need help selecting a third party router on sparks fibre

Forums › Spark New Zealand (including Skinny and BigPipe) › need help selecting a third party router on sparks fibre

capsnz2000

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#190882 15-Jan-2016 10:23

hi everyone im interested in upgrading to a better router. im on the fibre 200 plus plan. im a heavy user and do alot of online gaming, however im well aware that spark accepts some 3rd party routers on their fibre broadband so hopefully my options aren't limited. would like to get something optimised for gaming, low pings open nats. i dont mind paying extra dollar. thanks

sbiddle

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#1471729 15-Jan-2016 10:50

I ask the very same question everytime somebody asks this very question -

What are your requirements?

capsnz2000

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#1471876 15-Jan-2016 12:49

hi thanx for replying. i would like somthing that could support a gigabyte connection, definitly need wireless with good range, but i also need the ethernet ports aswell as i game wired, im just afraid my options could be limited as i heard spark only accept routers that support vtagging, i dont mind paying the extra dollar too. ive never been a fan of the free modems as ive had bad experiences with them in the past

BarTender

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#1472226 15-Jan-2016 21:11

The Spark supplied HG659 is pretty good.

You will need a router that supports PPPoE on VLAN 10.

If it were me I would see how the Spark one goes then look at your own one which would set you back around $300 for a reasonable quality one.

gareth41

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#1472813 16-Jan-2016 19:54

Get a mikrotik

capsnz2000

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#1472882 16-Jan-2016 21:58

Do any of the tp link routers work??

RunningMan

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#1472889 16-Jan-2016 22:08

capsnz2000: Do any of the tp link routers work??

Yes, but so does the Spark supplied one. You haven't mentioned any features that you want that their router won't give you (other than a gigabyte connection, which would require 10GigE ports, and you won't see that on a consumer router any time soon).

As @bartender says, try the supplied one and if it doesn't meet your requirements, post again with the specific issues you are seeing and people will be in a much better position to recommend a replacement based on that.

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gareth41

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#1472895 16-Jan-2016 22:18

capsnz2000: Do any of the tp link routers work??

Yes but you have to replace the stock tplink firmware with openwrt so you can do vlan tagging on the wan.

ps2jak2

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#1472911 16-Jan-2016 23:29

FYI TP Link offer beta firmwares for at least the Archer C7 V2 to fix the VLAN tag having to be a minimum of 16 issue their routers have, though the beta one they currently provide doesn't seem to work properly and I could never get mine working right even with Sparks recommended settings all checked. I then tried OpenWRT and after booting fine twice it just quit on me so I tried to recover it to no success and its sitting in a corner waiting for me to try again.

From what I see your going to need to spend 300+ to get something better than the HG659 that is guaranteed to do VLAN tagging properly and also to be an upgrade in terms of features and performance. I ended just getting an HG659 to replace my Techincolour as that wouldn't do my 100/20 plan with full download due to the 100mbit LAN, and they were happy to in exchange for a 12 month contract so I have solved the original reason I bought a TP Link so for what its worthm I would recommend you steer clear of the TP Links till they sort their firmware (others may of had better experiences). I suspect they would make a great VDSL or Cable router though.