- Messages
- 152
- Location
- Pune
- ISP
- Primary: Tata Play Fiber(200 Mbps)
Backup: Airtel Xstream Fiber(40 Mbps)
Brands like Asus and Netgear who make excellent computer hardware have completely stopped bringing their latest range of routers to India. The reason being govt, not allowing 6Ghz band is the only reason I see. They are selling the same router which was launched before 2020 at exorbitant prices.
The only routers I see are from TP-Link, again most of the popular ones are still routers like C6 and AX10 which were launched in 2018-2019. Like seriously, it's been 8 years and they refuse to launch newer models with better hardware. I would personally stay away from TP Link because they intentionally cripple their devices after a certain time period and there is no OpenWRT support because of broadcom chips.
I personally don't like a lot of fuss, flashing openWRT/PFSense/OPNsense on rpi/some_other_hardware and then connecting it to a access point, not worth it and adds a lot of redundancy. I stay out of town most of the times and if anything goes wrong with the config, parents would be stuck without internet. Just getting a good decent router which I can add to the ISP provided equipment(in bridge mode) is a good setup for me.
Unfortunately there are very limited options for my use case.
Another reason could be the locked down ONT and lack of support for external hardware by ISPs in India. The top 2 ISPs Airtel and Jio, none of them support external routers. While there are workarounds but the process is not straight forward. Afaik Jio doesn't even allow bridge mode while in case of Airtel, one has to fight through their escalation matrix to get it enabled.
Airtel field technicians are given full access to the CPE which is kind of a security issue. They can reset the router remotely, change Wifi SSID and password without even being physically present at customer premises. Too much invasion of privacy I believe. I agree that it reduces redundancy for them but there should be some rules.
This is why a personal router is important, so that nobody can access it without my consent. Unfortunately there are not a lot of good ones available in India.
The only routers I see are from TP-Link, again most of the popular ones are still routers like C6 and AX10 which were launched in 2018-2019. Like seriously, it's been 8 years and they refuse to launch newer models with better hardware. I would personally stay away from TP Link because they intentionally cripple their devices after a certain time period and there is no OpenWRT support because of broadcom chips.
I personally don't like a lot of fuss, flashing openWRT/PFSense/OPNsense on rpi/some_other_hardware and then connecting it to a access point, not worth it and adds a lot of redundancy. I stay out of town most of the times and if anything goes wrong with the config, parents would be stuck without internet. Just getting a good decent router which I can add to the ISP provided equipment(in bridge mode) is a good setup for me.
Unfortunately there are very limited options for my use case.
Another reason could be the locked down ONT and lack of support for external hardware by ISPs in India. The top 2 ISPs Airtel and Jio, none of them support external routers. While there are workarounds but the process is not straight forward. Afaik Jio doesn't even allow bridge mode while in case of Airtel, one has to fight through their escalation matrix to get it enabled.
Airtel field technicians are given full access to the CPE which is kind of a security issue. They can reset the router remotely, change Wifi SSID and password without even being physically present at customer premises. Too much invasion of privacy I believe. I agree that it reduces redundancy for them but there should be some rules.
This is why a personal router is important, so that nobody can access it without my consent. Unfortunately there are not a lot of good ones available in India.
