#1. Save Money

The half price for 6mth introduction offer via Vodafone saves us €150 compared to what we already have. If it provides a better experience then we'll keep it or else 'go with the flow' until something else appears in 18mths time.

We do have a landline telephone but don't have any existing online TV subscriptions (or 'dodgy' TV box) to make it a difficult decision.

#2. Stop Arguments

We have been a very internet hungry household.

It's very surprising how many internet devices we actually have and how much internet we consume. We have noticed the worsening user experience when we're all online at peak hours and it was highly frustrating.

"Houston we have a Problem"

A quick review of the 'xbox one' game device alone revealed 42 GB of data consumed within 30 days! This is far from normal usage for a typical home ..... or is it?

#3. No Congestion

Our house is located quite a distance from the estate's telecom junction box. Therefore we relied on those 'slow' copper wires and we were severely impacted by every other household using those very same cables with all of their hungry devices too.

The team arrived at the allotted time slot, worked quickly to feed a single cable in from the electric meter to connect with a new router. Within 45 minutes we had SIRO activated.

The installation team checked the supply speed and that we could connect to the router. We were then good to test out SIRO for ourselves.

We've noticed a definite improvement on every device with internet pages appearing faster, YouTube videos opening nearly instantly, downloads from sites like Google Play are extremely quick. RTE Live Player works better and at higher quality so the option for internet TV is now a plausible reality.

Not all websites were actually quicker and this perhaps is the fault of those sites either not being able, or willing, to supply the speed requested.

Testing each newly connected device for individual speed tests produced similar results to those sent in from our readers survey.

Most of us use WiFi and don't connect directly with a cable. We shouldn't expect performance to be the same and it came as no surprise to see huge losses in speed in the readers survey.

If you missed the survey the results are taken via a popular speedtest App, measured within 2 metres of the router and without other online users or apps running.

What the chart shows are the 3 expected speed ranges:

Group A

Resembles 2.4GHz devices which have a long range but low ability to transmit content.

Group B

Those using 5GHz devices with high content ability but only at close range.

Group C

These indicate that they are advanced modern and high end devices with the latest Gigabit class LTE modem, offer 256/64 - QAM software support and have four antennas for 4x4 MIMO.

If a smartphone lacks one of these 3 items then it will not provide GBs potential.

There will be a Group D

Due for release in late 2019 the next generation of routers will dramatically change the graph but only for new and expensive devices.

There really shouldn't be any need for the average household user to adjust any manufacturers basic settings other than the WiFi password.

If you have poor performance issues then here you'll find settings to adjust:

Method 1: The Gigabox App

Download and install from an App Store to connect to the router via your smartphone. It is by far the simplest and easiest to use and within minutes you will have remote access.

Method 2: Network cable

Connect and access the router via a website browser using the address and password written on the underside of the router. This method gives the same basic information but also access to more advanced settings.

If you change anything then your backup is the router's factory reset button!

Online there is extremely little written about the Vodafone GigaBox Router so the following is only our interpretation.

Identify Users

Identifying who is currently online, or has ever connected means you can manage access and block individual devices if you chose.

You can set the device type although it's not clear yet if it does anything to improve performance, prioritise or configure the internet access to those devices. Time will tell.

Best Reception

The WiFi Analyser and Channel selector both have automatic settings to enable the router to pick the best signal transmission for your location. You can override them if you know what you are doing.

WiFi

The router has 2 transmission frequencies to communicate with WiFi devices and by default it decides which to offer.

In the speedtest results the Samsung S6 and my own S7 both chose to connect via 2.4GHz hence the lower than expected speedtest result.

Chose the option to separate the 5GHz to make it appear when you search for available local WiFi on your device. Connecting to this overrides the smartphones ability to decide.

NOTE: if you force your device to choose 5GHz and you are too far from the router you may notice the drain on your battery. Selecting 2.4GHz should correct this issue since it performs better over longer distance.

Access Groups

The router only offers 'Main User' or 'Guest' access. Being able to create categories would be useful but you can still make good use of these 2 groups.

Before you hand out the access password decide whether you want to be able to share everything, with everyone, all of the time. Will you want to schedule and restrict access to times of day or at your instant discretion.

Setting up the children's devices as 'Guests' might be a viable solution.

My children absolutely hate the new parental control. If meals are going on the table, or if it's time for the game to end, or if I have any reason then I can terminate their internet access from my mobile App. It only appears to work whilst you are also connected to the WiFi and not if you're away from home.

You might not have considered this before but operating software has enabled home computers and hard drives to connect to the router to share files over the WiFi. Smartphones can also join the file sharing and it is particularly useful to share 'cloud storage' account files too. Who do you give the access to?

Scheduled Access

The router offers 2 settings and one switches WiFi on/off for everyone whilst the other limits "guests" via a countdown timer in hours: 2, 4, 12 or no limit.

Scheduled access sounds great to prevent unsupervised access or disturbances but be careful if you have connected your home heating, security, power plugs or lighting to the WiFi. You might not want to disconnect everything.

The signal and performance loss over distance from the WiFi router has improved considerably and there are no longer 'dead' spots inside my own house. Poor signal will mean poor performance speeds and the improvement is simply the upgrade from an older Vodafone router.

Placing the Router in a decent, open 'line of sight' location is critical for good performance. WiFi is a radio wave which goes around corners and bounces off walls but it doesn't like to pass through them or get interference from metal objects, other electrical devices or nearby radio signals.

Our simple tests with a signal measurement App revealed that some of our devices have 'beam forming' technology that makes a noticeable difference.

Positioning the router in the centre of the building should mean that it distributes the best potential signal in all directions. Typically routers are installed near the front door which means that the back garden has the weakest possible signal and is counter to what you actually want in the summertime.

Guidelines suggest that the router shouldn't be more than one room away for best reception and therefore the hallway is actually a good location since it's only one wall away from any room.

The lounge however is where most internet activity in our home takes place. It is also closest to the internet games machines, tv, media player and printer and it's also within line of sight of both the back & front gardens so it does make much more sense to locate it there.

The router comes on a simple stand but it does have screw hole 'hook' positions to wall mount it. For best 'line of sight' wall mounting above table top height reduces obstructions from furniture.

To lessen the demand on WiFi everything we have that is not moveable is going to be connected by cable. It simply makes good practical sense at a small cost per device. It will also save you the future frustrations from the more demanding online gaming or TV on demand 'stutters'. If you want performance over portability connect up a cable.

Not all cables are high speed so check the label before you buy. The router has 4 ports for network cables and even a very long (15m) 1GBs cable is approx €15. Either hide the cables around skirting boards and behind furniture or just connect them when you need them and tidy away the cable afterwards.

The GigaBox WiFi router is a definite improvement on the previous Vodafone Routers . It does appear to have sufficient throughput, signal and range that it doesn't warrant replacing it for an expensive alternative model.

The user access features within the GigaBox advanced settings should be enough to live with without needing more.

Like the Samsung S6 user's result that showed a surprisingly poor performance in our survey not everyone will have a simple plug and play experience.

These are the tweaks we made:

Smartphone

Samsung S7 was expecting to receive around 250MBs but the results were disappointingly low at under 100MBs. After basic adjustments of separating the 5GHz option and connecting to it in the available WiFi scan the speed results more than doubled to 280MBs. The range isn't as good and the trouble seams to come from the phone preferring the 2.4GHz frequency.

Tablet

The Samsung Tab 3 is severely limited in speed but it too had 5GHz ability and selecting this raised the download speed from under 20MBs to over 40MBs.

Laptop

Our 10 year old laptop maxed out at 100MBs which was entirely as expected. Purchasing a €10 plug in USB device (600MBs "ac" dual band WiFi dongle) produced more than double the speed when connected to 5GHz and close to the router.