Hub 2 vs Vigor 166/7 - Can the Hub 2 be used as 'just' a modem?

[#1]

Hello Everyone – I hope that you can help with my question. My existing Netgear AC1900 (D7000) ‘all-in-one’ VDSL router is faulty. The only solution that includes Netgears Readyshare is the AX2400 (RX30) but this requires an external modem. One possible solution is to use the Draytek Vigor 166/167 but I’d like to know if the Plusnet Hub 2 can be used instead, can the Hub2 be configured as a modem only and is there a benefit in paying more for the Vigor product?

[#2]

@Somerset   Welcome to the Community forums.

Yes the Hub 2 can be used as a Modem. In Plusnet jargon it's called bridge mode. Log in to the Hub and go to the Advanced Options/Home page. at the bottom change 'Bridging Enabled' to Yes. The light should show Pink.

As it's only working as a modem I see no advantage in using another device.

Moderator's Note

This topic has been moved from Broadband to My Router

[#3]

can the Hub2 be configured as a modem only

@Somerset  yes it can.

Put Plusnet Hub 2 in Bridging mode (Home>Advanced Settings>Broadband) at the bottom of the page.

Connect the AX2400 WAN to a LAN port on the HUB 2. Youll need to configure the AX2400 WAN for PPPoE with your PN crentials but I guess you already know as as youre already using a third party router

[#4]

can the Hub2 be configured as a modem only

@Somerset  yes it can.

Put Plusnet Hub 2 in Bridging mode (Home>Advanced Settings>Broadband) at the bottom of the page.

Connect the AX2400 WAN to a LAN port on the HUB 2. Youll need to configure the AX2400 WAN for PPPoE with your PN crentials but I guess you already know as as youre already using a third party router

[#5]

Thank-you for your quick reply

[#6]

Other things to consider -

If you use the AX2400 router with the Plusnet Hub2, will you be able to set up a route through the router to be able to access the Hub2 configuration and status pages from your LAN ?.  With the Vigor166/167 they have a second LAN port that can be configured to allow access to the control/status pages from the LAN without having a special route sharing the PPPoE ethernet connection.

With the Vigor 130 and 166, you can raise the PPPoE MTU to 1508, so that the 8 byte PPPoE overhead (between router and modem) doesn't reduce your 1500 MTU DSL connection down to 1492 at your router.  I'm sure the Hub2 can't do larger MTU,  and I believe the Vigor 167 can exceed 1500 MTU in "router mode" but not in "modem mode" (yet).

Finally the Vigor 130 has a hidden SNR noise margin tweak, so you can 'illegally' adjust your download sync rate to choose your preferred compromise between faster speeds or increased stability.

.

[#7]

Many thanks for your detailed reply –

Re topic 1: my plan is to simply connect an ethernet cable to an unused RJ45 on the Hub2 in order to set up and monitor the connection / modem status and remove when not required.

Re topic 2: your explanation is clear but I don’t understand the subject matter – please tell me the benefit of MTU 1508 vs MTU 1492 (8 bytes for the PPPoE overhead)?

Re topic 3: Stability is key – do the numbers below indicate a noisy ‘line’ and a need to adjust line speed to compensate?

Link Rate	68004 Kbps	17179 Kbps
Line Attenuation	D0( 12.9) D1( 30.7) D2( 47.1) dB	U0( 3.9) U1( 23.1) U2( 36.0) U3(N/A) U4(N/A) dB
Noise Margin	D0( 3.2) D1( 3.2) D2( 3.2) dB	U0( 6.3) U1( 5.8) U2( 5.8) U3(N/A) U4(N/A) dB

[#8]

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@Somerset wrote:

Re topic 1: my plan is to simply connect an ethernet cable to an unused RJ45 on the Hub2 in order to set up and monitor the connection / modem status and remove when not required.

Yes I can see that might work, I don't know what happens on a Hub2 to each of the RJ45 ports when in bridge mode, try it and find out.

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@Somerset wrote:

Re topic 2: your explanation is clear but I don’t understand the subject matter – please tell me the benefit of MTU 1508 vs MTU 1492 (8 bytes for the PPPoE overhead)?

This description is quite good - https://support.aa.net.uk/MTU 

I think if you don't know the difference, then having an MTU of 1492 will work fine.

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@Somerset wrote:

Re topic 3: Stability is key – do the numbers below indicate a noisy ‘line’ and a need to adjust line speed to compensate?

Link Rate	68004 Kbps	17179 Kbps
Line Attenuation	D0( 12.9) D1( 30.7) D2( 47.1) dB	U0( 3.9) U1( 23.1) U2( 36.0) U3(N/A) U4(N/A) dB
Noise Margin	D0( 3.2) D1( 3.2) D2( 3.2) dB	U0( 6.3) U1( 5.8) U2( 5.8) U3(N/A) U4(N/A) dB

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With that limited information I would say your modem is going as fast as it is likely to achieve, and the line is probably not noisy.

.

[#9]

don't know what happens on a Hub2 to each of the RJ45 ports when in bridge mode, try it and find out.

It will still respond with its gui  on its default ip 192.168.1.254. It doesn't provide dhcp so you need a static ip in the same subnet configured o  any device you want to use to access it.

[#10]

From my usage all three LAN ports supported which ever device was connected, I checked all three ports worked for either PPPoE or a monitor system.

I used to monitor the uplink connected all the time, but I gave up as it really wasn't that interesting, only connected the monitor PC to check the logs if I had an outage.

One issue is the event log time with no NTP connection the clock would be start at 00:00:00, 01 Oct, no way to change using the GUI

[#11]

My existing ‘all-in-one’ AC1900 shows the following

Internet IP Address
Get Dynamically from ISP  (ticked)                                                                                            192.158.1.38
Use Static IP Address   (un ticked)

When setting up the AX2400 do I select ‘use static’ and enter the HUB 2 ip address ie 192.168.1.254?

[#12]

I would say NO

[#13]

When setting up the AX2400 do I select ‘use static’ and enter the HUB 2 ip address ie 192.168.1.254?

You need to set the WAN connection to be PPPoE and the use your plusnet credentials. No VLAN tag is required.

WAN to LAN 1, 2 or 3 on bridge mode Hub 2

[#14]

Is there likely to be a benefit or using a third-party modem vs the modem built in to the Hub ? – the DrayTek Vigor 166 has a firewall & I would like to know if this is a genuine benefit when compared to the Hub2?

https://www.draytek.co.uk/products/comparison/router-comparison

[#15]

The firewall is a function of a router not the modem 

Dan