UK Plusnet Fibre modem advice

[routerbattles]

Hi all, I'm looking for a bit of advice on which modem to buy to pair with my ASUS RT86U Router to use with plusnet fibre in the UK. The Modem router (Hub one) I have been provided sucks and cannot be put into bridged mode to allow me to use my asus with merlin etc.
Reading elsewhere I have seen a few recommendations but most people seem to say get one of the following:
1. BT Business Hub 6 (probs second hand ebay)
2. TP LInk TD-W9970 Can be had new £35
3. Huawei HG612 (3B) - second hand ebay approx £20
4. Netgear DM200 - Approx £35
5. Draytek Vigor 130 - £90

I live a fair distance from the cabinet and my ADSL speed was approx 10mb and my new super fast fibre appears to be around 11mb - I'm a little underwhelmed.

Would I benefit from getting the super shiny Draytek in this instance or is cheap and cheerful (I'm leaning towards the TP-Link) enough?
I'm open to other suggestions too as I know very little about modems but researched for a long time to get the good router (ASUS RT86U) so I could use Diversion and skynet etc.

Thanks all

 

[AndreiV]

The Draytek will be good if you are connecting to an ECI cabinet. For a Huawei cabinet you would do better with a ZyXEL VMG3925 (one on eBay@£70 today.)

 

[psychopomp1]

@AndreiV
The TP Link W9970 uses the same BCM DSL chipset as the Zyxel VMG3925 and is far cheaper. Doesn't make sense to pay to more for the Zyxel on ebay, even less so if its second hand without a warranty.

OP,
Go for the TP Link W9970, it uses a rock solid BCM chipset and should be a great combination with the Asus router. Just be aware that you will need to put the W9970 in bridge mode (ie modem only mode) so that it acts as a dumb modem only - very easy to do though.

 

[routerbattles]

The Draytek will be good if you are connecting to an ECI cabinet. For a Huawei cabinet you would do better with a ZyXEL VMG3925 (one on eBay@£70 today.)

Thanks for the suggestions, i will find out what my cabinet is, apparently its 1.25 km to my house. Does the matching of chipsets matter also? What speed / stability differences am i likely to see for my money either with the draytek or zyxel?

 

[routerbattles]

@AndreiV
The TP Link W9970 uses the same BCM DSL chipset as the Zyxel VMG3925 and is far cheaper. Doesn't make sense to pay to more for the Zyxel on ebay, even less so if its second hand without a warranty.

OP,
Go for the TP Link W9970, it uses a rock solid BCM chipset and should be a great combination with the Asus router. Just be aware that you will need to put the W9970 in bridge mode (ie modem only mode) so that it acts as a dumb modem only - very easy to do though.

Thanks for the detailed response, i was leaning towards the tp link, i am now concerned as above i wont be squeezing the most out of my relatively poor line. Does a draytek / zyxel give more performance / stability. If same chipsets as zyxel sounds like the tp link should have similar performance?

 

[psychopomp1]

Yeah, although not guaranteed, matching modem chipset to FTTC cabinet often gives you the highest sync rate. Have a look here to see whether your FTTC cabinet is Huawei or ECI:

https://kitz.co.uk/adsl/fttc-cabinets.htm

If Huawei then go for the TP Link W9970, if ECI then go for the Draytek 130. TBH whichever of these 2 modems you go for, they will perform great regardless of which cabinet your're connected to. Any speed differences between the 2 are likely to be very small, typically just a few Mbps at the most.

 

[routerbattles]

Thanks again Pschcopomp1 I've just figured out I'm 1.2 km to my cabinet which is a Huawei cabinet so the TP Link is looking even more promising. Saw some other talk about zyxel's also being cheap and really good second hand such as the vmg8924-b10a but at this point I'm getting a bit researched out.

Thanks again.

 

[routerbattles]

Just to finish this story off I went for the TP Link modem which jumped my speeds from around 11mb to 13 ish and works great with my ASUS RT86U, I then had a fiddle with the wiring in my box in the wall and re terminated - this jumped it to around fifteen. Just today I fitted a adsl/vdsl filter plate and saw another jump in speeds to around 19.5mb - amazed what a bit of messing around can do - the plusnet router is horseshit as was slow and unreliable in wifi too. Overall much better off. Thanks for the support guys.