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Author Topic: Fibre Router questions  (Read 1057 times)

Metalligator

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Fibre Router questions
« on: January 29, 2021, 10:53:08 AM »

*APologies for all the edits, rushed the initial post out because there was a VR900 ending imminently on ebay**

Moving from Virgin Media to Plusnet 67mb connection, looking at replacing the HH5 clone, initially looked at HH6 which a lot of people do but thought may as well upgrade further if I can.

Pre-looking at this forum was looking at TP-Link VR400/600/900, possibly still got some researching to do, my exchange is quite far and not sure what type it is, possibly BT?
I know it maybe blasphemy here but I am not too bothered about looking at stats, live in an end of terrace house with my wife so it isn't congested and just want a reliable fast router.
I am not bothered at all about user friendliness, happy to faff/persevere.

Seen a VR900 that may go cheap but noticed on TP-Link website the VR900 (V2 in the comparision for some reason) seems to be the only one that doesn't mention MU-MIMO, is this something to be worried about?

Have a few 5G devices but heating/google home etc. all runs 2.4ghz, would separating the 5Ghz network out be sensible to stop devices jumping?

Also to throw into the mix, I have a EE Smart hub which I believe is a rebranded BT HH 6B?
Which would be a step up from the plusnet Hub which is a BT HH5?
« Last Edit: January 29, 2021, 02:15:46 PM by Metalligator »
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Alex Atkin UK

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Re: Fibre Router questions
« Reply #1 on: January 30, 2021, 04:52:23 AM »

I always keep 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz on their own SSID, it just makes things simpler when you know what is going on.

MU-MIMO itself from what I can gather doesn't really do what its supposed to, its mostly a marketing thing.  However one benefit is that a device marketed as MU-MIMO will be using a newer WiFi chipset which can be a good thing, they tend to get refined over the years.  I certainly wouldn't be wasting money on that alone though unless you have a LOT of WiFi devices.  I managed with gen 1 WiFi equipment for years, the ONLY reason I upgraded was for speed accessing my NAS, Internet was always fine.

At the end of the day, its all about if you are happy with what you have.  If your existing equipment works good enough and you already said you aren't going over the stats with a fine tooth comb, I wouldn't bother getting anything at all.

The only thing of note is the HH5 WiFi range is not fantastic, so if you dont get the speed you want in the places you want it in the house then that would be a reason to upgrade.  Not sure about the EE Smart Hub or if it can be used on other ISPs, its probably a lot better if it can.
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j0hn

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Re: Fibre Router questions
« Reply #2 on: January 30, 2021, 11:35:51 AM »


MU-MIMO itself from what I can gather doesn't really do what its supposed to, its mostly a marketing thing.

Can you expand on that?
It does exactly what it's supposed to for me.

MU-MIMO = multi-user, multiple input, multiple output

I'd understand those comments about Beamforming though.
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Metalligator

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Re: Fibre Router questions
« Reply #3 on: January 30, 2021, 11:51:49 AM »

From the settings screen and reading the EE Home Hub looks like a reskinned home hub 6B
Think some people have mentinoed it on plusnet forum too so will give it a go.
Would taking devices off the wifi and onto powerline adapators help all devices involved as less congested airwaves?
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Alex Atkin UK

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Re: Fibre Router questions
« Reply #4 on: January 30, 2021, 12:56:45 PM »

Can you expand on that?
It does exactly what it's supposed to for me.

MU-MIMO = multi-user, multiple input, multiple output

I'd understand those comments about Beamforming though.

Have you actually tested it?  On my nanoHD I can have two WiFi clients active at the same time doing iperf3 to my NAS and they go at EXACTLY the same speed combined as one client on its own, which I'm fairly sure I could do before without MU-MIMO.

If MU-MIMO did anything it should be every so slightly faster as the bottleneck should be the Gigabit port not the WiFi, but its not.

SmallNetBuilder also found it made sod-all difference, if anything making it SLOWER due to the overhead.

It may make a notable difference on WiFi 6 but on WiFi 5 I don't think it does.
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j0hn

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Re: Fibre Router questions
« Reply #5 on: January 30, 2021, 01:09:48 PM »

Have you actually tested it?  On my nanoHD I can have two WiFi clients active at the same time doing iperf3 to my NAS and they go at EXACTLY the same speed combined as one client on its own, which I'm fairly sure I could do before without MU-MIMO.

Yes I have.

I believe it only works in 1 direction, from router to device. It won't help with transfers from a WiFi client to a NAS.

I find it improves the jitter (by quite a bit) on my Desktop PC when playing Steam games with downloads running in the background.
« Last Edit: January 30, 2021, 02:28:05 PM by j0hn »
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Alex Atkin UK

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Re: Fibre Router questions
« Reply #6 on: January 30, 2021, 06:48:58 PM »

Yes I have.

I believe it only works in 1 direction, from router to device. It won't help with transfers from a WiFi client to a NAS.

I find it improves the jitter (by quite a bit) on my Desktop PC when playing Steam games with downloads running in the background.

On the same client?  As MU-MIMO would only improve jitter if one device is doing the downloads and the other device is gaming.
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Metalligator

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Re: Fibre Router questions
« Reply #7 on: February 01, 2021, 11:34:19 AM »

Been doing some more research, apparently the BT smart hub does do mu-mimo has 7 internal antennae (which I think my EE one is?)
My local green boxes are all huawei so broadcom (not sure what difference this makes apart from old chipsets pre-firmware updates)

My question is, will I notice any difference by getting a new router and am I likely to need to fork out for one of the higher end ones to notice?
Would using powerline adaptors take the strain off the wifi or is there not much point?
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Alex Atkin UK

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Re: Fibre Router questions
« Reply #8 on: February 01, 2021, 04:36:09 PM »

Powerline adapters are usually worse than WiFi and even worse still can interfere with VDSL which is what you are using if its coming from the phone socket rather than actual fibre into the house.

Its really hard to say if a better router will help or hinder, its most down to the modem part and pure luck of how it handles your specific line, again assuming were talking VDSL here.  I don't think you should have any speed problems on 67Mbit unless you're doing something like torrents or Quality of Service bandwidth limiting.
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Broadband: Zen Full Fibre 900 + Three 5G Routers: pfSense (Intel N100) + Huawei CPE Pro 2 H122-373 WiFi: Zyxel NWA210AX
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