Vodafone router - Any good?

My mother is with Vodafone 1gig via City Fibre.

Im not 100% sure what router they gave her but it looks like this:

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fww...

I have been through its web interface and it seems to be locked down just as much as my Zen Eeroo thingy.

Anyway, I am wondering if this thing is any good at handling a lot of wifi devices? She has a lot of Ring cameras around the house and outside and some work and others refuse to connect to the wifi.

I was thinking about getting a better router but is the vodafone one a bit [censored] like most ISP supplied routers are?

I also read that I would have to call Vodafone to get the username and password for the connection. Fun.

I have heard you can use the Chat feature to get your username and password - not sure if that is still the case?

If you do succeed please report back on the process. I am hoping that CF will be coming to my area soon and Vodafone seem to be one of the cheapest on the CF network. I would want to use my own equipment so knowing the current method of doing this would be useful to know.

Thanks

VF are happy to supply connection credentials these days.

Normal caveat of you should keep the supplied modem should any troubleshooting be required.

We have the older, rectangular Vodafone router in a 35 yo brick and block built house. There are a few places we have trouble getting a stable wifi connection, particularly outside the house but that is because we have foil-faced plasterboard, dry lined walls and low-e coated windows. There is also a dry lined block wall across the middle of the house which probably causes the poor connection between the front (where the router is, and back. We have the same issue with our linked smoke detectors, cctv cameras and smart meter IHD that are on Zigbee or similar protocols. We have had to resort to a mesh system for those devices and separate NVRs for the front and back cctv.

The newer router uses a more recent wifi standard so ought to be better but your problem may be down to penetration issues. Are you connecting your devices while in direct line of sight the router before mounting them?

I should have pointed out that we have 33 devices connected on wi-fi and 10 via ethernet/powerline without any problems other than those described

I have long been a fan of Fritz!Box. Recently, I took the decision to go down the Eero route. As I have a VOIP connection, I have left the Fritz!Box in place to provide a DECT to VOIP connection. The Eero is run in bridge mode with the Fritz!Box wifi network turned off. My WiFi connection is very strong and stable.

As Eero and Ring come from the same stable (Amazon), I doubt that there would be any WIFI connectivity issues. This might be a solution that would work for your Mother. I don’t bother with an Eero subscription.

The only issue with using your own router is you cant then use the vodafone phone line - this only works on a very few 3rd party devices. I was given my username and password over chat as soon as my line went active so I could connect my asus router.

Well, We got her a new router. BUT also got her office PC hard wired in as well. So that issue has been solved.

As for the cameras.. I had a wifi repeater/extender as 1 of the ring cameras out back would not see/connect to the Vodafone router but the replacement is 100% fine.. No extender needed!

The camera reports a signal of -79dB so not great but its just a 1080p video stream and it loads fine so thats a win.

I was worried getting the PPPOE info from Vodafone was going to be a farce as "Tobi" the Vodafone chat bot was like, ooo not sure we can give that. You need to have an approved router etc etc. But the agent that i spoke to gave the info right away when asked so thats fantastic.

The router she got is nothing fancy but was on sale on Amazon. TP-Link BE3600 if anyone was wondering.

She is on 1gig and will never need anything more but the router can do 2.5gig if needed.

For months I had problems with Vodafone’s Ultrahub , many phone calls all in vain. I know the problem the router has , the only way to fix it was to move to a different ISP.
Went to deadlock got email to leave without any costs, swap to another ISP.
The problem the ultrahub has /had (could now be fixed?) is it answers every ARP request with its own MAC address, confusing and knocking off hosts on my LAN, for some reason it has the biggest effect on my Sky Q box and the mini the Sky Boxes.
There are various utilities to test for the problem, I use AngryIP , runs on PC, or you could use ethereal / wireshark and set filter to ARP frames, because they are broadcast you will see them on any switch port, on the LAN.

We have a Vodafone router in the garage, the wifi doesn't seem up to much, but it's only there for plugging in the telephone circuit and a Fast 5364 which supplies workshop and seems to have much better wifi.