We switched to Vodafone a couple of months ago and while the service is fine, the router supplied by them is distinctly patchy. I’ve got a fair number of internet connected devices in my house (somewhere around 80-ish) and I suspect that the domestic-grade router is having a hard time with it. Due to the layout of the house, the wifi is disabled on the ISP router and wifi is provided by a series of netgear extenders scattered around the house. These are all hard wired (the house is fully cat6), but again, these are less than stable, often needing to be kicked when they stop accepting connections.

I’ve decided that enough’s enough and I need to sort this lot out properly, so I’m in the market for a new router (should offer both VDSL2 and ethernet WAN connections as I’d like future flexibility, but built-in wifi not needed), as well as a decent set of wifi APs. They don’t need to be mesh, as I’d prefer that they are hard-wired back to the switch, but they should be decent quality, and ideally be reasonably future proof.

I don’t mind if this lot is part of an integrated system, or if the router and wifi APs are supplied separately. So, Singletrack, what can you recommend?

(Note: I’m an IT professional, albeit not working with consumer-grade kit, so “excessive complexity” isn’t a problem and, honestly, will probably be desirable as it means it’ll offer flexibility for the future!)

I’ve got a Netgear Orbi system with a main router and 2 mesh nodes (cat6 to the router node)
Works great, no issues in a year.

I am an IT professional and have enough complex stuff at work without adding it to my home life. After messing about for years with various wifi repeaters, extenders, powerline adapters I bought a 60 quid mesh system and it just works. No more drops moving between zones, no speed dropoffs, just simple operation that took about 5 mins to install.

Another vote for Netgear Orbi….works great, no issues at all.

Ubiquiti Unifi APs are good. Can be connected with Cat6. They support PoE, may give you more options for wiring it up. Maybe quite complex, plenty of options to set it up how you want.

Thanks all. Ubiquiti has been mentioned to me by a colleague so will look into it. Not as keen on the Netgear stuff due to my somewhat rotten experiences with my current kit, but will have a look anyway.

Any recommendations for routers?

As an aside, how have you got “80” devices connected to the Internet?

I’m quite curious.

Online cat feeder trays? Active fridges?

Can I get a link to the £60 mesh system?

I’ve got Ubiquiti for the router, switches (PoE), access points (powered by Poe). I have a VDSL modem (old openreach one). I also use their PoE cctv cameras. All good stuff and very solid so little to manage beyond the initial setup.

As an aside, how have you got “80” devices connected to the Internet?

Lots and lots of assorted home automation things which go off to my own cloud-hosted environment. I do @internetofshit stuff for a living, so this is sort of to be expected 🙂

I’ve got Ubiquiti for the router, switches (PoE), access points (powered by Poe). I have a VDSL modem (old openreach one). I also use their PoE cctv cameras. All good stuff and very solid so little to manage beyond the initial setup.

Yes, I’m also running the Huawei Openreach modem with the Vodafone router and this is probably what I’d continue to do as it avoids issues with VDSL retraining when the router is powered off / restarted. Hopefully with a better setup, I won’t need to do this as often!