Draytek Vigor 2750Vn review

If your internet connection now comes via BT’s Infinity fibre optic VDSL2 service, either from BT itself or via a reseller, then you’re probably using a BT VDSL2 modem connected to a standard Ethernet router. There aren’t any inherent problems with a setup like this, but neither is it the most efficient combination of cabling, hardware and features.

The Draytek Vigor 2750Vn has an integrated VDSL2 modem, so – in theory – all you need to do is connect the RJ-11 cable from your phone socket to the router and away you go. In practice, there are a few settings you’ll have to change from their defaults to get your new router working with BT’s infrastructure.

The router’s web-based quick start wizard guides you through the basics of configuration, including setting a more secure password, getting the wireless network up and running and setting up your internet connection. If you’re using a BT Infinity-based service, as well as setting your WAN type as PPPoE and entering the user name and password provided by your ISP, you’ll also have to go to the Multi-VLAN sub-menu of the WAN settings, tick the box marked Enable Multi-VLAN Setup and change the WAN VLAN ID to 101. There’s a handy guide on Draytek’s website if you run into any further difficulties.

When it comes to Wi-Fi, we’ve had great performances from Draytek’s routers in the past, even in a testing environment saturated with rival wireless networks. The 2750Vn has dual-band Wi-Fi. It supports both the fast 5GHz band that’s increasingly used by high-end modern laptops, phones and tablets, and the 2.4GHz band, which is more congested and slower but compatible with more devices. Unfortunately, the router doesn’t support simultaneous dual-band, so you’ll have to pick one or the other, depending on what’s supported by the majority of your devices.

If you plan on using the router to provide visitors with internet access, we strongly recommend opting for the greater compatibility of the 2.4GHz band. In our tests, wireless transfer speeds were impressive on both bands. When using a Centrino 2 laptop on the 2.4GHz band, we saw speeds of over 40Mbit/s at close proximity and a steady 35Mbit/s at a distance of 10m. Even when we moved the laptop to 25m away we got speeds of 11Mbit/s. Results with Draytek’s own Vigor N65 USB wireless dongle (£33 ex VAT) were significantly faster at close and medium distances, peaking at just over 79Mbit/s at 1m and 68.1Mbit/s at 10m. 5GHz performance was even faster, with 10m throughput rates of 60Mbit/s using our Centrino 2 laptop and a massive 126Mbit/s using the N65 dongle.

Although it can’t do simultaneous dual-band Wi-Fi, the 2750Vn lets you configure up to four wireless guest networks, each of which can be set up with its own unique password and permissions. This is ideal if you want to provide Wi-Fi internet access to staff or visitors without allowing them unrestricted access to the rest of your network.