Using a 2nd Plusnet Hub1 as a Wireless Access point

[#1]

Using a 2nd Plusnet Hub1 as a Wireless Access point

Yes it is possible to use a 2nd Hub 1 as a access point to extend your wired and wireless network around your property.

This will also work with the BT hub 4 and 5.

This is useful in propertys where wireless signal problems occur.

• If your 2nd hub 1 has previously been used carry out a factory reset.
• Connect your 2nd hub to your computer but at this point do not connect it to your primary router as we need to configure some settings first.
• Open your preferred browser and navigate to the routers IP address, The default IP is 192.168.1.254 

Once we are in the router you will need to follow the steps below.

1. Click on advanced settings (You will be requested to login) 
2. Click on Home network and then select IP addresses
   • Change the default IP address from 192.168.1.254 to 192.168.1.10 (This is important if you do not do this then you will not be able to access this router once connected to your primary router.)
   • Click Apply and exit the browser page, give the router a minute to update the settings and then reboot it.
3. Once the router has rebooted open your browser again and this time navigate to the new IP address 192.168.1.10
   • Again access the advanced settings and login
   • Click on home network and IP addresses once more
   • Turn off DHCP on this router as that will be handled by your primary router
   • Apply the settings
4. Now click on the firewall option.
   • Click on UPNP and turn this off. Again this is handled by your primary router
   • Click apply to save the settings
   • Click on configuration and select disabled as the firewall again will be managed by the primary router
   • Click apply again
5. Next select wireless. You can leave these to the default settings if you wish. Personally i opted to adjust mine to match my primary router settings just adding -slave after the nest work name to idenfity which one was which.
6. Apply any changes to your wireless setup (I do recommend turning off WPS on the 2nd router)

Once this has all be done you can connect your routers via Ethernet in to the yellow lan ports.

I hope that this proves useful to someone out there.

Please note this is based off a Hub 5 guide I found on youtube linked below if anyone needs it.

https://youtu.be/FcAZ7zI0iNI

[#2]

fyi, you have described how to create a wireless access point (WAP or AP).   It is not a 'repeater'.  Please correct the title and contents of your first post.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wireless_repeater

[#3]

Fair point and edited

[#4]

The secondary router could be also be connected to the primary router via a LAN wired connection, which would make access much quicker than using wireless via two hops.

[#5]

Thats presisely how i have it setup. I use it mainly as a ethernet hub but the secondary wireless is useful as upstairs we have dead spots when using just the downstairs router.

[#6]

Has anyone tried doing this? I'm looking at one of these repeaters which I think is what this is? I don't want to use an ethernet cable across the house can I connect one to my wireless in the hall and have it let me connect and does it matter which brand to work on Plusnet?

[#7]

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@SkyTrader wrote:

Has anyone tried doing this? I'm looking at one of these repeaters which I think is what this is? I don't want to use an ethernet cable across the house can I connect one to my wireless in the hall and have it let me connect and does it matter which brand to work on Plusnet?

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Yes, one of those should work, no obvious reason why not, but not as much data through put as a direct wifi connection to the router, because....

The more hops the data has to make through wifi access points, the longer it will take. So wired is always better/quicker.

[#8]

Just in case this helps others trying to do this (WiFi *and* Wired range extender?) with (RJ45) wire...

I *expected* to use the (red) 'WAN' port - trying the one on the HH5 first into a normal (Yellow) on the PN Hub1.

That didn't work and in a quirky moment I tried that in reverse and that didn't work either.

What DID work was when I used normal (Yellow) ports at both ends of the wire...

I could have sworn that someone had posted elsewhere to say that despite the different colours the HH ports were all (5) the same and the software detected what you were trying to connect. Wasn't the HH5 also used behind OpenReach modems - I couldn't see an option to switch the BT-HH5 into that mode - anyone with 'the knowledge'?

OldB.

[#9]

sorry for what might appear a silly question but if i connect two hub ones will that help coverage greatly ?

can i do it via a powerline adaptor ?

sorry if this is the silliest question you have heard 

[#10]

@sjhall12345 yes, yes and no.

I wrote this about 5 or so years back and might help as you don't need two PN Hubs

And the following can be used with a PN Hub One as the primary, or if you use another brand of router as your primary router. For example I used the following when I was with Sky

(blows the dust off and pasted below)

Here's the how to connect a BT Home Hub 3a (primary) to a BT Home Hub 3b (secondary) to extend your wireless range and to create more Ethernet ports!

HH3a (primary) recommendations
Open a browser page and log in to the hub manager 192.168.1.254 or bthomehub.home

Change the default admin password

Click Settings, then Advanced Settings, then Continue to Advanced Settings

Click Wireless

(optional) Change the Wireless network/SSID to one of your choice ie. MyHub

Channel selection - select 1,6,11 or any channel with the least congestion (you'll need to use a wireless sniffer to see which is best)

(if device supports this) Wireless security - select WPA2

(optional) Wireless Key - change to anything you want but note that it:

• is at least 10 characters long, but no more than 63
• is a combination of numbers, upper-case letters (or ’CAPITALS’) and lower-case (or ’small’) letters
• does contain punctuation, but no space.
• is not a name or a dictionary word
• does not repeat the same character one after another (e.g. aabbccdd00)
• is not a commonly used key like ’abcd1234’, ’welcome1’, etc
• is not the same as information given elsewhere on your Hub (e.g. your Hub Manager’s password, serial number or wireless network name/SSID)

Click apply

Click Home Network, then IP Address

(optional) Change the Lease time to 21 days and click apply

(optional) Click Port Forwarding, then UPnP and select off, click apply


HH3b (secondary)

Factory reset the HH3b by pressing and holding the reset button for about 15 seconds - NOT the restart

Make sure the wireless on the Laptop/PC is OFF
Connect the laptop/PC by Ethernet cable (NOT to the other hub). Open a browser. Ignore the not connected page.

Log in to the hub manager 192.168.1.254 or bthomehub.home

You'll be prompted to change the default admin password

Click Settings, then Advanced Settings, then Continue to Advanced Settings

Click Home Network, then IP Addresses. Change the IP Address to one not in use.
eg. 192.168.1.245 (NOT the default .254) or one of your choice (192.168.1.**), click apply (ignore any warnings)

As the page reloads SWITCH THE HUB OFF, LEAVE THE BROWSER OPEN

Once the hub has rebooted, clear the address in the URL and type 192.168.1.245 or the one you chose

Click Settings, type in your new admin password, then Advanced Settings, then Continue to Advanced Settings

Click Home Network, then IP Addresses, under DHCP Server, Enable select No and click apply
(ignore the warning)

Click Wireless

(optional) Change the Wireless network/SSID to one of your choice ie. MyHubSlave

Channel selection - select a different channel to the one selected on the primary hub - the next least congested channel. If you used channel 1, try 6 or 11.

(if device supports this) Wireless security - select WPA2

(the wireless key will be removed)

Wireless Key - use the same key used on the primary

TURN OFF WPS, click apply
(ignore the warning)

Click Port Forwarding, then Firewall and select Disabled, click apply

(ignore the warning)

Click UPnP and select off, click apply

Unplug the Laptop/PC, close the browser

Connect the HH3b to the HH3a using an Ethernet cable or powerline adapters (PLA's) via the yellow Ethernet ports, switch the hub3b off and on again and you're done.

You have now extended the wireless range of your home network and increased the amount of Ethernet ports

Should you find that you don't get a connection, reboot the secondary to re-establish the hand shake to the primary hub.

Unplugging the HH3b will not affect your broadband connection

[#11]

I am trying to do this, (similar to the description above) but having connectivity issues... I am using a Talktalk DSL-3780 (#1) as the modem connecting to the Plusnet broadband. A wired LAN from that down two floors to a Netgear DGN 2200v3 (#2). Both have Wifi AP's and both enabled, DHCP is only enabled on #1.  I have a mix of fixed IP's and those allocated by #1, with completely separate address ranges for each.

The issues I have is that items struggle to get an initial connection to #2, no matter how close they are to #2. I swap to #1, try to swap back to using #2, it can take several seconds to connect and it can then take up to an hour, before it gets access to the WAN. Switching over to #1 happens almost instantly.

[EDIT] Once connected to AP #2, it is fine - it stays connected, speed is fine.

I have tried lots of fixes, but nothing has so far worked. I have tried five different routers as #2, with the same result.

[#12]

I have got a BT HH as my #2 and don't have the problem you appear to have.

I use different SSIDs in the WAPs if you want to try that. I just thought it might as I *think* it would force a new DHCP request. I assume you are seeing the devices on #2's WiFi as being on the LAN connection of #1 when in Advanced Settings - Home Network.

Have you tried (only as a test) using the LAN at #2 just to see if switching to it then takes time?

As it appears you eventually get a WiFi! connection to #2 then it can't be a fundamental problem but a temporal one - hence I thought of DHCP renewal. Do your devices on #2 use the DNS server on #1? You *could* try using OpenDNS on the device.

Good luck and post more info' as and when it happens and I may be able to compare your set-up with mine. OldB.

[#13]

The SSID's are different.

Using wired LAN from #2 works instantly, via the wired, but there is still the long delay present when I go back to wifi.

Win10 suggests when it cannot get a full connection, that it is an IP issue. Based upon that, I agree it is a DHCP issue of some sort. It affects all devices I attempt to connect by wifi to #2.

I edited my above post, just to say once connected to #2, the connection is absolutely solid and fast.

I cannot find a setting in #2, which would allow me to set DHCP requests, to use #1 as the server.

I have been trying to resolve the issue for around 12 months so far, without any success at all.

Until yesterday, I had all of my fixed IP's (both routers, printers and some PC's) in the 44.???.???.???. As a radio amateur I have some IP's in that range allocated to me personally, so I made use of them. I thought that might be causing the problem, so I tried changing everything to the 10.???.???.??? - which didn't help 😞

 [EDIT] One more thing - until it shows I have internet via #2, I cannot even log into the web settings page of router #1.

Is there some way to manually force an IP renewal on a Win10 system I wonder?

[#14]

I have just tried disconnecting from #2, connecting to #1 (instant|), then back to #2 - which took a good while...

Whilst it was failing to connect, I tried ipconfig /release, then renew. Here is what I saw...

The final line suggests it cannot contact the DHCP server, on router #1.

A few days ago I tried setting it so both routers could respond to DHCP requests, but each using different IP ranges - that didn't help..

C:\Users\Harry>ipconfig /renew

Windows IP Configuration

No operation can be performed on Ethernet while it has its media disconnected.
No operation can be performed on Local Area Connection* 3 while it has its media disconnected.
No operation can be performed on Local Area Connection* 5 while it has its media disconnected.
An error occurred while renewing interface Wi-Fi : unable to contact your DHCP server. Request has timed out.

[#15]

If you have the patience then I would try changing the Lease time for DHCP on router #1 - from 1 to 2 hours or 2(or any)  to 1 and wait a day to see if it appears to make a difference to the delay in the direction you changed it.

The guide above says '(optional) Click Port Forwarding, then UPnP and select off,' - I am not sure if I did that but probably did.

Then - on #2 it says: in Advanced Settings -> Home Network, then IP Addresses, change the IP Address to one not in use. I chose 192.168.1.nn and can see that IP on #1 in Advanced -> Home as per earlier post. I assume you also see router #2 as using a static IP on #1.

But you ask about getting DHCP to re-direct to #1 from #2 (I cannot find a setting in #2, which would allow me to set DHCP requests). I am pretty sure that that will happen automatically if you follow their instructions: -> Home Network, then IP Addresses, under DHCP Server, Enable select No (on #2) and click apply (ignore the warning)

I don't know if either of these next two really matter but they say: TURN OFF WPS, click apply (ignore the warning) and
Click Port Forwarding, then Firewall and select Disabled, click apply (ignore the warning).

However - the last item - 'Click UPnP and select off' - I certainly did that.as that is a facility where I would expect there only to be 1 allowed on any network.

Final point - when you refer to 44.x.x.x and changing to 10.x.x.x (I can't be sure as I see smileys not the 'x's) - I *have changed my subnet mask to 255.255.0.0 to allow me to use devices on 192.168.0.1-254 but if you really mean 44.x.x.x then what subnet mask would allow those to be used? Does NAT allow that? I am pretty sure that DHCP wouldn't but then again I *think* you were referring to static-IP attached devices.