Router upgrade

[Hosenbugler]

Dear all.
I use Zen as a provider , I am on fibre, and about a 1/4 mile from the cabinet. A Ookla speedtest, (this morning) gave me 26.36 download , 6.26 up. I use wi-fi, not a cabled connection. My wi-fi card is an Asus model (in a tower system) and is near 3 years old. This gave me a marked increase in performance from my previous Asus high end gaming laptop.

My router (supplied by Zen) is a model by Technicolour. It is at least 5 years old, likely older. Its working well.

My question is. Am I likely to see any increse in speeds if I upgrade to a new bells and whistles router? On top of that what make /model of router would be recomended , a budget of £150 or under if possible.

Any ideas, observations, anyone?

P/S I am in a rural village in North Cambs.

[SteveKTMer]

All of the free ISP supplied routers struggle with one thing or another but Zen are now issuing Fritzbox routers which are much better than the old technololor routers. I'm sure Zen would upgrade you if you asked, or threatened to leave.

The wifi in the fritzbox is also pretty good for a small number of users, one of the best ISP supplied boxes I've seen, if not the most reliable.

Apart from that, check what speed you get on ethernet when plugged into the router ethernet port.

Also see what fast.com says your speed is.

[Captain_Morgan]

Most likely it’s the line that is restricting performance.

Put your number into this & post the results & we see. (Don’t forget to redact you number when posting)

https://www.broadbandchecker.btwholesale.com/#/ADS...

[Mr Pointy]

Start off by running a network cable from your PC to the router & running another test. If you don't gain much it's your line & a new router won't do much, if you do get significantly faster speeds then it's your wireless connection you need to look at.

[Hosenbugler]

Thanks for the replies all. I tried Fast,com. That gave me speeds of 31 mbps down, and 7.0 up. Not an inconsequential difference to the OOkla speeds, In percentage terms its getting near 20% in speed difference. Which gives the most reliable data?

I have tried the BT link, but cannot seem to get a screen grab. It does tell me that FTTP is not available, sadly, and seems to imply that the best speed I can expect is 50mbps. From memory I think Zen told me something similar.

Unfortunately I do not have the facility to hardwire my connection. No cable, and at opposite ends of the property. An old mate of mine might be able to help with this, so if I see him I might get chance to give it as go.

I may contact Zen and see if I can "win" an updated router. Other than that, what are peoples thoughts regarding wi-fi boosters? I did try one some while ago, but it proved an absolute dog to set up , and kept dropping out. Can anyone recomend boosters which may help matters, that is easy peasy to set up?

Cheers.

[boombang]

My Zen supplied Fritzbox went wobbly after a year or so, they gave me a Technicolor instead and the performance has been identical. I have a mesh wi-fi network though, so the router just does the main connection bit.

[Captain_Morgan]

The field you are interested in is Downstream Handback
Threshold(Mbs)

How far away from those two figures are you?

In a ideal world you would connect a wired device to the router & confirm the speed as wifi could be at fault or log into the router admin portal & check what it advises as the line speed.

If the wired speed is different by a significant amount you should contact zen, highlight this & ask them to investigate the issue.

If the wired speed matches the advised speed the wifi throughput is the issue.

Edit:
It should look somewhat like this & it would be the broadband speeds you are interested in
https://support.zen.co.uk/kb/Knowledgebase/Technic...

Edited by Captain_Morgan on Monday 1st August 13:38

[Hosenbugler]

Many thanks again for the replies.

To address Downstream Handback Threshold(Mbs) VDSL "A" is 30 Mbps and VDSLl "B" is 25 Mbps. Speeds actually achieved in my previous posts.

Thanks for the Zen diagnostics link. I'll give that some scrutiny when clearer of mind :-)

Cheers,

Edited by Hosenbugler on Monday 1st August 14:28

[Captain_Morgan]

Hosenbugler said:

Many thanks again for the replies.

To address Downstream Handback Threshold(Mbs) VDSL "A" is 30 Mbps and VDSLl "B" is 25 Mbps.

Thanks for the Zen diagnostics link. I'll give that some scrutiny when clearer of mind :-)

Cheers,

So you are getting (just) above the minimum they expect for your line. You could contact zen & discuss if anything can be done to improve the line speed.

No new router needed in this case.

[Hosenbugler]

Thanks agian for the input, it is very much appreciated. I will give Zen a call tomorrow, see what they can advise.

Very best to all.

[anonymous-user]

I've been with Zen for donkey's years. I found fibre to cabinet unreliable, really slowing down during peak periods simply down to the number of people using it, so I upgraded to their full fibre 300. It makes a huge difference. They also said I should bin the old Technicolor router and they supplied a new Fritzbox for free.

[Mr Pointy]

So it looks like you are getting close to the line speed (Fast says 31Mbps & your line is 30Mbps) so at the moment it doesn't look as if your wireless connection is the issue & spending money on it (or a new router) probably won't get you any more speed.

The next step is to talk to Zen & see if your line can provide more if you up grade to a higher package - it sounds as if you on Unlimited Fibre 1 which has a limit of 31 Mbps & UL Fibre 2 will get you up to 67 Mbps for another £5 a month (you may see less than 67Mbps of course - it's "up to").

[Hosenbugler]

Thought I would give an update as regarding my Zen internet scenario.

About 10 days after my last post, I had a Wi-Fi blackout . Very unusual, historicaly happened about once a year (if that) and cured by unplugging and rebooting the router, as was the case this time. A few days later it did the same , and then a number of times over the following weeks. Definitely a router thing as all my devices lost signal. I called Zen technical , expalned matters and they sent out a new router, (Fritzbox 7530) which arrived this morning foc.
Now winding myself up to install it . Seems a new router in my case was destined.

I'm no cheerleader for anyone but Zen have been consistently top notch. I have used them for some years now. Those with memories may recall Nildram, I was with them for a few years untill Talk Talk took them over and throttled it, and I then went to Zen. Has to be over 10 years, likely a lot longer.

There we are, sounds like my Technicolour router heard me discussing replacing him and decided to play me up

P/S Zen tells me I got the Technicolour in 2015 , so its not done badly I suppose.