Replace Openreach modem with.......?

[#1]

Plusnet have suggested my openreach modem may be faulty, but rather unhelpfully they will only supply a HUB ONE rather than a modem. I already have a multi-wan pfsense router so only need a nice dumb modem. I could go on ebay and find a like-for-like replacement I guess but what do the forum recommend as a nice shiny new modem to take my FTTC incoming and turn it into ethernet?

thanks in advance

Rob

[#2]

@robatworkuk I have one of these http://uk.tp-link.com/download/TD-W9970.html . It can very simply be set to bridge (modem) mode and gets a good review from kitz http://www.kitz.co.uk/routers/tplink_TD-W9970_review.htm.

Best of all you can pick them up for £29.99 at Argos http://www.argos.co.uk/product/5728882 and Amazon https://www.amazon.co.uk/TP-Link-Wireless-Support-UK-TD-W9970/dp/B013OXVA6M .They're slightly mor expensive from other stockists https://pricespy.co.uk/product.php?p=3187864

[#3]

any idea what the fault with the modem is?

have you tried flashing it with the 'hacked' firmware as that then gives full access ( apologies if you've already done this )

i'm partly interested as i currently have a suspicion that the hub one modem is not good at all and after daily disconnects/problems i'd gone back to the openreach modem which was much more stable, i'm about to try the hub one again to see if the problems return...

[#4]

I'm just getting dropouts and plus are telling me the line is fine. Not really got time to play with it too much but was going to replace - especially as plus support's next action for me is to replace modem and router.  I think many years ago I replaced one from an ebay special which actually worked out OK, but I like the simplicity of these boxes and the fact i CAN'T get into its settings. They just chunter away happily. If you've ever used a pfsense router you'll know there's plenty of tweaking/hacking to be done with that if it takes your fancy.....(and what a fantastic piece of software it is BTW)

[#5]

If you are happy with your router I would get a Huawei HG612 modem from Ebay and unlock it. You can than run a program such as dslstats and see/log modem performance. More information can be found on the kitz web site: http://www.kitz.co.uk/routers/hg612unlock.htm. Alternatively you can just leave it as is and let it 'chunter away'.

If you want a VDSL combined modem/router with decent 2.4 and 5GHz WiFi capability plus the option to do extensive tweeking then I'm sure there is plenty of advice on peoples favourite device around but a decent router will cost you.

If you want a combined modem/router that justs chunters away that's better looking and has better performance than the PN Hub One then get a BT Smart Hub from Ebay for very little money and configure that for your PN account. Just make sure it's the FTTC version, which has four yellow Ethernet sockets, not the FTTP version that has a red WAN sticker attached to one of the Ethernet sockets. This is very easy to configure and full instructions can be found in this forum.

[#6]

i would try using the hacked firmware, you can still ignore all it's settings etc, has both web and telnet access

very easy to replace the firmware took me less than a minute

worth a try as might turn out to be dodgy firmware from bt world again

i'm assuming you have tried using the hub one as a vdsl modem too

fyi i'm having disconnect issues too, but when i used a hacked openreach modem they stopped and the snr went rock steady, so i'm starting to wonder if we have a firmware issue ( see my other post today )

obviously at your own risk doing the firmwar 'upgrade' http://www.kitz.co.uk/routers/hg612unlock.htm i could do as i could always go back to using the hub one as my modem