Fibre broadband router question

[adc82140]

I've just been offered a good deal for fibre broadband. However I've got a really decent WiFi router which I want to keep. Is there a difference between routers used for fibre and those used for traditional copper connections?

Thanks.

 

[pdq]

There may be a bit of manual intervention needed for you to configure your router, but there's no reason why it won't work. You will feed the output from the new fibre modem into your router.

 

[adc82140]

Perfect, thank you.

 

[Snow1964]

Have a look on the back of your router, what input sockets do you have, and how are they labelled.

Some older routers were not designed to offer the speeds that full fibre can manage, so even playing with settings might not be possible to take full advantage

 

[Trackman]

If it's Virgin Media and I imagine other fibre providers, you cannot use any old router, it must be theirs.
The only workaround is to put the hub into modem mode and connect your old router to it. Your old router must have the correct switching speed for it to work, you can google about this.

 

[adc82140]

I've only had the router about a year, so hopefully it'll be compatible with the speeds I've been promised. It's not Virgin Media, had dealings with them in the past and vowed never again. It's Trooli Internet.

 

[Howardh]

Got my router form Sky from the time Tesco dropped broadband and "forced" me on to talktalk which I rejected. I'm still on the same router and have upgraded my speeds thanks to a line upgrade, and it's not massively fast, varies between 5 and 30 mbps so I can rarely enjoy "live" 4k streaming, even though I should.

Recently I've been plagued by drop-outs, sometimes for seconds, sometimes until I turn off/on; beginning to think I need a new router from Sky but I would lose use of my home security cameras, I'd have to "re-install" them unless somehow I can keep my wifi password??

 

[JamesT]

Got my router form Sky from the time Tesco dropped broadband and "forced" me on to talktalk which I rejected. I'm still on the same router and have upgraded my speeds thanks to a line upgrade, and it's not massively fast, varies between 5 and 30 mbps so I can rarely enjoy "live" 4k streaming, even though I should.

Recently I've been plagued by drop-outs, sometimes for seconds, sometimes until I turn off/on; beginning to think I need a new router from Sky but I would lose use of my home security cameras, I'd have to "re-install" them unless somehow I can keep my wifi password??

Pretty much every router I’ve ever seen will allow you to set the SSID name and password. I’ve been through several ISPs during my time in this house and use the supplied router each time, but I set the SSID to one of my choosing so I don’t need to make any changes to my devices.

 

[Howardh]

Pretty much every router I’ve ever seen will allow you to set the SSID name and password. I’ve been through several ISPs during my time in this house and use the supplied router each time, but I set the SSID to one of my choosing so I don’t need to make any changes to my devices.

Thanks, the cameras don't know where the wifi is coming from, they just want the same password!!

 

[pdq]

I've got Talktalk fibre, and I would assume it's similar with other providers... The Openreach modem is connected to the incoming fibre, and provides the network output to the router which is a separate device (Eero in the case of TT). In this case the router isn't doing anything provider specific.

 

[Crossover]

I can only speak for Vodafone, but our router is the same as others we know in the area who are still on ADSL services, just with a different connection for the inbound connection.

The incoming connection for our fibre, at least, is presented as a regular RJ45 connection through a CatX cable

 

[sor]

If it's Virgin Media and I imagine other fibre providers, you cannot use any old router, it must be theirs.
The only workaround is to put the hub into modem mode and connect your old router to it. Your old router must have the correct switching speed for it to work, you can google about this.

Virgin are the main outlier. Pretty much everyone else has a separate fibre box ("ONT"), usually wall mounted so the customer can't fiddle with it too much, that connects to the router. Virgin have taken a different route even in their newest fibre areas, where that conversion takes place inside the router. Apparently the "modem mode" for this doesn't work as well as it does on their cable network.

Most ISP provided devices typically accept a range of connection types so they don't have to worry too much about what the customer has or will eventually be upgraded to.

I'd be inclined to give the new ISP router a go. No idea what "Trooli" hand out but it's not necessarily a certainty that it's lower quality than the one you already have.