Need expert internet advice!

[MDG]

My ISP is the amazing Virgin Media, I pay £80 a month for 200mbps. I currently have the Virgin Media superhub 2.

 

I am experiencing a lot of inconsistency with wired and terrible blackspots for wifi.

I get around 100mbps on a good day, at peak times around 30mbps.

 

I understand nothing can be done in regards to the throttling, however to extend my wifi and make my wired connections more consistent I wish to convert the superhub 2 into a modem and get a good router/ AP.

 

I experience a lot of lag whilst playing games, my ping will go from 30 to 500 in seconds. My uploads will gradually drop off from 5mbps to 0.1 whilst streaming.  

 

My budget would be around £300.

 

Can anyone advise?

 

Thanks in advance   

[3EP]

Virgin Router by any chance?

[MDG]

1 minute ago, 3EP said:

Virgin Router by any chance?

Yes, its the Virgin media SUPER HUB 2... Super shit

All built in

[3EP]

1 minute ago, MDG said:

Yes, its the Virgin media SUPER HUB 2... Super shit

All built in

Have a read of this article

 

https://arstechnica.co.uk/gadgets/2016/01/numbers-dont-lie-its-time-to-build-your-own-router/

 

Looking at making one for myself soon.

[MDG]

4 minutes ago, 3EP said:

Have a read of this article

 

https://arstechnica.co.uk/gadgets/2016/01/numbers-dont-lie-its-time-to-build-your-own-router/

 

Looking at making one for myself soon.

I really dont want to build one myself lol, I dont mind throwing some money at one that will perform really well

[3EP]

4 minutes ago, MDG said:

I really dont want to build one myself lol, I dont mind throwing some money at one that will perform really well

Awww go on. Have some fun

 

OK how about a TP Link Archer AC3200 Wireless Tri-Band Gigabit Router. Can do 600 Mbps and is under £200.

 

[kirashi]

13 minutes ago, MDG said:

My ISP is the amazing Virgin Media, I pay £80 a month for 200mbps. I currently have the Virgin Media superhub 2.

 

I am experiencing a lot of inconsistency with wired and terrible blackspots for wifi.

I get around 100mbps on a good day, at peak times around 30mbps.

 

I understand nothing can be done in regards to the throttling, however to extend my wifi and make my wired connections more consistent I wish to convert the superhub 2 into a modem and get a good router/ AP.

 

I experience a lot of lag whilst playing games, my ping will go from 30 to 500 in seconds. My uploads will gradually drop off from 5mbps to 0.1 whilst streaming.  

 

My budget would be around £300.

 

Can anyone advise?

 

Thanks in advance   

Great initiative to improve your internet stability and potentially speed, but moreover your reliability. I recommend purchasing a router fit for your needs and flashing the firmware with something that isn't complete garbage, such as DD-WRT or Tomato Shibby / Advanced Tomato. https://advancedtomato.com/downloads

 

Your needs will vary based on a few factors:

• Size of home. (square footage / number of floors)
• What your home is made of. (cinderblock basements, dense brick fireplaces, etc.)
• Number of clients. (wired / wireless clients)
• What those clients will be doing. (downloading, gaming, video streaming, etc.)
• The needs of your network. (are you hosting game servers for friends? do you need a VPN? open ports? etc.)

Personally, I run a Netgear R7000 router at home with Tomato Shibby, but am moving to Advanced Tomato soon. (They're the same firmware, but Advanced Tomato has a fancier interface.) This allows me to even run a BitTorrent download server on my router by hooking up a hard drive so I don't need to leave a PC running all the time, as well as gives me a plethora of other enterprise grade features if I needed to use them. I've setup 5-6 of these R7000's for friends and business clients, and they all run flawlessly.

 

Let me know what your needs are in relation to the above factors, and we can get started.

 

Alternatively, you can build your own networking device if you're so inclined. Be aware that this will require a lot more initiative to learn about servers, networking commands, and more in depth Unix/Linux knowledge will be required. But it's a great way to start our learning how all of this works on a technical level.

[3EP]

We always ditch the routers supplied by our ISP's as they've proved to be inferior, regardless of what the sales bot says.

[3EP]

1 minute ago, kirashi said:

Great initiative to improve your internet stability and potentially speed, but moreover your reliability. I recommend purchasing a router fit for your needs and flashing the firmware with something that isn't complete garbage, such as DD-WRT or Tomato Shibby / Advanced Tomato. https://advancedtomato.com/downloads

 

Your needs will vary based on a few factors:

• Size of home. (square footage / number of floors)
• What your home is made of. (cinderblock basements, dense brick fireplaces, etc.)
• Number of clients. (wired / wireless clients)
• What those clients will be doing. (downloading, gaming, video streaming, etc.)
• The needs of your network. (are you hosting game servers for friends? do you need a VPN? open ports? etc.)

Personally, I run a Netgear R7000 router at home with Tomato Shibby, but am moving to Advanced Tomato soon. (They're the same firmware, but Advanced Tomato has a fancier interface.) This allows me to even run a BitTorrent download server on my router by hooking up a hard drive so I don't need to leave a PC running all the time, as well as gives me a plethora of other enterprise grade features if I needed to use them. I've setup 5-6 of these R7000's for friends and business clients, and they all run flawlessly.

 

Let me know what your needs are in relation to the above factors, and we can get started.

 

Alternatively, you can build your own networking device if you're so inclined. Be aware that this will require a lot more initiative to learn about servers, networking commands, and more in depth Unix/Linux knowledge will be required. But it's a great way to start our learning how all of this works on a technical level.

You've not taken into account that the UK's broadband infrastructure belongs in the Jurassic era (I'm not joking)

 

[MDG]

1 minute ago, 3EP said:

You've not taken into account that the UK's broadband infrastructure belongs in the Jurassic era (I'm not joking)

 

I live in a victoria 3 story house, thick old brick. Router is placed in the office, ethernet runs to my gaming room. 

 

I was looking at the NETGEAR R8000-100UKS Nighthawk X6 AC3200

 

 

[3EP]

7 minutes ago, MDG said:

I live in a victoria 3 story house, thick old brick. Router is placed in the office, ethernet runs to my gaming room. 

 

I was looking at the NETGEAR R8000-100UKS Nighthawk X6 AC3200

 

 

Ah,with you on that. Just read the reviews thoroughly from multiple sources before purchasing. We've always stuck with TP-Link as they've proved reliable for over 10 years.

[MDG]

1 minute ago, 3EP said:

Ah,with you on that. Just read the reviews thoroughly from multiple sources before purchasing. We've always stuck with TP-Link as they've proved reliable for over 10 years.

I honestly have no clue. 

 

Is it possible to make channels for different users. Not sure how to word this correctly. Can I have my own channel that allows me 70% useage then 30% to wifi? 

[3EP]

1 minute ago, MDG said:

I honestly have no clue. 

 

Is it possible to make channels for different users. Not sure how to word this correctly. Can I have my own channel that allows me 70% useage then 30% to wifi? 

Yes you can adjust usage limits on most modern routers these days.

[MDG]

1 minute ago, 3EP said:

Yes you can adjust usage limits on most modern routers these days.

I have family that hog the useage with netflix fall asleep and leave me with buffering. 

 

So you recommend the TP-Link AC3200

 

[3EP]

1 minute ago, MDG said:

I have family that hog the useage with netflix fall asleep and leave me with buffering. 

 

So you recommend the TP-Link AC3200

 

That's the issue in modern households. Your family will be pulling their hair out when you limit their bandwidth and go full speed.

If you have an extra £40 you can get the more powerful TP-Link AD7200. There's an 'open box' one on ebay.