UPDATE Sept 2022 – go to bottom of page.
Been using for about 6 months and haven’t any complaints, It does seem very stable and seems to perform quite well. I’m on the “Superfast” connection of 80Mb and Speedtest confirms I’m getting this most times.
I’ve only had to do a power-cycle twice, once due to a loss of WAN IP address and once to sort out a WiFi problem, which turned out not to be the router.
It would be nice if the WAN IP address (External IP address) didn’t change as often as it does. The router is powered up 24/7, along with several of my devices so there isn’t any real reason for the IP address to change, new IP after a reboot is fine. The router does support “Dynamic DNS services” though so this will help people that want to connect remotely to their home PC.
It only has 2 LAN (Ethernet) ports, instead of the more usual 4 ports but for most people that will probably be fine due to the built-in WAP (Wireless Access Point / WiFi). For people that prefer to connect using Ethernet and you have more than 2 devices, it means you will have to purchase an extra switch with a suitable number of ports.
Logs: It does have a facility to send logs to a SYSLOG server but I can’t imagine that many people have a SYSLOG server to hand! You could use Raspberry Pi as a SYSLOG server but the ability to email logs to “wherever” would be a better option.
The logs don’t seem to include any firewall activity and for most people that will not be a problem but I’m a “Log Reader”! Firewall logs basically only show “failed connections” so you know the firewall is doing its job but looking at the logs, it is possible to be alerted to potential “attacks” from IP addresses on a regular basis and these can be shared with online databases to attempt to build a picture of potential “hacking sites”.
The admin screen could do with a tweak. I can’t think of any reason why you would need to log in to view the WAN IP address but you can get this by going to IPCHICKEN.
Firewall. It does have a basic firewall that allows you to create some rules but it does seem the default option is to block all “Inbound” services and this should be fine for most people but for me (paranoid Pete) I would only consider this as “border protection” and use an additional “hardware Firewall” (this takes you to my sister site pcjudo.co.uk) to give better protection for my LAN.
Keyword blocking is supported.
Schedule is supported, so you can control the hours of internet availability.
Attached devices is supported, this allows you to see what devices are using the router. It would be better to see what connection the devices were using e.g. WiFi or Ethernet.
It would be nice if the router could be stood up on its edge to save space on the desk but it seems that it works best if it’s laid flat.
Overall the router works quite well and does the job. In my experience, it seems very stable, pretty much plug n play!
Update Sept 2022.
I’m back to using Sky Broadband and the new router appears to be the Sky Hub 4 ?
The first thing of note is that it is now nice and thin and is used “upright” instead of laying flat. It looks nice.
The next thing of note is the number of LAN ports, it now has 4 RJ45 sockets and it also has a standard BT phone socket (431A) and a non BT phone socket (RJ11?). This means that your “landline” phone now connects to the router so all voice calls are now using VOB (Voice Over Broadband), without using an “IP Phone”.
It might be worth noting that “Land lines” are being phased out and after 2025 you won’t be able to get a “Land line”. All voice calls will use the home router, which won’t be a problem for a lot / most people who have an Internet connection.
The “Web based” UI (User Interface) hasn’t changed much and you still need to log in to view the WAN IP address!
The default 192.168.0.1 LAN IP doesn’t seem to be able to be changed but you can change the 3rd octet so if you have your own kit and a “Home LAN”, it isn’t a problem.
The Firewall rules seem to offer more configuration options than the previous router, from memory!
It has a dual band WiFi (2.4GHz & 5GHz) and there is an option to “Synchronise” the 2 bands. This allows the use of one SSID and the kit connecting will use the best option.
There doesn’t seem to be a way of using “customer preferred” DNS servers but won’t be a problem for most people.
Overall, it is a nice bit of kit and should be adequate for most people.