Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[sdawson35]

Hello All - First post and a request for help.

I had/have a Draytek Vigor 2860 (vdsl2) and 2 x AP900's , unfortunately we cannot watch any form of video feed from say Facebook/Youtube etc on out mobile phones without crazy buffering. Connect my old Asus DSL-AC55U and no more buffering, however the 55U is a tad old and Wifi range is limited.

What options do I have for a modern VDSL2 modem router with strong Wifi ? - I have looked at the ASUS DSL-AC68U but they are also long in the tooth with no real updates, the TP-Link Archer AC2800 but also seem long in the tooth with no real updates, AVM Fr!tbox good reviews but German language and no UK plug, Zyxel XMG3927-B50A looks interesting but virtually no reviews.

So confused...............   

[Computerman142]

Hi and welcome to the forum.

While I have had no experience with Asus devices, the consensus among members is they are not very good, so replacing it with something better probably would be good. I have had the Zyxel XMG3927-B50A for about 9 months now, and after years of trying to find a suitable router that worked well both with wireless and VDSL side of things, I can personally say this is best router I've ever bought. The wireless is strong and slightly better range than most other routers I've tried and works well, easily handles multiple devices streaming content or playing games or browsing, when it does buffer that is only my connection being hammered and lack of bandwidth (only get 18mbps down and 5mbps up). The router is also very stable, never had any issues with it, it just works. It may be expensive but best router purchase I made.

[j0hn]

I recommend anything but an Asus DSL model device. The DSL-AC68U is probably the worst piece of tech I've owned in the last decade.

[Alex Atkin UK]

the consensus among members is they are not very good,

To be more accurate, the ASUS DSL routers are bad according to posters on here, but some of their Cable/Ethernet routers (ones that connect to a separate modem) are good.

Its really frustrating that a single company would have such completely different quality between devices that on the surface would seem logical they should be the same, but apparently they are developed by completely different teams at ASUS.

[tubaman]

Agree with the others that the ASUS is probably not a good choice due to its MediaTek modem chipset, but this sounds like it could be a config issue with your existing equipment.
Does video streaming work with a wired connection to the 2860, and have you tried it wirelessly with just a single AP enabled? I'm assuming in this that the 2860 is a non-wireless variety, if not have you tried wireless streaming from the 2860 without the APs enabled?
 

[sdawson35]

hi All - Thanks for the replies.

Yes the 2860 is the non wireless variant, I have tried with just 1 AP and the issue still exists.
Its weird as its just mobile phones/tablets (Android/Apple), laptops and pc's play video/media streams absolutely fine.

I think I will take a punt with the Zyxel XMG3927-B50A  - just hope it lives up to the comments on here and the few reviews I have seen on it.

Regards   

[Chunkers]

AVM Fr!tbox good reviews but German language and no UK plug,

Couple of observations ;

• Not everyone on here rates the Fritz!Box (but I do!) but I have two 7530's and both came in English and with a 3 pin plug!
• Past experience suggests to me that your Draytek is a decent device with quite a lot of advanced capabilities.

I have also found wireless N to be inadequate for whole-house coverage and HD streaming to devices like Firesticks etc, have you considered just adding a 11AC WAP to your current router?

Unless I missed something in your note I would suggest you either have a configuration issue with your setup, or need a new WAP, not a new router, I suggest the Draytek you have is already a better router than many replacements on the market.

EDIT : another thought, I had a quick look at the Draytek live demo here, when you check the Diagnostic - DSL Status in the webUI of your own router what kind of connection speed / uptime / errors  are you getting?  This will tell you how stable and fast your actual connection is ...

If your connection is stable and fast I would be inclined to spend £50 on a 11ac WAP rather than replacing the whole setup.

C

[hopkins35]

There's been quite a few reports on here, including my own, of the unreliability of Draytek modems, including those combined router & modem models, particularly when used with a Huawei VDSL cabinet.

In my opinion the best option is to use separate kit, in which case you can't go far wrong with a Zyxel modem and then pick a router or use your 2860 purely as a router. Personally I use two Zyxel VMG1312-B10 and a Firebrick 2900 and several Unifi APs but I appreciate that the Firebrick is both expensive and overkill for most users.

A family member of mine also has good experience of a Zyxel VMG3925-B10B as an all-in-one solution.

In short my advice is to move away from anything Draytek acting as your modem

[parkdale]

I own Fritzbox 7590, ok but a bit over kill. A friend of mine has the same model on my recommendation. Since he changed over from a TP Link VR900v1 to this one all the buffering problems vanished!
He's on a ECI cab 40/10, and his son has stopped moaning about lag/stutters/latency during on line gaming.

[meritez]

I see the XMG is finally a good price on Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/ZyXEL-XMG3927-B50A-Wireless-G-FAST-Gigabit-white/dp/B07TZXLHD6/

[tubaman]

Another quick thought - are the 2.4GHz and 5GHz SSIDs separate on the AP as some devices don't like both running on one SSID.
 

[peteS]

I've got a 2860 as my main router.  As has been said, it's pretty advanced for a home router with decent vlan, support for site to site VPN, qos etc..  However, I found that its modem doesn't play that well with broadcom cabinets, particularly if you have vectoring enabled.  So, my first step would be to move to a 2 box solution.  Pick up a VMG8924-B10A on ebay for £10-£15, put it in bridge mode and use it as a modem on WAN2 on the 2860.  Connect a second LAN port back from the VMG8924-B10A to the 2860, and you can monitor the stats etc for the VMG8924-B10A, which are far more extensive than what you get from the 2860, you can use dslstats etc..

I've recently made that change, and it's a significant improvement on the 2860 built in modem.  Then, you've got a really good pairing of a good modem and a good router.  If you're still having trouble, then you're just looking at the wifi situation.

I have a couple of AP-902s hooked up to my 2860, along with a couple of Archer C7's running DD-WRT in AP only mode.  I chose the 902's originally because of the simplicity of doing vlan tagging on wifi ssid's - through a UI, rather than startup scripts on the C7s.  However, I don't have any problems with buffering or access on any devices.  One thing I do know about Android devices (I don't have anything apple) is that they're really bad at dropping one access point and connecting to another when the signal strength is low - they hold on way to a weak AP rather than switch to a strong one on the same SSID.  However, if you've tried it with only 1 AP, it's likely not that.

Do you have different SSIDs to 5Ghz vs. 2.4Ghz.  Do you know if the laptop and the mobiles are connecting to the same SSID and/or frequency.  Do you get the same buffering problems on both 2.4 and 5ghz?

I would say, give the VMG8924-B10A option a try anyway - it definately improves the 2860 but likely won't fix the wifi problems on its own - but it'll only cost you a few quid and you can always sell it again later.  Then you've got 2 decent devices doing their own thing, and you're just down to fixing the AP problems if they still persist.

[sdawson35]

Right well thats a complete disaster !! - The XMG does not work with Vodafone :-(Im back on my ASUS and it just works.
Will be returning the XMG and sticking to ASUS (I know they are not good but at least they work)

[meritez]

Another Vodafone user here, what's not working?

[sdawson35]

I have setup the XMG with Vodafone username & password , set vlan id to 101 and 802.p to 0 , mtu to 1492 left everything else to default and it wont connect to the internet.

I have even done a full reset and tried again using the wizard  - nada