Best router

Cosmic182

Cosmic182

Cosmic182

Soldato
Joined
25 Jul 2006
Posts
3,103
Hi,

Just wondering if you kind petiole could suggest as to what would be the best router would be please for WiFi?

We currently have a virgin hub 5 with quite a lot of devices connected, thus finding a lot of things with poor signal strength.

Don’t mind how much it will potentially cost, but would just like something that’s going to be a lot more reliable.

Consoles, multiple tvs, ring cameras, etc you name it is connected.

Have been looking at the following 2:

RT-BE88U Dual-Band WiFi 7 Router​

GT-AXE16000 quad-band WiFi 6E​


Tia :)
 
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Might as well go for Wifi 7 over the Wifi 6E no? Save the money and get a second smaller/cheaper unit for a mesh setup elsewhere in the house to improve your strength.

Keep in mind people are imminently going to arrive in this thread and tell you Asus is the devil's own company, which it may well be. But I have 4 Asus routers at home (2x XT12s and 2x AX92U) in a mesh setup as a mix of wired and wireless backhaul and it works well.
 
Minato said:
and it works well
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...until you get hosed by a botnet and have your identity stolen. Again. :cry:

Well, you did say the name in the mirror three times, so here we are haha! OP, the Hub 5 isn't actually half bad for WiFi but if you're struggling there are options. Where's it located? Have you tried putting it somewhere more central? Have you checked the settings to ensure you're using a wide channel width and that your clients that can use 5GHz are doing so? I haven't used or seen a Virgin Hub in a few years but I seem to recall they default to a narrow channel width. Worth a shot if your environment isn't mega crowded (eg block of flats).

Your next best alternative is to separate out the router and WiFi entirely. Get a wired router and a separate standalone wireless access point, which you can mount on a ceiling or wall in a more central location (with Ethernet hard wired back to the router). There are decent enough options from Ubiquiti, Alta Labs and TP-Link etc.
 
Rainmaker said:
...until you get hosed by a botnet and have your identity stolen. Again. :cry:

Well, you did say the name in the mirror three times, so here we are haha! OP, the Hub 5 isn't actually half bad for WiFi but if you're struggling there are options. Where's it located? Have you tried putting it somewhere more central? Have you checked the settings to ensure you're using a wide channel width and that your clients that can use 5GHz are doing so? I haven't used or seen a Virgin Hub in a few years but I seem to recall they default to a narrow channel width. Worth a shot if your environment isn't mega crowded (eg block of flats).

Your next best alternative is to separate out the router and WiFi entirely. Get a wired router and a separate standalone wireless access point, which you can mount on a ceiling or wall in a more central location (with Ethernet hard wired back to the router). There are decent enough options from Ubiquiti, Alta Labs and TP-Link etc.
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Hi there :)

Thanks very much for the detailed reply, much appreciated!

The hub 5 is rather well centrally located, basically a rooms span from all livable rooms…

I haven’t checked any settings and I appreciate this advice. Would you mind telling me which settings to alter please?

Not the savviest with networking but can get by. I’ve read quite a lot of good reviews on the asus RT-BE88U, which seemed a good choice for a fairly “simple virgin latency fix”

However would definitely like to try hub 5 settings first, failing that potentially a central located access point if all fails (I presume you hardwire an Ethernet from the hub 5 to the likes of a ubiquiti ceiling mount etc?
 
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Avoid Asus like the plague, especially right now. Log into your Hub and go to the Advanced settings > Wireless signal. Check the channel width, likely it's not set to the highest number. You can also separate out the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands by changing their names (eg WiFi2 and WiFi5 or whatever), and connect all capable devices - which is most, these days - to the WiFi5 one for faster speeds.
 
Minato said:
Keep in mind people are imminently going to arrive in this thread and tell you Asus is the devil's own company, which it may well be. But I have 4 Asus routers at home (2x XT12s and 2x AX92U) in a mesh setup as a mix of wired and wireless backhaul and it works well.
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No one disputes that they work well. The issue however is a complete disregard toward security and their customers. They are in the news yet again, for yet another security issue, and yet again they are doing the absolute minimum to help their customers.
 
What’s annoying me is we have 16 devices connected currently (this is not all) however nearly all of them say “low connection please move closer to the router” the vast majority of devices are in the room next to the router with no interference nearby.

We are in a dormer bungalow and as mentioned the router is in a centrally located downstairs room which all rooms technically touch the “router room”
 
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Cosmic182 said:
which seemed a good choice for a fairly “simple virgin latency fix”
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I forgot to address this point. Virgin's coax network runs on DOCSIS and is inherently higher latency. They could implement DOCSIS-PIE to remedy this dramatically (and for free), but to date apparently haven't bothered to do so. An Asus router won't magically 'fix' Virgin's inherent latency, but you can reduce bufferbloat yourself with any decent router including Flint2 (or anything running OpenWRT) and OPNsense. Asus aren't decent, so scratch them off your list.
 
Wonder if I would benefit from either of the following mesh systems?

TP-Link Deco BE65(3-pack) BE9300Mbps​

NETGEAR Orbi WiFi 7 Mesh System (770 Series)​

 
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Disable the smart WiFi and it should let you manually change things. Try ac/ax but if you have older devices, wireless printer etc then you may need n/ac/ax. Edit: With that many warnings about signal strength, you either live inside a microwave or it could be your Hub is faulty also. Worth asking VM for a new one to check before you spend money.
 
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@Rainmaker I have got another hub 5 I could try (virgin sent 2 out!) I don’t have issues with speed, it always seems to be the “stable connection” side of things. Ring camera stating its connection is weak when the camera is only 20ft away, problems like this.
 
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Cosmic182 said:
@Rainmaker I have got another hub 5 I could try (virgin sent 2 out!) I don’t have issues with speed, it always seems to be the “stable connection” side of things. Ring camera stating its connection is weak when the camera is only 20ft away, problems like this.
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If you haven't done already you might want to try an app like WiFi Analyser to see which channels are most used/strongest in your vicinity and set yours to the least used one. It can make a massive difference.
 
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Your 'spare' hub won't work unless you call VM, there will be MAC authentication on your account with your Hub's serial and/or MAC address registered as allowed on the network. You can't just swap them out (in theory).
 
I got a Hub 5 a few months ago and have been amazed by the strength and range of the Wifi in our 3 story house with thick walls. Did you have a setup before the Hub 5 and what was the WiFi like then? Is your area congested? It is at least the equal of any 3rd party ones I've tried (including expensive ASUS and TPLink Wifi 6 routers). The suggestions so far are good but have you also tried getting a Pod from Virgin or alternatively going for a mesh system as mentioned with the Hub 5 as a modem.
 
I'd definitely recommend either a mesh system or separate AP - What's the size of the property (and type of walls)?

My parents have a (cheap) 3 unit mesh system (5 bed house over 3 floors) and it works well.
I've got a single TP-link enterprise AP (EAP245) in a 2 bed flat, 300mbps everywhere except the bathroom (which is furthest from the AP) - Cost me about £80 5 years ago.
When I first got it, I could get good signal from the road outside (and 2 floors down - around 100ft away), but there's lot more interference now as more people around me have got better wifi

Mesh systems also have the advantage of usually including an ethernet port or two that you could use for nearby devices (console/tv etc. or a camera if it's close and has a port)
 
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If I were to go down the access point route, would I be right in thinking a ubiquiti U7 pro XG and a ubiquiti cloud gateway ultra would get me started?

Would I need anything else to get these working?
 
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