Router choice

[gunned]

Does anyone have sugestions for replacing my BT Hub with a tp-link router? After years of suffering unreliable service from BT whole home disks I swapped to tp-link and have been super impressed with their reliability. Now I'm having issues with my FTTC broadband speeds.My speeds should be 60mbs but are very often drop to 20mbs which is affecting my working from home.  OpenReach assume me the issue isn't to the house so I'd like to try swapping out the BT hub for a tp-link device. Has anyone else tried this and got any advice please? I'm a bit overwhelmed by the choice. Thank you.

[licquorice]

I doubt the problem is the hub, however, only you can decide what whistles and bells you need. Just ensure that you choose a combined modem/router and not just a router.

[Pete31]

I'd considered my own BT hub to be quite dependable, but this year it has been resyncing and giving unexpectedly slow connection speeds.

Out of curiosity I tried an old Tp-link TD-W9970. Immediately it gave a faster connection. I know from past experience this has been - for me at least - a reliable modem/router.

But, that model is a bit old and the wifi is inadequate, it offers only 2.4 GHz band and doesn't cover the whole house very well.

Next. I recently got the TP-Link AC2100 (also known as Archer VR2100). For FTTC it is working very well for me. It gives faster connection than the BThub and this  VR2100 has both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands which can be configured to a single SSID or individually with separate SSID for each. Also - something I've not tried -  it will work as part of a Tp-link wifi mesh system.

So far, I'm happy with the the TP-Link AC2100 / Archer VR2100, no complaints.

One more thing - this probably is in the 'bells and whistles' category - the VR2100 has a USB3 socket which can be used to attach a storage device. I've tested it with either a 32 Gb or 256 Gb flash drive. Useful for sharing files on the network.

[rbz5416]

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@Pete31wrote:

Also - something I've not tried -  it will work as part of a Tp-link wifi mesh system.

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Something I can't get my head round is that it's a completely separate system to the Deco mesh. AFAIK, there is no TP-Link router that works with TP-Link Deco - bonkers!

[gunned]

Thank you so much for your replies everyone. I'm now at my wits end with this. Having spent the whole morning here the Open Reach engineer got my wifi working as it should be, now three days later it's worse than its ever been. This morning's download speed an impressive 1mbs! Wish me luck!

[Pete31]

posted in error - Sorry.

[rbz5416]

@gunned 

First thing you need to do is connect a device by ethernet & test.  That will give an indication of whether the issue is your line  or the WiFi environment.

If the results are still poor & you have an analogue telephone line, try a quiet line test by dialling 17070 > option 2. You may get a low level hum but there should be no pops, clicks or crackles.

[gunned]

Thank you Guru, I just had a convo with a very nice lady at BT. They think my hub may be wonky so are sending a new one. Let's see if that works. I really appreciate everyone's help on here.