BT FF and TP LINK

[mikeyosm]

Hi

I know this might have been asked before but I am completely stumped and so are BT so not sure what else to try.

I recently had my traditional 40Mbps upgraded to full fibre 900 and according to openreach and BT, all should be fine, connection is good and i am profiled to run at a minimum 700Mbps.

The problem is that I have a tp link archer gx90 and not a smart hub 2 (sent it back to bt) and there is where the issues begin.

When I reboot the ONT, the router picks up an IP and speed test gives me around 400Mbps, not great but better than what I had before. The ONT is connected directly in to the 2.5Gbps port on the tp link wan port.

The increased speed is shortlived though. All subsequent speed tests from btwholesales, ookla etc drop me back down to 30Mbps down and 7Mbps up. BT haven't a clue why this is happening.

I simply connected my router directly to the ONT and left the pppoe settings as is. Is this enough to get it working?

Very odd that my speed increase is a 'teaser, look what you could have' and then bam! back to cra**y speeds.

Anyone have a clue what might be going on here?

[Crimliar]

You should at least have the PPPoE username set to "bthomehub@btbroadband.com" and the password to "BT", but that's all it should need.

Third-party routers should work fine with BT broadband, my Asus has been working since my installation day!

[mikeyosm]

Exactly what I thought. I just wonder if the hub is required on first install of full fibre then it's ok to switch to your own router. My GX 90 is a more than capable router and perfect for 1gbps fibre connections so very surprised that my connection keeps dropping back to pre-fibre speeds.

[Crimliar]

One thing I wouldn't have done is sent the HH2 back already, as should you ever have issues such as this you need to connect it so BT can fault find.

Our HH2 was literally used so the engineer could carry out his test and was then repacked up and stored.

Has to be said though, moving up to 900/100 does show that some devices are just incapable of hitting those speeds.

[mikeyosm]

Yep, my mistake to send it back for 'recycling'.

I actually thought I'd sent my older hub back but then realised later it was the latest one, doh!

BT are sending me a new hub to test and an engineer to make sure I'm up and runnning next week.

If it works with the hub but not my router then at least I know what the issue is. Would be good to have a list of working 3rd party routers somewhere that we can keep an eye on.

[Crimliar]

I've only been with BT for a few months, but the set-up is pretty vanilla and as a result, I'm unaware of any hardware that doesn't really work with the service.  A scan around these forums will bring up a number of people using TP-Link devices such as your own without issues.

There are a number of things to be aware of though

• Check that devices are connecting at 5GHz
• Check the router throughput if you can
• Try speed tests with any Sky equipment and LG or older Samsung TVs disconnected
• Try speed test from multiple devices, if a single device seems slow it's more likely that device than the network.

Setup here is Nokia ONT > Asus GT-AX6000 (ugly but a beast)>Asus RP-AX58 & TP-link SH1008.  Router confirmed as 935/105, fastest client is a Poco F3 (AX1200) at 700/105ish, but at the other end of the scale one AX capable laptop refuses to  breach 300/100 even with a 1200PHY - its settings get fiddled with a lot, I'm not going to interfere until there are tantrums and it needs a reset!

[mikeyosm]

So, I am getting somewhere but nowhere near my minimum stay fast guaranteed speed.

Looks like the GX90 QoS was playing havoc with the speed so I turned it off, I am now hitting 200-400Mbps which is not anywhere close to the 700Mb min I should be getting (I am on the 900 plan).

When my hub arrives on Monday it will hopefully give me what I am paying for and if so, the tp link gx 90 will be on ebay.

Not sure if anyone can confirm if the VLAN ID of 101 needs to be set in the router? I tried but it then refused to connect to the internet so disabled IPTV/VLAN in the settings.

[licquorice]

No it doesn't, the VLAN is set on the modem (ONT)

[Crimliar]

QOS is a CPU hog, once you are beyond VDSL speeds it'll actually become the limiting factor on most routers.  Even the Asus GT-AX6000, with it's Quad core 2GHz CPU struggles to get software QOS speeds above 600Mbps! 

As @licquorice mentioned there is no need to mess with VLANs on BT Full-Fibre (connection to ONT, nothing connect to the phone master socket).

[mikeyosm]

A few more reboots of the GX90 and now htting close to 700Mbps. I am not going to jinx it by saying it but...........

Seems that some routers are a bit tempremental, maybe in my case the QoS was the issue and possibly a full factory reset of the router will help keep it stable.