
GL.iNet
GL-MT6000 (Flint 2)
OpenWrt enthusiast's choice; good value, but lacks 6GHz.

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Hi, im a service tech from Telekom, i can confirm that there are some regions (esp the norther Germany) are experiencing peering issues. Here in the south it is not that bad. Tl;dr: O² is a solid pick, personally im not a huge fan of them but they have a subjective good routing and public peering. If you are unhappy with your Speedport Smart 4 (i guess it is that one for 6,95€) you can return it through the 14day return policy. Personally, i think the Smart 4 is one of our good products, if you dont want to tinker THAT much with it since its WLAN performance is usable and the WiFi Mesh is tightly integrated. While you can enter custom PPPoE credentials some services may not work like VoIP. If your ISP of choice doesnt support Dualstack... prepare for trouble Fritz! routers on the other hand are THE most flexible consumer(friendly) brand in Germany to this date. Esp when it comes to DS-Lite support. If we wont supply you with fiber it is very likely that you only have Vodafone or O² as a option, sometimes there is a local ISP (the local Stadtwerke), in my case Netcom BW, who will run the fibre network. 1&1, Vodafone, O² aand many others CAN (often called open access) use our Telekom Fibre network either via Bitstream (aka LS2BSA) or as a Wholesale (means we do most of the routing). The later one will not change your latency/routing for most cases. Another factor is DS-Lite, most ISPs use it, sometimes CGNAT, this does add latency to some degree, altho i wouldnt worry to much about it. Services which NEED a public IPv4 will suffer if the peering is suboptimal since there is more NAT involved and the peers are overloaded. EDIT: Fritz! routers i would pick: \- 7590 AX v2 \- 7530 AX \- 4060 (req. a external modem) \- 7690 (IF you need Wifi7 for MLO, the 7690 does NOT have the 6GHz band) The 7590 (non AX) and 7490 are old by now, esp the 7490 (launch 2013).
If you want built-in VoIP (RJ11 port), port forwarding, and Wi-Fi 6/6E, you’ll probably want to look at something like a DrayTek or certain Fritz!Box models. They’re a bit more expensive but they’re designed for exactly the kind of setup you’re describing. A lot of the newer consumer routers (TP-Link / Asus / Netgear) dropped integrated VoIP ports, which is why you didn’t see them at Officeworks. The typical setup now is either: • Router + separate ATA adapter for VoIP • Or a router that specifically supports FXS ports Some options people run with FTTP that still support VoIP: • Fritz!Box 7590 AX – Wi-Fi 6, strong VoIP support • DrayTek Vigor 2765 / 2865 series – very configurable • Fritz!Box 7690 if you want newer Wi-Fi You’ll still get 2.4 GHz for legacy devices, plus 5 GHz and newer bands. Since you're on FTTP, remember you don’t actually need a modem anymore, just plug the router straight into the NBN NTD.
i had horrible experience with the axe5400. went to fritzbox, never looking back
AMV Fritz.box. all you need to connect your stuff. Most is WiFi anyways, these days.
I still can't comprehend what kind of routers people in other continents like America buy/ have to buy. In Germany, almost everyone uses AVM Fritz!Box', which are way more capable than most 'standard' routers and do not cost $400 or something like that.
u/Ok-Impress8879, actually either of the routers you mentioned, would work -> that is for the number of clients you mentioned in your post. For refference, in our household we have 12 PCs (laptops all) + another 9 or so NASes, all using hardwired ethernet for networking + another 20 or so Wireless devices (ie. aprox 15 diff mobile devices, a few remote controlled toys (Fanhome R2D2, which are controlled via the 2.4gz WiFi network in the home + a few other tablets, ipods, etc) and use a different brand of router all together (Fritzbox - common in Europe Germany/Austria/Switzerland region). Also in our home we have a few APs (Access Points) throughout the home, as the router's WiFi signal can't reach the entire home... so where needed, we added additional APs to extend the WiFi coverage to those areas in the home, where the router otherwise could not. In our second home, we have, Netgear router, also servicing a similar setup of clients, wired/wireless devices. Both of the routers we have, have no issue managing the number of clients we have in eitehr home (and are different brands). Good luck on your purchase!
u/Ok-Impress8879, our APs are a complete different brand from the Router itself and we've never had a problem with the roaming and that should be your experience as well. Up to last year (2025), we used to have our old routers that were not in use, set up in AP mode and working as APs. Only last year, we finally made the upgrade to dediceated POE APs, which are much more efficient that a whole router, although working in AP mode, still from the energy consumtion, the APs are better. In the link, you can see a picture of the second desk, that is before the AP upgrade - the router is on the corner to the left of the Laptop: https://imgur.com/xzWZxOD Then after the upgrade: https://imgur.com/BxWuLYK The POE AP is connected to an POE Switch: https://imgur.com/jJqpX3D That particular AP can also be powered up with an standard AC Adapter, but since we went with the POE route with a POE switch, then the AP has one single cable, the ethernet cable that provides the power (via the POE Switch) as well as the networking. Good luck on the purchase and setup there!

GL.iNet
GL-MT6000 (Flint 2)
OpenWrt enthusiast's choice; good value, but lacks 6GHz.

Ubiquiti
Dream Router 7
Advanced management, but limited Wi-Fi 7 range, SFP+ issues.

Ubiquiti
Dream Machine Series
Comprehensive control, stable for large homes, but slow support.

Ubiquiti
UniFi Dream Router (UDR)
Modular, user-friendly, but tricky advanced setup, poor penetration.

GL.iNet
Beryl AX (GL-MT3000)
Travel king, versatile, OpenWrt, but bulky power adapter.