Router for 330Mbps FTTP

I should have 330Mbps FTTP installed soon and I am wondering what hardware to use to make best use of it. I am keen to use equipment which is reliable as well as fast - I have got a bit fed up of ttplink wireless extenders which seem to need rebooting every so often for me (which frustrates my wife!)

Someone recommended the Cisco RV325 (http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/collateral/routers/rv325-dual-gigabit-wan-vpn-router/datasheet-c78-729726.html) given it has the speed and a business grade product will be more reliable. I would need to pair this with wireless access points. Does anyone have any thoughts on this or better suggestions?

Thanks

I've no experience of the RV325, but one consideration is the requirement for PPP can have a great impact on published performance, as datasheets will usually paint the best picture.

This thread has some discussion on the issue and some suggestions for suitable CPE.

In reply to a post by bdo21:

I would need to pair this with wireless access points. Does anyone have any thoughts on this or better suggestions?

You will need N and most likely AC wireless for those speeds. As the other poster said you need to check the throughput of the router with PPPoE active.

Recently the Asus RT-N66U and RT-AC68U had updated software that does PPPoE using hardware acceleration, and I *think* that made the difference, but without this they couldn't get near 300Mbps.

In reply to a post by bdo21:

I should have 330Mbps FTTP installed soon

Going slightly off-topic (hope you don't mind too much) as it's so hard to find information about FTTPoD (e.g. who sells it - it seems BT retail don't - my cabinet's been enabled for ages and BT keep telling me 80Mbps is the highest speed product I can get)...

Are you true FTTP or FTTP on demand?
If FTTPoD how much are they charging you for your fibre install and how far are you from your cab/node?
Who are you going with?
Did you choose them because it was the best of the minute amount of ISPs who seem to sell the product (even BT and their subsidiaries don't seem to be interested in selling it)?
Did you place an online enquiry/order (try as I might, I can't find any ISP that actually seems to sell a 330Mbps product, where you can sign up online), or did you have to call up an ISP and try to make the telephone sales person understand what you mean by FTTP?

If you want more price details on FTTPoD try http://www.gradwell.com/broadband/fttpod/

Yeah; like anyone's going to pay £200/month for a service that's limited to 500GB a month and has a 3 year minimum contract (and from a provider no one's heard of before) and that's before you include the several thousand Pound installation fee!

As a comparison; I can get more than 330Mbps from five FTTC connections...
5 x £125 line install = £625 (one-off cost)
1 x Load-balancing router (maybe a couple of hundred)
5 x £15/month line rental
5 x £26/month Infinity2
= about the same price as a single FTTPoD connection but without the huge installation fee.

Maybe we now know why nobody seems to bother selling FTTPoD... It's far too expensive

In reply to a post by adebov:

Maybe we now know why nobody seems to bother selling FTTPoD... It's far too expensive

FTTPoD is primarily aimed at businesses where for most the alternative is a far more expensive leased line.

Five inputs to a load balancing router?

In reply to a post by MCM:

In reply to a post by adebov:

Maybe we now know why nobody seems to bother selling FTTPoD... It's far too expensive

FTTPoD is primarily aimed at businesses where for most the alternative is a far more expensive leased line.

Which begs the question why it's available on cabs serving housing estates and why BT haven't even enabled cabs for FTTC which serve commercial areas in one of the towns subject to the FTTPoD trials

Well maybe more than one router (cascading six twin WAN load balancing routers should do the trick )

This doesn't sound to me to be particularly practicable.

It is FTTPoD. It's not installed yet though so I don't want to tempt fate. I'll post about my experience (7 months since ordering and counting...) once it's all installed...

In reply to a post by panda:

I've no experience of the RV325, but one consideration is the requirement for PPP can have a great impact on published performance, as datasheets will usually paint the best picture.

This thread has some discussion on the issue and some suggestions for suitable CPE.

Thank you - that thread was what I needed

I've got 330/30Mbps FTTP (from plusnet) and am successfully using the Asus RT-N66U, running the Asuswrt-Merlin firmware version 3.0.0.4.374.43_0 and would recommend it as it works - ie is reliable and can handle up to 330Mbps. As to fast, it's fast enough for my family's use, using a mixture of homeplugs and wifi.

I don't know if the stock Asus firmware is now capable of handling 330Mpbs as I haven't tried it for some time. See the Asuswrt-Merlin forum on the SmallNetBuilder website for more information on Asus routers and firmware, and users' experience. Plusnet also have a forum for fttp users on their community pages.

I don't know anything about the Cisco RV325 but at £240 is seems to be overkill, plus will it work with 330Mbps?

As a thought, isn't your ISP providing you with a suitable router to use?

The Asus RT-N66U is soooooooo yesterday. I've just bought Asus's latest offering the RT-AC87U (from US) and the wifi on this is absolutely brilliant, not only on AC clients but also on a/b/g/n clients. My router is on ground floor and 2 floors up my desktop is getting the full 76 meg speeds on wifi AC.....just like having an invisible ethernet cable connected

I don't think much has changed since that thread.

Consumer routers are still using those same weak SOCs and most will be unable to achieve your full speed because PPPoE is usually unaccelerated. Even if they can achieve those speeds the CPU will be so overloaded that you won't be able to do anything else on the router (QOS, etc).

Your best bet is to build a router yourself, or find one that will offload the PPP connection onto hardware.

The Ubiquiti Edgerouter line gained PPP offload in a recent firmware and should be able to meet your requirements and still have plenty of oomph left over. Like the Cisco you'll need to pair it with wireless access points (Ubiquiti have a line of these too, starting from around £55). The 3-port Edgerouter Lite costs around £85, with the 5-port Edgerouter POE (handy for those access points) is around £145.

Linitx is the official distributor and the cheapest place i've found in the UK for the Edgerouters (but their site is currently down). Amazon is slightly cheaper for the entry-level Unifi AP.

Building yourself with something like pfSense you might be able to get away with PC Engine's new APU system. It bottle-necks at around 670Mbps without PPPoE but i don't think anyone's actually benchmarked it with PPPoE. Failing that you may have to go Intel. Even a 2006-era Core2Duo will have no problem at over 700Mbps PPPoE.

If i were in your shoes i'd probably go with the Ubiquiti Edgerouter and a Unifi AP. If the Edgerouter didn't suit (which would be surprising) i'd replace it with an Intel Atom-based pfSense box but keep the Unifi APs.

Edited by deleted (Sun 10-Aug-14 16:41:39)

ISP?
Installation cost?
Cost per month?

In reply to a post by rhetherington:

I don't think much has changed since that thread.

Consumer routers are still using those same weak SOCs and most will be unable to achieve your full speed because PPPoE is usually unaccelerated. Even if they can achieve those speeds the CPU will be so overloaded that you won't be able to do anything else on the router (QOS, etc).

Er, the post two up says the Merlin firmware on the ASUS RT-N66U can do 330Mbps with PPPoE thanks to hardware acceleration. It was supported in the broadcom CPU but not enabled in the original firmware. The AC models should also be capable as well.

Lot easier than building custom solutions

In reply to a post by adebov:

(and from a provider no one's heard of before)

Gradwell was my hosting company for ages. Peter (the MD) is another internet expert with "clue" similar to AAISP but in the same way neither of the companies are cheap.

Gradwell are generally now a VoIP company, and I suspect their connectivity side is a resale of someone else.

When I was with Newnet Gradwell were the VOIP supplier to their customers. As Timico now own Newnet, maybe Timico are the supplier?

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

When I was with Newnet Gradwell were the VOIP supplier to their customers. As Timico now own Newnet, maybe Timico are the supplier?

Always possible! I have no data.

I guess nobody's heard of Richard Ashton either

Linky.

Thought not

Maybe you are referring to someone born about two years after I moved to Manchester as a student and discovered some associated joys of the removal of parental oversight .

In reply to a post by BatBoy:

I guess nobody's heard of Richard Ashton either

Takes me back the famous {R} on usenet

I wonder if he's still at Gradwell

In reply to a post by BatBoy:

I wonder if he's still at Gradwell

LOL, always possible. I followed the support groups for long time, but the unreliable email finally was the end of my custom. That was as the company was moving from hosting into voice as their primary product.