Hi All
There's a few advantages.
A known good modem in the HG612, a lot of routers can have relatively poor DSL modems reducing your line speed and stability.
It wont disconnect the DSL side if you need to reboot your router so less chance of ending up with a slower service due to the line management thinking its unstable.
If your router is in a place that doesn't give good WiFi range, you can run ethernet from the HG612 and put the router in a more suitable location. This is more reliable than extending the phone line which can let more interference into the line, reducing the speed and stability.
If you use the custom firmware
The ability to monitor detailed line statistics if there are any problems.
Much as to what I expected, which is why I opted to purchase the modem. Thanks for your response.
@K360 Bear in mind the HG612 isn't a direct replacement for your Vodafone hub, it is just a modem and will still require a separate router. Ok, if unlocked, the HG612 can be used as a very basic modem/router but will only have 1 LAN port and no wifi capability so not really practical.
Yeah, I am aware, thanks for the heads up. I don't plan to use the routing capabilities and instead either use the Vodafone hub, in bridge mode (once I figure out how to do it) or purchase a dedicated router without going crazy and buying a massively overkill system lol.
Alex wrote:
> If your router is in a place that doesn't give good WiFi range, you can run ethernet from the HG612 and put the router in a more suitable location. This is more reliable than extending the phone line which can let more interference into the line, reducing the speed and stability.
This is a very good point; this gives you much more flexibility with equipment placement. As Alex says, you can put your wireless access point(s) or wireless router in the best place to get optimum wifi coverage and this will typically be somewhere central. And you put the modem right near where the phone line comes into the house. This is what I did. My three modems are right where the copper lines come into the house, my router is next to them, but could be anywhere and I have two WAPs centrally placed in the house, one upstairs and one downstairs. All the boxes are linked by CAT6 (or higher) ethernet cable, for future-proofing and general over the top-ness. The cables from modems to DSL line wall sockets are all short; each is less than 1m long.
I have the Wi-Fi switched off on my Vodafone hub, I've got two WAP's around the house connected with CAT6. My cable from the Master Socket to the DSL hub is also CAT6, which makes a surprising amount of difference, especially with the 3m run.
I'll like put the HG612 on the wall under the Master Socket and run a shorter cable, which should further reduce the amount of interference, (in theory).