At the time of writing this router is under £80 at Amazon UK and includes a 3-year warranty if you register it.
As well as GUEST 2.4 & 5.8 Wi-Fi it all supports assignable private Ethernet LAN ports, ideal for a landlord say with Student Lets needing to provide isolated individual private internet-enabled networks.
Tucked under the Network section is a feature labeled ‘Interface grouping’ where each Ethernet LAN port can be assigned to different IP ranges isolated from each other and the host LAN whilst preserving upstream internet connectivity.
For the money, I was quite impressed with this router as it also includes a built-in Open VPN server, handy if you want to watch BBC iPlayer when you are on your holidays overseas. I also saw about a 15% increase in my VDSL connection speed compared to the stock router Plusnet provided, it even has Ookla Speedtest built-in so results are likely to be more accurate.
Just in case anybody has taken Three up on their excellent value £14 a month unlimited 4G Broadband offer which includes the ZTE 286D home router there is a snag if you wish to use the built-in VOIP phone socket(s), Three has removed the VOIP settings option and replace it with a diagnostic option instead.
When you delve in to the advance settings to add you VOIP details (usually just a server address, username password) Three has removed the VOIP settings panel and replaced with a diagnostic settings option instead.
When I asked Three why they had removed this setting they said they didn’t want to get involved with supporting VOIP, but, to be honest most VOIP companies provide set-up instructions or point you in the right direction such as a forum or Social Media group.
There are work arounds including plugging in an external VOIP handset or adaptor such the popular CISCO & Linksys device, about £25 on Amazon but this seems rather pants that you can’t make use of the phone sockets on the router itself and have to rely on third party hardware (another potential point of failure and something requiring support)
Not tested but I suspect you can plug a convention phone to the RJ11 sockets (with a suitable RJ11 to BT system adaptor) as you can with Huawei 4G routers on Three with SIMS that have included minutes.
One solution would be to buy an unbranded new unlocked ZTE 286D on eBay (circa £100) and subscribe to SMARTY who ironically are owned by Three and even use Three’s 4G Network infrastructure. Slight more expensive (£18 a month + the cost the router) but a 30 day rolling contract and you can often get the price down to £15 a month on Black Friday. They also have a referral system where you also get £15 every time you refer someone so 8 referrals would pay for the router anyhow.
With the demise of the UK PSTN by 2025 I’d have thought VOIP is going to fast become a hot potato, especially as you can port BT & Virgin numbers over to VOIP and scrap the landline all together.
Just though I’d put this out there for anyone who is scratching their head, perhaps Three are trying discourage VOIP so they can sell their own calls?
Having embraced Amazon smart devices big time in our house, we thought, wouldn’t it be great if we could eliminate the DECT landline phones we have in each room and use our Echo devices. Turns out you can, with the Echo Connect. review to follow.
Phil Bridges - useful stuff 