FibreMax Plan Router Recommendation

Forums › Spark New Zealand (including Skinny and BigPipe) › FibreMax Plan Router Recommendation

bazarthur

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#284400 19-Apr-2021 21:01

I need a recommendation for my home.

- Spark FibreMax Plan
- 20+ Devices Connected (most devices fairly new)
- Gaming, YouTube, Streaming, Browsing all being done
- A few smart home devices and an Arlo Camera being used too
- Plug directly into the ONT (Spark Smart Modem available if need be)

I'm open to either a Router with great coverage for the whole house, or a Mesh system. But I need consistent speeds throughout the house.
The ONT is located in the Lounge which is in the middle of our house which is a long, single story. All rooms and devices are either front or back of the Wi-Fi signal.

I have had a Netgear Orbi RBK23 (Good but speeds weren't great for FibreMax) which I then swapped out for a Spark Smart Modem and x2 Mesh units (Mesh units were useless and not suitable at all).

Linux

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#2695031 19-Apr-2021 21:03

The one SparkNZ provide

Gaming Ethernet end of story! Wi-Fi is not for gaming

quickymart

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#2695032 19-Apr-2021 21:10

I agree with John, the Spark Smart Modem is pretty good. I don't do gaming at all but it seems to do the trick for what I use it for.

michaelmurfy

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#2695050 19-Apr-2021 21:27

The Spark smart modem and mesh units despite you disagreeing is actually your best option. If you can, cable up the mesh units for improved speed else you need to ensure you put them in locations where them themselves have good coverage.

Michael Murphy | https://murfy.nz
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Lias

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#2695052 19-Apr-2021 21:37

A:Gaming over WiFi is going to be garbage for latency sensitive games.

B: Go with what the others have said, or buy some decent business grade kit like Ubiquiti, Cambium, etc.

I'm a geek, a gamer, a dad, a Quic user, and an IT Professional. I have a full rack home lab, size 15 feet, an epic beard and Asperger's. I'm a bit of a Cypherpunk, who believes information wants to be free and the Net interprets censorship as damage and routes around it. If you use my Quic signup you can also use the code R570394EKGIZ8 for free setup. Opinions are my own and not the views of my employer.

bazarthur

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#2695062 19-Apr-2021 22:18

Hmmm. Interesting. The Smart Modem on it's own seems to work great I think. The Mesh Units however caused me nothing but problems with the amount of devices we have connected.

- First there were issues with our Smart TV hogging all the bandwidth while streaming making our other devices unable to load a single web page.
- Then I had issues with Chromecast and broadcast traffic being lost across the Mesh units.
- The last straw with them was me connecting a PS4 via Wi-Fi yesterday just to download a software update. Doing that brought the whole network to a standstill. Even rebooting didn't fix the issue.

Am I silly in thinking a Netgear Nighthawk Mesh unit with Wi-Fi 6 would help with the amount of devices? Or is the Smart Modem on it's own perfectly capable of that?

michaelmurfy

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#2695065 19-Apr-2021 22:36

bazarthur:

Am I silly in thinking a Netgear Nighthawk Mesh unit with Wi-Fi 6 would help with the amount of devices? Or is the Smart Modem on it's own perfectly capable of that?

Consumer grade routers are overpriced and not great at all. It won't help. Your current setup is actually fine but I would recommend attempting with a single mesh unit.

I run WiFi 6 here (an enterprise grade network mind you) and can with confidence confirm that your older devices won't improve and some newer devices will but it isn't worth the money.

Your best solution is to run Ethernet where possible. Wireless is not the best, and your PS4 has a rubbish wireless chipset also.

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Talkiet

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#2695066 19-Apr-2021 22:38

The Spark Smartmodem and wired mesh units will be great. The forwarding performance of the modem is second to none and the wifi is decent - with a proper mesh setup it's great.

Cheers - N

Please note all comments are from my own brain and don't necessarily represent the position or opinions of my employer, previous employers, colleagues, friends or pets.

hio77

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#2695067 19-Apr-2021 22:49

Talkiet:
The Spark Smartmodem and wired mesh units will be great. The forwarding performance of the modem is second to none and the wifi is decent - with a proper mesh setup it's great.

Cheers - N

Until you want to use broadcast traffic across mesh ;)

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matisyahu

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#2695073 19-Apr-2021 23:38

bazarthur:

I need a recommendation for my home.

- Spark FibreMax Plan
- 20+ Devices Connected (most devices fairly new)
- Gaming, YouTube, Streaming, Browsing all being done
- A few smart home devices and an Arlo Camera being used too
- Plug directly into the ONT (Spark Smart Modem available if need be)

I'm open to either a Router with great coverage for the whole house, or a Mesh system. But I need consistent speeds throughout the house.
The ONT is located in the Lounge which is in the middle of our house which is a long, single story. All rooms and devices are either front or back of the Wi-Fi signal.

I have had a Netgear Orbi RBK23 (Good but speeds weren't great for FibreMax) which I then swapped out for a Spark Smart Modem and x2 Mesh units (Mesh units were useless and not suitable at all).

I've got a UDM (Unifi Dream Machine) and a Unifi AP AC HD - for latency sensitive I use ethernet but for everything else I use wifi. The Unifi AP I have it hanging from the ceiling and provides coverage for the whole house, if you've got a big house you might need to get a couple of them and wire them together and putting the ethernet wiring in the ceiling cavity.

"When the people are being beaten with a stick, they are not much happier if it is called 'the People's Stick'"