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Router recommendations

mrmortar — Mon, 29 Dec 2025 20:40:18 GMT

I'm thinking about replacing my BT Home Hub 2 with something more customizable. My budget is around £75, and my broadband package offers 150 Mbps.

I'm looking for features like a guest network to isolate IoT devices, built-in VPN support (preferably WireGuard), ad blocking (AdGuard), the ability to use OpenWRT, and overall reliability.

So far, I've been considering the ASUS RT-AX53U and the GL.iNet Flint GL-AX1800.

I'll keep the BT router as a backup if I ever need to plug it back in for the sake of troubleshooting.

Any thoughts or recommendations would be appreciated!

Re: Router recommendations

WSH — Mon, 29 Dec 2025 20:50:55 GMT

Just be aware that if you are on Digital Voice, (or will end up on DV), you need the Home Hub as it is a proprietary version of the standard VoIP.

Other than that, everyone has their favourite. Personally, I'm a Draytek fan but a lot would disagree with me.

Re: Router recommendations

mrmortar — Mon, 29 Dec 2025 21:01:30 GMT

Is digital voice as having a phone connected to the router rather than the old PSTN phone system?

(Not bothered about having any phone line as do it all via the mobile these days)

Re: Router recommendations

Alex_H — Wed, 31 Dec 2025 10:59:39 GMT

Hi @mrmortar,

Thanks for visiting the BT Community

Digital voice is where you have the phone plugged into the back of the router yes rather than the old PSTN system, and it does require using the BT Hub to work as mentioned. But if you are not using digital voice you wont need to worry about it when buying a third party router.

Alex