This looks like a good deal for a combined AP and VDSL unit from a respected brand. Heat++

I've noticed a few comments about and wanted to comment, as there are several factors you might want to consider.

1) On some routers the large volume of traffic created by Bittorrent clients can cause memory problems. Specifically the need to periodically reboot, restart the unit. From what I have noticed this seems to be a memory leak in the SPI side of things. Thankfully most new units like this are tested in anger with high volume torrent and streaming media so its no longer an issue. When I had the Virgin SuperHub it had a timeswitch on it to turn off the power for 1 minute a day. This stopped the lock ups,
2) The intergraded units that the ISPs send out used to be underpowered especially the ones older than a 18months. Again using the Virgin Superhub as an example if I disabled the Wifi and switched it to modem mode I'd get faster torrent downloads (A jump from 4 to 6 mb down)
3) If you have a problem on your VDSL line and are with BT it will help a lot if you KEEP your home hub in case of problems. I had to plug mine in for 2 days so they could view the statistics that it collected. They then said yes we can see lots of errors and sent out an engineer. This feature was only in the Homehub, not the Openreach unit I was using.
4) The separation of the Modem and the Access point into 2 device might be of use if a) You have many wireless devices need fast him data rate Wi-Fi (e.g. HD streaming to 3 or more devices) b) You master phone socket is not near the center of your house e.g. is on one side of the ground floor not on in the middle of the first floor. In both these cases a dedicated WiFI AP might make sense but you would need to link the Modem to the AP (e.g. network cable)
5) As more people stream video now newer units like this one may have much better that the clunky old units designed when iPlayer, Netflix, Amazon, Chromecast, Smart TVs, Kodi were new so even if the specs look the same the performance in the real world may be better
6) Firmware - This is the software that runs on the unit from the comments on this tread it is clear that the firmware is updated and this a good thing. It allows bug fixes and tweaks needed for the UK market.
7)This unit has beam forming which is great as more and more devices support this.
8)There may be custom firmware for this unit if you are so inclined (https://wiki.openwrt.org/toh/tp-link/vr200v#restore_tp-link_fw)
9) The unit comes with a 3 year warrantee, REMEMBER to register to extend the 2 year cover to 3 years. Also its Amazon who is the retailers so returns / warranty items should not be an issue.

Password extraction are no longer needed for Sky Fibre, I simply input username: admin, and password: install

I bought this and have been using it since the weekend on Virgin Media (Cable).

I put my load of **** Superhub 3 into Modem mode as it was useless in Modem/Router mode. Constant dropouts etc and poor coverage of Wifi, in a small house.

My verdict over the last 2 days is that it isn't that great re: Wifi coverage despite the 3 antannae.

Had an hour long whinge with VM over the phone. The carried a host of tests & concluded that nothing wrong with their signal or any of the equipment / cabling.

So I conclude that this router aint for me & it looks as though it'll be going back

would this solve throttling during peak times if your router with ee is junk?

Looks like it's £76.95 now and 1-3 week delivery https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/offer-listing/B0161AC69A/ref=dp_olp_new?ie=UTF8&condition=new

few days on now with, few niggles with the firmware.
also when clicking a webpage sometimes you have to click the link twice before the wifi kicks in (its like it goes to sleep??)

ipv6 i just can't get it to work with sky fibre
my ip cams went of this morning for no reason, ip changed ??

i'll give it another couple of days, if not i'll be returning it.
its a shame as the wifi range is excellent, i think its more firmware issues.

Received yesterday and got it set up. Seems to run pretty well but had to reset the router today as internet went down. Not sure if it's a coincidence at this point or something that will develop into a recurring problem. Have the latest firmware installed.

got the router setup today, wifi range & speed is excellent.
using sky fibre updated the firmware and sky MER is a option, online in seconds.

good features like bandwidth control and guest wifi.

found that link - http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/get-7-voucher-for-30-gift-card-spend-amazon-co-uk-2527592

My contract is still ongoing, will have to look through my emails, thanks for reminding me! :stuck_out_tongue:

Thanks, I've bought the router. Should be here tomorrow I was about to pull the plug on Talktalk, I've had my price rise email, so i could've left the contract (penalty free), but when i renewed, I got a good deal & it's only wifi that I have a problem with

Yes it's very easy, there's an Easy Set Up option - plug in, use the Wireless Key provided, that's it. I'm hard-wired for a few things but use a tablet/phone on and off at home.

There's new(ish) firmware (January 2016) http://www.tp-link.com/en/download/Archer-VR200.html#Firmware (just realised someone's posted a link already! :stuck_out_tongue:)

I got mine gently used from ebay so it's likely new VR200s will have this Firmware already.

FAQs here: http://www.tp-link.com/en/download/Archer-VR200.html#FAQs

Edit: Also, further to what frownbreaker said, do keep your TalkTalk modem, just in case you have issues in the future (they tell you they can't offer Technical Support unless you are using the modem they supplied you with).

I live in a tiny one-bedroom flat and the constant disconnects (with the Huawei HG633) were driving me mad. Did all the changing channels guff, firmware updates, even had a (TalkTalk Engineer) visit. Gave up in the end and bought my own - but my Ombudsman complaint is simply asking them to refund me for the purchase (not hanging my hopes on it, but feel they should reimburse me for all the messing around - and I'm not the only one, if you look at their Community Forums).

Tried and best I got was free Hub one, and either £15-99 for the 76Mb fibre over 18 months or £14-99 per month over 24 months. Not sure if that's OK or not. Don't really want to leave PN but the weak router and cost starting to annoy me.

This looks like a good deal for a combined AP and VDSL unit from a respected brand. Heat++

I've noticed a few comments about and wanted to comment, as there are several factors you might want to consider.

1) On some routers the large volume of traffic created by Bittorrent clients can cause memory problems. Specifically the need to periodically reboot, restart the unit. From what I have noticed this seems to be a memory leak in the SPI side of things. Thankfully most new units like this are tested in anger with high volume torrent and streaming media so its no longer an issue. When I had the Virgin SuperHub it had a timeswitch on it to turn off the power for 1 minute a day. This stopped the lock ups,
2) The intergraded units that the ISPs send out used to be underpowered especially the ones older than a 18months. Again using the Virgin Superhub as an example if I disabled the Wifi and switched it to modem mode I'd get faster torrent downloads (A jump from 4 to 6 mb down)
3) If you have a problem on your VDSL line and are with BT it will help a lot if you KEEP your home hub in case of problems. I had to plug mine in for 2 days so they could view the statistics that it collected. They then said yes we can see lots of errors and sent out an engineer. This feature was only in the Homehub, not the Openreach unit I was using.
4) The separation of the Modem and the Access point into 2 device might be of use if a) You have many wireless devices need fast him data rate Wi-Fi (e.g. HD streaming to 3 or more devices) b) You master phone socket is not near the center of your house e.g. is on one side of the ground floor not on in the middle of the first floor. In both these cases a dedicated WiFI AP might make sense but you would need to link the Modem to the AP (e.g. network cable)
5) As more people stream video now newer units like this one may have much better that the clunky old units designed when iPlayer, Netflix, Amazon, Chromecast, Smart TVs, Kodi were new so even if the specs look the same the performance in the real world may be better
6) Firmware - This is the software that runs on the unit from the comments on this tread it is clear that the firmware is updated and this a good thing. It allows bug fixes and tweaks needed for the UK market.
7)This unit has beam forming which is great as more and more devices support this.
8)There may be custom firmware for this unit if you are so inclined (https://wiki.openwrt.org/toh/tp-link/vr200v#restore_tp-link_fw)
9) The unit comes with a 3 year warrantee, REMEMBER to register to extend the 2 year cover to 3 years. Also its Amazon who is the retailers so returns / warranty items should not be an issue.

Cheers - will try that.

I actually found the wifi range of the VR900 to be worse than my homehub4, and sent it back. Can't comment on relative speeds when it was in range - just that its reach was not as good.

Same here, I was considering the VR900, but this looks like it will do the job. Was the set-up straight forward?

I don't know about wifi range but it would indeed replace both your technicolor router and openreach modem as the VR200 has a built-in vdsl modem. Are you in contract with plusnet? if not you could haggle them for a discount and get them to throw their newest all in one router the Hub One in for free. This is what I did with them and they gave me 2 years fibre (38/2) for £10 a month as well as the new Hub One for free.

It was things like a complete tv series for example which could be up to 100gb each file was around 500mb downloaded through jdownloader. Also heard alot of people have had problems with torrent files with some tp-link routers. Both the cheap technicolour router and hub one plusnet have supplied have handled such things without any problems

nope sorry didn't save the url, must be only on certain amazon accounts and one time, cause i ordered something later and it wasn't there.

thanks, blackjackjoe, useful info.

btw there was a £7 voucher off when you send £30 amazon gift card to someone (you get the £7 off voucher emailed to you within 48hrs), it only showed on the checkout page.

Yes the Wi-Fi range is vastly improved

likewise, am a bit fed up with the weak wifi on my Technocolor router coupled with a Openreach modem on Plusnet Fibre ( is that the same as SSE mentioned above?)
Does this replace both and would the wifi range be improved?
Cheers.

How big a file, out of interest?

I've had a couple of TP-Link routers and found they often needed to be restarted, so annoying... but I'm kind of tempted.

Tempted by this for the price, but the TP-Link Archer VR900 (At twice the price) does look better.
Any thought if the TP-Link Archer VR900 worth the extra money? Thanks

Using this for last 6 months with Sky Fibre. Update to latest firmware first and it should work fine.

The only problem with this is that no openwrt support for it. But its a very good router.

​Many thanks for the info

Heat added but personally I'm toying with the idea of getting the router only version (C20i) without the ADSL/VDSL model and using with the existing router as a slave and saving a few £££ over this.

While researching the VR200 I read a review on the Mailing site that suggested the C20i has much better range than the VR200 and it can be bought for as little as £20 apparently.

Yeh it was a black one that had been uploaded

Yes you have to download the firmware first onto your computer and flash upgrade the firmware to support Sky(MER)_VDSL: Archer VR200(EU)_V1_160122

Found an online firmware emulator for the VR200 you can play around with (based on older firmware): VR200 Emulator

Click 'Advanced' tab at top, left hand section scroll down and double click on 'System Tools' to expand, scroll down further on the same section and click 'Firmware Upgrade' tab.

Not very clued up on these things but currently have non-fibre Sky b/b and their standard single band router which my Chromebook struggles with the signal. Got round this previously by using another TP router with dual band which the Chromebook will connect on the 5ghz band. Only drawback is it only sits flat horizontal and gets very warm and could end marking the wooden unit long term.

Like the look of this as its vertical like the Sky unit. Will this work with non-fibre b/b?

Regarding username/password for SSE their customer service will provide this to you if asked.
Alternatively, in your original welcome pack you may also have a leaflet for a free 'security package' or something which will also have your username/password on too. I got SSE around 12 months ago and they referred to that leaflet when I contacted them.

Cheers!
Phil

Password extraction are no longer needed for Sky Fibre, I simply input username: admin, and password: install

Not sure what solution TalkTalk are offering now (I was told they are starting to offer the HG635 again) but that's not without its issues either. Not as notorious as the HG633 though.

I have an ongoing Ombudsman case with them as I got messed around so much with Engineer visits, etc.

will this replace the sky black firbe FTC box, i heard sky have issues getting passwords etc.
i use my sky box as dumb terminal to pass internet feed to my other tplink wireless (which is much better for connections) .
will this box allow me to ditch bother routers? thanks

Could anyone tell me what this could do for me that a BT Smart Hub cannot? I did have a Asus rt-ac87u router and liked the free DDNS and VPN function but that developed a fault and I'm back to the smart hub with no real problems other that the firmware being a clunky.

How do i find out what Version home hub i have?
Had it installed about 3 weeks ago

Just hacked Home Hub 5 with OpenWRT, now its much better then this.

Home hub 5 not too bad is it?

60/17 on wifi with iPhone upstairs.

This thing looks atrocious in the users photos on Amazon

This is the router I have. Months of moaning at TalkTalk (Fibre Medium, Huawei HG633 router) about my wireless disconnecting all the time - bought this and not a single problem since.

Certainly tempted by this.

How's this compared the Asus Darknight?

Hi would anyone know if this would be ok to use with my sse Fibre broadband? It has an openreach socket. My technicolor router is rubbish. Thanks

very good router, i use only down side is no usb 3.0 port

How easy would this be to set up to work with Virgin?

looks a good router