Virgin Router Replacement - need routing ability not Wi-Fi

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Soldato
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Hi guys,

lately my internet connection has been getting worse (by worse I mean ping, and dropped connections). It’s been amazing for 8 years, but in the last 6 months has been getting much worse.

The main change made is that I keep adding devices (smart home via Wi-Fi) and I wonder if I am now exceeding the abilities of this supposedly shoddy router?

it doesn’t handle my Wi-Fi (thats turned off) as I use 3 BT WholeHome disks for that task, so it is purely the cable modem and the router.

I must have 50+ devices constantly connected, though most are very low bandwidth (smart plugs etc), so could be it “out of its depth” regarding routing the devices?

if so what is a capable router (I’d put my super hub in bridge mode and keep my wholehome Wi-Fi).

Appreciate any tips and suggestions
 
Associate
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There's a bit of discussion in here about the HeX:

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/forums/threads/mikrotik-experts-in-here.18898028/

It's a very capable piece of kit if you are willing to spend the time learning. The learning curve is very steep.

I spent a lot of time on it and learnt a lot but then one morning I woke to no internet connection for an unknown reason and the only way to recover from it was a hard reset. I was probably unlucky because my understanding is that Mikrotik are extremely reliable but it wasn't a risk I was willing to put up with when I was still within my returns window so it went back. The last think I need is for me to be away from home with my partner wanting to work from home but unable to do so until I return to 'fix the internet'. I haven't worked out what to replace it with yet.
 
Soldato
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Are you seeing problems with routing that suggests it is "out of its depth"?. In my limited experience if you're just making use of simple NAT, no VLANs, basic firewalling etc. then most ISP provided stuff is good for dozens of clients (I've had a Plusnet router in the past with 86 clients), especially if you relieve it of WiFi duties. It's only when you start adding in intensive tasks - and in fact the decision to replace is more about lack of capability in the ISP router than uncovering its lack of horsepower. In my case, IDS, VPN server, VPN client, VLANs, policy based routing etc. The ISP router would not have been able to cope with that but I would never know that definitively because in fact it didn't have the feature set.

So personally it's my experience that ISP routers doing router/firewalling is fine for the home no matter how many clients (within reason) until you want to do something fancy. At that point you're looking to stretch beyond consumer kit and get into the realms of Ubiquiti, Mikrotik, Netgate, homebrew *sense/Untangle/Sophos etc.
 

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Soldato
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No I have no evidence to suggest it’s out of its depth, and the most taxing thing it does is fling 4K video across the LAN and run 2 laptops connecting to work VPNs.

I just read in the smart home stuff that eventually you’ll reach the limit of the bband supplied routers from a client number perspective.

maybe I should get a new router from virgin as this one is years old?
 
Soldato
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Identify the issue before throwing money at it. Are the lost connections router side? Are they client related? What do the logs show? Is it a coverage/singable issue?

If your still on a SH2 it would be worth you getting the SH3 and seeing if have the same issues.

If op had an SH2, they have avoid the puma chipset issues, in short, unless they have a particular reason, that’s bad advice. Op has already stated the router doesn’t handle WiFi, so unless they have more than 254 other devices, it’s unlikely the router will have an issue and the only ISP that I can think of that restricted the number of WiFi clients was Sky, which op isn’t on.
 

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Thanks for the posts thus far

Honestly you're right; but troubleshooting is such a PITA

Mainly I notice it on rocket league and Fortnite on the three Xboxes in the house. All do it at the same time, but usually it's 100% with a ~40ish ping and no issues, then all of a sudden I get packet loss and high ping 900+ for a minute or two then generally it's fine after.

We also sometimes see it browsing takes a long time to load a page, but that's harder to track.

Usually DL speed is ok 200mbps as advertised, just it comes in and out occasionally.

Thing is it's only been like this for the last few months, was fine before. So I immediately jumped at the smarthome advice that routers will roll over and die with too many clients (as I keep adding clients). But if 80+ is manageable then I'll look more towards the line perhaps.

The neighbours switched to Virgin around the time I started having issues - could there be a link there?
 
Soldato
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Neighbours - possibly, unfortunately without identifying the issue, it’s not easy to suggest a fix. If you can narrow it down a bit, you give yourself a much better chance of resolving the issue.

First up can you hard wire even one of the consoles short term? If the other two still have issues and it doesn’t, then you need to look at the BT WiFi set-up. If they all still have issues then it’s likely the router, connection, routing, remote server etc. When it happens, have a look at the router and mesh logs, do any events coincide with the issue?
 

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So I am now starting to look more suspiciously at the BT WiFi.

I can't say conclusively but the limited playtime on a wired Xbox hasn't shown the same drops I've seen on wireless...

I need to spend more time, but your comment above about routers coping with 200 routings and this latest experience leaves me looking at the BT stuff.

Any experience of how many connections these things can host?
 
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Why not just buy a "decent" home router and use the BT supplied one as a modem and bridge it?

Something with 8 ports, quad core, decent memory. That will handle pretty much everything in a house and more.

I suspect your problems are probably more to do with out of your house than in it.

but you can buy kit for 14 days test it then legit return it if no improvement.



oh yeah thats exactly what you wrote lolol
 
Soldato
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Well at least you've potentially narrowed it down to local wifi, is the BT firmware current? May be worth re-doing the set-up and checking.
 

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I'm reasonably sure firmware is current, but as I say I can never connect to the admin panel, it always errors despite my efforts to fix it.

The WiFi range and speed is very good, but the admin side not so much.

If I reset the disks and set up again with the same ssid and password everything will auto connect yeah?
 
Soldato
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Yes, just use the same SSID and password and everything will switch over, the odd device may need a reboot, but it’s rare.
 
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Currently exploring the micro-tick hex (not-lite), any feedback?

All the Mikrotik routers are great. The WLAN is the weakest part of them, but that’s getting better all the time. They use commercially available OEM chipsets but insist on writing their own drivers for them and it often takes them time to get them properly right and at the moment they’re pretty solid.
 

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Hi guys... So I've been on and off testing this and it's a tricky thing to figure out as I need to wait for the issue so forgive the delay.

WiFi speeds this morning were suddenly slow 2/3mbps on phone, YouTube stuttering on TV. Phone usually maxes out the 200mbps on speedtest. So I went to a hardwired-to-router PC and tested it (work pc laptop with security/VPN etc so never full speed) and got 100mbps using the same server option in speedtest.net.

To me that suggests the WiFi was the issue, and has been the issue. And disagreement on that?

To that end with black Friday on the horizon - what's the fastest, most reliable mesh network I can buy?
 
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