Superhub : What router do I get for a Superhub in modem mode?

[resander]

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?

[GrimUpNorth]

I've got the Asus RT-N56U. A smashing bit of kit.

Cheers

Grim

[Stephen]

Originally Posted by resander

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?

Its not being scrapped but eventually it will be replaced by a newer Superhub 2.

[thenry]

what model is your Belkin router?

id advise getting the Asus RT-N66U. its a little over your £100. versatile beast > http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/87...ter-check.html

qas advises this as a cheap option http://www.ebuyer.com/386385-dual-ba...-wan-port-2t2r

[qasdfdsaq]

Tenda N60.

Same core platform as the E4200 for 1/4 the price.

[resander]

Thanks for all info.

THE TENDA N60
The spec of the Tenda N60 is impressive (see end of this post). It is available at ebuyer.co.uk for £34 including postage, overclockers.co.uk for £53 and and amazon.co.uk (sold by QualityInks an amazon merchant) for £68. There are a few single-sentence reviews at ebuyer.co.uk, no reviews at overclockers and one 2-star review at amazon. This:

+++ start amazon review +++
Hard to recommend - firmware flawed and unit is very restrictive, 14 Jan 2013
By
TR (Northampton, UK) - See all my reviews
This review is from: TENDA N60 300MBPS W/L BB Router DUAL (Personal Computers)
Firmware prevents more than 16 MAC filtered addresses. Other settings were similarly restricted. Looks like the number of wireless clients is capped. If so, this should be disclosed.

There's no way to import/export client by list. Settings are not designed for bulk or quick input. For example, you have to tab five times to store a single MAC address - well-meant perhaps - but makes real-world input and revision incredibly long-winded and laborious.

Some of the entries and settings did not seem to store consistently.
Once we came across the client-cap we stopped investigating.
Summary: Not used due to client-capping and poor interface design.
Might work in Mr Lonesome's house...
+++ end amazon review ++++

I don't remember ever having to specify MAC addresses to a router - only IP addreses if the router is to be used as a firewall, but we don't need one.
What is the significance the 'client-capping' mentioned in the review by TR (Northampton). We are five in the household. If client-capping means the number of users then there would be no problem. On the Superhub (and other routers I have seen) one would select security mode and password once only and that is about it for all of us. Then each user would specify password for the connection via Ubuntu/Windows for desktops/laptops and via Android for phones and tablets and this would be 'remembered' by each OS, so I don't understand what the reviewer is concerned about.

newegg.com in US also sells the Tenda N60 (ca $40) and 6 reviewers is giving it 4 eggs out of 5. However, most of the reviewers report that the Tenda quickly gets very hot. That is alarming because we want to have Internet on tap 24 hours a day without having to worry about fire risks during the night.

qasdfdsaq:
Do you agree with TR's amazon review?
Did you notice the Tenda getting hot? Did the wifi distance range get significantly better with the Tenda? Are you still using the Tenda?

GrimUpNorth & thenry:
I got a basic Belkin router 2007 for use with the Virgin modem at 10mbs. I don't think it would have worked at speeds 30mbs and higher. Gave it away.

Did the Asus RT-N56U and Asus RT-N66U solve all your wifi problems? Especially wifi range problems if you had any?

Wifi range is important to us, more so than speed. We only need useable steady wifi in all rooms.


Ken
P.S.
Tenda N60 spec in plain text:
Hardware Features
Standards
2.4GHz: IEEE802.11n, IEEE802.11g, IEEE 802.11b;
5.0GHz: IEEE 802.11n, IEEE 802.11a; IEEE802.3, IEEE802.3u, IEEE802.3ab
Interface 1*10/100M LAN/WAN (interchangeable) port
Antenna Internal high performance, omni-directional antenna
Button 1*Reset 1*Mode
Power Input: AC 100-240V～50/60Hz 0.3A;
Output: DC 12V1A.
Temperature Operating Humidity: 0℃ ~ 40℃;
Storage Temperature: -40℃ ~ 70℃.
Humidity Operating Humidity:10% ~ 90% RH non-condensing;
Storage Humidity: 5% ~ 90%RH non-condensing.

Dimensions (L*W*H) mm 171.6mm*111.2mm*25.5mm
LED USB, WAN, IPTV, LAN (1, 2, 3), 2.4GHz, 5GHz, WPS, Power/SYS
Transmission Media Twisted-pair, WiFi

Wireless Features
Wireless Speed 2.4G: 300Mbps;
5G: 300Mbps.
Frequency Works over both 2.GHz and 5GHz bands concurrently
Basic Features Wireless: Enable/Disable;
SSID Broadcast: Enable/Disable;
Band Option: 2.4GHz, 5GHz;
Channel-2.4GHz: 1-13;
Channel-5GHz: 149, 153, 157, 161, 165;
Network Mode-2.4GHz: 11b/g/n mixed (default mode),11b/g mixed, 11b, 11g;
Network Mode-5GHz: 11a/n mixed (default mode),11a;
Connection List.
Security Wireless MAC Address Filter (Wireless Access Control);
WEP,
WPA-PSK/WPA2-PSK, WPA/WPA2;
Wireless Security: Enable/Disable;
WPS fast encryption.
Operating Mode Wireless Router Mode;
Wireless AP Mode;
WDS Mode.
Software Features
Internet Connection Type PPPoE;
Dynamic IP;
Static IP.
DHCP Server DHCP Server;
DHCP Client List;
DHCP Reservation.
Virtual Server Port Forwarding;
DMZ Host;
UPnP.
Security Client Filter;
MAC Filter;
URL Filter;
Access Control.
DDNS No-IP, dyndns
VPN Passthrough PPTP/L2TP Passthrough
Bandwidth Control Yes
Static Routing Yes
Logs Yes
VLAN No
Other features Flexible bandwidth control, P2P download control;
USB Sharable: storage & printing
IPTV service;
Guest Network;
MAC Clone;
Traffic Statistics;
Backup & Restore configurations
Firmware upgradeable via Web.
Others
Package Contents N60;
Power Adapter;
Quick Install Guide
Factory Defaul Settings IP Address: 192.168.0.1
Login User name/Password: admin/admin
Related Products W522U
N6
Certificates FCC, CE, RoHS, WEEE

[roger skillin]

Just splashed out and got the Cisco Linksys EA6500 , it's a little on the expensive side, although i got it in a sale last week The wifi range is madness, and can walk about 70 feet from my house and still stream from youtube, it has a lot of good features on it

[Sephiroth]

ASUS RT N56U does it for me. Reaches the opposite corner of the house upstairs/downstairs.

The 66 is an even stronger wireless router because of its external antennae - but I haven't yet tried that personally.

[GrimUpNorth]

The RT-N56U gives good wireless cverage. The 5GHz drops off at the bottom of the garden but then that's the nature of the beast. I get full speed with wireless (I'm on 100Mb) router is upstairs at the front of the house and main PC is downstairs in the conservatory at the back. I'm running a custom firmware for no other reason than I can. I'm using a USB-N53 in the main PC and it appears I'm the only person running a 5GHz network round here. I've got a couple of external drives plugged in and Jr can ftp in no problem. The only time I've reset was when I tidied up the wiring in the 'comms' cupboard.

Hope this helps

Cheers

Grim

[qasdfdsaq]

Originally Posted by resander

qasdfdsaq:
Do you agree with TR's amazon review?
Did you notice the Tenda getting hot? Did the wifi distance range get significantly better with the Tenda? Are you still using the Tenda?

I don't use routers with their stock firmware, so any limitations they come with don't apply to me.

That said one other person on this forum has got a Tenda N60 and hasn't had any real complaints I can recall.

[babis3g]

Ebuyer for £30
http://www.ebuyer.com/386385-dual-ba...-wan-port-2t2r
and if qasdfdsaq saying can take 3rd part firmware ...you can not go wrong with it so have nothing really to loose because or the factory or the 3rd part firmware will work

[qasdfdsaq]

It can take 3rd party firmware but as of yet there isn't any available. Not that it's hard to do, since there's plenty of builds available for other routers with identical hardware.

[ianch99]

I can recommend the Asus RT-N66U esp. when using the custom (but still Asus) firmware from http://www.lostrealm.ca/asuswrt-merlin/

Very stable and good wifi range ...

[Kushan]

I've got the RT-N66U and highly recommend it. Wireless performance is phenomenal and where I used to drop signal in the bedroom (with the DIR-615 Virgin supplied), I now get full bars on my phone.

[qasdfdsaq]

"Full bars" unfortunately doesn't mean anything without specifying which phone, full bars on one phone could just as well equal 1 bar on another.