Routers. Basic questions about them...

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Sorry if this is just too basic, but why might I need a new better router ?
I'm on BT, have a Hub 6, type b, with a minimum download speed of 33Mbps, or so BT tell me.
We have a perfectly good signal throughout the house, no problem with Netflix or Tidal etc generally, though occasionally I struggle to get music streaming. I've always assumed this to be down to my broadband rather than the router. Streamer is wired to router, house is 3 bedroom, so no massive range, and at most 6/7 devices at a time
What would a fancy new router do to improve things ?
For some reason I saw a Netgear AX12 on Amazon -
https://www.amazon.co.uk/NETGEAR-Ni...9Y2xpY2tSZWRpcmVjdCZkb05vdExvZ0NsaWNrPXRydWU=

..and have to assume it adds something, but can anyone explain exactly what ? At over £400 it needs to be a bit special !
I understand that it has 12 streams, potentially faster speed, but from what little I know the Hub 6 is meant to be fairly good as far as provider-supplied routers go.
I'm not thinking of buying one of the above, but would a better router make much difference, and do they start to get more complicated to use - I am a simpleton who doesn't need or want complexity, just a peaceful easy life...
 
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Firstly, AFAIK the HH6 gets good reviews though it is the A version I have seen mentioned most.

Now , as far as streaming goes we have Prime (used occasionally) and YouTube on the PC, so not much by way of anything streaming related.

You mention Netflix as working well but your ethernet connected Streamer is the one that is flakey. If I have read that right I would make a surmise that the configuration/setup of your wired Streamer needs looking into......as I would think Netflix is more 'data' dense than the music, so why is Netflix OK but music not!
 
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Firstly, AFAIK the HH6 gets good reviews though it is the A version I have seen mentioned most.

Now , as far as streaming goes we have Prime (used occasionally) and YouTube on the PC, so not much by way of anything streaming related.

You mention Netflix as working well but your ethernet connected Streamer is the one that is flakey. If I have read that right I would make a surmise that the configuration/setup of your wired Streamer needs looking into......as I would think Netflix is more 'data' dense than the music, so why is Netflix OK but music not!
You read it right, I didn't word it right - my music streaming 'issue' is likely to be broadband rather than router, and my kids have now told me that we do struggle slightly sometimes with Netflix too - what do I know ?
I am in Cornwall, and despite being one of the earliest places to get 'superfast' broadband we often have dodgy (BT) mobile signal as well. Other providers suffer here as well, though all are getting better.
Thanks for your reply !
 
Do a speed test. Whats your download and upload speed? You might need to make sure your devices are connecting on the 5ghz band instead of 2.4ghz to get your full line speed.
 
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One of the things you can do with the more feature rich routers is to limit the bandwidth to some devices (QoS). Whilst using Netflix, you might find for example that a couple of your kids are streaming music, watching youtube videos etc, and your existing router might be giving them most of the available bandwidth to those, leaving barely enough to stream a movie without buffering. Unless you have devices that can use MIMO and WIFI6, you wouldn't benefit much from that router apart from perhaps stronger wifi signals.

When I last used a BT homehub (5), I had to restart it every so often (about once every 1-2 weeks) as performance dropped off over time. I likened it to the old memory leaks on Photoshop and Lightroom, where you needed to restart/reboot after a while. I replacxed the homehub with an Asus gaming one 3 ago, and I think it's been rebooted about 5 or 6 times in that period. I recently had to limit the bandwidth to one of our newer devices, as it could easily "consume" 95% of our available 80Mb download bandwidth, and nothing else could get very much.
 
Do a speed test. Whats your download and upload speed? You might need to make sure your devices are connecting on the 5ghz band instead of 2.4ghz to get your full line speed.

41.02 download, 14.90 upload on the 5ghz band, which seems pretty good.

One of the things you can do with the more feature rich routers is to limit the bandwidth to some devices (QoS). Whilst using Netflix, you might find for example that a couple of your kids are streaming music, watching youtube videos etc, and your existing router might be giving them most of the available bandwidth to those, leaving barely enough to stream a movie without buffering. Unless you have devices that can use MIMO and WIFI6, you wouldn't benefit much from that router apart from perhaps stronger wifi signals.

When I last used a BT homehub (5), I had to restart it every so often (about once every 1-2 weeks) as performance dropped off over time. I likened it to the old memory leaks on Photoshop and Lightroom, where you needed to restart/reboot after a while. I replacxed the homehub with an Asus gaming one 3 ago, and I think it's been rebooted about 5 or 6 times in that period. I recently had to limit the bandwidth to one of our newer devices, as it could easily "consume" 95% of our available 80Mb download bandwidth, and nothing else could get very much.

I didn't know about rebooting every so often, but from what you say it seems that I'd not gain much from a faster/more expensive router. Fine by me !
Guess I'll leave things as they are - thanks !
 
41.02 download, 14.90 upload on the 5ghz band, which seems pretty good.



I didn't know about rebooting every so often, but from what you say it seems that I'd not gain much from a faster/more expensive router. Fine by me !
Guess I'll leave things as they are - thanks !

Thats more than enough for your usage case, split your SSID so you can make sure your devices that are having buffering issues are connecting to the 5ghz channel. So you could have BT_2.4ghz and BT_5ghz that you can connect to on the same router.

https://www.bt.com/help/broadband/f...lit-my-bt-hub-s-ssid--wireless-network-name--

Dont buy another router, yours is fine.
 
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Thats more than enough for your usage case, split your SSID so you can make sure your devices that are having buffering issues are connecting to the 5ghz channel. So you could have BT_2.4ghz and BT_5ghz that you can connect to on the same router.

https://www.bt.com/help/broadband/f...lit-my-bt-hub-s-ssid--wireless-network-name--

Dont buy another router, yours is fine.
Thanks Twist, much appreciated. I've never heard of splitting my SSID, so thanks for the link..!
 
I use a £25 Netgear extender situated in a different room (for years)....have just updated my BT Hub 5 to a 6.....FOC.
No problems although we don't have homebased children only PCs, TVs, Phones, Printers and....!
 
A definite downside to buying your own router is if you have an issue. When you ring their first line support they seem to love saying "sorry we don't support that router".
Their website will list supported models.

Older routers will not get any new firmware updates.
Your ISP will leave you (generally) with the oldest they can get away with. In my experience the newer BT routers are much better at handling internal i/p addressing. Meaning much less sky q resetting.
They seem to have better wifi aerials too.
 
Conversely a definite upside is that it's not the cheapest glue-n-go pile of excrement that they could lay hands on, is entirely under your control and your ISP can't futz with it.without you knowing.

If you have an ISP where the helpdesk is entirely staffed by script jockeys who cannot cope with non-scripted problems you will get crap service from that helpdesk whether you have their router or not.

ISPs are definitely not all the same - if they advertise heavily, they are not investing or spending that on making their network (especially the core and their peering arrangements) as good as it could be.
 
Conversely a definite upside is that it's not the cheapest glue-n-go pile of excrement that they could lay hands on, is entirely under your control and your ISP can't futz with it.without you knowing.

If you have an ISP where the helpdesk is entirely staffed by script jockeys who cannot cope with non-scripted problems you will get crap service from that helpdesk whether you have their router or not.

ISPs are definitely not all the same - if they advertise heavily, they are not investing or spending that on making their network (especially the core and their peering arrangements) as good as it could be.
Good point Virgin backbone is so over subscribed the qos is up and down like a yo yo and if you're a high user they throttle you back.
 
FWIW

I use PlusNet and have done for some years.

Up until recently I have use my own router(s) (I used original supplied Thomson model briefly) this has included a Netgear which did sterling service and latterly a Billion 7800DXL which I bought when I was first looking into Fibre as it could be switch from PPPoA to PPPoE for use with a Fibre modem.

Fast forward to the past week or so and made the decision to 'go fibre'......................PN to their credit gave us a good offer for phone and Broadband (which was a key element in making the decision ;) ).

Fibre has yet to go live but I have swapped the Billion for the supplied Hub One (this is a modified for PN version of the BT Hub 5a)

Not a bad bit of kit though user control is truncated compared to what I have been used to.

Its WiFi radios are better than I expected i.e. about equal to the Billion but unlike the Billion and the Netgear before it the connection speed & measured speed is a tad lower :( (those two makes of router were definitely able to wring that little bit more out of the line :) )

But the key is that I can, as I have been used to, separate the 2.4 and 5 Ghz radios....................I just make sure that if a device supports dual band connection I set them up for both frequencies and when one is too weak or out of range the device(s) will pick the other one :)

I might in future get a BT Home Hub 6 or another brand model........................will just want to see for now how Fibre performs compared to the quoted "numbers" and as such whether getting my own Router is likely to give the numbers a bit of a lift ???

Having said that all being well once Fibre kicks in and the DLM has worked its magic, the small (but annoying) difference in ADSL speed will be academic :D
 
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