Use an old Sky SR101 as a second router access point

[#1]

Hi,

I have a standard issue Plusnet hub and an old Sky SR101 that I would like to use to extend the wifi range so that it reaches my garden shed/office. I have a Ethernet switch connected to one of the ports on the Plusnet hub. Is it possible to plug the old Sky router into this and use it to extend the wifi? Either as a bridge, an access point or to mirror the existing provision?

Thanks!

T23

[#2]

@tekton23

Edit to remove link as it wasn't the same issue

[#3]

Yes you can use it as an access point.

Briefly, you connect the sky hub to a lan port of either the Plusnet Hub/Ethernet switch via ethernet, then on the Sky Hub you need to disable DHCP, and give it an IP address thats within the same subnet as the PN Hub, but ideally outside it's DHCP pool.

[#4]

Great, thanks I'll try this tonight. Will it just appear on my devices with the same Plusnet network name, all being well? I have a wireless printer so hopefully I can still print to that without it thinking it is on a different network!

[#5]

No. You will need need to change the SSID/Key on the Sky Hub to match that of your PN Hub too in that case.

[#6]

Will that mean devices keep hopping between networks? I have a network printer on the Plusnet router and it would be great to be able to print when connected to the second router (old Sky hub).

[#7]

It is up and running! A great fix and seems to work very well! Thanks for your help.

I also followed the guidance located here: https://community.plus.net/t5/My-Router/Using-a-2nd-Plusnet-Hub1-as-a-Wireless-Access-point/td-p/138...

The guide has some useful settings for UPnP and the IP address that allowed this to work. I noticed there was also a second DHCP setting called 'Enable IPv6 DHCP Server' which I disabled. In addition to making sure the main DHCP setting was disabled. 

The details for the Sky Router are 'admin' and 'sky'

The only minor issue was that wifi then did not work on the laptop I'd used to set-up the second router on. Simply deleting the network on the laptop and then finding it again fixed this.

Good luck!

T23

[#8]

As a follow-up.....it is working well but I tried to move a Wifi Smart Plug onto the second router's network and it just will not install. I tried turning UPnP back on on the second (Sky) router but it still won't work.

Is this caused by DHCP being turned off on the second router?

Such a shame if so, as I was hoping the improvement in signal would improve the connection to the Smart Plug!

T23