Computer Related > reusing a wireless router? Miscellaneous
Thread Author: Mapmaker Replies: 10
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New Fri 15 Feb 13 17:19 
 reusing a wireless router? - Mapmaker
If you change telecoms suppliers can you use the old (BT) router with the new system? And if so, how?

thanks
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New Fri 15 Feb 13 17:56 
 reusing a wireless router? - rtj70
If you're using a BT HomeHub using ADSL then the answers 'probably' yes. But there will be settings to change for sure. To establish the PPPoE connection the BT settings have the user as bthomehub@btbroadband.com and no password. This would be different for another ISP.

If you're switching to something other than ADSL (such as BT Openreach based Fiber to the cabinet or even Virgin Media cable) then the answer would be no.

But the BT HH is not the best of hubs and I'd say why bother.
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New Fri 15 Feb 13 17:57 
 reusing a wireless router? - Zero
If you are using a home hub 2 the answer is yes with some jiggery pokery, and if its a home hub 3 ignore RTJ above, the answer is no.

(actually the answer is probably for a techy, but for you? forget it)
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New Fri 15 Feb 13 18:59 
 reusing a wireless router? - Kevin
And it depends on your new telecoms provider.

Some, for example Sky, use the ADSL MAC address as login-id. Even if the BT hub allows you to Locally Administer MAC address you'd need to get someone in a call centre to give you the correct address - you'll need a good sense of humour for that.
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New Fri 15 Feb 13 19:27 
 reusing a wireless router? - Manatee
I don't pretend to know anything about home hubs, but on LLU with TalkTalk I didn't even need to set the login details - in fact the router (BT Voyager2110) I was using to connect to Virgin via BT IPstream had connected itself to TalkTalk immediately when the line was switched.
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New Mon 18 Feb 13 13:11 
 reusing a wireless router? - Mapmaker
HH3

New Call Telecom (who?! line rental and BB for under a tenner a month; 25% of what I was paying BT).

Thanks.
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New Mon 18 Feb 13 13:18 
 reusing a wireless router? - rtj70
Presumably this cheap outfit will supply a router/wireless access point. So you could lift the settings used on that to configure the HH3. But they might give you a router/AP that's better than the rubbish BT supplies.
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New Mon 18 Feb 13 14:33 
 reusing a wireless router? - Mapmaker
I've got a new router, but I'd like a second one for the parts of the house that the first doesn't reach...
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New Mon 18 Feb 13 14:54 
 reusing a wireless router? - Slidingpillar
Don't think you can use two routers on the same connection.

But, what you need is a range extender. It's basically a wifi repeater, ie receives a signal and retransmits it.
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New Mon 18 Feb 13 16:07 
 reusing a wireless router? - TeeCee
>> Don't think you can use two routers on the same connection.
>>
>> But, what you need is a range extender. It's basically a wifi repeater, ie receives
>> a signal and retransmits it.
>>

Absolutely correct. Cheap and plentiful in 2.4Ghz, less so and pricier in 5Ghz, rare as rocking-horse ordure and eye-wateringly expensive in dual-band.
Almost certain to be 2.4Ghz required (worth checking though) and there are plenty out there like big plugs you just shove into a convenient socket and forget about.

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New Mon 18 Feb 13 16:10 
 reusing a wireless router? - rtj70
If you had a router other than the BT HH then it might have been possible to use it as a range extender. Either using the stock firmware or flashing onto it something like DD-WRT. But either way probably a bit technical for most.

So it would be simpler to just get a range extender that does what you want out of the box.

A lot of the current routers let you set them up in many flexible ways. I'm currently messing around with an old Linksys router flashed with DD-WRT to see if it fixes a problem with the Sky+ HD box and the Sky+ app.... I think it's a problem with BT's HH2 and trying to prove it is (something to do with the BY HH2 messing up the MAC address of the Sky+HD box in the ARP cache).
Last edited by: rtj70 on Mon 18 Feb 13 at 16:11
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