Are free ISP routers rubbish?

[Jasmine1]

I have 8mb ADSL with the Post Office, and I'm using the free Zyxel AMG1302-T11C router that came with it (worth £50 apparently).

The problem is it seems a bit flakey, dropping the signal, high latency, slow speeds, all while simultaneously being fine on other devices (or not). I don't have a big house, and I only have 4 wireless devices, but this seems typical of all the cheap routers I've had (I switch ISP's yearly).

Would I notice an improvement if I bought something more specialised, such as a NETGEAR, or is there anything I can do to improve the issues?

Edited by Jasmine1 on Saturday 13th June 08:45

[heisthegaffer]

Can't remember other ones but my BT router is brilliant, can pick up WiFi in my cabin which is the end of my garden and the router being at the front of the house although oddly my wife's Ipad is very patchy on the loo upstairs. My huawei tablet is perfect sat in the same place.

[JulianHJ]

The latest BT offerings are very good.

[bitchstewie]

Zyxel are a decent brand and without wanting to be rude keep in mind ISPs generally don't make routers they just rebrand.

So if there's a router issue I'd lean towards "st happens" more than it being specifically because it's what the ISP supplies.

[mike9009]

My talk talk supplied router seems very good. Gawd knows how many devices connected quite often doing two Teams calls whilst the kids are streaming YouTube or playing on line games.

Every now and again it seems to stumble over (maybe once a month) but I am happy with that.

[GT03ROB]

Like others had no problems with BT ones

[wiggy001]

I always used to think the Sky router was fine, especially as the mini box in my office extended the wifi into our loft conversion.

Then the weather got nice and I realised that I cannot connect to my wifi from my garden (the router is about 15 feet from the back patio doors).

I now connect to a neighbours BT guest wifi in the garden, which I think comes from the house behind us, so their router is at least 4 times the distance from me.

[NDA]

I used to drop kick the BT routers and replace them. However, as others have mentioned, they're now extremely good. I have the latest from them - a 'Smart Hub 2' and it's very good.

[thecremeegg]

We use the latest Sky router and it's fine, though the wifi range isn't that great. Fine for us as we only have a flat but won't be so good for a house.
For everything else though it's fine, I have it wired to a switch to pipe internet via ethernet to a few rooms and the network throughput is spot on.

[colin79666]

Zen give out a really decent fritzbox.

[petemurphy]

Out of interest can I plug my router into someone else’s broadband at their house? Friend has old Vodafone router and cant get signal in one room - if I took my sky one there to test would that work?

[anonymous-user]

Before blaming the router try one very simple thing: Login to the admin side of it and change the channel it uses. If on 1 then change to 13 (or vice versa).

If neighbouring (or other local wifi systems like CCTV) are using the same channel then you will get reduced speeds and issues etc. If your neighbours router signals are strong in your house (if terraced etc) then they also may be on the same channel as you. There are apps you can get that will scan the available wifi and tell you what channels they are using so you can work out which to use that is currently unoccupied.

[adccl8z]

Just swapped my zyxel for an Asus DSL ac68u

Has improved the instability I was getting with post office via the zyxel. Improved but not eliminated entirely.

Also much quicker to apply changes to parental control settings, I am regularly blocking/unblocking depending on my teenagers' behaviour toward their parents

In short, for circa £80 off eBay, definitely recommend

[Digger]

colin79666 said:

Zen give out a really decent fritzbox.

Yeah I joined nearly a year ago. Nice & configurable, but do find I get a significant slowdown every month or 2 requiring a reboot but that could be down to various reasons. Customer Support seems good too. Not the cheapest but you get what you pay for!

[tribbles]

Digger said:

colin79666 said:

Zen give out a really decent fritzbox.

Yeah I joined nearly a year ago. Nice & configurable, but do find I get a significant slowdown every month or 2 requiring a reboot but that could be down to various reasons. Customer Support seems good too. Not the cheapest but you get what you pay for!

I hated it; had it for just two days, because it wouldn't work with the static IP addresses and pass-through (modem?) mode.

Almost lost my temper because the old router worked fine, (and they told me how to configure it), but the Fritzbox didn't want to play ball, and after about an hour on the phone to their support, I was told that they don't support that mode, despite being told it worked when I ordered it.

Got a Draytek router instead, and had it going in 10 minutes with my servers not noticing and difference.

[Trustmeimadoctor]

Wouldnt work with static addresses? on the internal or external interfaces?

[tribbles]

I can't remember the exact problem, but I think it wantd to NAT the static addresses, so I had to reconfigure all of my machines with the internal addresses - normally okay, but I have a VM for a friend of mine that I don't control, and he's done a lot of lockdown on it. While it could've reen reconfigured, I wanted a router that worked exactly like the old one.

Btw, I used to be the sysadmin for a small ISP in the late '90s, and ran an IT department for a while so am used to low level networking - and I far rather know exactly what is going on.

ETA: It was the external addresses. I wanted my machines to have the external IP addresses, so the router wasn't doing much.

Edited by tribbles on Sunday 14th June 07:47

[Matt..]

I have a BT Home Hub 5 and the wifi is awful. I'm upgrading to FTTP in a few weeks and getting a BT Smart Hub 2. My hope is the Smart Hub 2 is vastly better than the Home Hub 5!

[bristolracer]

ISP ones are getting better, but there are reasons that Draytek can charge £300 for one, and ISP'S give them away.

[NDA]

Matt.. said:

I have a BT Home Hub 5 and the wifi is awful. I'm upgrading to FTTP in a few weeks and getting a BT Smart Hub 2. My hope is the Smart Hub 2 is vastly better than the Home Hub 5!

It is.

The HH5 was awful. The new one is good.