How To Set Up Talktalk Wifi Hub

TechRadar Verdict

If you're a TalkTalk customer we'd highly recommend upgrading to the TalkTalk Wi-Fi Hub. It offers very good operation and range, especially compared to the free modem routers TalkTalk has previously offered. Information technology's a stylish, modern router with plenty of features to boot.

Pros

+
Nice design
+
Good performance
+
Very practiced range
+
Easy to gear up

Cons

-
Bit trickier if yous're not a TalkTalk customer
-
WPS button is awkwardly placed

When you sign upwardly for broadband, your ISP (Internet access provider) will supply you with a modem router for free, and these are usually low-spec devices that don't have the features you lot tin get from (more expensive) third-party companies such equally Netgear and Belkin.

With the TalkTalk Wi-Fi Hub, TalkTalk is attempting to claiming the notion that for the best Wi-Fi speeds you demand to use a third-party router, promising the improved Wi-Fi performance and features you usually see on more advanced routers, such as beamforming and multiple Ethernet ports.

And, while the TalkTalk Wi-Fi Hub is designed to deliver a functioning boost for TalkTalk customers, it can also be bought separately and used regardless of your Internet access provider.

Price and availability

The TalkTalk Wi-Fi Hub sells for £120 in the UK. This is a fair fleck cheaper than the extremely fast and feature-packed TP-Link Archer C5400 v2, and cheaper than mesh Wi-Fi devices such as the Netgear Orbi.

Maybe its biggest competitor is from TalkTalk's rival Internet service provider, BT – information technology offers the BT Smart Hub, which information technology bills as offering 'the UK's near powerful Wi-Fi point compared to routers from other major broadband providers', and which retails for £129.99.

The TalkTalk Wi-Fi Hub is available to buy correct at present, and if you're an existing TalkTalk client, or y'all're thinking of signing upwards, the price drops to £thirty. If yous sign up to TalkTalk's Faster Fibre parcel, then the Wi-Fi Hub is included for costless (although there is a £30 setup fee).

Pattern and features

The design of routers has improved dramatically in recent years, with manufacturers making efforts to produce units that look squeamish enough that their customers don't feel the need to hide them away (which could potentially affect their Wi-Fi performance).

The TalkTalk Wi-Fi Hub continues this tendency, with an unobtrusive blueprint that won't wait out of place in a living room. It'due south a simple design, with no protruding antennae, and features a grayness body covered in perforations, displaying bronze material underneath. It looks practiced, and while it doesn't compete with Google Wifi when information technology comes to design we actually appreciate the understated aesthetics.

The TalkTalk branding is subtle, with a slightly darker grey color that makes it just visible when viewed from a certain bending. Information technology's a nice contrast to the BT Smart Hub's loud and proud design, which includes a prominent BT logo on the front.

At that place are four gigabit Ethernet ports on the rear of the device, which is a big upgrade over the ports that are supplied with TalkTalk's older routers, and it means this is a neat router for networks with plenty of wired devices.

There's also a broadband port, which is used when the TalkTalk Wi-Fi Hub is interim every bit a modem, and which connects to your phone line via a supplied micro filter. There'south also a WAN port if you're using the TalkTalk Wi-Fi Hub as just a router, which will connect it to a separate modem.

Nosotros like that the TalkTalk Wi-Fi Hub has a modem built in, as if you have a compatible fibre connection it means y'all only need one box (rather than a separate router and modem), while the inclusion of the WAN port allows for some flexibility, for example if you lot take cable broadband.

In that location's also a WPS (Web Protected Setup) button on the back of the router, which allows you to chop-chop and securely connect devices to the wireless network. It's a convenient feature, but it's placed in an inconvenient place, right at the bottom of the router'due south rear, which means that, depending on where you lot identify the router, you may struggle to reach information technology.

A prissy bear upon, however, is that the Wi-Fi name and countersign are written on a removable plastic tag, which means yous don't have to manoeuvre yourself backside the router when adding a new device. In that location's also infinite for you lot to write your ain network name and password if yous change it from the default.

Apart from the placement of the WPS button, this is a very nicely-designed router, particularly compared to the basic modem routers nosotros're used to getting from ISPs.

Feature-wise, the TalkTalk Wi-Fi Hub comes with 802.11ac Wave 2 Wi-Fi, which is currently the fastest grade of wireless networking, and co-ordinate to TalkTalk it makes the new router two times faster than its previous models.

Information technology'due south likewise dual band, with 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands for keeping your wireless network from getting too clogged up, and it has a iii ten 3 antenna assortment for the 2.4GHz and 4 x iv MU-MIMO for the 5GHz.

The TalkTalk Wi-Fi Hub includes features we've seen in other advanced routers, but which rarely come with Internet service provider routers, such as beamforming (which focuses the Wi-Fi signal to amend achieve your devices) and the power to automatically choose the best Wi-Fi channel to reduce interference.

Installation and functioning

The ease of installing the TalkTalk Wi-Fi Hub will vary a little depending on whether or not you lot're an existing TalkTalk customer. If you are, and yous upgrade to the hub through TalkTalk, then the procedure should exist as uncomplicated every bit swapping out your existing modem and router for the TalkTalk Wi-Fi Hub.

You'll need to add your devices to the new Wi-Fi network, however, or you can change the name of the new network to your previous one, which may be faster if you lot have lots of wireless devices, and which can be done via the router's web interface (more on that in a moment).

If, like the states, you lot're not a TalkTalk customer, the setup is slightly more than involved. If the TalkTalk Wi-Fi Hub is going to replace your modem and router, then you'll demand to go details from your ISP well-nigh your username and password. These are unlike credentials to the ones you use to connect to your Wi-Fi, or to log into your router's admin page, and some ISPs are reluctant to hand them out, but preserve and y'all will get them.

If you lot're just using the TalkTalk Wi-Fi Hub to act as a router – and not a modem – and so you simply need to plug your modem into the WAN port of the Hub.

To ready the TalkTalk Wi-Fi Hub you need to get into its admin page, which is accessed by typing 192.168.1.ane into a spider web browser, then entering in the admin username and password, which is printed on the contrary of the TalkTalk Wi-Fi Hub (not on the removable Wi-Fi username tag, for security reasons).

The web-based interface is clear and simple, and you lot tin can aggrandize well-nigh sections to run into advanced settings that you can use if you know what you lot're doing.

During our tests the TalkTalk Wi-Fi Hub did a really skillful job of delivering fast and reliable Wi-Fi throughout a three-storey building. In the same room as the router we got 74.1Mbps download from a line capable of 80 Mbps, which is a pretty decent score, with a ping of 11ms.

Moving to the flooring higher up the router, there was a drop in speeds, simply not a significant i, with 73.9Mbps download, with a ping of 10ms.

Moving up to the tiptop floor the speeds remained steady with 73.7Mbps, and a ping of 10ms. While the speeds nosotros experienced while using the TalkTalk Wi-Fi Hub varied depending on what part of the firm we were accessing information technology from, overall nosotros were very impressed with the speed and the coverage of this router, especially considering it doesn't have external antennae.

Verdict

If you're a TalkTalk customer and want to boost your Wi-Fi coverage, you should definitely take the hazard to upgrade to the TalkTalk Wi-Fi Hub, every bit information technology really does deliver with improved operation. Speeds were impressive and coverage was very good, while we also quite similar the new design.

If you're not a TalkTalk client y'all may even so be interested in this device, but be warned that the setup procedure is more complicated. Even so, it is possible to use it merely every bit a router if yous accept some other ISP.

The Wi-Fi Hub certainly a very good effort from TalkTalk, and it'southward always proficient to encounter ISPs offering more than powerful hardware to their customers.

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Senior Computing editor

Matt (Twitter) is TechRadar's Senior Computing editor. Having written for a number of publications such every bit PC Plus, PC Format, T3 and Linux Format, there's no aspect of technology that Matt isn't passionate almost, especially computing and PC gaming. If you're encountering a problem or need some advice with your PC or Mac, driblet him a line on Twitter.