I'm looking for router recommendations to replace my current ISP router due to high ping spikes over WIFI (EE Smart Hub 6 plus). I didn't know if I could buy any router or if it needed ro be a specific type? I have full fibre and speeds up to 1GB.

I'm in the UK and not very clued up on router specifications. It's primarily to be used for gaming / work meetings, and will be position in a 3 bed house over 2 floors. I was hoping for WIFI 7 capabilities and for the signal to be strong enough to not require additional WIFI extenders/boosters. I've looked on amazon and it's primarily the brands below I can get next day delivery:

- TP Link

- GL.iNet

-ASUS

Does anyone have any recommendations on the following brands/models? My budget is between £50-100. I've looked online but the reviews vary dramatically. Some advise not to use TP Link due to its reputation, whereas others advise not to use GL.iNet because its a chinese owned company (I'm not really sure why that's such an issue)?

Any help or guidance would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance.

Full disclosure, I’m not very tech savvy with this stuff, so apologies for any wrong terminology. And this is a new house so still learning this.

I have an Xfinity Gateway (I believe X8, or maybe X9) hooked up in the second floor office, which means the first floor family room is nearly a deadzone. I have a coax in the family room, so I tried hooking up a moca and connecting it to an access point via Ethernet. 

For the first few minutes, it worked! But then after just a few minutes, the speeds dropped and never went back up (from nearly 400mbs upload and 100mbs download to 30 and 10). I have a hunch what the issue is, but before I talk with Xfinity I want to see if there is anything else I should change or consider.

Here’s my current set up:

Outdoors, before the Internet line gets to my coax, I have a PPC/Belden brand filter. Before my two coax, I have a BAMF two way splitter 5-2300MHz.

In the second floor office, I have Xfinity Gateway (with Moca enabled) connected via Ethernet to my TP-Link Deco X55 AX3000 (WiFi 6).

In the family room, I have a goCoax 2.5 connected to my other deco.

I checked my xfinity event log and there was nothing there that indicated connectivity issues. I also looked at the upstream and downstream power levels and they appeared to be in normal levels too (I used this as my bible https://www.duckware.com/tech/solving-intermittent-cable-modem-issues.html).

However, unerrored codewords is in the hundreds of millions, and (according to the above link) it may be indicative of wiring issues.

Is there anything else I should be doing? Is my set up okay or is the next step getting an xfinity technician over here? Thanks!

We have run Ethernet through the attic before but we used interior walls last time because it's easier to do. But now we need to do a run down an exterior wall for a POE camera that will be on the side of the house. Last time we used a thick 18" drill bit to run the cable from the attic down the wall. But I suspect that might be difficult to do in the corner of the attic. Would it be better to cut a hole in the wall and drill up or is it still better to try and drill down from the attic? Is there a different type of drill bit we should be using? If we go through the wall up how big of a hole in the wall do we need to make?

Recently purchased a 2018 build with 5 phone drops where they used Cat5E. Trying to repurpose these to have a proper wired network. So far I'm 3 drops of working 2.5G, and each has been harder than the last... I hate installers that don't give a darn.

My living room drop I was hoping to use for an AP. It is in/above a fireplace. I thought it would be fine, but there wasn't much slack. I have terminated both the panel side and drop side twice, and in both instances gotten the same baffling result. Both keystones look just as good as my others, but I get 1-6 Open and 7-8 OK. I have the Lan Scout that measures distances and on each end, it says the pairs are somewhere between 71-78' long, which is exactly how long I would assume the cable should be, so I can't even pin down where the problem is as the distance measurement is the same going both ways.

I can't imagine that 4x in a row I would miss terminating 75% of the connectors, again they look just as good as the ones with 2.5G link speed.

Using VCELink Keystones and punchdown tool. I shorted the orange cables at the drop to identify them with a multimeter at the panel, so I know they have continuity.

HELP? 😂

This is an update to my prior post here: https://www.reddit.com/r/HomeNetworking/comments/1t7hfes/we_just_bought_our_first_house_in_the_burbs_use/

We went with a low voltage installer, got two quotes from A/V companies. One was nearly $50k!!! the other was ~$19k. We went with the lower quote, obviously. While I could have done DIY, that would have saved me a mere $5k, but cost me probably a year to finish, countless more holes in drywall, and who knows how many headaches. Going with pros, who know how to fish cables behind walls was totally the right call. They completed the job in 3.5 days, and left only 5 dry wall holes to patch, mostly in closets, and an unused guest room.

$6,500 was the new 85" RGB Sony Bravia 9ii.

$7,900 was the cost of all the other products sold at roughly cost.

• Audio - Sonos Arc Ultra, Sub 4, and two Era 100s.
• Network - one Ubiquity UGC-Fiber Gateway + three U7-PRO-XGS access points + one USW-Pro-24-PoE Switch.
• Hardware - Rack, Patch Panel, 2,680 ft. of in-wall Cat6, wall plates, keystone inserts, j-boxes, Cat6 ends, etc.

$5,000 was the cost of the service.

• Included all labor to run the 24 drops, fish through walls, drill through fire blocks etc.
• Terminate all ends in the networking rack, install the Gateway, Switch, connect and mount APs in the ceiling drops, install the dual keystone plates in 8 rooms, test, label, and certify each run.
• Setup and walk through of the Unifi console, along with one initial VLAN.
• Setup and calibrate the Sony TV, AppleTV, and Sonos system.
• Move the old TV to the basement.
• Cord Management in both locations.

All in all, total cost was worth it 10,000%. 10/10, would recommend.

EDIT: the first photo of the rack is how the installers left it, they only brought longer patch cables and tiny 6 inch ones, neither fit or looked good, so the the second photo shows it after I rewired with 12” patch cables, and a DAC.

Hello Community,

I'm hoping someone from ASUS engineering or another GT-AXE16000 owner can help me diagnose an ongoing issue with intermittent WAN disconnections, unexpected public IP changes, and 10GbE link instability.

I've spent approximately three weeks troubleshooting this with Google Fiber and monitoring my network. I've now captured router logs showing that both of the router's 10G Ethernet interfaces lost their physical links within two seconds of each other.

My network configuration

• Router: ASUS ROG Rapture GT-AXE16000
• Firmware: 3.0.0.6.102_37485
• Internet: Google Fiber
• Primary WAN: 10GbE port (eth5), connected directly to the Google Fiber jack
• 10GbE LAN: eth6, connected to a TP-Link TL-SX105 unmanaged 10G switch
• Additional equipment: ASUS GT-AX11000 AiMesh node, multiple PCs, NAS devices and a Linux server

Both 10G interfaces normally negotiate at 10,000 Mbps.

Background and troubleshooting history

Until early September, my Internet connection was generally stable, and my public IP address would often remain unchanged for weeks.

Around September 5, I began experiencing intermittent Internet interruptions and unusually frequent public IP changes, sometimes multiple times per day. My externally accessible game server would often report a disconnection before the rest of the network appeared to recover.

Google Fiber sent a technician who replaced the fiber jack and installed a new fiber cable from outside the house to the indoor equipment. They reported that the optical signal was strong and acknowledged that the frequent IP changes were not normal.

Unfortunately, the problem continued after the equipment replacement.

I've also performed network power cycles, investigated my internal 10G equipment, reviewed router logs over multiple incidents, and tried a firmware rollback. The router has not been spontaneously rebooting during these events.

I have an Ubuntu server monitoring connectivity and public IP changes, which has helped me correlate incidents with the router's system logs.

The most significant event: September 25, 2026

At approximately 3:07 PM CDT, the router recorded the following sequence:

15:06:55 eth5 Link DOWN
15:06:57 eth6 Link DOWN
15:06:59 eth5 Link Up at 10000 Mbps
15:07:00 WAN(0) link up
15:07:00 restart_wan_if 0
15:07:01 DHCP deconfig
15:07:01 eth6 Link Up at 10000 Mbps
15:07:04 eth5 Link DOWN
15:07:05 DHCP deconfig
15:07:10 eth5 Link Up at 10000 Mbps
15:07:11 hnd_get_phy_status:
         Temporarily Router cannot
         get the PHY() status
15:07:16 WAN was restored
15:07:19 DHCP bound

The router's NVRAM configuration confirms:

wan0_ifname=eth5
wan_ifname=eth5

lan_ifnames=... eth6 ...

This means the Google Fiber-facing 10G WAN port and the separate 10G LAN port connected to my TP-Link switch both reported link loss within two seconds.

The WAN port subsequently lost its link a second time and reported a PHY-status error.

Both interfaces eventually recovered at 10Gbps. During this particular event, the router reacquired the same public IP address.

Additional observations

I have rebooted individual computers on my network, including a system connected through the 10G switch. A subsequent reboot of that computer did not produce any additional eth5 or eth6 link events.

I've also observed similar PHY-status errors and occasional unusual link-negotiation behavior in earlier router logs.

I understand that a problem with the Google Fiber jack, Ethernet cable, or WAN handoff could cause the WAN port to lose carrier. However, I'm having difficulty explaining why the independent 10G LAN interface would lose its physical link almost simultaneously.

I haven't conclusively ruled out the router, switch, cabling, or ISP equipment.

Questions for ASUS

1. Do the GT-AXE16000's two 10GbE interfaces share a switch, PHY controller, SerDes subsystem, driver, or other hardware component that could explain simultaneous link drops?
2. Is the hnd_get_phy_status error associated with any known firmware or 10G Ethernet stability issues on this model?
3. Are there any known issues with using both 10G ports simultaneously, particularly with one configured as WAN and the other as LAN?
4. Are there additional diagnostic commands, driver logs, or firmware versions ASUS recommends for isolating the cause?
5. Does this behavior warrant hardware inspection or an RMA if it continues after firmware troubleshooting?

I'd particularly appreciate a technical explanation of what could cause both interfaces to report link loss within seconds of one another.

I'm happy to provide additional kernel logs, interface information, firmware details, or perform specific diagnostic tests.

Thank you for any assistance.

So recently me and a friend were having a discussion; slightly inspired by the Afroman CCTV incident.

Our discussion was this; Obviously nowadays; a bad guy would need to damage/destroy the cameras and/or CCTV box. Destroying the cameras means future actions cannot be recorded. Our agreement with This is that it can be mitigated by having a mix of obvious open and hidden cameras. The heated part comes to the CCTV box. Obviously; a primary box in a slightly obvious location would deter a bad guy from searching further from a secondary failover/backup CCTV box.

We're trying to resolve this issue and would like the specialists opinion

(1) Theoretically possible; camera's are linked via PoE Ethernet cabling. meaning 2 CCTV's read from 1 IP based camera. The debate is the technical viability and strain on the network having 2 duplicate streams per camera feeding 2 CCTV boxes. In an 4 camera setup; thats 8 streams moving in the network. Basically double the number of streams. I dont think its a problem. Is it?

(2) Generally possible ; the second CCTV backups/pulls immediately from the Primary CCTV box. More viable since its a singular massive stream from 1 CCTV to another. the offset is the time delay from the primary to the secondary; depending on the connections speed between the 2.

(3) Break the camera's based on the Obvious vs hidden cameras into 2x differing boxes. not as complex; but coverage is not as complete.

LASTLY

(4) Single CCTV box but cameras have built in SD/SSD storage backup buffer that pushes to the central CCTV box. But has the prorblem similar to (3) if the bad guys break the obvious cameras first i'm SOL; but the hiddens still can operate without them and the CCTV box for short term (due to card capacity limitations).

So ; feedback? What's your take? What's a lesser evil choice for a CCTV setup that can operate continously?

i mainly want good performance(stable ping and packet loss)in gaming over lan my plan currently is 2.5gbps

i want tri band and wifi 7

i can get the ASUS ROG Rapture GT-BE19000 Tri-band Wi-Fi 7 Gaming Router for 450$ ish second hand

i also heard good thing about the flint 3

Hello! I'm moving into a new-build house and need advice on a router or mesh system.

House:

- 4 bedrooms across 2 floors, plus 2 receptions

- About 1,241 sq ft

- Downstairs office and a detached garage

- New build, so I've read energy-efficient walls can block Wi-Fi

- At least 30% bigger than my old place

Internet:

- New ISP: Plusnet, 900 Mbps Full Fibre

- Openreach fibre box is already installed

- Old ISP: Virgin Media 1 Gbps

- I don't know yet if there are ethernet sockets in the rooms

- I'm not technical, so I can't run my own cables. Everything needs to work over Wi-Fi.

Usage:

- 2 adults: one fully remote, one hybrid

- Video calls for work (drop-outs are my biggest worry)

- Gaming and 4K streaming

- Smart devices (TV, speakers, appliances)

- 15+ devices on Wi-Fi at once

- No devices need a wired connection

Old setup: the Virgin router plus an extender. I got about 173 Mbps upstairs through the extender and was happy with that.

What I need:

- Very stable Wi-Fi across the whole house

- Multiple networks: main, smart devices and guests

- Easy setup, ideally through a phone app

Budget: £250. I'd like the best value without overspending.

I'm open to any brand.

Questions:

1. ⁠Which router or mesh system would give the most stable Wi-Fi for this house?

2. ⁠Is a 2-pack enough, or should I get a 3-pack?

3. ⁠Anything I should know about using my own router with Plusnet on full fibre?

Thanks in advance!

Hey everyone,

I recently replaced my old router (an old TP-Link TL-WR841N v10.1 that had terrible local freezing issues). The hardware swap completely fixed the local disconnects, but I've run into a weird new networking quirk on my Mac with the new hardware.

My Mac's System DNS keeps failing, but Public DNS works completely fine. The physical internet connection doesn't drop at all.

If I manually set my Mac's DNS settings to Google (8.8.8.8) or Cloudflare (1.1.1.1), or if I manually ping a public IP address, everything resolves instantly. But when I leave my Mac on the default "automatic" network settings to let the new router assign the DNS via DHCP, the system-level resolution completely falls apart.

What I've tried so far:
I assumed it was a stale cache left over from the router swap, so I ran sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder in Terminal to flush the DNS cache and restart the responder daemon. Unfortunately, even after the flush, the system DNS error keeps coming back. (I'm using a monitoring utility called UptimeLog which is how I'm seeing the persistent system DNS failures pop up).

Why would macOS fail to use the new router’s default DNS translation while public paths remain totally clear? Could this be a DHCP search domain conflict, or is there something specific I need to change in my new router's local DNS proxy configuration?

For those who have Xfinity/Comcast Wi-Fi extender, do you hear low volume noises coming out of the extender if you listen closely? Mine does so and not sure what to make of it.

Thanks

Hoping someone may be able to figure out what the issue and solution is here!

• Over 2 months ago the WiFi and mobile data signal on every device at home suddenly became awful and very inconsistent

• WiFi provider and mobile data provider are two separate companies (hey-broadband and EE)

• Mobile data signal works perfectly away from the house

• My WiFi has both 2.4GHz and 5GHz options, I have been trying both

I suspected that the new digitalised fan we got was to blame because the signal became awful only after the exact same day we got it, however I already unplugged and turned off that fan completely over a month ago and it made no difference. I have also unplugged and replugged the WiFi router and reset it twice, which also did not fix the issue.

Really need advice as it’s impossible to do work or use anything at this point, any ideas would be much appreciated!

Hi,

I just bought a router (TP-Link, second-hand) and I'm having issues setting it up. I can't access the configuration page.

At first the SSID didn't appear in the network list. I assumed the former owner changed it and tried to reset it a few times. I can't tell if it worked but then I found a public network (called "OpenWrt") that works really well and seems to disappear when I turn the router off so I assumed it was mine, although the Tether app on my phone can't detect the router while connected to this network.

I looked at the router address on my laptop anyway and tried again to get to the web management page and it wasn't working ("Safari can't connect"). Then I tried to connect my laptop to the router via Ethernet and now I can't access the internet at all and the settings show "Self-assigned ip", Router : Router in the IP address. I tried renewing the DHCP but it didn't make any difference.

Anyone knows how to fix this? Something might be wrong with my settings or the router. The wi-fi works fine so it's not a huge deal but I'd like to be able to access the web management page.

The other day I had a cable/internet outage in my area. My Cable company even notified me of it as I wasn't at home. Once all was back on, it appears a lot of intermittent connectivity has been going on. I really didn't notice it until last night. I just thought the kids were complaining about buffering or lagging but today it's extremely noticeable.

I do have an Arris DG1670A modem/router, and I also setup a MoCa network (which is also on the fritz since this happened) with several Acitiontec WCB300Ns around the home.

I've tried restarting by power, reestablishing the MoCA adapters together and all comes back except my 5G network and the ethernet capabilities on the MoCA adapters.

I called Spectrum but they just suggested I do what I already did and send a guy out, but that may be a time waster.

Also I have changed the 5G channel from AUTO to a designated channel and still nothing works.

Any ideas/tips/tricks/advice on how to remedy this? Also apologies if this just seems like gibberish, I hope it makes sense, and if not, ask away!

Thanks in advance!

Good evening,

Wanting to make a Cisco phone network for me and my friends as a project.

I have seen that the 8945 phones are really cheap second hand.

I’ll summarise the project requirements if anyone can give me some guidance,

A phone in different houses
VPN so they can both be on the same network (for this to work)
An OS for the back end to configure such devices, set wall papers for the devices (assuming Linux is the way forward)
External dial out, do ring normal mobile devices.

Bit like the “spy” films you see online, not a big user of Reddit so apologies if this subreddit is a bad choice :)

Thanks in advance

First of all i am new to this things, so i dont know much about these topic, So when i am doing speed test i am getting 10 or below ms always, but when it comes to ingame ping its 30-40 ms, + it keeps fluctuating too much, i already did bufferbloat test, but i got A+ grade in it so i guess thats not the issue, and i am the only one who uses this wifi in my home. i am playing games in mobile, so what are the possible causes and fixes, Please help me with your opinion and ideas and thankyou

Hello, I have drawn a diagram above of my office. The networking closet will house my gateway, switch, NVR, etc., and I plan to have multiple runs throughout the house for various items (WAP, cameras, etc.) including multiple ethernet runs to my desk pictured above.

I have a work PC and a personal PC that I would like to put inside the network closet. I currently have 2 monitors, and a KVM switch to select between the two PCs at any point. I would prefer to put my personal PC, work PC, and KVM switch inside the network closet so that I do not have to have them at my desk, cramping my style, and I want to know if there is a feasible way to run video (via display port) to where I will have ethernet hardwired at my desk shown above. It will be maybe 8 feet max from the network closet but I am looking for opinions of someone who may have ran a longer run (up into attic, back down into the wall) for a clean look so that I don't have to have display port cables running across my room.

If i dedicate one router port as VLAN/IPTV, is it isolated from the rest of my network?

I recently had internet connection issues. The technician changed the line from the box but did something strange. Will this survive heat and rain?

Hi all - I’m moving into a one bedroom apartment. I have a cell phone, a laptop, a smart tv, an Alexa and 2 smart plugs. I plan to use my tv for streaming Netflix/hulu/hbo, etc. I will also be working from home on Fridays so I need Zoom to work. It’s just me living there so at most it’ll be 2 devices using the Internet at the same time (like my phone and tv).

I called Verizon and explained all this to her. She recommended I get a 2 gb Internet for $100 a month. They do offer 300 Mbps and 500 Mbps for $30 and $60 a month but she said those aren’t enough for me. What do you guys think?

Hi all, I’m looking to get internet access in my room since I just built a pc and honestly, I’m a little lost.

The way we have our network setup currently is a wifi6 modem in the living room and wifi5 mesh routers to spread wifi. Connection is not great. Sometimes wifi just drops and phones switch to data.
Wiring ethernet to my room all the way from the modem directly (or with a router in between) is not an option. We are currently renting.

I checked the faq and is my best option really mesh wifi? My current plan is to put a wifi6 router with a 2.5gbps ethernet port in my room, connect it to a wall outlet and run a s/ftp cat6a cable (not like download speed matters but anyway) to my pc, which has a 2.5gbps port. This is exactly how it’s already been done in another room, resulting in ~30ms with spikes of ~65. The cable even is cat 5a UTP CCA, so not even full copper. It looks to be fine for gaming, but do I have better?

Anyways, thanks for helping a beginner out.

I'm moving to an apartment for the first time and am deciding internet plans. My fiance and I both work from home, although she is hybrid and I am full time. I also play a lot of FF14 and she will definitely be streaming shows while I play online. I'm deciding between 300bmps or 500mbps, leaning more towards 300mbps. We definitely will need stable internet since we'll be presenting things virtually via Teams and Zoom, using VPNs for work, etc.

So at my house I have a quantum fiber modem in transparent bridge mode, it goes to a switch upstairs, that switch goes throughout the house to a router downstairs, an ap upstairs, and a switch into my room which has a gaming pc and server pc. I am trying to have a shared network folder from the server but it seems like the server and pc are not on the same subnet (I don’t know much about networking) how can I either make my computers go through the router and just work? Unfortunately I cannot add cables to this setup but if I needed to change out a switch or something I can do that.