Broadband Router Comparisons

Thu Dec 24 19:02:49 UTC 2015

Providing a managed service is the direction we're going. In our case,
since we're a Calix shop, we're using their GigaCenters, but I'm sure there
are other vendor options out there.

Early indications are that 95+% of our residential customers would rather
pay a nominal "maintenance" fee and use our managed router than purchase
their own. From our end, we get a little more revenue, we ensure our
customers aren't blaming us for problems caused by junk routers, and we
provide a level of service and support that the big guys can't even come
close to matching.

On Thu, Dec 24, 2015 at 9:40 AM, Justin Wilson <lists at mtin.net> wrote:

> The trend is a managed router service.  This way the ISP can control the
> customer experience a little better.  It also gives the ISP a DMARC point
> to test from, which is not as reliant on getting the customer involved.
>
> Mikrotik makes the hAP lite, which has a retail of $21.95.
> http://www.balticnetworks.com/mikrotik-hap-lite-tc-2-4ghz-indoor-access-point-tower-case-built-in-1-5dbi-antenna.html
> <
> http://www.balticnetworks.com/mikrotik-hap-lite-tc-2-4ghz-indoor-access-point-tower-case-built-in-1-5dbi-antenna.html>
> .  This is *nix based router you can cheaply deploy even if a customer
> doesn’t want a managed router.  I have clients who deploy this as a “modem”
> if the customer chooses their own router.  By doing this the ISP can run
> pings, traceroutes, see usage, and other useful tools from the customer
> side.
>
> Once you figure on your average support call on troubleshooting a customer
> router $21.95 is a drop in the bucket. Having a place to test from the
> customer side is invaluable.  Tons of tricks you can do too.  Turn on the
> wireless and have the customer connect to it.  Block out all traffic except
> what the customer is using for tests (i.e. wireless) so you can see if
> there are devices hogging the pipe.   You can do frequency scans to see how
> bad 2.4 is.    You can get a dual band hAP router with AC.  It is more
> expensive so deploying one of those at every customer might not be feasible.
>
>
> Justin Wilson
> j2sw at mtin.net
>
> ---
> http://www.mtin.net Owner/CEO
> xISP Solutions- Consulting – Data Centers - Bandwidth
>
> http://www.midwest-ix.com  COO/Chairman
>
> > On Dec 24, 2015, at 10:05 AM, Baldur Norddahl <baldur.norddahl at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> >
> > I have reasonable success with simply lending the customer a router. In
> > most cases they will then buy it afterwards, because it turns out that
> > their old router was indeed bad.
> >
> > But you can not win them all. Sometimes it is the other equipment that is
> > bad, or the customer is clueless. They might even be lying because
> everyone
> > knows you have to pretend it is worse than it actually is to get the
> doctor
> > to take you seriously. Also who here can honestly say you never pretended
> > to power cycle your Windows 95 when asked by the support bot on the
> phone,
> > while actually running Linux, because that is the only way to get passed
> on
> > to second tier support?
> >
> > Just last week I had a customer complaining his router was bad. I went
> out
> > there and found it in the basement, on the floor, under a bed with a ton
> of
> > crap on top. He said it was so much worse than his old internet, where he
> > had the router in the center of the house in his living room. Not too
> > surprisingly? He claimed the routers were located the same place until I
> > turned up at his house and asked to see it...
> >
> > I do not think you will have much success at pointing to a list of
> > supposedly bad routers. The world is just too complex. A bad experience
> can
> > be due to anything really. Most likely they are on 2,4 GHz and the
> spectrum
> > is crowded. Combine with an old computer (or even brand new!) that has
> crap
> > 2,4 GHz wifi - nothing a router can do about that. I demonstrate that it
> > can work with my own computer and then advise the customer on what to
> buy.
> >
> > Regards,
> >
> > Baldur
> >
>
>