spec me a router please

champ222

champ222

champ222

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Joined
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Beds, UK
Hi all

So i have virgin cable, using the superhub 2. Generally, ive been quite happy with it to be honest. however, we now have a couple of Amazon tablets which have issues with the wifi. it will work for a while, then just stop at random. Switching off the wifi on the tablet then on again, or toggling the Airplane mode, will bring it back to life. . Ive tried various fixes found online, but none seem to help.

I'm fed up with the whinging children because the youtube nonsense they are watching has stopped. so i figured i might try putting the superhub into modem only mode and getting a new router to do wifi duties.

my network currently consists of the following:

  • Ethernet wired house, with patch panel and switch.
  • Superhub doing wifi and connected to patch panel, then to switch for ethernet.
  • HP microserver running freenas also connected to switch.
  • Desktop gaming PC connected via ethernet
  • NUC connected via ethernet running a VPN (pia) via software. (quick question... i also connect to this NUC via VNC from the network/phone, which isnt behind a VPN, hopefully this doesnt negate the VPN?)
  • Another NUC will eventually connect via ethernet.
  • Three laptops that connect via wifi, though we dont use these often, one uses VPN occasionaly
  • Two phones via wifi + guests.
Fairly typical i would say?

wifi needs to be reliable, rather than fast.

I cant remember what "speed" i'm on with virgin, but a quick speed check suggests 160Mbps/9Mbps direct and 100Mbps/9Mbps through the VPN.

I want something that is reliable and affordable. it doesnt have to be the last word on speed, nor does it need to be packed with features. if i have to constantly reboot the thing, i'll be worse off than i am now.

last time i looked at this, which was some years ago, Asus routers were all the rage. would the entry level one of these do the job? or would i be better off with something else?

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/asus-rt-ac53-dual-band-ac-router-90ig02z1-bu9000-nw-10d-as.html

also, while i'm looking at routers, if i wanted to run the VPN on the router, but only one a certain port, and on a seperate wifi network, and still maintain a decent speed, would i be looking at a lot more cash?

thanks
 
I know FA about networking and will be in a similar situation as you but I have seen many mentions of your second post on here before, with a lot of people opting for a Ubiquiti UAP AC PRO as their AP.
 
I was thinking your main problem here with the wireless will be better solved by access points. You could do it cheaper by adding in a couple of routers acting as APs, but I think dedicated APs are more elegant and a nice solution that will serve you long term. The ubiquitous Ubiquiti recommendation would support multiple SSIDs that can tag traffic under different VLANs to help your objective of sending different traffic via VPN. Which takes me onto the second problem you're trying to solve.

Any consumer router is going to get nowhere near line speed acting as a VPN client (assuming OpenVPN from a mainstream provider). You can add in something like an Asus with custom firmware but I think there's only one or two models that perform at anywhere near the speed you're probably wanting and comparable to running the VPN client on a device - they're not the £50 routers.

I do what you want to do via Ubiquiti APs and a pfSense router, using VLANs and rulesets on the firewall that send traffic on one VLAN out via VPN. The client connects to a different SSID on the same AP, AP tags it as VLAN1, pfSense says 'send VLAN1 traffic out via VPN'. It's not cheap though, unless you have an old bit of kit you can re-provision as a router or already some sort of server that could run pfSense as a virtual appliance.

From what I've read here I think a much cheaper alternative could be a Mikrotik router which would have the performance to handle VPN traffic at speed and the sophistication of routing rules but you'd need someone more familiar with their products to make a recommendation.
 
thanks guys

I have no real issue with running the VPN client software on the PC. Its worked up until now. As long as remote connecting to this from another PC/phone on the same LAN (without VPN) or over the web using a remote connection service, doesnt impact on VPN privacy, if you get what i mean?

Plus, i dont have the time to invest in figuring it all out.

Our house is timber framed and internally its all plasterboard and wood, so wifi signals travel easily. That said, could i just add another access point by plugging it into the switch? try running the tablets of that and see if it fixes the issue? then assuming it does, switch off the wifi on the superhub and switch everything over to that
 
champ222 said:
That said, could i just add another access point by plugging it into the switch? try running the tablets of that and see if it fixes the issue? then assuming it does, switch off the wifi on the superhub and switch everything over to that
Click to expand...

This will certainly work, alleviating WiFi duties from your virgin hub. Whether that fixes your problem is another matter and you’ll only find out by trying.
 
champ222 said:
Hi all

So i have virgin cable, using the superhub 2. Generally, ive been quite happy with it to be honest. however, we now have a couple of Amazon tablets which have issues with the wifi. it will work for a while, then just stop at random. Switching off the wifi on the tablet then on again, or toggling the Airplane mode, will bring it back to life. . Ive tried various fixes found online, but none seem to help.

I'm fed up with the whinging children because the youtube nonsense they are watching has stopped. so i figured i might try putting the superhub into modem only mode and getting a new router to do wifi duties.

my network currently consists of the following:

  • Ethernet wired house, with patch panel and switch.
  • Superhub doing wifi and connected to patch panel, then to switch for ethernet.
  • HP microserver running freenas also connected to switch.
  • Desktop gaming PC connected via ethernet
  • NUC connected via ethernet running a VPN (pia) via software. (quick question... i also connect to this NUC via VNC from the network/phone, which isnt behind a VPN, hopefully this doesnt negate the VPN?)
  • Another NUC will eventually connect via ethernet.
  • Three laptops that connect via wifi, though we dont use these often, one uses VPN occasionaly
  • Two phones via wifi + guests.
Fairly typical i would say?

wifi needs to be reliable, rather than fast.

I cant remember what "speed" i'm on with virgin, but a quick speed check suggests 160Mbps/9Mbps direct and 100Mbps/9Mbps through the VPN.

I want something that is reliable and affordable. it doesnt have to be the last word on speed, nor does it need to be packed with features. if i have to constantly reboot the thing, i'll be worse off than i am now.

last time i looked at this, which was some years ago, Asus routers were all the rage. would the entry level one of these do the job? or would i be better off with something else?

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/asus-rt-ac53-dual-band-ac-router-90ig02z1-bu9000-nw-10d-as.html

also, while i'm looking at routers, if i wanted to run the VPN on the router, but only one a certain port, and on a seperate wifi network, and still maintain a decent speed, would i be looking at a lot more cash?

thanks
Click to expand...

Call up Virgin, tell them you're having issues with the router and depending on who answers the phone they'll send you a free superhub 3 which works much better.
Ive done this a few times in the past and it always varies on who answers the phone and what they feel like doing.

The last time i did this a few months ago, I was on a superhub 1 at the time. called up in the morning and spoke to someone about poor wifi and it always cutting out and the person on the phone told me she cant really do anything, and suggested I buy powerline adapter or wifi extenders.

I called back literally the same day, just a few hours later for someone else to pick up. Explained the same problem to them, and they sent out a Superhub 3 free of charge, and I tell you its A LOT better than the terrible SH1.

It may not fix all your wifi issues you're having as it generally varies from household to household, but the least you can do is upgrade the hub to the SH3 to start with and go on from there.
 
Thanks for that, though i may find myself in a worse position if i did that. There are issues with the samsung s7 (which i have) and virgin, that appears to be with the superhub 3 (google and you'll see) my dad has the superhub 3 and the wifi with my phone is awful, though its fine at my house with the superhub 2.

I dont know if these superhubs are just a bit rubbish, or if they do things in a non-standard way...
 
champ222 said:
Thanks for that, though i may find myself in a worse position if i did that. There are issues with the samsung s7 (which i have) and virgin, that appears to be with the superhub 3 (google and you'll see) my dad has the superhub 3 and the wifi with my phone is awful, though its fine at my house with the superhub 2.

I dont know if these superhubs are just a bit rubbish, or if they do things in a non-standard way...
Click to expand...

Ahh I see, well if you are already on a SH3 then I guess you'll have to do what was mentioned before. In general I do see a lot of people complaining about virgin hubs for generally having really bad wifi signal, but from my experience the newest hub is much much better than the original sh1. Im not so sure on sh2.

It does depend on the house also, and where in the house the router is. Try to keep it as central location as possible instead of in a corner, but aside from that I dont think there's too much you can actually do except get an extender
 
For the love of whatever imaginary friend you choose to invest your faith in, do not call Virgin and ask them to replace a SH2 with a SH3, that’s just stupid. The SH3 has a known hardware issue, you absolutely do not want to go down that route.

Ignoring the issue is likely with the tablets and not the router, a Unifi AP installed centrally should improve Wi-fi coverage, though if it is a device issue then you may still experience the same issue.
 
Ive been looking at the UAP-AC-LITE so ill check out the nano etc too.

Wonder if its better to change just the wifi part of it, or the router too by putting the superhub into modem mode.

Wifi signal isnt the issue, i have loads of signal around the house and into the garden.
 
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