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vm 200mb next week, Wifi 6 ax q's

Donfor40
Superfast

Hi

As I run 2021 dell xps -wifi 6 ax capable.

Is there any advantage to adding a new router to whichever hub is installed.

I appreciate I could add maybe Asus ax or similar, is there any positive advantage.

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

Accepted Solutions

Andrew-G
Alessandro Volta

The VM hubs (or any model) have mediocre wifi.  If you have an easy wifi environment and modest use requirements they're adequate, but anything more demanding and it is worth investing in your own mesh system or router.  A standalone router is better if you want to fiddle with advanced settings, a mesh is better for coverage across a larger area.      

A Wifi 6 mesh or router is overkill for a 200 Mbps connection - you wouldn't see the benefits unless on at least a 600 Mbps connection, and possibly not until you were on a 1 Gbps connection.  Buy all means buy an Asus router (almost all are excellent pieces of kit), if you want a mesh system appropriate for most users on 100-500 then a decent entry level mesh can be good.

If buying an Asus router, make sure that model supports the company's AiMesh technology.  Then, if needs change, or you find you do need better coverage you can add another Asus AiMesh device to create a very high capability mesh network, although would be much more expensive than the entry level mesh.

But don't buy anything yet.  Wait until the VM connection is installed and working (delays are distinctly possible), see how you get on with the supplied hub.  Many people manage.  VM can also supply "pods" to add quasi-mesh capability to the hub, but availability is so patchy I'd not even consider them myself. 

 

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12 REPLIES 12

Andrew-G
Alessandro Volta

The VM hubs (or any model) have mediocre wifi.  If you have an easy wifi environment and modest use requirements they're adequate, but anything more demanding and it is worth investing in your own mesh system or router.  A standalone router is better if you want to fiddle with advanced settings, a mesh is better for coverage across a larger area.      

A Wifi 6 mesh or router is overkill for a 200 Mbps connection - you wouldn't see the benefits unless on at least a 600 Mbps connection, and possibly not until you were on a 1 Gbps connection.  Buy all means buy an Asus router (almost all are excellent pieces of kit), if you want a mesh system appropriate for most users on 100-500 then a decent entry level mesh can be good.

If buying an Asus router, make sure that model supports the company's AiMesh technology.  Then, if needs change, or you find you do need better coverage you can add another Asus AiMesh device to create a very high capability mesh network, although would be much more expensive than the entry level mesh.

But don't buy anything yet.  Wait until the VM connection is installed and working (delays are distinctly possible), see how you get on with the supplied hub.  Many people manage.  VM can also supply "pods" to add quasi-mesh capability to the hub, but availability is so patchy I'd not even consider them myself. 

 

g0akc
Problem sorter

Well, using a WiFi 6 router with capable devices will increase wireless speed - but the connection to the internet will be limited by the broadband speed - so download will be limited to 200M and upload likely 20M regardless.

LAN side connections would be faster - so quicker transfers to other devices on your network such as to/from a NAS drive.

Obviously increasing broadband speed to say 1Gig would provide an advantage (assuming you can make use of such).

And I’d always suggest a good third party wireless router over the VM hub since the WiFi performance, stability and features are likely better - that said, many find the hub alone adequate.

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I know a bit about Wi-Fi, Telecoms, and TV as I used to do it for a living but I'm not perfect so don't beat me up... If you make things you make mistakes!

Thanks all reply's

As I suspected No real tech advantage as yet with Ax Router.

I can't justify 600-1gb as I have managed fine with sky what was upto 63mb which they dropped to 50mb.

Even whilst w.f.h. past 2 years, 50 has been faultless.

I'll look forward to next weeks install, only slight signal concern is if I use vm app to watch news in bathroom.

 

If you've agreed to terminate the Sky contract on the same day, you might want to phone them up and see if you can defer the cancellation for a couple of weeks.  Whilst many new VM connections occur on time and without problem, a minority have suffered very long connection delays (many months).  

Also, if you've got an overlap, then you've got a week or two to compare the connections.  VM offer good speeds and acceptable latency, but a small proportion of customers are connected in congested areas, and they suffer appalling latency, making gaming, live streaming and voice and video meetings very difficult.  You probably won't have that, but if you did you'd want an easy way back to the previous connection.

thanks I've only just go t.v. cancellation re confirmed.
I believe my broadband won't cancel until new service goes live?

p.s. i using a new wifi 6 Ax router Access pint rather than vm hub modem mode going to be advantageous.

Access Point!

no edit option?

@Donfor40 I believe my broadband won't cancel until new service goes live?

Your Sky broadband will be terminated only after you give them notice of cancellation, and after the usual 30 days that entails.   Having VM installed means nothing to them.  You do need to have a live Sky contract to transfer a landline number, and when that's transferred Sky may cancel any landline element, but not the broadband or any TV package.  If in doubt phone Sky and clarify with them.

Adduxi
Very Insightful Person
Very Insightful Person

@Donfor40 wrote:
Access Point!

no edit option?

The edit option is the cog wheel top right of the post. 
As for using the ASUS as an AP is a complete waste of money. It is a far superior router than the Hub. Use Modem mode and the ASUS as your router. 

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thanks

it was Sky that recently advised that they cannot switch off my broadband prior to going live with new chosen provider, when I raised w.f.h. concern.

Not to worry, until next Mon'