Better performance Router

[Fernando_A]

Hi all,

I am on Superfast 2 contract and I am having extremely poor speed when using WiFi. The app says I shall have 78 Mbps speed, but then on WiFi I get no more than 5-16 Mbps download... 

I believe this is due to the poor performance of the Vodafone supplied router Huawei HHG2500.

I have been in touch with the Technical Team for over 2 months and after endless calls, promises, discounts and lies I am thinking that perhaps I could buy a router myself with a powerful WiFi signal and solve the problem myself rather than move onto another provider (which I am ready to do to be honest). 

Has anybody done this and worked? What router have you purchased? Is it difficult to adapt the router settings to make it work with your existing account?

Thanks in advance for your support!

Fernando

[Anonymous]

Before you do anything, be aware that if you replace the equipment you need modem+router and that VFs tech support will not offer any help with 3rd party products!

Now I personally run an Asus RT-AC86U router, meshed with an Asus RT-AC68U router and with a Draytek Vigor 130 providing the modem capability.  Others on here have very different setups.  But I don't have this purely because of the poor WiFi on the VF router - it's the fact that loads of network services I'm used to having just don't work properly with the Huawei HHG2500.  If you are happy with the way everything else works then the cheaper option would be to use an add-on mesh system.  Even then you can still have the issue with the network capabilities of your devices, and even just their placement!  *my year old laptop has shamefully cr*p built-in WiFi, which is why I use a USB3 MU-MIMO mini WiFi adapter instead.

You have to look at the full system - recently in order to get our discount back, I had to use the VF router for a week, but we could still get 866Mbps sync speeds with transfer rates of 300+ Mbps on the multiple laptops here.

*Personal impression is that the Linksys Velop is the favourite Mesh system amongst users on this support site.  **Other mesh systems are available!

[bittenbytailfly]

There's no question a Mesh router will get you better WiFi across distance, but the Vodafone router is not that bad. Before investing in routers check the hardwired ethernet speed - I use all my own kit and the speeds still drop to awful speeds in the evening, mostly due to "congestion" on the line (or possibly throttling).

Sync Speed (as the app reports) is simply your best "theoretical speed" (the connection between you and Vodafone's servers) - after that, going out into the wider Internet then has many other factors. Unfortunately Vodafones "guarantee" covers sync speed only, and not actual speeds, so you're unable to break contract to go with a speedier provider.