Vodafone router alternative

[bwatkins]

First 24 hours with Vodafone and not too impressed with the router. Night before due to go live I connected up to it and set up all my static IPs, port forwarding etc. so I would be ready to continue seamlessly working from home the following day. Switched it off, went to bed, got up in the morning and no internet on old router indicating the migration had happened so plugged in the Vodafone router. Worked brilliantly for about 30 seconds then reset itself. All settings lost. Had to spend an hour setting it all up again.

When I finally got it all going again I found the connection speed good and ping better than any I saw with my previous provider but the wifi signal poor. Devices in the same room as the router receiving half strength signal. Work video calls stuttering and dropping out. My devices keep connecting to my outdoor access point, which is installed on my chimney, because the signal is stronger than the router 15 feet away. For the last 2 years my 10 year old TP link router was providing a full signal and none of these issues.

Before I contact Vodafone are my experiences with this router abnormal? Do other people find the signal is poorer than other routers? Does it drop all the settings when the power is off?

I've just read the horrifying news that Vodafone don't support the use of other routers and won't release the username and password for their VDSL. On the other hand I've found the details posted in various places on the internet. What's the score with this? Will they make a big deal of me using a different VDSL router? Does [Username]@businessbroadband.vodafone.co.uk work?

[CrimsonLiar]

Many of us here use third party routers.

If you switch back to your previous router it should be as simple as getting your username and password, and using the same VLAL 101 that you probably had with your previous ISP.

Vodafone's customer support is, lets say, interesting...  I'll bet that when you ask for your username, they'll mess it up in some manner, but it should be username@ businessbroadband.vodafone.co.uk as you've assumed!

[Jayach]

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@CrimsonLiar wrote:

I'll bet that when you ask for your username, they'll mess it up in some manner, but it should be username@ businessbroadband.vodafone.co.uk as you've assumed!

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Nope, it is DSL(multiple digits)@broadband.vodafone.co.uk  (unless you are a business customer)

The DSL can be upper or lower case.

[HappyNomad]

Vodafone has no problem whatsoever with people using their own modems* and routers.  They won’t support these third party devices in any way though so you should retain the THG3000 and reconnect it prior to obtaining support.

*Technically, third party modems / modem routers should appear in the the OpenReach published list of approved VDSL modems but:

“This list has not been updated in some time as no devices have been recently added to this list by Openreach, or that they have notified service providers of. Many devices listed are still in current supply (as of 2021) and still carry the approval but it is unlikely newer devices will appear even if they also conform to Openreach's testing.”

I wasn't asked by Vodafone about my modem (although it does appear in the list)

[Jayach]

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@bwatkins wrote:

Before I contact Vodafone are my experiences with this router abnormal? Do other people find the signal is poorer than other routers? Does it drop all the settings when the power is off?

I find the Wi-Fi on the THG3000 no worse than any other I have used, but I've always used the router supplied by the ISP so I'm sure it could be bettered. No the router doesn't lose settings when powered off. I suspect what happened to you is the router updated it's firmware as soon as it connected. Normally that wouldn't lose your settings, but they are supplied with such an old firmware level that maybe it couldn't retain them.

Getting the internet credentials is usually no problem, just use live chat.  https://www.vodafone.co.uk/bbservcd/ and they have no problem with you using your own router, but probably won't supply support. Keep the Vodafone router in case you need to call them.

[bwatkins]

Okay thanks everyone. I'll go back to my old router.

Also realised that the reason my heating didn't come on the past two mornings is because the router has gone offline at 0430 and caused the smart thermostat to think there is nobody in the house. Hoping this is also down to the router.

[bwatkins]

Just thought I'd finish this off by saying that I managed to get my username and password from the chat no problem and I'm now using my old router again. No more dropouts and everything back to getting a full signal. Just as you predicted @CrimsonLiar they messed it up. Quoted the username as ...vodafone.cu.uk. Took me a while (and 6000 failed connection attempts!) to realise. I was minutes away from getting back on the chat and accusing them of giving me the wrong password!

Thanks again for the advice.