Best Router to Use with Home Hub 3
 

Hi everyone I am looking into getting virgin media (200 or 350) once it goes live in my area hopefully later this year and was looking to see if people thought I should invest in a separate router or stick with the home hub 3 provided.


I am far from technically minded so would literally need to be plug and play for me to be able to set it up.

My budget is £200 max


My house is quite bit and internet range is very poor due to think walls etc. I have two netgear internet switches running as lots of my things are hard wired in my home. In terms of WIFI devices used then 2 x Iphone X, an Ipad and also a Samsung tablet and that's it wireless wise.

Any and all suggestions massively appreciated in advance.



Jason

Re: Best Router to Use with Home Hub 3
 

A lot depends on what you want to do with your router. If you want a good media server, secure VPN for your phones and when you are abroad then go for something beefier. If you want only good WiFi all over your house then you go for cheap wired-in access points, instead of a router, to get around those walls and fridges.

This isn't necessarily a recommendation, but I have gone for a an ASUS RT-AC88U for it's power, throughput, excellent wifi, USB 3 ports, media server, VPN, game boost mode and Alexa support. In my largish house I still supplement the wifi and media storage space with my old ASUS N66U wired in from the attic.

Hopefully, you will get lots of recommendations, but do focus on what you actually want now and might want in the future.

Re: Best Router to Use with Home Hub 3
 

Hi thanks for your recommendation I want good speeds and good coverage both wired and wireless

Re: Best Router to Use with Home Hub 3
 

so use the wireless on the virgin modem, and boost it with some additional powerline adapters.



https://www.amazon.co.uk/TL-WPA8630K...e+adapter+wifi



and then get another extra adapter itself, I have the cheaper option and the connection at 500mbps is okay wired and for the wireless it is decent and you don't notice a speed drop (this is what I have got https://www.amazon.co.uk/TL-WPA4220K...e+adapter+wifi) was in the bargain bin at WHSmith's a while back for £25)

Re: Best Router to Use with Home Hub 3
 

In that case my router would be going OTT.

Use the SH3 but with access points elsewhere. Powerline adaptors are good, as DocDutch says, if you get ones with adequate throughput and if your mains wiring isn't ancient and complicated.

You can also use wireless access points such as the TP-LINK TL-WA901ND 450 Mbps Wireless N Access Point. These can be placed strategically around the house as wifi extenders, but, in my view, work best if wired into the hub. Have you got ethernet elsewhere in the house?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/TP-LINK-TL-...+access+points

Re: Best Router to Use with Home Hub 3
 

I agree with roughbeast and have got the next one down, the AC68u and I love it. Tbh the shubs are cack no matter which way you want to look at it so if you have got the dosh I would strongly recommend buying a proper router anyway and just having the shub in modem mode and if you do want to increase the wifi range further then you have still got some spare $$$ to explore other options such as the homeplugs.

Re: Best Router to Use with Home Hub 3
 

Hi guys are these easy to setup and do they actually make a difference with speeds and WiFi coverage ?

Jason

Re: Best Router to Use with Home Hub 3
 

It depends what you have in place already. For the wired in additional access point you need an ethernet cable to a suitable location elsewhere in the house, e.g. an upstairs room, attic or at least an opposite corner of the house, close to you weak signal spots. Setting up the access point using the TP-Link router, I provided a link to, is easy. Use its user interface to set it up as an access point rather than as a full LAN server. It will give you the option to select. Enter wifi SSID details as usual.

The power line option requires at least two adapters, one next to the SHub and another in the poor signal part of your house. A third or fourth can be added if required. The set up instructions are pretty easy to follow. It is best if you plug them direct into a mains wall socket, rather than into an extension lead.

As an extra signal boost to your powerline adaptors you could run an access point off one of them, as described above, instead of running it off ethernet.

If you have dead or weak wifi spots either option will make a significant difference enabling you to use most PC, pad, smart TV or phone apps with no problem. e.g. video streaming or file transfer.

I hope this is clear enough. Come back to us if you get stuck.

Re: Best Router to Use with Home Hub 3
 

Think it's come down to the ASUS RT-AC88U vs Asus AC68u after doing a little research they both seem amazing routers and reviewed very highly.

Question is which to choose that will give me the best wireless coverage, speed for wireless and speed for hard wired connection in my house.

My current router has all 4 ports full then goes to 8 way 1gb switch that has 5 ports full then in my office a further 4 way switch that has 4 ports full.

Over to you lol

Re: Best Router to Use with Home Hub 3
 

Are any of those switches upstairs? If so try to place whatever router you buy upstairs so that the wireless signal can cascade down through the house, through ceilings rather than sideways through internal brick walls. Make sure, if possible, that your router is placed before all your other switches. If you go for my 8 LAN port router it could replace your 8-port switch to give you more flexibility.

So, when you get your new router, first thing you need to do is convert your SHub to modem only mode. Just type 192.168.1.1 into your browser address bar to access the Shub interface. Then log into the interface. You'll soon find the right place. Be aware that changing to modem only mode will change your WAN IP address. This isn't a problem for most users. Also the local IP address for your SHub will have changed to 192.168.100.1

When the SHub is in modem only mode all your pre-existing network function will be gone. At this point connect your new router to an ethernet cable coming from your SHub. Make sure it goes into the WAN port. The address for this for you to browse to should now be 192.168.1.1 By default the router will be in LAN Router mode. All you need to get started is run the quick internet setup wizard at the top, then we you are sure you are connected to the internet go to the next tab down 'Network map'. There you can set up wireless for both channels. The 5GHz channel is the one that will give you the best wifi signal, but only to 5GHz compatible wifi devices. I set both SSIDs with the same name and password for simplicity sake.

Routers normally come with default settings with firewall etc on, but do check. Go to the Firewall tab to be sure and particularly check that DoS protection is on. I enable "Respond ICMP Echo (ping) Request from WAN" so that I can monitor my network quality through a Think Broadband graph.

After that you should be set to go plugging in all your switches devices etc. and connecting your wifi devices. If all is working well and your ethernet cables and patch cables are CAT5e, or better, then you should get full download speed on all your wired-in devices.

Everything I have said so far will apply to General Maximus' router suggestion except that the AC68U has 5 LAN ports not 8.


Please don't feel restricted by our suggestions. There's plenty amazing routers out there. If you had had others respond you would no doubt have had other recommendations.

Here's a good site for Router spec/performance comparison. Have a look before you decide. Type the router you want to look at in the product search box. https://www.smallnetbuilder.com/tool...=ASUS_RT-AC88U

Re: Best Router to Use with Home Hub 3
 

JUST SIMPLY AMAZING THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR HELP

That advise is simple enough for even me to follow lol

Jason

Re: Best Router to Use with Home Hub 3
 

is the ASUS RT-AC86U better choice than the Asus AC68u its a lot more expensive though

Re: Best Router to Use with Home Hub 3
 

the 86u is defo better and I wanted it myself when I was router hunting, I just didn't have the $$$ at the time. Technically it has faster wifi (not that you'll use it) and the wan to lan throughput is an extra 100mbits (>900) but you won't be using that either. The wifi is great and I have no problems getting max wan connection speed on my ac capable devices which is ~350mbits.

One other thing you can think of though if you have got cables running to other rooms of the house as roughbeast has already suggested is putting a wireless router in there. Asus routers are awesome and have different modes you can use them in and you can specifically set to them serve as a wireless access point and use AI Mesh to create a mesh wifi network to work in conjunction with another Asus router. If I was you I would get the AC68u and have it on one side of the house (upstairs/downstairs) as your main router and get this to use as a wireless access point and have it on the other side of the house upstairs/downstairs.

Re: Best Router to Use with Home Hub 3
 

Hi general I will thank you like I've thanked the others on here and I know your a very well respected source of everything virgin media so I truly appreciate your time and opinions.

If the 86u is better I'm going for that it's 50 more and it's newer also I'm lead to believe.

I have comtrend powerline WiFi extender other side of the house for WiFi and also hard wired cat 6 extension boxes in most rooms.

I would only therefore need one really good stable router to be a whole lot better than home hub 3 to manage my 350 connection to it's max potential.

Re: Best Router to Use with Home Hub 3
 

Cool, you defo want the ac86u then. There are loads of fantastic features which will put the shub to shame but a biggy, and one of the first things you should do, is manually input new dns server entries which will override anything vm sends down by dhcp. I have used 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 for years and never had a single problem.
I'll tell you about the wifi tomorrow because i am lying in bed watching iron fist atm :)