I got 99 problems but my WiFi ain't one

anybody got a wireless print server they want to shift?
I've got a couple of USB printers I want to connect to my home net.
Ta

This stuff makes my head hurt, so please excuse my lack of technological nouse.

My current setup is Virgin cable broadband in living room which provides wi fi for downstairs (mostly) and sends an Ethernet cable upstairs which connects to a Netgear wgr614. This router is in upstairs office and links via Ethernet to desktop mac and also provides wi fi to upstairs (mostly).

Now, because I'm rubbish at all this, when setting all this up years ago I created two different wifi networks. One downstairs and a separate one upstairs. It's a pain as devices don't auto switch and often need to be manually switched.

I think what I want to do is have the upstairs router act as an extender? So the whole house is on one network. Having started to read about it though, what should be relatively simple has got me stumped. Anyone able to point me to an idiot proof guide? Or suggest another option if this isn't the best solution.

Sorry for the essay.

anyone got any tips for optimising a BT homehub 6? Regularly dropping out, both ethernet and wireless. I think it might be the DNS but I don't think you can change that on the router.

Ignoring the WiFi bit for a moment, it sounds like you have two devices acting as routers, the Virgin and the Netgear which isn't right. Are you sure you don't already have the Netgear acting only as a WiFi access point already? Might be called 'bridge' or various other things in the setup. But if two different devices are actually working as routers and handing out IP addresses I would expect all sorts of problems.

If you don't actually have any problems other than the one you've described, the WiFi part is simple. Give the networks the same name and key and that's it.

The terminology is 'wireless access point' or AP. An extender usually means a device that just repeats a WiFi signal rather than one that plugs into your wired network.

Are you sure you don't already have the Netgear acting only as a WiFi access point already? Might be called 'bridge' or various other things in the setup.

One issue is I'm struggling to get in to the settings of the Netgear router to check it's settings as the admin password isn't working. I'll have to do a factory reset I think.
Once I do that I'll check to see if it's in bridge mode and to see if simply calling it the same as downstairs network works.

Thanks for the advice.

You're bang on with what you need to do. Here's teh idiot proof guide:

http://documentation.netgear.com/wgr614v9/enu/202-10308-01/WGR614v9-06-18.html

I've had 3 homehub 6's the first two were faulty..... Ask BT for a new one and see if that helps. My HH6 throws a wobbly for a couple of minutes when next door fire up their Sky internet.

That's great, thanks for the link.

I have an EdgeMax @velocio question

A power outage yesterday played havoc with my network - my wireless APs stopped behaving (suffering interference, limited signal and becoming isolated from the network), and DNS lookups stopped entirely.

Factory resetting the EdgeMax, and upgrading AP firmware fixed the connectivity, but the DNS is still shot (it took me a while to realise this, as most external connections are via an ssh tunnel)

I can't find any GUI screen to set DNS, but I did find a command that I could enter over via ssh

> set service dns forwarding name-server 8.8.8.8

But this doesn't work, and DNS is still borked

Do you have any ideas?

I am not at home and cannot see my UI from here.

But isn't the DNS nameservers on the Global Settings which is at the bottom of any page?

It is, but adding name-servers there didn't work, neither did having the router pick up the DNS servers from my ISP

I did find a fix / workaround - and learned a bit more about the router - using dnsmasq

1. added 127.0.0.1 as the global name-server (via the gui), then
   
2. via the cli, set some forwarding name-servers (to opendns for the moment),
   
3. disabled name-server updates from the isp (connected via dhcp on eth1), and
   
4. had dns requests on all other ports (eth0, 2, 3, 4 & switch0) set to listen. finally
   
5. set dns forwarding to system
   
   

tl;dr I fluked a fix

Looks as though part of the problem was an AP running as an extender. It's now turned off, an WiFi is stable again, although with less range.

50m of Cat6 arrives this afternoon. Time to AP all the rooms (or wherever there is a 12" thick wall in the way).

My Virgin Superhub is dropping the wifi every night for the last 3 nights. The CAT5 cable connection is fine though.

Reboot the router and it all works again. Borked unit?

I've used branded hubs before which have a limit on the number of concurrent active IPs they'll support, and once you get up to the limit, it begins to drop the connections at the top of the limit. Restarting usually sorts that, as your main connections get back on at the start of the chain. May be that your hub is OK but it just has a limit on the number of concurrent connections.

The hub is only handling half a dozen WiFi devices. Unless someone has cracked the password and is bombarding it with extra devices there is no way I'd fill the IP allocation within a day.

It's only become an issue this week.

I finally have 3 APs up and running.

A tidy up may be in order though...

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I thought it'd upgrade my network set up to get better wifi signal by using my current Sky router as a modem the using a TP-Link router for the wifi. From what I've read Sky aren't very forth coming in letting you use a third party router so this looked like the simple option (over just using the TP-Link for modem and wifi).

I've now spend the best part of 4 hours trying to access the TP-Link router settings and have got nowhere. I thought it would just be a case of connecting it via an ethernet cable and going to the ip (192.168.1.1) of the router in Chrome. It won't load the page and just bounces back with 'no internet connection'. Am I missing something here? Or is it likely that the router is broken?

Model is TP-Link TD-W8980

I got given it from a friend who put alternative firmware on it (to play nice with a BT internet connection) I thought it could just be a case of putting the TP-Link firmware back on it but to do this you need to get on the router settings page, which I can't access.

Can you access your Sky router? If so, can you see what IP address your TP-Link router has been given? Presumably your Sky router is still your DHCP server so will still be giving out IP addresses to everything else on the network, including the TP-Link.

I can access the Sky router but can't see the TP linked to it.

My plan was this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=130&v=id7mLqemtfc

Given how simple the method in the video is and how I can't get on the to the TP-Link options page I'm thinking that it's borked, either from the BT firmware swap or it just dying.

Hmm, so there's no reference to it at all in the Sky router's list of DHCP leases? If not, it might well be dead. Or just configured expecting to be the router. What happens if you remove it from your existing network and just plug your laptop straight into the TP-Link? Does it dole out an IP address to your laptop then? Maybe once you're in you can switch off the router functions and just leave it as a wifi thing?

Definitely connect your PC to the new router in isolation, not with any other devices connected to either. Turn off wifi on your PC too.

Yes, default IP for TP-Link is 192.168.1.1 but perhaps not if it has custom firmware/config. 192.168.0.1 is probably next most likely.

Assuming Windows, command prompt -> ipconfig should show you your ethernet adaptor's IP and the gateway (i.e. router) IP.

If it doesn't, try Windows network troubleshooter, which should reset networking, and try again.

Oh and try another patch cable just in case.

Only my wireless devices are showing up on the Sky page even when the TP-Link is plugged in to the Sky router.

I've tried plugging straight in to the TP-Link with all other connections (eg wifi) turned off and it doesn't load anything when going to the IP printed on the bottom (192.168.1.1).

thanks for the suggestions, looks like it's probably broken.

Read my post above if you missed it. Don't assume IP address is still the default.

Thanks for the help, unfortunately I'm on a mac.

I tried "netstat -nr | grep default" in terminal which I think is the same, it didn't return any IP address though, just a blank space where I thought it should be.

"default fe80::%utun0"

I also tried 192.168.0.1 and 192.168.1.254 (which google tells me is the default for a BT home hub) but I'm getting nothing.

I've used the same cable to connect to my Sky router (with wifi turned off) and it works so I think it's working ok.

@cornelius_blackfoot @aggi @Velocio

Sorry to bug everyone on the same matter, I never got round to buying any Unifi gear but I'm finally getting round to it now, I've got a Virgin Superhub router and modem and I want better WiFi so it makes sense to get this AP Lite, but Boss man said the speeds could be low if intending to use a NAS drive which I am intending to do. I should probably just get the AP Lite and see how I get on before going too wild, right?