Recommendations for a wireless cable router suitable for VM Hub3

[David]

I've been battling with VM and my Hub3 in modem mode.
I have a venerable Buffalo cable router which fronts the VM Hub3 in modem
mode.
[This because of the lack of functionality in the VM router software.]
This has been fine yeah these many years, and hasn't been touched.
Over the last few weeks the Internet connection has been dropping out on
an irregular basis.
The main symptom being able to connect to the Buffalo (192.168.0.1) but
not to the Hub3 (192.168.100.1).

Complicated by many recent reports of Hub3 needing regular reboots.

I have replaced it with an elderly TP-Linl cable router which was being
used as an AP.
At the time of purchase the price of an AP (with less functionality) was
much higher than a cable router.

I have tested the TP-Link many years back as the main cable router but
testing showed that it was slower than the Buffalo.
However at least I have Internet.

It looks as though my best option is to get a brand new cable router with
the latest WiFi and use that to front VM.


Recommendations please:

Cable router with gigabit WAN port and at least 4 gigabit LAN ports.
Good wireless range.
Good internal features such as managing local LAN addresses as DHCP, fixed
DHCP address for individual device.

A VPN endpoint would be cherry on the cake but is not essential.
VOIP port(s) could be nice also.

Forwarding of certain ports required so e.g. a Raspberry Pi can be used as
a VPN endpoint.

There will be more that I've forgotten, but a range of flexible features
needed.

Drag me out of the stone age, baby!

[Ability to use a SIM card or connect to a mobile hotspot would be a bonus
- see previous posts.]

Cheers



Dave R

[Andy Burns]

Post by David
looks as though my best option is to get a brand new cable router

Mini or Rolls-Royce?

[David]

Post by Andy Burns

Post by David
looks as though my best option is to get a brand new cable router

Mini or Rolls-Royce?

Hmmm...more towards Mini than RR.

Can't think of an exact car to match.

Cheers


Dave R

[David]

Post by Andy Burns

Post by David
looks as though my best option is to get a brand new cable router

Mini or Rolls-Royce?

Somewhere in the Audi/BMW area, perhaps.

Cheers



Dave R

[Andy Burns]

Post by David

Post by Andy Burns

Post by David
looks as though my best option is to get a brand new cable router

Mini or Rolls-Royce?

Somewhere in the Audi/BMW area, perhaps.

Draytek?

If you want ethernet WAN (for your VM hub) wth wifi but without VoIP,
then maybe the 2967ac, I'm looking at one now with an uptime of 267 days
(it's due a firmware upgrade soon)

If you want VoIP port(s) you'll have to get one with DSL too and just
ignore that, then use a gigabit port as WAN, e.g 2765Vac

https://www.draytek.co.uk/products/routers/broadband-routers

GUI tends to be "functional" no bells/whistles

[David]

Post by Andy Burns

Post by David

Post by Andy Burns

Post by David
looks as though my best option is to get a brand new cable router

Mini or Rolls-Royce?

Somewhere in the Audi/BMW area, perhaps.

Draytek?
If you want ethernet WAN (for your VM hub) wth wifi but without VoIP,
then maybe the 2967ac, I'm looking at one now with an uptime of 267 days
(it's due a firmware upgrade soon)
If you want VoIP port(s) you'll have to get one with DSL too and just
ignore that, then use a gigabit port as WAN, e.g 2765Vac
https://www.draytek.co.uk/products/routers/broadband-routers
GUI tends to be "functional" no bells/whistles

These seem to be more expensive than the Asus mentioned by Dan.

Some of them seem to be far above my needs.

Narrowing down to AX3000 with 3/4G backup.

Cheers



Dave R

[Dan]

Post by David
I've been battling with VM and my Hub3 in modem mode.
I have a venerable Buffalo cable router which fronts the VM Hub3 in modem
mode.
[This because of the lack of functionality in the VM router software.]
This has been fine yeah these many years, and hasn't been touched.
Over the last few weeks the Internet connection has been dropping out on
an irregular basis.
The main symptom being able to connect to the Buffalo (192.168.0.1) but
not to the Hub3 (192.168.100.1).
Complicated by many recent reports of Hub3 needing regular reboots.
I have replaced it with an elderly TP-Linl cable router which was being
used as an AP.
At the time of purchase the price of an AP (with less functionality) was
much higher than a cable router.
I have tested the TP-Link many years back as the main cable router but
testing showed that it was slower than the Buffalo.
However at least I have Internet.
It looks as though my best option is to get a brand new cable router with
the latest WiFi and use that to front VM.
Cable router with gigabit WAN port and at least 4 gigabit LAN ports.
Good wireless range.
Good internal features such as managing local LAN addresses as DHCP, fixed
DHCP address for individual device.
A VPN endpoint would be cherry on the cake but is not essential.
VOIP port(s) could be nice also.
Forwarding of certain ports required so e.g. a Raspberry Pi can be used as
a VPN endpoint.
There will be more that I've forgotten, but a range of flexible features
needed.
Drag me out of the stone age, baby!
[Ability to use a SIM card or connect to a mobile hotspot would be a bonus
- see previous posts.]
Cheers
Dave R

Asus AX series. I use a RTAX 88U pro with my community fibre gig
connection. Utterly stable. Or slightly cheaper 86U pro.

[David]

On Tue, 14 May 2024 22:15:50 +0100, Dan wrote:

<snip>

Post by Dan

Post by David
Cable router with gigabit WAN port and at least 4 gigabit LAN ports.
Good wireless range.
Good internal features such as managing local LAN addresses as DHCP,
fixed DHCP address for individual device.
A VPN endpoint would be cherry on the cake but is not essential.
VOIP port(s) could be nice also.
Forwarding of certain ports required so e.g. a Raspberry Pi can be used
as a VPN endpoint.
There will be more that I've forgotten, but a range of flexible features
needed.
Drag me out of the stone age, baby!
[Ability to use a SIM card or connect to a mobile hotspot would be a
bonus - see previous posts.]
Cheers
Dave R

Asus AX series. I use a RTAX 88U pro with my community fibre gig
connection. Utterly stable. Or slightly cheaper 86U pro.

Thanks.
Looking at those now.

Is the 3g/4g dongle support via the USB socket?

[If so, why the limitation to 3G/4G?

A long while since I used a dongle but IIRC it just presented as a router
to the computer.

Then again. this is many years ago.]

Cheers


Dave R

[Dan]

Post by David
<snip>

Post by Dan

Post by David
Cable router with gigabit WAN port and at least 4 gigabit LAN ports.
Good wireless range.
Good internal features such as managing local LAN addresses as DHCP,
fixed DHCP address for individual device.
A VPN endpoint would be cherry on the cake but is not essential.
VOIP port(s) could be nice also.
Forwarding of certain ports required so e.g. a Raspberry Pi can be used
as a VPN endpoint.
There will be more that I've forgotten, but a range of flexible features
needed.
Drag me out of the stone age, baby!
[Ability to use a SIM card or connect to a mobile hotspot would be a
bonus - see previous posts.]
Cheers
Dave R

Asus AX series. I use a RTAX 88U pro with my community fibre gig
connection. Utterly stable. Or slightly cheaper 86U pro.

Thanks.
Looking at those now.
Is the 3g/4g dongle support via the USB socket?
[If so, why the limitation to 3G/4G?
A long while since I used a dongle but IIRC it just presented as a router
to the computer.
Then again. this is many years ago.]
Cheers
Dave R

Afternoon David. I do not think so it will work.

[David]

Post by Dan

Post by David
<snip>

Post by Dan

Post by David
Cable router with gigabit WAN port and at least 4 gigabit LAN ports.
Good wireless range.
Good internal features such as managing local LAN addresses as DHCP,
fixed DHCP address for individual device.
A VPN endpoint would be cherry on the cake but is not essential.
VOIP port(s) could be nice also.
Forwarding of certain ports required so e.g. a Raspberry Pi can be
used as a VPN endpoint.
There will be more that I've forgotten, but a range of flexible
features needed.
Drag me out of the stone age, baby!
[Ability to use a SIM card or connect to a mobile hotspot would be a
bonus - see previous posts.]
Cheers
Dave R

Asus AX series. I use a RTAX 88U pro with my community fibre gig
connection. Utterly stable. Or slightly cheaper 86U pro.

Thanks.
Looking at those now.
Is the 3g/4g dongle support via the USB socket?
[If so, why the limitation to 3G/4G?
A long while since I used a dongle but IIRC it just presented as a
router to the computer.
Then again. this is many years ago.]
Cheers
Dave R

Afternoon David. I do not think so it will work.

Ended up buying the RTAX-88U Pro because it looked to have enough features
to last for 10 years, and the support for mobile backup through dongle or
mobile phone AP.

Need to do a bit of rearranging before deploying it, but hopefully I will
see a boost in network and WiFi performance.

Thanks for the suggestion.

Dave R

[Dan]

Post by David

Post by Dan

Post by David
<snip>

Post by Dan

Post by David
Cable router with gigabit WAN port and at least 4 gigabit LAN ports.
Good wireless range.
Good internal features such as managing local LAN addresses as DHCP,
fixed DHCP address for individual device.
A VPN endpoint would be cherry on the cake but is not essential.
VOIP port(s) could be nice also.
Forwarding of certain ports required so e.g. a Raspberry Pi can be
used as a VPN endpoint.
There will be more that I've forgotten, but a range of flexible
features needed.
Drag me out of the stone age, baby!
[Ability to use a SIM card or connect to a mobile hotspot would be a
bonus - see previous posts.]
Cheers
Dave R

Asus AX series. I use a RTAX 88U pro with my community fibre gig
connection. Utterly stable. Or slightly cheaper 86U pro.

Thanks.
Looking at those now.
Is the 3g/4g dongle support via the USB socket?
[If so, why the limitation to 3G/4G?
A long while since I used a dongle but IIRC it just presented as a
router to the computer.
Then again. this is many years ago.]
Cheers
Dave R

Afternoon David. I do not think so it will work.

Ended up buying the RTAX-88U Pro because it looked to have enough features
to last for 10 years, and the support for mobile backup through dongle or
mobile phone AP.
Need to do a bit of rearranging before deploying it, but hopefully I will
see a boost in network and WiFi performance.
Thanks for the suggestion.
Dave R

Happy to help David. But remember to update the firmware. The Asus app
is pretty good and is so useful when setting it up.
So, it works via a USB dongle? How is that setup?

[David]

Post by Dan

Post by David

Post by Dan

Post by David
<snip>

Post by Dan

Post by David
Cable router with gigabit WAN port and at least 4 gigabit LAN ports.
Good wireless range.
Good internal features such as managing local LAN addresses as DHCP,
fixed DHCP address for individual device.
A VPN endpoint would be cherry on the cake but is not essential.
VOIP port(s) could be nice also.
Forwarding of certain ports required so e.g. a Raspberry Pi can be
used as a VPN endpoint.
There will be more that I've forgotten, but a range of flexible
features needed.
Drag me out of the stone age, baby!
[Ability to use a SIM card or connect to a mobile hotspot would be a
bonus - see previous posts.]
Cheers
Dave R

Asus AX series. I use a RTAX 88U pro with my community fibre gig
connection. Utterly stable. Or slightly cheaper 86U pro.

Thanks.
Looking at those now.
Is the 3g/4g dongle support via the USB socket?
[If so, why the limitation to 3G/4G?
A long while since I used a dongle but IIRC it just presented as a
router to the computer.
Then again. this is many years ago.]
Cheers
Dave R

Afternoon David. I do not think so it will work.

Ended up buying the RTAX-88U Pro because it looked to have enough
features to last for 10 years, and the support for mobile backup through
dongle or mobile phone AP.
Need to do a bit of rearranging before deploying it, but hopefully I
will see a boost in network and WiFi performance.
Thanks for the suggestion.
Dave R

Happy to help David. But remember to update the firmware. The Asus app
is pretty good and is so useful when setting it up.
So, it works via a USB dongle? How is that setup?

Haven't tried it yet but documentation suggests there are a number of USB
sticks with SIM cards which will work.

It can also allegedly be configured to connect to a wireless AP on a
mobile phone.

I have finally found a PDF copy of the manual so hope to be looking at
that soon.

Cheers



Dave R

[David]

On Thu, 30 May 2024 16:17:46 +0100, Dan wrote:

<snip>

Post by Dan

Post by David
Ended up buying the RTAX-88U Pro because it looked to have enough
features to last for 10 years, and the support for mobile backup through
dongle or mobile phone AP.
Need to do a bit of rearranging before deploying it, but hopefully I
will see a boost in network and WiFi performance.
Thanks for the suggestion.
Dave R

Happy to help David. But remember to update the firmware. The Asus app
is pretty good and is so useful when setting it up.
So, it works via a USB dongle? How is that setup?

Firmware needed a couple of updates but all seems up to date now.

The biggest issue was that the network is 192.168.50.1 instead of the
usual 192.168.0.1 so all the Ethernet connected devices needed rebooting
to pick up their new DHCP details.

This included the wireless APs.

Cheers



Dave R

[Dan]

Post by David
<snip>

Post by Dan

Post by David
Ended up buying the RTAX-88U Pro because it looked to have enough
features to last for 10 years, and the support for mobile backup through
dongle or mobile phone AP.
Need to do a bit of rearranging before deploying it, but hopefully I
will see a boost in network and WiFi performance.
Thanks for the suggestion.
Dave R

Happy to help David. But remember to update the firmware. The Asus app
is pretty good and is so useful when setting it up.
So, it works via a USB dongle? How is that setup?

Firmware needed a couple of updates but all seems up to date now.
The biggest issue was that the network is 192.168.50.1 instead of the
usual 192.168.0.1 so all the Ethernet connected devices needed rebooting
to pick up their new DHCP details.
This included the wireless APs.
Cheers
Dave R

Agree, I use pfsense, it is a bit more complicated than 192.168.1.1
Even more so with pfgblocker, no more trackers and ads!!!

[Pancho]

Post by David
I've been battling with VM and my Hub3 in modem mode.
I have a venerable Buffalo cable router which fronts the VM Hub3 in modem
mode.
[This because of the lack of functionality in the VM router software.]
This has been fine yeah these many years, and hasn't been touched.
Over the last few weeks the Internet connection has been dropping out on
an irregular basis.
The main symptom being able to connect to the Buffalo (192.168.0.1) but
not to the Hub3 (192.168.100.1).

Check the power supply. Swap it with an appropriate new one. You might
be able to borrow a suitable one from somewhere else.

If the Buffalo is genuinely kaput, you might want to consider router
software OpenWrt or pfSense. Makes even more sense now we have separate
multiple access point WiFi.