Will a ZYXEL C3510XZ work with Sonic 10G fiber?

[lauraburchard]

So it's little silly to pay $10 a month to rent the SmartRG SR515AC in my 10G fiber setup. But looking around at fiber gateways, I was reminded of why I didn't get around to it previously: I like the SR515AC form factor. The only convenient place to put the gateway near the modem/ONT is on a windowsill that is 3-ish inches wide, and the recommended modems in this thread https://forums.sonic.net/viewtopic.php?t=17472 are all much more horizontal, usually spider shaped.

But I did find the ZYXEL C3510XZ with the right form factor and a much more modest price to boot https://www.amazon.com/ZYXEL-C3510XZ-Gigabit-Ethernet-Internet/dp/B0DCCBWL4C/ It only claims 6gps, but my hardwired ports are only gigabyte ethernet and my 5g wireless network rarely goes above a gig on speedtests, so no practical loss. Has anyone used it for Sonic? And if I do switch, do I need to do anything beyond swapping the modem connection from the Smart RG to it, or do I need to get some info from Sonic to get it set up right?

[dancingsnails]

The WAN for that is only 1gb. It's WIFI 6 gigabit, not WIFI 6 gigabit.

[eric]

Yes, that should work fine. The Sonic 10Gbit ONT should work with most routers that have a 1Gbit, 2.5Gbit or 10Gbit RJ45 ethernet WAN port. Should just work when you swap it, but might need to call support to reset things to see your new router.

However, that ZYXEL only has 1Gbit ethernet (like the SmartRG), so that will be your speed limit. It should be an upgrade for WiFi usage, since that zyxel supports Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax on 2.5 and 5Ghz bands) and that SmartRG only does Wi-Fi 5.

If you want to take absolutely full advantage of your 10G fiber, you'll want a router with a 10Gbit RJ45 ethernet WAN port (or 10Gbit capable SFP+ and RJ45 10Gbit SFP+ module) and Wi-Fi 7 support. Wi-Fi 6E (801.11ax with 6Ghz band added) and 2.5Gbit ethernet ports would be an intermediate and more affordable option, since 10Gbit and Wi-Fi 7 are both pricey right now.

I haven't looked at the routers in that thread, but some "more horizontal, spider shaped" routers are designed with a wall-mount option. If you do a wall-mount, pay attention to the antenna positioning, though: most of those the highest coverage is in a sort of donut shape around the antenna, and you'll want 1 or 2 antennas to be vertical for best horizontal coverage around the router/AP.