

Even the 'experts' on the BT forums say it doesnt handle multiple wireless connections very well.

Frequently, devices connected wirelessly dont show in the Manager interface. Referesh and they still dont show.

I could go on but I think my point is made.

In reply to a post by underzone:

I use an Apple Airport Extreme - 450mbps wireless. Just connect it to the supplied modem.

http://www.apple.com/uk/airportextreme/

http://blog.macplaza.co.uk/2012/05/using-an-apple-ti...

Thanks.

Is this only suitable for Apple products though?

I also have the Asus RT-n66u and it is a great router. The wireless performance is particularly impressive.

You can also add customer firmware (I use Merlin) to add even more features.