Recomendations for replacement router

[gswindale]

Hi All,

Getting somewhat fed up with the shoddy performance of the BT Home Hub 5 and it's apparent inability to keep devices connected over wifi for more than about 10-15 minutes at a time (several devices all of which work perfectly when connected to other networks). This is my 2nd HH5 in less than 2 years as well!

Does anybody have any suggestions for a decent all-in-one FTTC modem/router that is not particularly expensive & has a decent range as I need the router in the study at the front of the house & require wifi in the garden shed at the end of the garden (currently I have a wifi extender transmitting from the kitchen out into the garden)?

Many Thanks
Geoffrey

 

[SpacePhoenix]

How many of the locations needing the Internet are on the same electrical ring main?

 

[najaB]

How many of the locations needing the Internet are on the same electrical ring main?

I like your thinking. I agree completely if it's a large property.

 

[gswindale]

Hi,

I see where you're coming from with the powerline adaptors - and I could go with a powerline/Wifi extender somewhere else in the house which would work - as most of the devices require wifi rather than an ethernet connection - however looking at the event log on the HH5; I believe my issue may be with the DHCP server on the HH5 as certain devices keep getting a new lease of duration 1440 minutes every 30 seconds!

Specifying static addresses for some devices also doesn't work as one of those went through a case of connecting, trying to obtain an IP address, disconnecting and repeating even when I had specified the same address on both my nexus 7 and the router.

 

[EssexGonzo]

The best router you can afford made by Billion would be a good bet.

On the long range you need, how feasible would it be for you to run a cat 5 cable from the router to a room at the back of the house? I did that, connected to another router, giving me another WLAN at the back plus range to the end of the garden. One router would never have reached the garden.

I also moved my main router to the landing, much more central in the house, running the telephone cable from the front wall socket through the internal wall.

 

[najaB]

...however looking at the event log on the HH5; I believe my issue may be with the DHCP server on the HH5 as certain devices keep getting a new lease of duration 1440 minutes every 30 seconds...

That is *very* odd behaviour and it does suggest the problem may not be the router but something connected to it which is causing problems with the DHCP allocation process. Are you tech savvy enough to Wireshark it and see if you can find out what the problem device is?

 

[SpacePhoenix]

Have you yet identified which devices are having trouble with the DCHP server? If not try powering all the deivces down and having them on 1 at a time to see which ones are having trouble with the DCHP server.

Once you've identified the devices having trouble, is there anything common about them eg OS, location (physical), etc?

 

[D365]

How many of the locations needing the Internet are on the same electrical ring main?

You could at least explain the question in further detail, for those who are not technically minded, as to what a household mains supply has to do with a Local Area Network.

 

[The Lad]

A lot depends on your ISP supporting a different router!

 

[najaB]

You could at least explain the question in further detail, for those who are not technically minded, as to what a household mains supply has to do with a Local Area Network.

Power line adaptors let you use the ring main for networking. Initially it was unreliable and only supported speeds in the 10's of megabits/second, modern units are rock-solid and support speeds of 1 gigabit/second (and higher speeds are on the way).

 

[najaB]

A lot depends on your ISP supporting a different router!

BT is router-agnostic. They don't even do username/password authentication any more (at least not on ADLS2+/FTTC/FTTP connections), it's all tied to your service ID. So any VDSL2 router should work (barring weird non standards-compatible equipment).

 

[Puffing Devil]

You could at least explain the question in further detail, for those who are not technically minded, as to what a household mains supply has to do with a Local Area Network.

You can use the ring main to carry data using plug adapters like these: ​http://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/comput...rline-adapter-kit-twin-pack-10157658-pdt.html

They are useful to extend WiFi coverage or provide a link back to the router without running a dedicated network cable.
(Other brands are available)

A lot depends on your ISP supporting a different router!

No - you should be able to use a 3rd party router with any ISP. (Waiting for someone to come along and post me wrong!)

 

[najaB]

No - you should be able to use a 3rd party router with any ISP. (Waiting for someone to come along and post me wrong!)

For the most part, you are correct. There are, however, some edge-cases but they are very few and far between. (In fact, thinking about it, those edge cases may not even exist any more - Datastream has probably been completely withdrawn by now).

 

[gazthomas]

You can use the ring main to carry data using plug adapters like these: ​http://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/comput...rline-adapter-kit-twin-pack-10157658-pdt.html

They are useful to extend WiFi coverage or provide a link back to the router without running a dedicated network cable.
(Other brands are available)






No - you should be able to use a 3rd party router with any ISP. (Waiting for someone to come along and post me wrong!)

You're absolutely right. I've always been a fan of Netgear ADSL routers, but Belkin and D-Link have worked well for me too.

 

[gswindale]

It is mainly two devices that have issues - a Nexus 7 running Android 6 and a Samsung Galaxy Tab running Android 3 or 4.

Will investigate further when it is cooler; but I find it strange that the Nexus 7 certainly seems to have no problems in hotels or at work - only at home.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

 

[najaB]

Will investigate further when it is cooler; but I find it strange that the Nexus 7 certainly seems to have no problems in hotels or at work - only at home.

If the only problem is the DHCP issue then assign the devices fixed addresses (on the device) in the 192.168.1.128 to 192.168.1.250 range and not on the hub. They'll show up in the hub GUI as static devices and won't participate in DHCP at all.

If you allocate a fixed IP in the hub GUI then they are still actually getting their address by DHCP.

 

[GusB]

I have a Nexus 7 too, and it has an awful tendency to hunt around for a better signal. It's fine if there's only one signal around (eg when using my mobile as a hot-spot), but even at home (Hub4) it still occasionally wants to wander. I'll try giving it a fixed IP address (thanks, najaB).

Could it be that there are numerous other wi-fi networks all broadcasting on the same channel? BT claims that their routers are supposed to be smart enough to detect this, but in reality I've never known for it to happen.

 

[SpacePhoenix]

It is mainly two devices that have issues - a Nexus 7 running Android 6 and a Samsung Galaxy Tab running Android 3 or 4.

Will investigate further when it is cooler; but I find it strange that the Nexus 7 certainly seems to have no problems in hotels or at work - only at home.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

Any of the other devices having problems use Android?

 

[gswindale]

Hi,

Have reset the Nexus 7 back to DHCP in the BT Home Hub Manager and then specified the IP address on the device as 192.168.1.150.

Noting that the BT Home Hub defaults to an IP address on 192.168.1.254; I have set that as the default Gateway - and am now slightly confused by the fact that the Nexus 7 is connected; but with no internet.

I also note that the default range for DHCP addresses on the HUB is 192.168.1.64 - 192.168.1.253 - I have therefore now set my static address on the device as 192.168.1.15 to keep it out of the DHCP range; and will monitor it for a while now.

I will check the other tablet later (also running Android).

 

[gazthomas]

If the only problem is the DHCP issue then assign the devices fixed addresses (on the device) in the 192.168.1.128 to 192.168.1.250 range and not on the hub. They'll show up in the hub GUI as static devices and won't participate in DHCP at all.

If you allocate a fixed IP in the hub GUI then they are still actually getting their address by DHCP.

This will be fine at home, but tedious on the road

 

[gswindale]

This will be fine at home, but tedious on the road

From what I can see; the static/DHCP setting is specific to the network you are attempting to connect to (as the BT-FON network is still showing as DHCP whereas my own network is now static).

 

[najaB]

Noting that the BT Home Hub defaults to an IP address on 192.168.1.254; I have set that as the default Gateway - and am now slightly confused by the fact that the Nexus 7 is connected; but with no internet.

Did you set the DNS server?

 

[najaB]

I have a Nexus 7 too, and it has an awful tendency to hunt around for a better signal. It's fine if there's only one signal around (eg when using my mobile as a hot-spot), but even at home (Hub4) it still occasionally wants to wander. I'll try giving it a fixed IP address (thanks, najaB).

I think I might know what's going on - have you split the 2.4/5GHz networks into different network names? Some devices don't like having two different access points with the same SSID.

 

[gswindale]

Hi,

Gateway and 1st DNS server are both set to the IP address of the router and so far all seems to be good on the Nexus 7 at least

I do have both the 2.4 & 5 GHz networks with the same SSID - purely because the Nest devices around appear to only be able to be configured for a single network at a time.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

 

[GusB]

I think I might know what's going on - have you split the 2.4/5GHz networks into different network names? Some devices don't like having two different access points with the same SSID.

Hmm, I did, actually. I have *SSID* for one, and *SSID2* for the other.