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VM Hub 3 alternatives

leecurie
Tuning in

Hi all, I'm sure this question is going to get me a load of subjective answers, but I'll risk it!

I've had such problems with connectivity over the last 12 months (mainly WiFi dropping out) that I'm looking for an VMHub 3 alternative (Router or Mesh).  For context:

We're a family of 3 (I'm at IT professional of 25yrs) and have 120Mbps service with all the usual LAN connected kit such as NAS, 1Gbps switch, Smart heating, doorbell, Mobiles, Tablets, Powerline adapters, Alexa kit, all in all about 20 devices. 

Wife and child are constantly complaining of lost Wi-Fi and internet through out the day, though cabled kit is usually OK (I work from home).  Have changed Wi-Fi channels several times, factory reset and reloaded config on hub with no real success.  I'm now booting the hub daily.

So I think it's time to look at dropping the Hub to modem mode and put something else, split the IoT stuff off to it's own VLAN so hence looking for recommendations.

Unless someone can tell me an upgrade to a Hub4/5 or changing something on the Hub3 can make a difference? 

 

 

 

 

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

Accepted Solutions

If you want a simple solution that just works I would go for this in modem mode:

Deal: TP-Link Deco X55 AX3000 Whole Home AI-Driven Mesh Wi-Fi 6 System, Three Gigabit Ports, Coverage up to 6,500 ft2, Connect up to 150 devices, HomeShield Security, Pack of 3, Amazon Exclusive https://amzn.eu/d/iSMxjzq

Gives a bit of headroom if you decide to upgrade your speed in the future.  This is what I have - I live in an old house with thick walls in a heavily congested area for Wi-Fi networks.  I’m on the 350/35 package and get a reliable 200/35 speed in the rooms furthest from the main mesh unit.

if budget is a bit tighter go for this - will still be better than the hub!

Deal: TP-Link Deco S4 AC1200 Whole-Home Mesh Wi-Fi System, Qualcomm CPU, 867Mbps at 5GHz+300Mbps at 2.4GHz, MU-MIMO, Beamforming, Work with Amazon Echo/Alexa, Pack of 3 https://amzn.eu/d/aV5nsyo

See where this Helpful Answer was posted

10 REPLIES 10

Tudor
Very Insightful Person
Very Insightful Person

How big is your wallet? There is a vast range of equipment available. Personally with what equipment you have already I would recommend Wireless Access Point/s as opposed to a mesh system. I would only recommend equipment I have used and this is expensive high end stuff.


Tudor
There are 10 types of people: those who understand binary and those who don't and F people out of 10 who do not understand hexadecimal c1a2a285948293859940d9a49385a2

legacy1
Alessandro Volta

Thanks Tudor.

I've spent a lot of time with the Cisco Meraki kit and love how flexible it is so was hoping some of the prosumer mesh kit would offer a decent home comparison.

As I'm thinking of boosting wireless out into the garden and outbuildings in the future I'd be quick to scale it out so might seem a bit overkill atm.

Tudor
Very Insightful Person
Very Insightful Person

I use all Ubiquiti/UniFi equipment and get excellent WiFi at the end of my garden from ceiling mounted access points in my house.


Tudor
There are 10 types of people: those who understand binary and those who don't and F people out of 10 who do not understand hexadecimal c1a2a285948293859940d9a49385a2

If you want a simple solution that just works I would go for this in modem mode:

Deal: TP-Link Deco X55 AX3000 Whole Home AI-Driven Mesh Wi-Fi 6 System, Three Gigabit Ports, Coverage up to 6,500 ft2, Connect up to 150 devices, HomeShield Security, Pack of 3, Amazon Exclusive https://amzn.eu/d/iSMxjzq

Gives a bit of headroom if you decide to upgrade your speed in the future.  This is what I have - I live in an old house with thick walls in a heavily congested area for Wi-Fi networks.  I’m on the 350/35 package and get a reliable 200/35 speed in the rooms furthest from the main mesh unit.

if budget is a bit tighter go for this - will still be better than the hub!

Deal: TP-Link Deco S4 AC1200 Whole-Home Mesh Wi-Fi System, Qualcomm CPU, 867Mbps at 5GHz+300Mbps at 2.4GHz, MU-MIMO, Beamforming, Work with Amazon Echo/Alexa, Pack of 3 https://amzn.eu/d/aV5nsyo

Andrew-G
Alessandro Volta

If you don't want to spend big, I think you'd be quite pleased with a TP-Link Deco M4 (or the newer S4, or S7, they're all pretty similar in practical usage).  You'll probably also need to buy one or more ethernet switches (£15 or so) for your wired kit as the Deco only has a couple of ethernet ports on each unit, but for a household of 3 and a 120 Mbps connection there's no reason to pony up for industrial grade kit or the bells and whistles of high end mesh systems.  Usually makes most sense to run the hub in modem mode, as the built in router is a real pound shop affair. 

I've run a Deco M4 setup for about five years now - was on VM 250, now on Aquiss/Openreach 330 Mbps, and the wifi has been superbly stable throughout the house (and in my case even well down the back garden), and that's a 4 person household including two teenagers both glued to their tech.

3 pack deco s4 is £93, 3 pack deco m4 is £127 and 3 pack deco x55 is £189 on Amazon at the moment.

Macnite
Tuning in

Hi leecurie, are you still having problems with connectivity?

My Hub 3 was constantly dropping wifi connection and after installing a Mesh and Powerlines the signal got much better, but I still had the outages.

Son installed a monitor that proved it was the Hub 3 that was losing connection to the Internet and not my internal system.

Now every time I lose power to the Hub 3 it drops connection to its Ethernet ports and I have to restart my Mesh to reconnect. This happens in both Hub 3 modem mode and Mesh bridge mode.

 

Hi Macnite,

I've not had the issue since I offloaded the Wi-Fi to the Mesh routers.  I went with the TP-Link Deco X55 3 x pack (only used 2 and the third I've installed at my Aunts to solve a similar issue with Sky).

So far the wifi has held up good.  Not had any issues with the x55 losing connection to the Hub 3 (rebooted it a few times to test), but it did initially catch me out when my laptop (upstairs) was picking up the public IP address from Virgin instead of the X55 (downstairs). 

I'd left the powerline connection plugged into the Hub 3 when I was setting up the X55 after switching to modem mode.  It took me 20 mins before I twigged, so make sure you've got all your wired kit going into the Mesh router ports and just the one from the Mesh router into the Hub3.

I've also set up some monitoring on the Virgin side using the Thinkbroadband BQM tool so I've fingers crossed for the moment.