Access Point for Garage

[#1]

Hi,

The Wifi in my garage is very poor and I have installed cat6 cable which runs from my BT Smarthub 2, near my front door, to the garage.

(I'm on Plusnet and still have the router they sent a few months ago, which looks the same as the BT one but is white and not black).

My plan is to either use a third party router, or to set my Plusnet router up as an Access Point.

In very simple language (I'm not familiar with this technology), I'd be grateful for advice on either configuring the Plusnet router or, if it would be better, which third party router to buy for under £50 please.

Many thanks......Mike

[#2]

Quick glance on ebay shows plenty of BT HH6 between £7 and £30. Works great with PN, I've had one as my only router for past couple of years.

[#3]

OK thanks. I'll look into it.

Regards......

[#4]

Why not just buy a cabled WiFi  Access Point? Or do you like configuring equipment and have the relevant skills/understanding of networking?

[#5]

I'm assuming you will have mains power available but some Access Points can also run using PoE (Power over Ethernet) which can give greater flexibility of location. Though these are more normally  used in business rather than domestic settings.

A used ex-business model can probably be found quite cheaply on eBay.

[#6]

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@Tranquilitybase wrote:

Hi,

The Wifi in my garage is very poor and I have installed cat6 cable which runs from my BT Smarthub 2, near my front door, to the garage.

(I'm on Plusnet and still have the router they sent a few months ago, which looks the same as the BT one but is white and not black).

---

Sounds like you have a Hub Two. You can configure it as an access point and the Wi-Fi in the garage will be akin to what you get with the Smarthub 2.

To do this, you need to power up the Hub Two, log into the Hub Manager and make a few changes.

1. Firstly, connect a device to the Hub Two and browse to http://192.168.1.254 (hub needs to be powered up, but not connected to the Internet)
2. Navigate to Advanced Settings > My Network and enter the hub's admin password
3. Click IPv4 settings and change the IP address assigned to the hub. This needs to be something that is not being used by any other device on your network. If you haven't fiddled with the Smarthub 2 config, then you should be safe to use something below the default DHCP range e.g. 192.168.1.1
4. Disable DHCP
5. Save the changes
6. run an ethernet cable between one of the Smarthub 2's LAN ports and one of the LAN ports on the Plusnet Hub (do not use the fourth port, use ports 1-3)
7. For good measure, power off both hubs; then power up the Smarthub 2, wait for it to connect to the Internet, and then power up the Plusnet hub.

Some things to be mindful of...

• Because the Hub Two is not connected directly to the Internet, the LED on the front of the unit will likely flash orange. Despite this, devices conected to either its Wi-Fi, or ethernet ports, should still be able to access the Internet. Unfortunately, you cannot disable the LEDs on the Hub Two when it's in this state as it ignores your LED preferences when it thinks there is an error condition.
• Without any further conifg, you will see two separate Wi-Fi networks with different names/passwords. If you'd rather keep everything the same, then you can change the Wi-Fi name/password on the Hub Two to match what you're using on the Smarthub 2.
• If you configure both Wi-Fi networks with the same name, then it is down to the connecting device to decide which it uses. You may find that when you move closer to the garage, a device 'clings on' to the Smarthub 2 network, even though the signal is stronger on the Plusnet hub. If this presents a problem then it's probably best to keep seperate network names so you can force/dictate which hub each device connects to.
• When a wireless device moves from one hub to the other, you may notice a very brief interruption in connectivity.
• If you look at the network map in the Smarthub 2 Manager, devices that are connected wirelessly to the Hub Two will likely show as wired. This isn't anything to worry about but can cause confusion if you're not expecting it.
• If you need to access the Plusnet Hub Manager for any reason, then you need to browse to the new IP you assigned it e.g. http://192.168.1.1 and not http://192.168.1.254 (the latter will take you to the Smarthub 2 Manager)

[#7]

Many thanks......I'll bear this in mind.

[#8]

Thanks for your replies.

I have power in the garage so will probably keep it simple by using an adapter.

[#9]

Hi,

Thank you for your very detailed explanation of how to go about setting this up.

I need to make a decision over the weekend whether to go this route or perhaps to buy a third party AP.

Thanks again.....

[#10]

If you've already got the spare router it's worth giving it a go if you're happy to try following the instructions above.

[#11]

Hi,

In point 6 above, you mention not to use the 4th port. Just out of interest, why is this the case please?

Many thanks.......

[#12]

@Tranquilitybase 

The 4th Port is for a WAN connection, not LAN, so can't work on the local network, Hence the red WAN label on this port.

[#13]

Mine looks like this......It has four LAN ports. 

[#14]

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@Tranquilitybase wrote:
... which runs from my BT Smarthub 2

That image does not look like a Smarthub 2, it looks like a Home Hub 5 to me?

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@Tranquilitybase wrote:

My plan is to ... set my Plusnet router up as an Access Point.

You can probably use ports 1-4 on the BT Hub. You just need to avoid port 4 on the Plusnet hub.

[#15]

It doesn't look like this:

It looks like this: