Replacement for BT Home Hub v1
 

The wireless aspect of my primary* BT Home Hub V1 has given up the ghost. Everything looks fine in the admin console and the service is still enabled but there's no signal (confirmed by a sniff).

So, before I call BT and ask for a free BT Home Hub v2 if I extend my broadband contract, what other wireless ADSL modem products should I look at from fellow PPRuNer's experience?

Essential

• All in one wireless ADSL modem router
• At least two ethernet ports
• Well constructed
• Stylish, given that it will necessarily sit in a prominent position
• Strong 802.11G single mode performance
• Customisable firewall
• Slick interface (but also see "undesirable" below)
• Full "standards compliance"

Desirable

• 802.11N now that it is a ratified standard and that future devices I buy are likely to come so enabled
• Strong 802.11G&N mixed mode performance
• Gigabit ethernet switch - I already have a five port gigabit switch where all devices other than the Hom Hub talk to each other at gigabit rates, but to have a gigabit switch in the Home Hub replacement will aid future wired expansion
• "Netgear" written on it as I tend to like their products but I'm not a brand snob and prefer to buy on real merit; if other products are better, that's fine
• £100 or less
• DMZ

Undesirable

• Settings overly simplified in a "dumb consumer" shell (The BT Home Hub v1 gave me juuust enough margin to do what I wanted to do)
• Firewall settings other than "default" lost on power-down and reboot (The BT Home Hub v1's most annoying feature)

TVM,
XV

*I have a second Home Hub, a v1.5, giving strong wireless coverage to the garden and connected in wired manner to the primary (DHCP) Home Hub via ethernet over mains Home Plugs.

I've tried the whole gamut of routers/modems/hubs over the years.
Belkin (several units) were dreadful. I had a variety of others which ranged from "fair" to "OK". Netgear was the best of those.

I've never regretted buying the Draytek. It wasn't cheap, but it's been excellent.

I also have a Cisco, which is brilliant, but a nightmare to set up. That's probably overkill for a home application.

I have an "original" BT Home hub in the cupboard. It gets used quite regularly for testing out ADSL for friends who are having trouble. I wouldn't use it as my own hub, though.

If you're happy with BT Internet (I know some folks are), and happy to sign up another spell, why not take their freebie. If you might want to migrate from BT, then I'd go for either a latest-model Netgear (read the online reviews to decide which is right for you) or more likely a Draytek.

Parents have been very happy with a Linksys until it developed a fault a couple of weeks back. Guy over the road lent me a "Kcorp LIfestyle" for them which, although it sounds like a name to run away from, is performing swimmingly well and provides far better logging than the Linksys did.

Thanks, all. Perhaps the friends with Home Hub v2 devices have been unlucky then; whilst I and them are indeed very happy with BT Broadband, their v2 Hubs have been relatively unstable whereas if I have to reboot my v1 twice a year it has been a bad year!

I'll do some research over the holiday, including to look at the KCorp products that a quick Google shows to be on the PC Pro A list, and then make my choice in the year.

Merry Christmas,
XV