Any networking folks on here?

Bristolian

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Steve
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Howdy folks,

I've recently received a nice new superhub from Virgin Media, which I have managed to set up and get working. The wireless signal is a bit weak so I was thinking about using my old TP-Link router as a signal booster by putting it in another room. Thing is I have no idea how to do this ... or even if it's possible.

Anyone fancy laying out how to do this is nice, easy, simple to understand steps for me?

TIA :D
 
It would depend n if the router can be set to bridge mode only. Unfortunately most of these cheap routers can't be.

Even if it can be it does not mean that it will repeat the wireless signal, you may need to connect them via cable.

Eg. I have two routers but they don't repeat a wireless signal. I have them on either side of the house connected with home plugs. The main router has dhcp enabled while the secondary router has it disabled. This way I cover the entire house wirelessly, but I still have to connect the two routers with a cable.
 
I use my old Edimax wirelees router with my Virgin wirelss rubbish router. I just plugged it in one of the outputs of the virgin router and set it to obtain an address via DHCP.
Then made sure that the pool of wireless addresses was on a different group to my virgin box.

ie Virgin box 192.168.2.1

edimax 192.168.0.1 so the ip addresses given by the virgin and edimax dont clash.
 
Surprised that you are having a problem with the wireless Steve, mine works well downstairs, upstairs, on the driveway etc. ... have you tried different channels etc?
 
you can buy Dlink and Netgear wireless extenders for about 40quid, worth a try usually work fantastic
 
Just make sure the wireless name, password and auth type are the same. Also either disable dhcp and/or set the dhcp server to the new box on the second box or like someone else said change the pool range and if you can set the gateway to the new box.
 
Virgin superhub is rubbish in my experience.

If you want an all wireless extender then you'll need something made for the job.

If you can cable from 'super' hub to router then the way i'd use an old router as an extender is this..

In the config on the old router..
turn off DHCP
Change the routers own IP to a number in your home network range that is unlikely to get allocated by the superhub DHCP say 192.168.1.170 and put a label on the old router with that number.
Set the wireless ssid to a name you want and set security.
OK the changes.

Use only the 4 network ports on the old router. No connection to the 'internet' port. The 4 ports will act as a network switch and you'll have a wireless access point too.

.....

Or you could do what I did and get one of these and set the superhub to modem mode.... and leave all the weak signal etc problems behind.
 
Buy an Asus RT66U. Seriously.
 
Your probably right but the old router i used didn't have the same security options so was easier to just use another name.
Range is so good on the Asus that i don't need it boosting anywhere now.
 
Just make sure the wireless name, password and auth type are the same. ........

Just for information, doing that on Netgear stuff means you don't get N speed from the extender.
 
You can turn the virgin super hub to modem mode only and then just plug in your wireless router
 
Thanks people, it took a bit of fiddling but it's now working :)

I remembered I had a couple of home plugs in the garage and followed the advice given by you kind people and hey presto!

@Gramps: I was a bit suprised at how weak the signal was too. It's marginal enough that if the superhub is under my desk my laptop won't lock onto the network when I'm in the living room but with the superhub on top of the desk it will ... just. I'll try a different channel later.

Thanks again folks - you are the best :thumbs:
 
Just wpa or wpa2 etc?

Have just looked out the instructions, nothing there but found a post it saying WPA2.

It was a drop-down warning on the software when I tried to use the same security as my router.
 
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