UK - Best BT Smart Hub 2 Replacement

[fuzzyparrot48]

Hi Everyone

First post back here for quite a few years, always an avid reader but not contributed for some time.
I've been looking at Wifi routers and getting confused.. here is my setup which will be fairly common in the UK I think.

I currently have BT Broadband which I'm planning to keep and a Smart Hub 2.
This router does not allow me to split the bands in to two separate networks, meaning I've had to disable 5ghz for some of the older tech I have to work.. I used to have a time capsule but now have to plug my USB in to do backups.

I would like to buy a new router that has at least dual band that can be split in to two SSID's, I also want to be able to plug in my hard drive to enable time machine. I'm not an avid gamer but am doing lots of video calls and have many devices including some smart home tech.. not sure how much 'wifi 6' is a gimmick or not.

Range is important to me as I have some Ring cameras, one often shows 'poor connection' as it's on the limit of the range the smart hub 2 can provide.
I don't want to spend more than £150. I think I need a modem router so that the smart hub 2 is redundant or else the smart hub 2 will slow down the whole network?

Please can you help advise what might be a good option and whether or not to go for a modem router that i plug the telephone cable in to or just a router and prevent the smart hub 2 from slowing it all down?

Thanks in advance for any tips

 

[afd]

I was just about to post the same question when your’s popped up. I’ve been looking for something better that the BT zone we have at the moment. It should be enough, we live in a timber framed house and there are only 3 of us though we all have phones, iPads and computers. My daughter’s iPhone 11 seems to drop the Wi-fi and use her mobile data so was thinking a newer router with Wi-fi 6 or Mesh might be better. I think I’d prefer one with ADSL built in than have to use 2 routers.
If Apple still made airports I’d consider getting one. Have also thought of using powerline adapters, maybe one that had a hotspot at the other end. Anyone got any thoughts?

 

[fuzzyparrot48]

I was just about to post the same question when your’s popped up. I’ve been looking for something better that the BT zone we have at the moment. It should be enough, we live in a timber framed house and there are only 3 of us though we all have phones, iPads and computers. My daughter’s iPhone 11 seems to drop the Wi-fi and use her mobile data so was thinking a newer router with Wi-fi 6 or Mesh might be better. I think I’d prefer one with ADSL built in than have to use 2 routers.
If Apple still made airports I’d consider getting one. Have also thought of using powerline adapters, maybe one that had a hotspot at the other end. Anyone got any thoughts?

Hi!

so I went with a tp-link modem router from curry’s, £169.99.
I expected it to have a setting to enable time machine but frustratingly once I was setting it up I could not find that setting and found out they no longer support it. Instead I’ve had to set it up to mount a virtual drive which will largely do the same job but isn’t as seamless as I was expecting.
The router otherwise seems to have better connectivity than the BT smart hub and crucially for me the bands are split by default.

I noticed a speed improvement of about 20% from this vs my previous setup but this really is quite anecdotal based on a number of speed tests but not conducted scientifically!

I would prefer though to have time machine enabled by default so would personally go for a different manufacturer.

 

[afd]

Thanks! Will look into that. I’ve stopped using time machine. I just use iCloud to backup my docs and desktop. I know it’s not a proper backup but after a SSD fail I was up and running again pretty quickly.