We're with TalkTalk who supply routers with their packages - ours is for landline and broadband, very standard use.

I've been hassling them over much time about the poor download speed - 6.5 or occasionally 7mbs - on my existing router
Huawei HG533

and eventually they've relented and sent me an "upgraded" "super" router
HuaweiHG633

which is actually delivering slower speeds of 5.1

This is not my field at all but I gather that the latter has done away with a 1 gig port which may limit its performance - also I'm getting odd bits of feedback from review sites and a family member that one is probably better off buying a decent router.

This implies 1 gig ports and at least three aerials.

So I've looked at a few and seen this TP-Link Archer D2 AC750 ADSL2


I suppose an option would be to go for a fibre optic based package with TalkTalk - if I could guarantee that all parts of their system ran on FO cable......also the exchange is 2,700 metres from here......??


I'd be very grateful for any words of encouragement - or even scorn!

Scorn it is then!

Just kidding, I'd usually go with the family member's advice to buy a decent router as I wouldn't trust anything given away free by an ISP but that's more for reasons that probably aren't applicable to your problem anyway. Firstly, ISP issued ones can have custom firmware with a backdoor installed. Secondly, to get better features/performance around my network (the reviews you've linked to certainly don't suggest that the two you've had from TalkTalk are top notch performers). Finally, they don't give away top of the line routers for free, anything that comes free from an ISP is going to be fairly low down in the food chain anyway.

However..... if the bottleneck is the physical connection from your front door to the exchange then no amount of fancy router will fix this. I'll swap you for our max 1.5mbps connection anytime you like (we're at the edge of a town on new estate with no fibre/cable and as far from the exchange as we can get without living in a field).

How are you measuring speed and from where?

I shouldn't complain!

Speed measurement is wirelessly, a metre and a half from the router. I've done "wired" tests on many occasions, usually at the behest of the technician on the other end of the phone, but the broadband speed has not varied significantly.

I use the Ookla speedtest.net which TalkTalk recommend and it seems pretty kosher.

30 mins ago I got so fed up with the following results on two tests:

Ping (i) 916 (ii) 362

Download speed (i) 2.49 (ii) 2.45


that I swapped the new router back to the old and immediately achieved

Ping 57 and 56

Download 6.6 and 6.1 !!

So pro tem this is a no-brainer!

Interested in your comment about "backdoor" - do you mean it's a way of them controlling it remotely for channel-changing and the like?

I use the Ookla one too, there's also a direct one from BT one which my provider(Plusnet) recommend, presumably as it's plainer than the Ookla website but I've always had similar results anyway.

Testing wired is better as that takes the wireless connection out of the equation but if you're getting the same results then it sounds like the connection to the outside might be the bottleneck.

There's also a BT website which shows what you should be getting as a maximum, I'll see if I can dig the link out later as it's at home.

Regarding the backdoor, it's usually as a way for them to be able to do remote diagnostics. Personally I prefer that no-one has that sort of access to any part of my network.

Found them, the wonders of webmail.

Try this checker, it should show what you should be able to expect as maximum on your line.

This is BT's direct performance checker.

Edited to add
I've just tried the BT speedtest on my connection at work and got 220Mbps so I'm going to go and cry in the corner for a bit.

These were really useful, thanks!

The further diagnostics and line test are not available as my line is with TalkTalk not BT but the potential range and line speed is good to know.


I'll now need to verify whether there really is fibre optic right from source to street.

With your work speeds I'll expect an answer to this before I press "submit"

Unfortunately I'm now back at home AND the kids are using iPlayer downstairs, I submitted this post a week ago!

New developments

Held my nose and phoned T/T technical dept. Spoke to a really helpful chap who not only listened but offered good suggestions which he then went ahead and attended to.

First while he was on the phone I disconnected the old router and re-connected the new one so he could check it out - via the "back-door".

He discovered the firmware (which I'd read about) was out of date so after a few minutes he'd updated it and the speedtest rocketed to 5.9 mbps and 26 Ping!

He then explained the new router works on two channels, 2.4G (old) and 5G (new). So he separated them out - the 2.4G one being kept as default for the moment but the 5G being kept in reserve in case I upgrade to fibre optic.

He assured me that F/O cable was in place from the exchange up to the cabinet just outside the house and that the old copper line from the cabinet to the house would not need to be changed as the distance was so short the signal would hardly be affected.

He also said the router tends to sort itself out better after 24 hours - the BT links I got from Wishy suggested as long as 10 days - and already the download speed has gone up over 6

So since we don't do an awful lot of downloading it's maybe saved me buying a new router after all......

Impressively helpful he was.

Just got your reply Mr Wishy

Glad you got a result, I guess it's too late for me to edit my first post and add in a suggestion to check your router firmware is up to date.

From what I was told during my woes with getting the woeful broadband we have here (there's a whole thread dedicated to it on here somewhere), the 10 days is a rather conservative cover all bases sort of figure and it should settle quicker than that.

Cheers anyway, your advice was v helpful

He's still talking slightly bollocks, Simon...

There are two completely independent things going on here.

a) the connection from your modem to t'internet, via whatever bits of wet string the GPO have seen fit to implement to your premises and stretch to the exchange. The speed of that is set by your contract (i.e. band limited at the exchange link) and the line conditions. Firmware may increase the speed if there's some slow error correction or an improved algorithm available.

b) the connection from your computer(s) to the modem. In general, if you don't need to connect to the router from half a street away, avoid 2.4g like the plague. Use 5g; it has the excellent property of being stopped by brick walls, which means that you're not having to contend with all your neighbours trying to use the same bandwidth. So it has fewer negotiations and less contention, and is faster. In most cases, the wireless bit will be the limiting factor on speed.

Type in http://192.168.1.1 and you should get to the maintenance section of your router ..the user name is admin and so is the password the latest firmware for yours is 1.15t

I have Talktalk and the Huwei 533 on fibre and get about 2 mbs upload and 25 mbs download

Cheers for that n3dsd, I'm guessing that's what the chappie installed but I'll have a rummage to look for the firmware label

Anyway it's probably working as well as it can atm as they're pushing 7-8 mbps down towards my end so I'd expect to receive 5 or 6. Just now it tested at 5.7 on both channels, 30 Ping.

An engineer once told me that the green part in the graph during the speedtest should ideally be smooth and the same depth - mine is a bit spiky but sometimes starts off full and smooth then quite suddenly (say halfway through) the green part squashes to a thinner line.....is this intermittent signal/reception?

Simon, I could do you one of THESE really cheap if you do decide to change modem / router.

Why thanks Bob, I'll bear that in mind

I gave on the sky router I had. Turned off the wifi, hooked up an archer C7 (cable only) to the ethernet (only 100mb on the sky box unfortunately) port on the sky router and the wifi performance is leaps and bounds better. It also has much better control around black/white lists parental controls and blocking of devices. I would recommend. (TP-LINK do a ADSL2 wireless modem with the archer brand)

Yep thanks, the Archer ADSL2 (or equivalent) was something I had my eye on

Ah talktalk, the lower speeds could be due to trafic shaping in busy periods?

Have you tried connecting directly via Ethernet to see if the speed test is the same?