Cable Forum - View Single Post - Superhub What router do I get for a Superhub in modem mode?

resander · 17-01-2013, 13:31

Upgraded from 10mbs to 30mbs about a year ago and that required a Superhub. Before the upgrade I used a modem provided by VM and my own Belkin router and wifi was fine in all rooms, but after upgrading I immediately noticed a significant drop in wifi performance upstairs in a normal mid-terrace house in East London. The two bedrooms above the livingroom with the Superhub still received a useable wifi signal (but weaker than before), but the third bedroom diagonally above only got a one-bar signal and that dropped after a couple of minutes so was useless.

During 2012 VM doubled the speed and I also changed the bundle so the speed delivered to the house is now 100mbs, but there is still no useable wifi in the third bedroom upstairs.
We have two desktop PCs downstairs with wired connections to the Superhub and these work extremely well.

I have experimented by moving the Superhub around in the living room within the constraints of the length of coaxcable and also changed the channels, but there was no improvement.

We need wifi in the third bedroom and family members will gradually change from laptops/netbooks to tablets and the smaller and more recent of these typically need better wifi than the Superhub provides upstairs.

Don't want to leave VM, so I am hoping to get better wifi by buying my own router for the Superhub in modem mode. I want the router to do as well as the Superhub for wired connections (at least 80mbs download speeds when measured), but don't expect the same for wifi (20-30mbs then would be ok).

So what do I buy? I have looked in the popular online stores and also googled for 'router for Superhub', 'alternative for Superhub' etc, but I still don't know what brand and model to buy.
Here are some suggestions given by online-store reviewers and advice found by the google search:

- anything will be better than the router built into the Superhub
(maybe true, but does not help me to choose)

- TP-Link TL-WR1043ND 300Mbps Wireless N Gigabit Cable Router (ca £40)
(however about 25% of 168 online reviewers gave it 1 or 2 stars and said it is unreliable and keeps dropping the signal too often - so may not be the improvement device)

- Asus RT-N56U Black Diamond Dual-Band Wireless-N Gigabit Router RT-N56U (ca £80)
(about 5% of 93 online-store reviewers gave 1 or 2 stars saying it just stopped working after a few months, did not keep a stable wifi signal, failed to connect using wire. However, about 80% of the reviewers gave 4 and 5 stars, so this is likely to perform better than the TP-Link above. Is this the one?)

- Cisco-Linksys Maximum Performance E4200 Dual-Band N Router (ca £95)
(about 22% of 53 reviewers gave 1 or 2 stars typically complaining about poor range and about 70% gave it 4 and 5 stars, so the stats for this is about the same as the TP-link above, but is twice as expensive)

There are many other brands and models too.
I would be very grateful for hints and help to choose this router. Maximum spend is £100, but of course the less the better provided chances are better than 50% say to improve on the Superhub inbuilt router.

Ken
P.S. While googling for this I saw some rumours about VM going to scrap the Superhub and replace it with something better. Any info about this?

17-01-2013, 13:31	#1
resander Inactive Join Date: Jan 2011 Location: East London Services: BB:100Mb TV:XL+SkySports&ESPN Phone:M Posts: 43	What router do I get for a Superhub in modem mode? Upgraded from 10mbs to 30mbs about a year ago and that required a Superhub. Before the upgrade I used a modem provided by VM and my own Belkin router and wifi was fine in all rooms, but after upgrading I immediately noticed a significant drop in wifi performance upstairs in a normal mid-terrace house in East London. The two bedrooms above the livingroom with the Superhub still received a useable wifi signal (but weaker than before), but the third bedroom diagonally above only got a one-bar signal and that dropped after a couple of minutes so was useless. During 2012 VM doubled the speed and I also changed the bundle so the speed delivered to the house is now 100mbs, but there is still no useable wifi in the third bedroom upstairs. We have two desktop PCs downstairs with wired connections to the Superhub and these work extremely well. I have experimented by moving the Superhub around in the living room within the constraints of the length of coaxcable and also changed the channels, but there was no improvement. We need wifi in the third bedroom and family members will gradually change from laptops/netbooks to tablets and the smaller and more recent of these typically need better wifi than the Superhub provides upstairs. Don't want to leave VM, so I am hoping to get better wifi by buying my own router for the Superhub in modem mode. I want the router to do as well as the Superhub for wired connections (at least 80mbs download speeds when measured), but don't expect the same for wifi (20-30mbs then would be ok). So what do I buy? I have looked in the popular online stores and also googled for 'router for Superhub', 'alternative for Superhub' etc, but I still don't know what brand and model to buy. Here are some suggestions given by online-store reviewers and advice found by the google search: - anything will be better than the router built into the Superhub (maybe true, but does not help me to choose) - TP-Link TL-WR1043ND 300Mbps Wireless N Gigabit Cable Router (ca £40) (however about 25% of 168 online reviewers gave it 1 or 2 stars and said it is unreliable and keeps dropping the signal too often - so may not be the improvement device) - Asus RT-N56U Black Diamond Dual-Band Wireless-N Gigabit Router RT-N56U (ca £80) (about 5% of 93 online-store reviewers gave 1 or 2 stars saying it just stopped working after a few months, did not keep a stable wifi signal, failed to connect using wire. However, about 80% of the reviewers gave 4 and 5 stars, so this is likely to perform better than the TP-Link above. Is this the one?) - Cisco-Linksys Maximum Performance E4200 Dual-Band N Router (ca £95) (about 22% of 53 reviewers gave 1 or 2 stars typically complaining about poor range and about 70% gave it 4 and 5 stars, so the stats for this is about the same as the TP-link above, but is twice as expensive) There are many other brands and models too. I would be very grateful for hints and help to choose this router. Maximum spend is £100, but of course the less the better provided chances are better than 50% say to improve on the Superhub inbuilt router. Ken P.S. While googling for this I saw some rumours about VM going to scrap the Superhub and replace it with something better. Any info about this?