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[Bozz]

Good morning

I'm looking to replace my HH6 with something thats a bit more configurable.

I've been looking at the HG612 3B as a modem.

A couple of questions.

I'm on BT Inifinity (Halo) (VDSL?) will this modem give the same or better performance than my HH6?

How easy is the HG612 to install and are there any pitfalls for the unwary?

Any suggestions for a secure wifi router to go with it? (Small house with some streaming requirements)

Thanks

[Alex Atkin UK]

If its a standard Openreach HG612 then its plug and play, but you will possibly lose 1Mbit off upstream as it has QoS enabled to avoid you ever maxing out the upstream (improves latency at a cost of some speed).  Although for all I know the HH6 may do the same.

If you are using the unlocked firmware you can remove that QoS limiter.

We generally recommend BCM63168 based modem/routers these days but there isn't anything inherently wrong with the HG612, its just some lines can perform better with certain modems that have more filtering on the incoming line / the newer modem firmware on those devices.

[Weaver]

As you know, there are between one and four boxes; combined wireless modem-router all-in-one, or 1. modem + 2. firewall-router + 3. switch + 4. wireless access point(s). The more boxes the better the performance. If you want excellent wireless coverage you might have more than one wireless access point parked in suitable places that are best for coverage rather than being dictated by where the dsl line comes into the house. I have more than three boxes in fact (two wireless access points). If you have a lot of wired devices then a separate LAN switch will be needed rather than the very small ones that are provided in some firewall-routers.

Many of our members are fond of ZyXEL modems, there are various opinions as to favourites for firewall routers, switches and wireless access points.

I use ZyXEL VMG 1312-B10A modems, a Firebrick firewall-router, an HP switch and two ZyXEL wireless access points. Those particular modems are not being manufactured any more but can still be found on eBay; a better option would be to ask about other current top if the range ZyXEL modems. Some ZyXEL modems are notably better than others, so definitely ask. The ZyXEL xxxxx-B10D is an inferior device so watch out. My ZyXEL wireless access points are really really old but they have a rich feature set. My Firebrick FB2900 firewall-router is expensive but I love it.

Sorry that’s not more helpful. I’m home others will chip in with suggestions.

[Bozz]

Thanks for the replies so far.

So would the RT-AC88U be a good router to partner with this modem or should I just go with the DSL-AC88U?

Bozz

[mrk26]

Forget about DSL-AC88U, old buggy fw and Asus don't bother to update and probably never will be. In that case RT-AC88U with modem is much better option, or even better option RT-AX88U.

[Weaver]

What kit are we all using?

Burakkucat uses a single box ZyXEL VMG1312-B10A modem router, iirc. Some bugs in that model if you have IPv6, which Burakkucat does not.

Kitz uses a top-end ZyXEL modem-router single-box. The top end models have better Wi-Fi.

[Bozz]

May be a sacrilegious question but is there any experience / views here on the Gryphon 'secure' router?

[Bozz]

Hi Alex

We generally recommend BCM63168 based modem/routers these days but there isn't anything inherently wrong with the HG612, its just some lines can perform better with certain modems that have more filtering on the incoming line / the newer modem firmware on those devices.

Would the HG612 peform the same as my existing HH6 on the same line?

[Moderator edited to insert the missing opening [quote] tag]

[Alex Atkin UK]

Hi Alex

Would the HG612 peform the same as my existing HH6 on the same line?

[Moderator edited to insert the missing opening [quote] tag]

I can't answer that, no two modems necessarily perform the same.

[Windows10User]

Hi Alex

Would the HG612 peform the same as my existing HH6 on the same line?

[Moderator edited to insert the missing opening [quote] tag]

In my experience the HG612 performs similarly to the HH6 (maybe a mbit slower) but is able to hold a connection for much longer compared to the HH6 and have uptimes of beyond 2 months.

In terms of configuration, the modem just acts as a bridge and you logon to the BT network via your WiFi router with the username of bthomehub@btbroadband.com (I've been told that you can put anything before the @ by an Openreach engineer though I haven't tried it) and no password, though if the router requires one then use BT as the password.

A heads up that IPv6 support on third party routers can be flaky and may need alternative firmware like OpenWRT to get working. Also if you use BT TV Internet channels, you will need to configure IGMP/IPTV, on default router firmware this is a tickbox, on OpenWRT it's a bit of a faff.

[Bozz]

 I have splashed out and installed an unlocked HG612 with the most upto date firmware and an ASUS RT-AX58U which are both working fine, certainly a more reliable connection than the hh6.

Speed wise I was expecting better as subjectively it does seem slower than the hh6.

I'm not sure if there are any tweaks that i could do to improve.

[Bozz]

I have splashed out and installed an unlocked HG612 with the most upto date firmware and an ASUS RT-AX58U which are both working fine, certainly a more reliable connection than the hh6.

Speed wise I was expecting better as subjectively it does seem slower than the hh6.

I'm not sure if there are any tweaks that i could do to improve.

An update....

RT-AX58U with Merlin has gone pop and been returned the supplier for credit.

So what should I get to replace it? Another AX58U?

I still maintain that the VDSL connection was more reliable with this combination of hardware but it was also definitely slower than the HH6.

[psychopomp1]

if you want to stick with a wifi 6 router, go for the RT-AX88U - its significantly more powerful than the AX58U, which is a low end Asus wifi 6 router.

[Bozz]

if you want to stick with a wifi 6 router, go for the RT-AX88U - its significantly more powerful than the AX58U, which is a low end Asus wifi 6 router.

Thanks for the suggestion. Was looking at the RT-AX86U which is a bit cheaper than the RT-AX88U and seems to have some useful futureproofing features. Any thoughts?

Bozz

[mrk26]

I got RT-AX88U, and is very stable, no issue at all, perfect for my busy household (about 16 devices connected constantly). Currently using latest official fw and I don't have any issues, if needed Merlin fw is available for this model as well.