AC68 vs BT HomeHub 5 Wireless. HH5 is better !

[TomT]

Hi

I've been doing some testing using my AC68U and a BT HomeHub 5

With the Asus running Merlin firmware I get good coverage and speed in most locations, but if I swap to the HH5 then it's much better speed and coverage.

I've located them both in the same place, so I'm wondering why the HH5 is better.

My plan is to use either as a wireless access point, but I'd prefer to use the Asus as it has mac filtering and more control.

Any idea how I can increase it's range and speed to match that of the HH5 ?

Thanks

 

[nubyOz]

Hi,
I love RMerlin's software. On my AC68 I actually get best reliability and coverage out of John's fork.
Might want to try that.
Cheers

 

[eddiez]

Hi

I've been doing some testing using my AC68U and a BT HomeHub 5

With the Asus running Merlin firmware I get good coverage and speed in most locations, but if I swap to the HH5 then it's much better speed and coverage.

I've located them both in the same place, so I'm wondering why the HH5 is better.

My plan is to use either as a wireless access point, but I'd prefer to use the Asus as it has mac filtering and more control.

Any idea how I can increase it's range and speed to match that of the HH5 ?

Thanks

More important: how about throughput?

Speed and coverage are nice, but throughput is what your looking for

 

[RussellInCincinnati]

Hi

I've been doing some testing using my AC68U and a BT HomeHub 5

With the Asus running Merlin firmware I get good coverage and speed in most locations, but if I swap to the HH5 then it's much better speed and coverage....Any idea how I can increase it's range and speed to match that of the HH5 ?

Thanks

If the BT HomeHub 5 is working so well, why would you bother trying to replace it with an Asus AC68U?

Also this sounds much more like a hardware question than a Merlin firmware question. The only firmware-related aspect is for you to follow "nubyOz" suggestion, and try the higher-transmit-power version...based off of the hardware control features of an earlier release of the Merlin firmware.

 

[sfx2000]

I've been doing some testing using my AC68U and a BT HomeHub 5

With the Asus running Merlin firmware I get good coverage and speed in most locations, but if I swap to the HH5 then it's much better speed and coverage.

I've located them both in the same place, so I'm wondering why the HH5 is better.

I've been saying this for a while now - the Carrier Provided Equipment is getting much better these days...

With CPE, one might not have all the flexibility of a consumer oriented device - but most folks just need basic functionality of NAT sharing and decent WiFi...

 

[RMerlin]

I've been saying this for a while now - the Carrier Provided Equipment is getting much better these days...

You're just lucky with your ISP then. Here, the two main ISPs provide you with (DSL) 2wire or SmartRG 505N, and (cable) Zyxel (that ISP was formerly using DLink).

In the DSL provider's case, the router firmware is a customized, cut-down version, with many features removed, such as... bridge mode. I kid you not. Thankfully, it's easy with DSL to shove the CPE into the back of a closet, and use your own modem and router.

No idea about the cable provider's firmware, but the modem is always bridged, so it's easy to replace the router at least.

 

[sfx2000]

You're just lucky with your ISP then. Here, the two main ISPs provide you with (DSL) 2wire or SmartRG 505N, and (cable) Zyxel (that ISP was formerly using DLink).

In the DSL provider's case, the router firmware is a customized, cut-down version, with many features removed, such as... bridge mode. I kid you not. Thankfully, it's easy with DSL to shove the CPE into the back of a closet, and use your own modem and router.

No idea about the cable provider's firmware, but the modem is always bridged, so it's easy to replace the router at least.

Eric - you and I are not the typical broadband customer...

We're the exception - and here on the forums, many fall into that same camp, at least most of the regulars do - either as direct consumers, contractors, consultants, or developers...

90 percent of folks out there these days, they're probably served well enough by the carrier provided gear actually... and we don't hear much from them...

 

[RMerlin]

We're the exception - and here on the forums, many fall into that same camp, at least most of the regulars do - either as direct consumers, contractors, consultants, or developers...

The 2wire provided by Bell is so bad, that even their own tech support recommended to at least two of my business customers to use their own router instead of theirs when they contacted tech support about issues... Internet performance being highly unstable when too many clients are connected at once (and we're talking about a modem the ISP provided to a BUSINESS customer here). There were also tons of reports of "sync and no surf" issues with it back when that model was more widely used (before VDSL2 became more widespread), and the ISP took like 6 months to provide a firmware fix to it.

 

[TomT]

Thanks for the replies.

I'm not trying to replace the AC68U with the HH5, I was running a comparison of wireless coverage and speed to see which would be better if I was to use either just as a access point.

I'm currently running Merlin Firmware:378.54_2 with the tx power adjustment at 100%

In all test the HH5 does seem faster at downloading, viewing files, reading reddit etc... but it won't give me the extra security of MAC Address filtering.

I was curious why there appears to be such a difference between the two.

Thanks

 

[sfx2000]

The 2wire provided by Bell is so bad, that even their own tech support recommended to at least two of my business customers to use their own router instead of theirs when they contacted tech support about issues...

We still have a little bit of 2Wire stuff out here, but ATT (the primary DSL provider in our area) has been doing rolling upgrade/replacement of those gateways with either Arris or Netgear, and these, so far, have been better...

The Cable guys - Cox and Spectrum (ex-TWC) - pretty much the same thing...