Eek what a load of posts in reply to me over the last day... Deep breath
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I've looked at a number of VDSL modem routers and all of which you have mentioned above bitsandbobs. There is also the fritzbox 3490 now which is only around £130. Billion were meant to have another AC WiFi modem router out around noe but I think its delayed. Same VDSL modem etc but 3 external antenna instead of the internal antenna of the 8800.
Im not too keen on the fritzbox, based on its design and how you have to config some settings based on Ixels thread. Did not know that there is supposed to be a new Billion soon, thanks for that heads up will have to keep my eyes peeled
I have Sky Fibre and was using my Dreytek 2750vn until it recently broke, used to work very well too! Had it for three years (used it with BT infinity prior to Sky).
Currenty I am having to use the Sky Sr102 which is rubbish and would like to switch to Asus DSL-AC68U. With the latest firmware is this a good (stable) choice of router?
No this Asus is anything but stable, its software is seriously flawed. If you want out of the box stable forget this Asus model.
Currently adsl via Sky, so suppose that's good news.
So I can just Ethernet cable my sky hub to my ac68u and switch it to Ethernet dual wan and that'll be fine? Can I still access the sky hubs setup when connected like that, or do I need to change the ip ranges first?
That will depend on what model your Sky hub currently is. My advice would be stick to what you have now for ADSL and then if Sky send new gear for FTTC use that when activated. Use whatever they supply or say you should use for a couple of weeks then fiddle with other boxes. DO NOT play around until you have had your FTTC connection for a week bare minimum (TWO as stated would be best), all the unplugging and replugging of gear will just cause headaches. When things are stable you can then decide to either still use the Sky hub or connect the sky hub to the asus and run the asus as a router only or decide to try the asus as a complete replacement. Worry about all that once you are up and running with a stable connection, fiddling before you could just end up causing grief.
I was using the 8800NL in bridge mode so it was connected to my RT-AC68U through the gig port. The RT-AC68U then connected to a gigabit switch.
Hmm interesting about the ping thing then, though i spose 1-2ms is nothing really, though i would like to investigate that now also LOL (christ will i have to buy 3 devices just due to my own curiosity LOL) What a strange little, but not a real problem quirk.
I think Billion missed a trick with the 8800AXL in not having external antennae, although as pointed out earlier they are meant to be bringing out a model with this. Possibly too late when people have gone down other routes. I much prefer the ASUS interface though and at least on the RT series there's Merlin firmware which makes up for the few shortcomings in the default ASUS firmware.
Believe it or not but external antennas are not always better, i think there is some law in the UK that external antennas can only be rated to a certain db level (probably something like 3 or 6db without me going to check). Where as those built in i do not think have that limitation... Its one of the reasons apart from just style and just general development mobiles did away with the external antenna years ago. The one real benefit of external antennas is you can point them where you most want the signal to go which can seriously help in a thick walled environment. As for the new billion im going to go research that now thanks to you and michty_me for mentioning that, hopefully it is released soon at around the same price point as the 8800NXL.
Ideally ASUS will get to the bottom of the issues with the DSL-AC68U and compatibility with some lines in the UK, and we can all live happily ever after with a decent single box solution!
Ive been reading a few posts ive missed over the past day or so and if they are still telling people to set 10db margins that will not help, in fact more than likely hinder and possibly even confuse DLM further and make things even worse. That really is poor advice from them, i even expect more when a second rep comes along asks for diagnostics and then you just get the same nonsense response. Pretty poor that, typical of a big company though that will not admit there is an issue even though they know there is.
As for your comments on the BT kit - spot on, when I first got FTTC I was sent a HH3. Never had any intention of using it past the first few days to make sure the line was OK and BT couldn't blame my own equipment, and quickly swapped out for an RT-N66U. I've setup a HH4 and HH5 for family and not had any issues with them - but they're not needing advanced configs or care about line stats. So they do serve a purpose and maybe better if the issue of the HH5 rebooting spontaneously is now sorted that some people have experienced (although jury seems to be out on that one last time I looked on the BT forums).
They have not built a decent router since the very early ISDN days (later models of those were also <BLEEP>
) I do not even know what the point of the HH4 was. Killed off inside something like only a year and didnt do anything from what i remember better than a HH3. The HH5 has DDNS issues, random reboots, (had when it came out) a weird quirk where it would suddenly limit things to around 2Mb until you reset it and a load of other stupidness. Not to mention its so oblong it looks like a giant suppository
Even the Huawei device Talk Talk use now is vastly superior (pity the same can not be said about them as a company
). Sky are another that need to pull their finger out with their dated slow brick
Its shocking really how bad some of the equipment supplied is. Eircom (Irish provider) did at one time (dunno if still do) rebranded top end Zyxel stuff worth well over £100 as the default gear. Compare that to a Sky hub or HH3,4,5 and it is even more laughable what businesses the size of BT and Sky palm off device wise to consumers.
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