Looking for new router

[Mr Penguin]

Hello, good day.

 

I am looking for a new router to buy as BT smart hub 2 is driving me crazy. It isn't fast, and the UI is a total mess + the range is fairly poor.

I have a budget of around £150 and have seen have few routers what have peaked my interest.

 

I am looking for at least dual-band and gigabit speeds.

We have a decent amount of smart devices within the house and need the range to be a decent amount better so it can do the far corners of the house better. I do have some  extenders somewhere I can use to reach outside buildings. 

Also WPA3

 

Some I have been looking at are: 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/ASUS-RT-AX58U-Dual-Band-throughput-Aiprotection/dp/B099ZLY9SC

there was a few tp-links (nighthawk was one i think idk).

There is just a __ ton of routers out there, I find one what I think is good but then I find a different 

 

 

Any information and recommendations will be great. 

(Please make sure you use UK sites and pricing GBP). 

 

(need any more info just ask )

[Falcon1986]

On 11/26/2021 at 8:39 AM, Mr Penguin said:

I have a budget of around £150 and have seen have few routers what have peaked my interest.

This is important: Does BT allow you to use a third-party router to replace the Smart Hub 2? If you're not sure, please ASK THEM.

 

Secondly, can the Smart Hub 2 be converted to bridge or passthrough mode? If it can, then you can use your own router in it's default router mode but will still need to run the Smart Hub 2.

 

If it can't, you'll have double-NAT which will limit what can be done on your network. The better solution here would be to attach a switch to the Smart Hub 2 and wire in access points to the switch. Distribute the APs around the house to optimize coverage.

 

On 11/26/2021 at 8:39 AM, Mr Penguin said:

I am looking for a new router to buy as BT smart hub 2 is driving me crazy. It isn't fast, and the UI is a total mess + the range is fairly poor.

If I'm not mistaken, most homes in the UK have internal brick/concrete walls. This will pose a challenge to any single wireless router or AP. What size space are you trying to cover?

 

You can optimize the position of the Smart Hub 2: put it more central to the home, not directly against the wall, not tucked away in a cabinet, and mounted higher than floor level.

 

If those things don't work, you're still looking to need more than 1 access point with an ethernet uplink to the router/switch. This is even more necessary in multi-level homes and large homes.

[Mr Penguin]

1 hour ago, Falcon1986 said:

This is important: Does BT allow you to use a third-party router to replace the Smart Hub 2? If you're not sure, please ASK THEM.

 

Secondly, can the Smart Hub 2 be converted to bridge or passthrough mode? If it can, then you can use your own router in it's default router mode but will still need to run the Smart Hub 2.

Yes BT does allow the use of third-party routers to replace the Smart Hub 2. 

I have done a fair amount of research and the Smart Hub 2 cannot be converted into bridge or passthrough mode. However I do have an spare Smart Hub 1 what apparently has a modem mode. I still need to test this though.

1 hour ago, Falcon1986 said:

You can optimize the position of the Smart Hub 2: put it more central to the home, not directly against the wall, not tucked away in a cabinet, and mounted higher than floor level.

I have tried the router in all sorts of places but I am seeing no signification change. It used to decent but in the past few months it has gotten very bad. I did have some access points but they seemed to stop wanting to work with the hub not too long ago as well. 

 

I am also wanting to setup vlans within my network. However a lot of routers I am seeing do not have the best support for that.

I did come across unifi edgerouter what has vlan support and is about £50ish. I was then thinking of buying some APs or what a lot of people have suggested is buying some cheaper wireless routers what have AP mode and use them instead since the edgerouter doesn't have wireless capability. 

 

But I am new to this world so I have much to learn. 

 

Thanks for the response btw

[Falcon1986]

On 11/28/2021 at 8:47 AM, Mr Penguin said:

I did come across unifi edgerouter what has vlan support and is about £50ish. I was then thinking of buying some APs or what a lot of people have suggested is buying some cheaper wireless routers what have AP mode and use them instead since the edgerouter doesn't have wireless capability. 

The ER-X is quite a compact router. And no, it doesn't have radios for wireless, but that's because it's intended to be part of a wider network with dedicated APs.

 

As for the choice of APs, I can vouch for Ubiquiti's UniFi APs. I have deployed U6-Lites at family homes and like the feature of being able to control them from the cloud.

 

Of course, you're free to convert any other router to AP mode and use those instead.