Fibre Broadband Arriving - Which Router?

It's an 802.11ac router, so it may give you better WiFi than a bog standard Talktalk router. Easy enough to give it a try, then if it gives you any trouble, see if you get better results by turning off its WiFi and connecting up your Netgear, which I imagine is a previous generation 802.11n model.

I would always stick with an ISP supplied router, regardless of wether or not you add another alongside it, as it has a load of preconfigured settings from your ISP, most of which I don't even understand, and I figure these are best left alone.

Not directly helpful maybe but I just got a new BT Home Hub 5 free with a broadband contract upgrade. Compared to what I believed was an all singing/dancing and modern Netgear it is a) faster WiFI b) better coverage c) more reliable d) easier to set up e) better diagnostics if faults happen

For me at least the 'use your ISP provided router' appears to be good advice!

Bruce

I think you will find the fibre "cable" is Openreach (BT) that TT lease space on.  I personally have not used Talk Talk,  but peeps I know have just moved to fibre with both TT & BT.  Most have gone OK, but some were not so straightforward requiring extra work,  mostly related to wiring around the house.

I was alarmed by BT installing a system in a house where they used ethernet over mains plugs instead of routing ethernet around the TV & BB hub.  It seems that this is a stnd instruction, so maybe something to keep an eye on during your own install. 

I agree the others advise, to ensure TT's 100% support it would be better if you do have the Super Router on the front end.  ISP's don't like working with other routers, its always "not their problem"

I doubt the TT Super Router is that super & my guess it will be OK for a simple low load network hub, but would be better to have something extra for the continuous load of audio streaming.

Its the same with the DGN2200, like the TT "router" its not good for handling network traffic & I think it best if the DGN is retired.

My advise is to fit a simple Netgear, TP-Link, Linksys (or other) un-managed switch connected to the TT router & all the rest of the network connected into the switch.  That way data packets are properly managed (send/receive between only the correct MAC addresses & able to send & receive simultaneously). You might find a plus in SQ as well

@Gavin - I upgraded to TalkTalk fibre a couple of months ago and the Super Router has been as solid as a rock.  This is more than I can say about some ISP routers I've used.

Thanks for all the comments - it looks like the TT router is the way to go.

I do have a simple (Netgear) unmanaged switch hanging off the router with the various bits hanging off it.

A further question though...

In a second room I'd like to connect a second switch to the network, but it has to be wirelessly.  A printer and a NAS would hang off the switch.  What product is suitable?  I've currently got some sort of Netgear range extended doing this, although the range extending bit isn't needed.  Doesn't this cut down the 'speed' of the connection?

If you've got one that works, can't you just continue using it? It should be able to talk to your main router, in bridge mode, and connect to the clients through the switch. Is the NAS used for music? If so, is there any way of giving it a wired connection?

I've just had fibre broadband connected and have installed a Netgear R7000 router to connect to the free supplied Echolife HG612 modem. The set up was very simple and the performance has been fast and faultless. I did a lot of research before buying the R7000 and it came up extremely well with reviews on overall performance.

I've quickly looked at the reviews for TT Super Router and it looks just ok. It seems to have poor wifi range/performance, which will matter, the more products you connect to it.

From my research, generally considering cost, it's best to have the modem separate from the router. If it was me, I'd buy a modem (which are cheap) and a good router. The set-up for these items is a doddle (they basically self install). 

Thanks, CountD.  I guess the simplest thing is for me to try the TTSR, then consider adding a separate router as suggested.

@ChrisSU - yes, I can certainly carry on with that, and I'll see if I can turn off its range extending function.  I wondered whether there was a slicker way of doing this that didn't impact on the connection 'speeds'.

Gavin,

When the engineer comes, ask to see the line speed yours is capable of. This will give you a reference point.

The best site to use for line speed is speedtest.net. Others seem inconsistent.

I have had all the BT routers, ATM it's Home Hub 5 it has been a replacement for the 4 and it's associated modem, both types do seem to work better once I had a switch(es) employed in my network. 

So I guess I'm saying stick with ISP's supplied router.

Another point is if you were to have trouble and had replaced their router, support may give you lots of teeth sucking and unhelpful fault finding even refusing help altogether.

Using a non ISP supplied router is good if you believe it will give an improved service, however you have to keep the ISP supplied router for the first substitution if you wish to register a fault with the ISP.

The ISP's first request to you after reporting a fault will be to try a different router to see if that will solve the problem.

That's my set up as well, albeit with a BT modem. The R7000 is really excellent .

@CountD: There will be no engineer visit.  Talktalk say it's not needed - the engineer just visits the exchange box and off we go.  At least I don't have to have time off work to sit in and wait, but there's no option to do what you suggest.