BT Full Fibre (FTTP) Router Recommendations

[unp|dissy]

Hi all,

I've just got BT Full Fibre installed (910 Mbps) and looking at router options over the BT Smart Hub 2.

I was debating going WiFi 6 router (Asus RT-AX86U or Netgear AX8) but mixed reviews, hefty price and lack of WiFi 6 devices in my house, has me on the fence.

I have a free set of Meraki gear (MX64, MS120, MR33) but the AP isn't the best.

Now I'm looking at some Ubiquiti gear.

My requirements aren't anything special (just have PS4, PC, streaming needs), and my house isn't the biggest to need a mesh network.

Just wondering if anyone had any thoughts or recommendations? Or what do you use if you have BT Full Fibre.

Cheers

 

[harrinp1]

I have 300Mbps BT FTTP and have been happy with my Unifi set up, I have the USG 3 which may struggle at that speed - the new Dream Machine Pro may be worth a look.
Not sure if there is any Wifi 6 APs available yet, I have a single HD Nano AP which covers the entire house but pay look to add a LR AP upstairs when I get some spare cash.

 

[Ev0]

I tried both the Ubiquiti Dream Machine and also an Amplifi HD with my full fibre, albeit only the 150Mbps package, and after testing them both I'm still rocking the Smart Hub 2.

Apart from the lack of ability to change some settings I've found its performance to be great, and with workarounds to the settings thing (i.e. using Pi-Hole for DHCP + DNS as can't change DNS settings on Smart Hub) it suits my needs just fine.

I still may give the UDM another go in future as a couple of times being able to spin up a guest network would have been handy, but it's not often.

 

[harrinp1]

Which Exchange are you on in Chester? I'm on south and 910 Meg wasn't available when I recently upgraded.

 

[unp|dissy]

Thanks for the replies guys

I tried both the Ubiquiti Dream Machine and also an Amplifi HD with my full fibre, albeit only the 150Mbps package, and after testing them both I'm still rocking the Smart Hub 2.

Apart from the lack of ability to change some settings I've found its performance to be great, and with workarounds to the settings thing (i.e. using Pi-Hole for DHCP + DNS as can't change DNS settings on Smart Hub) it suits my needs just fine.

I still may give the UDM another go in future as a couple of times being able to spin up a guest network would have been handy, but it's not often.

I don't know if it's my connection, but my speed tests vary massively cabled directly into router. From 40Mbps to about 450Mbps.

Wireless connection upstairs is very hit and miss too, normally I'm lucky to get around 150Mbps

Which Exchange are you on in Chester? I'm on south and 910 Meg wasn't available when I recently upgraded.

I'm in Broughton and hit the Hawarden exchange.

 

[Besty]

I was debating going WiFi 6 router (Asus RT-AX86U or Netgear AX8) but mixed reviews, hefty price and lack of WiFi 6 devices in my house, has me on the fence.

I am waiting for the Asus 2021 wifi gear to drop because the current ASUS WIFI 6 stuff just is not quick enough for 1gbps and I really want a 2.5Gbps port (or two).

If i had to buy today it would be the Netgear Orbi AX6000 (SKU:RBK852) mesh kit but its seven-hundred sheets. The reason why is that pretty much, there is not much competition for it performance wise until the other home gear manufacturers pull their finger out.

 

[JohnStewart]

I've just recently had BT full fibre 900 installed, and I'm using a 4 year old Asus AC5300 router. I do have ethernet cabling throughout the house, and get around 860 peak download by the time it's gone through the router with the network protection stuff enabledand also an 8 port £15 gigabit switch.

We don't have any wifi6 enabled devices in our house, mostly older ipads and phones that use wireless. My son has a more recent HTC phone, and gets downloads of 400 via wifi which is plenty fast enough for a mobile device. This drops to about 100 when at the furthest away point in the house from the router.

When first connected to the ONT, the router was only giving download speeds of about 260 max, but I had QoS enabled which uses the CPU for routing. A firmware update, disabling QoS and enabling hardware NAT acceleration - CTF (Cut Through Forwarding) gave the full speeds.

 

[the-evaluator]

I have 300Mbps BT FTTP and have been happy with my Unifi set up, I have the USG 3 which may struggle at that speed

It'll be fine as long as hardware offloading is enabled and IDS/IPS are disabled:


That said, I'm not sure I'd spend money on a USG-3P right now.

 

[Caged]

Have you tried using the Smart Hub 2? It's not going to win any awards for features but it's a pretty solid device and has 4x4 802.11ac Wi-Fi. It's more than capable of the speeds.

Alternatively if you can let us know what features you need that the SH2 isn't capable of then people can make suggestions.

 

[Rendog]

I bought the Netgear Nighthawk X4S Smart Wifi Router (R7800) back in May to replace the BT Smart Hub 2 and haven't looked back since!

I got the BT full fibre 900 service towards the end of March and while the Smart Hub 2 was alright I found I could never achieve the full 900Mbps and at least once a week the internet would completely cut out. After looking through the router logs I could see at the same time as the drop outs BT attempting to push updates to it.

The internet drop outs were really starting to annoy me and affect my work (e.g. while on meetings) so decided to get the Netgear router and it's been rock solid since. Speeds have also been a lot more stable and faster.

 

[unp|dissy]

Thanks for all your replies guys.
I think WiFi 6 is expensive now for lack of mainstream support. And £700 for Orbi is insane.
I’ve been looking at the UDM, which looks nice.
Yeh I think the Smart Hub is OK so far, I think I just want the bells and whistles like DPI and QOS.
The highest I’ve seen my download go is 450mbps atm, so maybe my next call should be to BT

 

[WJA96]

DPI doesn’t work properly on the UDM devices. So don’t upgrade for that. QoS does work, but again, with 910Mbps to play with what do you need QoS for?

 

[OldSkoO1]

I stuck with the SH2 in the end; but if you need lots of control and features, look at something like the ASUS 88u

WiFi was the most important consideration. I have 4 APs, cabled to a hardware controller via cat6. All with power level management and good channel separation. Ceiling mounted tp-link EAP245 (wifi5), also have an outdoor 225 .

I have good distribution across points due to positioning which really helps as too many clients on 1 ap kills speeds.

This isn’t a one off, and yes pretty much unicorn speeds for wifi5

 

[coolsurfer]

I tried both the Ubiquiti Dream Machine and also an Amplifi HD with my full fibre, albeit only the 150Mbps package, and after testing them both I'm still rocking the Smart Hub 2.

Apart from the lack of ability to change some settings I've found its performance to be great, and with workarounds to the settings thing (i.e. using Pi-Hole for DHCP + DNS as can't change DNS settings on Smart Hub) it suits my needs just fine.

I still may give the UDM another go in future as a couple of times being able to spin up a guest network would have been handy, but it's not often.

I’ve ordered a UDM. How come you switched back to Smart Hub 2?

 

[Ev0]

My UDM 'blew up' (something went pop, there was smoke, it got returned ).