Magnet Broadband in Apartment

smilgy

Anyone know what sort of setup Magnet have in Dublin apartments? The reason I ask is, the modem they have provided (Zyxel VMG1312-B10D) doesn't have great penetration for WiFi in the apartment with the fire doors, etc.

So I was doing some testing today and have figured out that the internet connection comes into the apartment via ethernet. In one of the utility rooms, theres a little box (think like your break box) that has a switch that distributes the incoming connection into all the network ports in different rooms. You can connect the modem to any one of these, and thats how you have WiFi and hard wired ethernet.

If I do a speedtest over WiFi, depending what room I'm in, i can get anywhere between 2 to 60 mbit.

If I do a speedtest via ethernet into the modem, I get around 100 mbit.

So then, I decided to bypass the modem altogether, did direct laptop to network switch via ethernet, and the speeds I got was well in excess of what I should have been and ipconfig on the laptop showed my external IP address.. which got me thinking, the modem isnt acting exactly as a modem, but more just as a router. Especially considering its just connected to the switch via the WAN port of the device.

So does that mean I can replace the Zyxel device, with any router thats a bit beefier for better WiFi penetration? What about the speeds that I was able to get? Think there might be any problems down the line considering I'm receiving way more than I'm paying for? It feels like the device they've provided is broadly in line with what I'm paying for and perhaps thats how they're limiting the speed?

Anyway, not exactly sure where I'm going with this, but be interested in hearing other peoples thoughts on this!

trant

I've never used their service, but if you are able to get out to the internet by plugging in a laptop there is no reason another WiFi router wouldn't work.

The Asus RT-AX86U is highly rated, especially if you have WiFi 6 devices.

smilgy

I actually did get an older Asus router with 5GHz, flashed dd-wrt and get great speeds around the house on the 5GHz AP. Approximately a ten fold increase. The 2.4GHz AP is still fairly poor even on the new router, but more than enough for legacy devices.