We present a complete analysis of the ZTE ZXHN F680 router, a router that Jazztel offered completely free of charge when contracting its symmetrical 200Mbps fiber optic home mode.This router is high-end, and a good example of this is its technical characteristics and the performance it provides, the operator Jazztel together with the manufacturer ZTE have done a great job in manufacturing this router, and it provides superior performance if we compare with routers from other operators with FTTH.Currently this ZTE F680 router is no longer provided by any operator, although it is true that MasMóvil (with Yoigo and Pepephone) have provided this same model but with a renewed hardware version, and also with internal antennas.This router is one of the best that operators have given, and a good example of this is that the Virgin operator in Spain is providing this model with internal antennas, but it provides us with the same wired and wireless performance as the model with external antennas.This ZTE F680 router has been with us for years, and is capable of withstanding 1Gbps fiber optic connections without problems, since all its ports are Gigabit, but really the ONT that it has incorporated would withstand more speed without problems, reaching the limit of the GPON standard. which is 2.5Gbps download and 1.25Gbps upload.However, we will not be able to achieve more than 1Gbps because the PON converter is at 1Gbps, although the GPON standard allows us the speed of 2.5G/1.25G, we will really be limited to symmetrical 1Gbps, but it is something totally normal and it happens in all carriers FTTH routers.Until the XG-PON technology is launched, we will not have connectivity above 1Gbps, since, to have a speed of more than 1Gbps, we will need to use Multigigabit ports, be it 2.5G, 5G and even 10G Multigigabit ports as we currently have in some top-of-the-range neutral routers from manufacturers such as ASUS, NETGEAR or TP-Link among others.This Wi-Fi model is far superior to other routers from operators such as the Livebox Fibra or Vodafone, it is very similar to the popular Movistar HGU.It provides us with great WiFi coverage indoors, and wireless stability and speed well above other routers provided by operators.Betting on the ZTE F680 is betting on robustness and a great user experience, because it is simply one of the best routers that operators provide us.The reason to stop betting on this model is the price, and that is that other manufacturers provide cheaper routers than this one.This ZTE ZXHN F680 incorporates simultaneous dual band Wi-Fi AC1750, we can achieve a speed of up to 450Mbps in the 2.4GHz band thanks to its three external antennas in 3T3R MIMO configuration that use Three-Stream technology to provide the maximum possible speed .Regarding the 5GHz band, we can achieve a speed of up to 1,300Mbps thanks to Wi-Fi AC technology and its three antennas in MIMO 3T3R configuration, this router incorporates all the characteristics of Wi-Fi AC such as 80MHz channel width , a 256QAM quadrature frequency modulation and of course Beamforming to focus the wireless signal and provide additional performance.This equipment does not have internal antennas, a very important detail to achieve greater coverage and speed.Finally, it incorporates WPS 1.0 (Wi-Fi Protected Setup) to quickly connect to the Wi-Fi access point with the push of a button, it does not allow the PIN to be entered to avoid brute force attacks on the system, it also has support for a guest Wi-Fi network.This ZTE ZXHN F680 incorporates a GPON port for the Internet WAN, that is, we have the ONT (Optical Network Terminal) integrated in the router itself, we do not need an external ONT, it is an all-in-one.This router incorporates hardware NAT so we will have great Internet performance with a large number of threads, this prevents us from having the dreaded "bottleneck" in faster Internet connections such as the symmetrical 200 Mbps that Jazztel currently markets.Although in our test lab we have not tested the maximum performance with Jperf due to the fact that we have a GPON port and not Ethernet, we have verified that the symmetrical 200Mbps supports them without any problem.Finally, it incorporates four Gigabit Ethernet ports (10/100/1000 Mbps) for the LAN.This router has a USB 2.0 and another USB 3.0 to share files via Samba and FTP, in addition we can also share multimedia content in high definition thanks to its built-in DLNA server.Both USBs provide exactly the same performance, we did not find any improvement from using the side port.The ZTE ZXHN F680, by incorporating the ONT within the router itself, also has two RJ-11 ports to connect the telephones and call through the Jazztel VoIP service, in the Jazztel fiber the telephone goes through the router, like the other operators.This router allows us to call or receive through two lines simultaneously, that is, we can make two calls to different destinations, or while we talk on the phone they can call us and take the call with another phone.All this is transparent to the client, the router efficiently manages the calls.Jazztel uses a VLAN with ID 1074 to provide the Internet service, and within this VLAN goes both the Internet traffic and the VoIP traffic, so if we have Internet we will have a telephone, otherwise we will not have a telephone service.Regarding the firmware of the ZTE ZXHN F680, it is much more complete if we compare it with what the operators are accustomed to, we will not have advanced options such as a built-in BitTorrent client or a VPN server, but we will be able to carry out extensive configuration to fully customize our home local network, including the Wi-Fi part, port forwarding, DMZ, creation of static routes in case we incorporate a VPN server in our home network, configuration of the USB 2.0 port with the servers, etc.We are sure that with this router you will be able to get the most out of your Jazztel FTTH connection.Once we know the main characteristics of this ZTE ZXHN F680 router, let's go with the technical characteristics:Once we know its technical characteristics, we go with the external analysis of the equipment.The ZTE ZXHN F680 router comes in a box with the typical yellow color that characterizes the Jazztel operator, on the front of the box we find that this equipment is ONT+Wi-Fi Router, which means that we will not need an external ONT connected to This router is an all in one, including VoIP management.As soon as we open the box we will see the white ZTE ZXHN F680 router perfectly placed and in the lower part we will have all the accessories that the equipment incorporates.The box contents of this ZTE ZXHN F680 router is as follows:This ZTE ZXHN F680 router must be placed vertically, thanks to its lower support we can easily keep it vertically, so we will always obtain the best Wi-Fi wireless coverage in our home.This router is a bright white color and has a really good feel to it.On the front of the router we find all the equipment status LEDs, from left to right we find the equipment power LED, the PON LED that will light green when it has been correctly connected to the OLT, the LOS LED indicates that the the GPON has fallen and that we are not receiving any power, therefore we have an incident.Next we have the Internet LED, the status of the 2.4GHz and 5GHz band, the status of the WPS (Wi-Fi Protected Setup), the status of Phone 1 and Phone 2 connected to the router, the status of the 4 LAN ports and finally the status of the two USB 2.0 ports of the equipment.On the right side of the ZTE ZXHN F680 router we find a USB 2.0 port, although it is blue like USB 3.0, it really is a USB 2.0 port judging by the performance we have obtained in the tests.Just below this USB port we have the WPS (Wi-Fi Protected Setup) button and also the router's on/off button.A very important detail is that if we turn off the router we will also automatically be left without a telephone line because we have VoIP.On the left side of the router we do not find any button or port, the rest of the connections are in the back.In the back of the ZTE ZXHN F680 router is where we find the rest of the connections and ports, in the upper area we find the perfectly covered PON connector, a very large sticker with the details of the MAC and serial number of the router as well as the credentials for Wi-Fi defect of this equipment.From left to right, in this router we have the power connector, the rear USB 2.0 port, the RESET button, the four Gigabit Ethernet ports for the LAN and finally the two RJ-11 ports to connect the telephones and use the VoIP that provided by the operator.In this rear area we also find a large sticker with important information such as the complete model of the router (ZTE ZXHN F680), the current voltage and intensity it needs (12V and 2A), the router's MAC address, the serial number, the Wi-Fi access credentials (SSID and key) as well as a QR code to scan it with our mobile and automatically connect to the Wi-Fi network without having to manually select our network and enter its password.Another important detail that we must highlight is that the PON is perfectly protected by a cover, if we remove it we will see the SC connector in which we will have to connect the fiber optic cable that comes with the equipment.Finally, at the bottom of the router we will see the support to make it vertical, this support can be removed at any time.So far we have arrived with our external analysis, now that we know what the router is like, we are going to disassemble it and see all its internal components in detail.This Jazztel ZTE ZXHN F680 router is disassembled in a really simple way, we simply have to remove the two screws that we find on the back of the router and carefully remove the different casings.Once we have separated the outer casing, we can see all the components of the router:In the upper left part we find all the components of the 5GHz band, in the central part we find the main CPU next to the RAM and Flash.In the right area we find all the components to manage the 2.4GHz band.In the lower area we find the power supply, the fiber optic SFP transceiver as well as the circuitry of the Gigabit Ethernet ports and the RJ-11 ports of the telephone.In the lower left area we find the main power supply of the equipment, this ZTE ZXHN F680 router needs a current voltage of 12V and an intensity of 2A maximum to be able to adequately power the devices connected to the USB port.In this area we also find the equipment on and off button, as well as the two USB 2.0 ports that the equipment has and the RESET button.If we go to the right we find the Gigabit Ethernet ports and the two telephone ports along with a chipset specifically dedicated to managing VoIP.In this area we also find the SFP transceiver in which we connect the fiber optic cable that has an SC connector.The transceiver is the TW2362F-CDEH model and supports a speed of up to symmetrical 1Gbps.The main CPU of this router is the Marvell 88F6660-A0, the main features is that it is dual-core with ARM Cortex-A9 architecture, we must say that this CPU allows it to operate at 800MHz and 1GHz clock frequency, and we do not know at what speed actually works on this router.Something that we cannot ignore is that the manufacturer has incorporated a very liquid thermal putty into this router, in fact it is so liquid that when it was disassembled there was thermal putty on the router plate itself.Inside we also find the device's Gigabit Ethernet switch, it is integrated into the CPU itself to achieve the best possible performance since it supports hardware NAT and the firmware incorporates this feature.In this way, we will be able to obtain excellent performance both on the LAN and on the Internet.This CPU is also responsible for managing the POTS ports of the phones since it supports VoIP.Another important feature is that it supports USB 3.0/SATA interface, the USB port on the side is blue and we think it uses this USB 3.0 interface, however it provides exactly the same performance as the USB 2.0 port on the back .The RAM of this equipment is SKhynix H5TQ2G63FFA PBC with 256MB capacity and DDR3.The FLASH memory of this router is the Micron 29F1G08ABAEA and has a capacity of 128MB.The 2.4GHz band of this router is governed by the Atheros AR9381-AL1A chipset whose main characteristic is that it is a real 3T3R MIMO, capable of providing a speed of up to 450Mbps thanks to its three data flows.It incorporates all the features of the 802.11n standard such as 40MHz channel width, QoS WMM, automatic channel selection and support for all types of wireless encryption.The 2.4GHz band power amplifiers are the SiGe 2620T and we have three units, one unit for each stream.The external right antenna of the ZTE F680 router is dedicated exclusively to the 2.4GHz band, we have an antenna cable that goes to the UFL connector on the router board, the other two antennas are internal although we have the free UFL connectors in case we want DIY and incorporate more external antennas.The 5GHz band of this router is governed by the Qualcomm QCA9880-BR4A chipset.The main features of this chipset is that it is compatible with the 802.11a/n/ac standards.If we connect 802.11N adapters to the equipment, the maximum speed that we will obtain is up to 450Mbps thanks to its three data flows (Three-Stream), if we connect 802.11ac equipment we can obtain speeds of up to 1,300Mbps.The Qualcomm QCA9880-BR4A incorporates all the features of the AC Wi-Fi standard such as 80MHz channel width, 256QAM quadrature frequency modulation and also Beamforming technology to focus the signal on wireless clients and provide the highest possible speed. .A very important detail is that this chipset allows you to use "low" channels (36, 40, 44 and 48) as well as "high" Wi-Fi channels (100, 104, 108, 112) just like the new tri-wire routers do. band.Finally, the wireless signal power amplifiers are the Skyworks SE5003L.A very important detail that we must highlight is that 2 antennas (of the 3) of the 5GHz band go directly to the external antennas of this router through the antenna cable connected to the UFL connectors on the board, the third antenna goes connected to an internal antenna of the router.Therefore, of the three external antennas that we have, two of them correspond to the 5GHz band and the other to the 2.4GHz band, as we have said before.We initially believed that these three external antennas were dual band, in this way we would provide additional performance in both frequency bands, however, since the two Wi-Fi chipsets are so far away, it is a complicated task to be able to carry the signal through rails on the plate.Another aspect of this Qualcomm chipset is that it connects to the router's CPU through a PCIe interface, as you can see the chipset is not directly soldered on the board but goes on an additional motherboard along with its amplifiers and connectors. UFL.So far we have arrived with our internal analysis of the ZTE F680 router, once we have verified that we have high-end hardware, we will see if it is capable of successfully passing our performance tests.The test laboratory, like all the previous ones, will be LAN-LAN, LAN-WAN and Wireless tests.You have more information about the tests we carry out and the hardware used in our Test Bench, if it is the first time you see an analysis of ours, we recommend that you read it to know how we obtain all the values.Here is the evidence and our conclusions.In these LAN tests we will use JPerf to see how it behaves with multiple threads on the local network.As we told you in the internal review, this router has hardware NAT, and its firmware implements this feature judging by the great performance we get through the wired network.With 100 concurrent TCP threads we obtain a transfer speed of 97MB/s, an excellent result, superior to high-end routers from well-known manufacturers.We can see how the threads are transferred at the same speed, this is synonymous with transfer stability thanks to hardware NAT.If we didn't have this feature we would see up and down peaks.With 250 concurrent TCP threads we get a transfer speed of 97MB/s, a really good performance since we are doubling the number of threads and we get the same transfer speed.With 500 concurrent TCP threads we get a transfer speed of 96.9MB/s.With 750 concurrent TCP threads we get a transfer speed of 95.5MB/s.With 1,000 concurrent TCP threads we obtain a transfer speed of 89.8MB/s, an excellent speed since we have a large number of concurrent TCP threads running, and the router does not show any signs of weakness, it is capable of managing them perfectly.If we have a high-performance NAS server in our home with Gigabit Ethernet ports, where we can transfer tens of GB quickly, thanks to the good behavior of this router we will be able to maximize its full potential without any problem, it has been shown that this router perfectly meets what is required of a home router.In the following table you can see the values ​​we have obtained with different numbers of threads:Once again, we have seen how hardware NAT gives our router great performance in these tests.We will not have any kind of problem when transferring multiple files through the local network, we have excellent performance, outperforming other high-end routers from well-known networking equipment manufacturers.The performance of this ZTE ZXHN F680 has greatly impressed us.In this test, what we normally do is simulate P2P traffic with multiple concurrent TCP threads to see what is the maximum performance that we can get from the equipment.This ZTE ZXHN F680 router incorporates the WAN with a GPON port so we will not be able to carry out this test, however, what we can tell you is that during the weeks that we have tested this router we have not had any problems with P2P programs, and That is why we have used a NAS server dedicated to this work intensively.The router has not collapsed at any time, we have not had to restart it nor have we been left without VoIP service due to collapsing Internet bandwidth.The speed achieved in our Speed ​​Test has always been above the contracted 200Mbps, ranging between 203Mbps and 205Mbps in the different tests carried out.In the following screenshots you can see this performance:The latency of the connection to the nearest Speed ​​Test node is only 2ms, with ADSL and VDSL the latency was much higher.It is noted that Jazztel's fiber to the home and this router work optimally, although we must also note that our geographical location (Guadalajara) with the test node (Madrid) is very close.We all know that the speed tests of this type of connection in Spanish territory always comply with the contracted speed, however, it is possible that Jazztel does not have good peering contracts with other operators in the world, so if we do a speed test in other countries the speed will decrease radically.We have been pleasantly surprised that if we do speed tests against nodes from other European countries, the speed does not decrease, in the following gallery you can see different speed tests carried out in different countries:As you can see, the speed exceeds the contracted 200Mbps in all cases, both downloading and uploading.In addition, a very important detail is that the latency of the connection is also really competitive, only 29ms to London, 58ms to Paris and 35ms in Rome.What happens if we decide to cross the Atlantic and do a speed test on a node located in Washington?We thought that we were not going to exceed 150Mbps of speed, but we exceeded it and even widely in the case of upload speed.Regarding latency, it is completely normal to have 105 ms since the destination is geographically very far away and we have to go through many interior routers and autonomous systems from different operators in the world.As we know that the stability of latency is essential for online players, we have made some pings to the main Internet websites such as Google, Twitter and also RedesZone.net.In the following gallery you can see the great stability of latency, you can also see how latency to Google DNS is 2 ms, ideal for quickly performing all domain resolution requests.As you have seen in the speed tests, the performance of the Internet connection of this router has been excellent, we have achieved great performance in all aspects, both in speed and latency in Spain and abroad.The router has behaved outstandingly with an intense load of P2P traffic both in download and upload, it has not been blocked at any time, always providing the maximum speed of the line (200 symmetrical Mbps).The time has come to check if the coverage and wireless speed is up to the best, or if on the contrary, it is below.If this is the first time you've seen our review, we recommend reading our Wireless Test Bank.We have thoroughly tested this router with the Lenovo X1 Carbon laptop with its integrated Wi-Fi AC card which is the Intel Dual-band Wireless-AC 7265 which is Wi-Fi AC1200, we have also tested the rest of the Wi-Fi cards that we have at our disposal.In the following screenshots, with the Acrylic Wi-Fi Professional program, both Wi-Fi networks of the ZTE F680 can be seen, both the bands used, the width of the channel, as well as the coverage received in real time.First we start with the 2.4GHz band where we can achieve up to 450Mbps theoretical speed, although in reality the performance will be somewhat lower.Here are the results obtained with the JPerf client-server with 50 concurrent TCP threads:As can be seen in the performance tests, this equipment is capable of providing a performance of more than 170Mbps real in the 2.4GHz band, something really incredible if we take into account how saturated this band is and that we do not have the technology WiFi AC.Also from remote places we get magnificent performance, even better than other high-end routers from recognized manufacturers.This router allows you to configure your 5GHz band with different Wi-Fi channels, the "low" channels such as 36, 40, 44 and 48 and also the high channels such as 100, 104, 108 and 112. We have verified the difference of performance of using some channels or others.Now we are going to check the wireless performance that we get in the 5GHz band with Wi-Fi AC technology and using channel 40 with 80MHz channel width.All the cards we have used use this technology except the Linksys AE3000 which is Wi-Fi N900.Here are the results obtained with the JPerf client-server with 50 concurrent TCP threads:As you can see in the table, this equipment is capable of providing more than 400Mbps real throughput thanks to Wi-Fi AC technology, a great result since we must take into account that we use Wi-Fi AC1200 cards and we do not use the third antenna that the router does have, so if we connect an AC1750 or AC1900 Wi-Fi card we would get 33% more performance.This router is one of the fastest we have tested to date, and that is the router provided by the Jazztel operator completely free of charge.Now we are going to check the wireless performance that we get in the 5GHz band with Wi-Fi AC technology and using channel 104 with 80MHz channel width.All the cards we have used use this technology except the Linksys AE3000 which is Wi-Fi N900.Here are the results obtained with the JPerf client-server with 50 concurrent TCP threads:As you can see in the table, this equipment is capable of providing more than 350Mbps real throughput thanks to Wi-Fi AC technology, a great result.The behavior of the router when using this band with high channels has been very similar both in the next room and in the room below, but not in the storage room where the performance drops radically.As long as we do not have other Wi-Fi networks working in the 5GHz band, it is recommended that we select the “low” channel range such as 40.In the 2.4GHz band, this Jazztel ZTE F680 router has behaved excellently, in addition, the firmware allows us to set the channel width at 40MHz so that we will always achieve the maximum possible performance, a great success of Jazztel and ZTE since many manufacturers only allow it to be left on automatic and therefore with the Coexisting HT 20/40 enabled.Achieving a speed of 22MB/s in this band is a great result, we must also point out that in very remote locations such as the storage room, we get up to 60Mbps real speed.In the 5GHz band it has also performed excellently, achieving great performance close to the router (up to 50MB/s = 450Mbps), a true speed record.Likewise, in more remote locations such as the downstairs room or storage room, we have also achieved excellent performance reaching up to 240Mbps and 120Mbps respectively, surpassing routers from well-known manufacturers.We must also bear in mind that the cards we have used are AC1200, so we could achieve up to 33% more wireless performance if we took advantage of the third Wi-Fi antenna.The ZTE F680 firmware allows you to set "low" channels and "high" channels, as you have seen in the performance tests, the speed achieved is very similar when using channel 40 and 104, but the difference in speed in the trastero is the one that makes the difference and makes us opt for using the “low” channels whenever possible (there are no other Wi-Fi networks broadcasting in this frequency band).This router is one of the best WiFi wireless routers that an operator has ever given, in addition, it not only provides great WiFi wireless coverage and great speed with the different WiFi cards that we have tested, we must also highly value the stability of wireless connections.In this case, the stability of this router is excellent, ideal for holding VoIP calls and video calls without any problem.This equipment is the best that an operator can currently have, it is above the popular Movistar HGU, although we must bear in mind that this router is no longer marketed by any operator, but the V2 version that has internal antennas and that in RedesZone we have not been able to test it yet.If you have the possibility to buy this router in the second-hand market for around €40 or less, it is a great price to pay for having an all-in-one router with integrated ONT, and in this way, remove the router from your current operator. .Of course, this router is clearly superior to the Livebox Fibra de Orange and also to the Vodafone FTTH routers, these last two are clearly the worst Wi-Fi routers that we can find, both in terms of coverage and in terms of performance and stability. of the wireless connection.The USB tests are like the ones we have been doing regularly.We will check the speed of reading and writing in NTFS format since we will copy files of more than 4GB (videos in high definition).We will carry out the measurements with the Samba server that the router incorporates and also via FTP with a USB 3.0 hard drive to always obtain the maximum possible performance.Samba in USB 2.0 port SideFTP on USB 2.0 port SideDLNA on Side USB 2.0 portThe performance of the DLNA media server has been good, but after extensive testing, we have found some anomalous behavior.The detection of the DLNA server in all cases has been perfect, we are able to detect it and also to enter the shared content.If we use Windows Media Player, the playback of content in 720p with low bitrate is perfect, the start of playback is very fast, however we cannot fast forward, we simply do not have the option available in the Player.If we try to play content in 1080p it is not even able to start playback.If we use our Sony Xperia Z3 smartphone with Android and the BlubbleUPnP program we will see that the DLNA server detects it perfectly, later when selecting a video the program calls an external application installed on the phone, with MX Player we cannot play content, it does not load directly el vídeo, sin embargo con el programa VLC sí hemos sido capaces y el funcionamiento es perfecto, pudiendo reproducir en 1080p y también incorpora avance rápido.