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Full fibre but a pedestrian router?

Avatar David Fleetwood
We have been offered full fibre by Vodafone, but their current deal would mean us keeping our existing router. At present our speeds are around 24Mbps, so an upgrade to 900Mbps sounds very attractive. However we don't have any devices that connect directly to the router, using wifi instead.
I am wondering approximately how much of the increased speed we would lose by not having a wifi 6 router. It seems a bit like having a Mercedes engine matched with a Morris Minor gearbox!

Re: Full fibre but a pedestrian router?

Avatar Mick Burrell
A wi-fi 6 router would only be of benefit to your devices which have wi-fi 6. I suspect your router would be fast enough to supply at the speed any non-wi-fi 6 device could take.

I'm still using Apple's Airport devices to provide my wi-fi (all devices probably wi-fi 5 with one wi-fi 4) and they all get around 240Mbps from my 500Mbps service. (My Mac gets full speed via an ethernet cable.)

Hope that helps

Re: Full fibre but a pedestrian router?

Avatar David Fleetwood
Thanks Mick. The picture is not as bleak as perhaps I had thought. If you loose roughly 50% of your max speed by not having fully compatible devices, applying the same % to my situation, I could still expect around 400/450Mbps which I would be happy with (-for the contract period). Tell me if you think that this may not be the case!
By Googling my router model and adding 'specs' I found that it is wi-fi 5, some of my devices are wi-fi 6 capable but overall the increase in speed will be worth it. As you point out I could also use an ethernet cable connection to maximise the connection speed.

Re: Full fibre but a pedestrian router?

Avatar Trevor Hewson
As a matter of interest, where do you full fibre folk feel the benefit of these speeds? We’re on FTTC and get about 40Mb/s which seems perfectly adequate. Admittedly software updates can take a few minutes to download but that’s not usually significant compared to the ‘preparing update’ and installation times.

Re: Full fibre but a pedestrian router?

Avatar Mick Burrell
David, it may well be that older devices are the bottle neck and that they are only capable of (say) 240Mbps, regardless of the download speed available from your router. I wouldn't worry - whatever speed you go for you will only notice how fast it I for a few days then you're used to it! Don't forget that if you have a 900Mbps service but the server (website) you're connected to will only serve files at 300Mbps (for example), guess what speed you'll download at.

In answer to Trevor, my main benefit is reliability. Our old copper connection (FTTC) saw lots of drop outs. Many went unnoticed (until I checked my router logs - as you do) as we were not online at the time but if you're streaming a live sports event, it is very annoying! the other reason is that my FTTP is cheaper - with the same ISP - than my FTTC was.

Re: Full fibre but a pedestrian router?

Avatar Trevor Hewson
Thanks Mick. I don’t think we’re seeing dropouts but late afternoon/early evening things do often slow up a bit. Rightly or wrongly, I’ve put this down to server congestion somewhere down the line. Plusnet perhaps?

I’ll have to look into our FTTP options (if any). Judging by the various recent roadworks around here, there are several providers who seem to have divided up the map. I’m not convinced any of them have actually got to us though.
 
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