ISP provided routers

Philippa Harrison · 27 Dec 2021 at 16:51

I am a postgraduate student and I am looking at ISP provided routers, what Wi-Fi technologies they have, if there is QoS, etc., to determine if users are better off getting their own router instead. Unfortunately, ISPs do not state on their websites these details. I was wondering if anyone has a router provided by their ISP, and who the ISP is and what router (make and model) they provided.

Many thanks for your help

ChrisD. · 27 Dec 2021 at 16:58

https://www.ispreview.co.uk may have some of the details you are looking for if you search around.

Philippa Harrison · 27 Dec 2021 at 17:01

Thanks ChrisD, but I've already looked there. Mark Jackson has written some articles but he has the same problem with a lack of information as I do.

Caged · 27 Dec 2021 at 17:18

I can't see this getting very far before you run out of steam. First you need to define "better off getting their own router" - if you take that to mean you want IPsec VPN tunnels then that's the end of your search, as none of the custom ISP-provided hardware does that.

If you take it to mean that you want VLAN support and a guest network to keep IoT devices separate, then again the ISP-provided devices will leave you wanting. If it means Wi-Fi support, well it's possible to buy routers that aren't 4x4 802.11ac devices, so at that point you might say that a BT Smart Hub is better.

As far as I know none of the ISP-provided kit supports QoS in the sense that you probably mean it. All the devices that are supplied for "digital voice" will be doing QoS internally to maintain voice call quality, but none of those settings will be exposed to you.

If you wanted to do a test then this hardware is usually available very cheaply used, and a BT Smart Hub 2, TalkTalk Wi-Fi Hub, Sky Broadband Hub and Virgin Media Hub 3 would cover a huge proportion of all the end user broadband connections in the UK.

Philippa Harrison · 27 Dec 2021 at 17:40

I am making a comparison between the different routers in term of their features: wireless security setting (not expecting there to be WPA3, for example,) Wi-Fi standards available, etc. For QoS, in terms of active queue management and being able to shape the data streams for the user to manage and not what the ISP is doing "behind the scenes". Again, I am not expecting it to be there. However, I need to have concrete evidence and not conjecture. Hence, why I have asked the question.

Caged · 27 Dec 2021 at 17:49

Ok, well I have a BT Smart Hub 2, the specs are here https://www.bt.com/help/broadband/learn-about-broadband/different-types-of-bt-hub

It has no user configurable QoS settings, no user configurable DNS settings, and no options for VPN tunnels. The highest WPA version is WPA2.

Philippa Harrison · 27 Dec 2021 at 17:52

Many thanks Caged

ChrisD. · 27 Dec 2021 at 19:00

Zen sent me a AVM FRITZ!Box 7530.

Specs are here:
https://en.avm.de/products/fritzbox/fritzbox-7530/

https://en.avm.de/products/fritzbox/fritzbox-7530/technical-data/

I don’t use it though but still have it as a backup. I use UniFi kit.

Also Zen aren’t the most common of ISPs as they’re a little more niche and expensive compared to the mainstream.

https://www.zen.co.uk/broadband/broadband-router

Philippa Harrison · 28 Dec 2021 at 08:59

Thanks ChrisD

That's a big help.