Are the Honor router 3's still good?

[Gazz292]

I have BT infinity (50 mbps speed, FTTC ) and atm i have the smart hub 2 in the room where the BT master plug is,
Then a 25 meter cat6 cable to the other end of the house that's plugged into the wan port of a Honor router 3.

The honor router is set up as a seperate network atm, but i am thinking of changing that to be the same network throughout the house (putting it back into access point mode i think?)

i'm using more wifi things that have wifi-6 connections, the honor router handles them fine, but the bt hub is only wifi 5.

Thinking of getting another honor router 3, putting the smart hub into modem only mode (if possible, i have the digital voice phone line thing, so need to keep the smart hub as the 'modem' it seems) and running the wifi and ethernet at that end of the house from the honor router,
then have my other honor router set up with as the same network.

Back when i bought my honor router 3 it was £35, they are now £70+,
are they still a good router today, or are there better ones? cheapness being the main thing.

 

[Orcvader]

Not sure if the Honor is still a decent "cheap" choice, seeing it's gone up that much.

How does the digital voice work? Does it require the phone to be connected to the BT hub? It might require the BT hub to stay in router mode, so the new router you'll get will need to be in access point mode. You'll then just turn off the WiFi on the BT hub.

 

[Gazz292]

not sure about the digital voice bit, all i know is the bt hub has to stay as the modem for it to work as yes the phone plugs into the hub,
i'd love to replace the whole lot but persuading my dad that in 2024 we really don't need a home phone when we all have mobile phones isnt working.

As the bt hub has to stay, i presume that all the firewall stuff works on that rather than the other routers / access points?

 

[Gazz292]

I can get second hand honor router 3's for about £30 off ebay etc, so thinking of doing that... unless there's a newer router in the sub £50 price bracket that is better than these routers.

 

[Orcvader]

As the bt hub has to stay, i presume that all the firewall stuff works on that rather than the other routers / access points?

Pretty much, the BT hub will still do the main routing, the Honors will just act as access points.

 

[Gazz292]

Thinking of doing things slightly differently.


I need more ethernet ports, so thinking of getting an 8 port managed switch (TP Link TL-SG108E)

I'd turn off wifi on the BT hub, plug the switch into the BT hub, then run the house ethernet stuff from the switch, which includes one honor 3 router at the other end of the house.

Then a 2nd honor 3 for the wifi at this end of the house....

but would i be better off looking for just a wifi access point instead?, or would those be more expensive than a second hand honor 3?
all i need is wifi6 capability for the wifi cameras.

 

[Avalon]

You’re seemingly concerned about cost, but now specifying a managed switch and need wifi6 for cameras? Managed switches add cost, presumably you have a need you haven’t mentioned, but cameras over Wi-Fi is generally a horrible idea if it’s actually for security, they’re also notoriously low bandwidth devices, and stability of connection is far more important than bandwidth or wifi6, especially when 6 really suffers going through walls vs say 2.4Ghz.

 

[Gazz292]

I'm kind of on a tight budget for a while after overspending on a 2 and a half grand 3D printer (when i pre-ordered it, it was expected to be ready to ship around august time, that got changed to last week so i didn't have as much time as i thought to save up for it)

I was originally looking for some plug in IP cameras as i want to be able to keep an eye on the printers that are at the other end of the house, but i was given a couple of wifi 'smart' cameras, so thought i'd give those a go (Tapo CT60 and C210)
i checked and they apparently run on the local network, and you can shut off / block their internet access at the router and the camera stream will stay running, you just lose AI features like people tracking.. which i don't need.


As the BT hub is in the same room as the 3D printers, i figured the wifi cameras would work ok... they kind of do but there's a fair bit of lag, the C210 takes ages to respond to pan / tilt commands, picture on both cams freeze at times etc,


When i originally set the wifi cameras up in my bedroom, i connected them to the honor routers wifi that is this end of the house, the camera's were almost like viewing real time, pan / tilt controls worked instantly, this is when using the tapo phone app, the phone connected to the honor routers wifi6 network.

I then moved the cameras to the 3d printer room, reset them and connected them to the bt hub's wifi network, and things went downhill.

I get the same crappy results when connecting the phone to the honor's wifi or the bt's wifi networks (when in the same room as the relevant router is, so getting full wifi signal)


I am assuming it's the lower bandwidth / speed of the bt smart hubs wifi that is the issue here, as the biggest thing i can see different is the honor router is wifi6,

hence i thought getting another honor router 3 to replace the bt hub for wifi and ethernet would help things.

And i want to connect the 3d printers and a few other devices in the home to the ethernet rather than wifi, but i've run out of ports, hence i was thinking about a switch to give me more ethernet ports, and i'd been told about managed switches and thought that would be ideal for if i upgrade to wired IP cameras,

The switch i was thinking about is just a £30 cheapie, but i like the idea of having the options there to do the more advanced stuff a managed router offers, and help keep the camera's only on the local network.

 

[Orcvader]

Don't forget the Honor 3 on the BT side will provide extra ethernet ports. Having the Honor in access point mode won't disable them.

 

[Mcnumpty2323]

For wifi 6
I got a few used hauwei ax3
There's a guy on ebay knocking them out
£31 each
Work as access points too
Or wifi mesh
For 30 quid each for wifi 6 I have no complaints

As orcvader said
I can use the ethernet ports on ap

 

[Gazz292]

Right, an AX3 router ordered for £31 off ebay.

even with the 3 free ports on the AX3 i'll still be 2 ports short for what i want to plug in right now,
i have one of those little ethernet splitter things that i can use if i have to, so will look at a managed switch at a later date if i need one.

Was thinking of running everything through the managed switch if i had one... BT hub with wifi turned off and only one ethernet cable coming out straight into the switch,
then a cable from the switch to the AX3, another to the honor 3 on other side of the house,
And what ports are left on the switch connect the 3D printers to, dads computer and so on, plus there'd be 3 free ports on the AX3 that go via the switch... one of them could be used if i can figure out how to get a rtsp stream from the camera's to Prusa Connect using the old Pi that used to run octoprint and i can block the camera's from the internet on the switch.

But i have no idea if that will work,

 

[Mcnumpty2323]

Not sure if bt home hub can operate
Solely as a modem
Maybe the business version of the hub can
I could be wrong though not used isp supplied routers
In donkeys years

I just used an ancient bt modem I had laying around
Probably 10 years old
Though I have no voip phone to worry about
Then I set up a few ax3 as a mesh
Then ran ethernet to those
Put them in access point mode and used ethernet ports
To connect to pc etc
My wifi camera works fine
but i just access than on my phone its set to stream at low res and bit rate
only if motions detected does it use high settings
From that point I kind of forget if they're acting as a mesh
But still have wired backhaul
I do seem to connect to the closest one going by speed tested between
My phone/tablet to the router
But I named them all the same doh!
Not Internet speed actual device to router throughput test
So may be possible to have them as wired access points
And a mesh at same time
Even if it isn't and my dodgy memory is wrong
They're still a bargain for wifi 6 routers At 30 quid
Even if its mesh or access point not both at once
I would probably ebay the honor
Get another ax3 with the proceeds
Once you receive the first one you can play with it yourself anyway
And see how you like it

 

[WJA96]

As everyone else has said, Honor 3 or Huawei AX3 are staggeringly good for the money. They’re not as cheap as they were because folks have caught on to the value but even at £50 each they’re excellent value for money and the multipacks are still in the £33/router price range, IF they’re in stock.

 

[Orcvader]

Right, an AX3 router ordered for £31 off ebay.

even with the 3 free ports on the AX3 i'll still be 2 ports short for what i want to plug in right now,
i have one of those little ethernet splitter things that i can use if i have to, so will look at a managed switch at a later date if i need one.

Was thinking of running everything through the managed switch if i had one... BT hub with wifi turned off and only one ethernet cable coming out straight into the switch,
then a cable from the switch to the AX3, another to the honor 3 on other side of the house,
And what ports are left on the switch connect the 3D printers to, dads computer and so on, plus there'd be 3 free ports on the AX3 that go via the switch... one of them could be used if i can figure out how to get a rtsp stream from the camera's to Prusa Connect using the old Pi that used to run octoprint and i can block the camera's from the internet on the switch.

But i have no idea if that will work,

You won't need a managed switch for that. Best method is on the router side and setting up a firewall rule to block the camera's internet access.

 

[Gazz292]

Well... i'm bloody useless at remembering things (or getting off my arse to check)

i don't own a honor router 3... i own a Huawei AX3... well i own 2 of them now

This was handy as i was able to use the 'Link+' setting on them, and i now have a single network shared between the 2 routers, so the whole house is covered and portable devices switch straight over with no issues.

Before i set this up, i had plugged in the new AX3 next to the bt smart hub and i could join it's wifi network from the other end of the house.
The bt wifi signal runs out about halfway between the ends of the house.


I bought that switch i mentioned before (TP Link TL-SG108E) .. it was only a fiver less for the unmanaged version, so i figured i'd rather have features i never use than the other way round.


So i have things set up now...

bt hub with the wifi turned off.
one of the bt hubs LAN ports connected to the first AX3 routers WAN port.
one of the first AX3's LAN ports connected to the switch.
one of the switches ports connected to the 2nd AX3's WAN port at the other end of the house. (i'm not sure if the WAN and LAN ports on the AX3's are even running like that, but everything seems to work like this.

Then the other 6 LAN ports on the switch have 2 x 3D printers, a paper printer, a desktop, the sky box and a Pi running home assistant plugged into them.

The wifi cameras and smart sockets etc are connected via wifi to the first AX3.

the 2nd AX3 has a smart TV, PS5 and media centre computer connected to their LAN ports, and my laptop, phone, tablets, kindles, AV amp etc connected via wifi.


Not sure if i should be doing it this way... i.e. i could connect the bt hub to the switch, the switch to the first AX3, and the 2nd AX3 to the first AX3.




I did try turning internet access off for the wifi cameras on the AX3, but then i can't see the cameras locally... so i need to figure out what's going on there, should i be trying to turn the internet off for the cameras on the bt hub?

Or do i now need to turn internet access off totally, and block some ports... but then things are getting over my head.

 

[Orcvader]

You need to do it on the BT hub, but I haven't used one in a very long time so I can't remember if the BT hub even can do it.

 

[Gazz292]

ahh bugger,

Was hoping to avoid having to do things on the bt hub, as it seems to be pretty lacking in things you can change.

Time to read up on how to do things on the hub then,