This topic

Modem replacement for FTTC or put homehub 5 into modem mode?

JamesD1 — Tue, 26 Jan 2021 10:28:49 GMT

Good morning wise persons of the BT community!

Like many many people I am working at home and contending with multiple devices connected to by broadband (FTTC, ~50MB). Given the amount of devices attached and children wanting to home school work in rooms I decided I needed to update my router to prevent issues. House isn;t big enough to require a mesh network.

I have a homehub 5 - Type A.

I thought (it appears incorrectly) that I could plug in a better router into the homehub and turn the homehub into only a modem. I assume there is no way to do this properly?

If not, what should I buy please? I have a router arriving from Amazon today (no modem, Archer C80) but that is easy to replace if a combined solution is better. Ideally want a robust set-up but not wanting to spend loads.

All support greatly recieved!

Thanks

James

Re: Modem replacement for FTTC or put homehub 5 into modem mode?

gspearson — Tue, 26 Jan 2021 10:34:10 GMT

Don't reject a mesh. I reckon my DECO M5 has transformed our use of wifi.

Re: Modem replacement for FTTC or put homehub 5 into modem mode?

Keith_Beddoe — Tue, 26 Jan 2021 10:37:46 GMT

@JamesD1

Welcome to this user forum.

The Archer C80 is no good, as its only a router. The HH5 cannot be put into modem mode.

What you need is a modem/router combination.

Here are two suggestions which are suitable.

They both work with all BT services including BT TV.

https://www.tp-link.com/uk/home-networking/dsl-modem-router/archer-vr400/v2/

or a higher specification.

https://www.tp-link.com/uk/home-networking/dsl-modem-router/archer-vr2100/

If you only need a single band wireless device, then this one is only about £35.

https://www.tp-link.com/uk/home-networking/dsl-modem-router/td-w9970/

If you are just looking to improve wifi coverage, then as @gspearson has said, do not dismiss the mesh option.

I use this mesh system https://www.tendacn.com/uk/product/mw3.html

Re: Modem replacement for FTTC or put homehub 5 into modem mode?

JamesD1 — Tue, 26 Jan 2021 10:39:20 GMT

Cheers Keith,

the higher spec TP link is ideal as it looks to have the wifi stuff I wanted and is around the price I wanted to pay (£100 yes, £300 no!)

Best wishes

James

Re: Modem replacement for FTTC or put homehub 5 into modem mode?

JamesD1 — Tue, 26 Jan 2021 10:41:22 GMT

Would the M3 work ok with a new router at a later date keeping them all within a mesh or does the TP Link and the Tenda devices not 'play' nicely together?

Re: Modem replacement for FTTC or put homehub 5 into modem mode?

Keith_Beddoe — Tue, 26 Jan 2021 10:45:07 GMT

@JamesD1 wrote:

Cheers Keith,

the higher spec TP link is ideal as it looks to have the wifi stuff I wanted and is around the price I wanted to pay (£100 yes, £300 no!)

Best wishes

James

Another forum member reported excellent results with that one.

https://community.bt.com/t5/Home-setup-Wi-Fi-network/NETGEAR-Nighthawk-X6-R8000-WiFi-Cable-amp-Fibre-Router-AC-3200/m-p/2131304#M184809

The title of that thread is confusing, but look at the final choice.

That thread also explains the login details you need.

Re: Modem replacement for FTTC or put homehub 5 into modem mode?

Keith_Beddoe — Tue, 26 Jan 2021 10:47:22 GMT

Mesh systems are totally different, and do not communicate with each other.

I would see how the new TP Link works first, as you may be surprised.

Re: Modem replacement for FTTC or put homehub 5 into modem mode?

JamesD1 — Tue, 26 Jan 2021 13:26:16 GMT

the joys of having a Currys nearby (same price as Amazon and I had a voucher from Christmas to spend!)

Took 15 minutes to sort out the basics and woreless is great throughout the house (not tested at full load yet, but that will come!)

One issue is that I have an unamanged network switch to connect all of my ethernet devices (fire TV, Hue, Hive, powerline for games). That doesn't work anymore, I'll have to google some settings but the wireless router part is great.

Thanks!

James

Re: Modem replacement for FTTC or put homehub 5 into modem mode?

Keith_Beddoe — Tue, 26 Jan 2021 13:55:00 GMT

There is no reason why an unmanaged switch would not work, unless for some reason it will not connect to a 1Gb LAN connection. Some switches fail to auto negotiate due to timing issues, its a common problem.

What speed is the unmanaged switch?

Re: Modem replacement for FTTC or put homehub 5 into modem mode?

JamesD1 — Tue, 26 Jan 2021 14:16:19 GMT

What will cause an unmanaged switch to fail is if you plug in both ends of a LAN cable!

I had removed a device and as it was such a jumble of wires didn't realise I'd plugged in both ends to different ports. All working fine now!

Speed tests using devices through house show that in the main 'problem room' speeds that will allow decent fortnite-ing.

Now I need to set-up QoS to ensure I always get most fo the bandwidth on my work laptop when required and all is good!

£100 well spent - Many thanks again for your help

Re: Modem replacement for FTTC or put homehub 5 into modem mode?

Keith_Beddoe — Tue, 26 Jan 2021 14:24:35 GMT

@JamesD1 wrote:

What will cause an unmanaged switch to fail is if you plug in both ends of a LAN cable!

You would have created an Ethernet loop, and the switch would lock out the connection.

Out of interest, what VDSL connection speed are you seeing?

Be careful with QOS and bandwidth controls, as they use the device LAN IP address, so make sure that remains the same.

Re: Modem replacement for FTTC or put homehub 5 into modem mode?

JamesD1 — Tue, 26 Jan 2021 14:53:36 GMT

Is this what you're after?

QoS is IP then not MAC address? Bother, I need to VPN to my work and it's likely the IP changes over days.

Re: Modem replacement for FTTC or put homehub 5 into modem mode?

Keith_Beddoe — Tue, 26 Jan 2021 15:09:56 GMT

That is fine, a 6dB margin is about normal for VDSL. It may eventually drop to 3dB.

As for the IP address issue, its the LAN IP address, not your public IP address I mean.

If you look a the DHCP table, you should see your devices listed with their MAC and the IP address assigned to them.

If you want to apply any bandwidth controls to a device, you need to add that device to the address reservation table, so that it always gets that same IP address, otherwise if it changes, the controls will not work, and may assign them to a different IP address.

My address reservation example. Remember, some of mine are statically assigned on the device itself, so would not be reserved.

DHCP Address Reservation

This page displays the static IP address assigned by the DHCP Server and allows you to adjust these configurations by clicking the corresponding fields.

	MAC Address	IP Address	Group	Status	Edit

18:0C:AC:C3:38:81	192.168.1.114	Default	Enabled	Edit
90:21:55:B4:FA:81	192.168.1.111	Default	Enabled	Edit
08:78:08:5A:D2:A2	192.168.1.104	Default	Enabled	Edit
E0:B6:F5:51:C1:9F	192.168.1.100	Default	Enabled	Edit
9C:F4:8E:61:6B:A8	192.168.1.120	Default	Enabled	Edit
D8:B3:77:D6:43:2F	192.168.1.106	Default	Enabled	Edit
B8:81:98:0A:AD:39	192.168.1.116	Default	Enabled	Edit

You will notice in the bandwidth controls, that its the IP address which is used.

Bandwidth Control Rules

	Description	Priority	Upstream Bandwidth		Downstream Bandwidth		Status	Edit
	Description	Priority	Min	Max	Min	Max	Status	Edit

192.168.1.65 /1-65535 /ALL	6	5	800	100	10000	Enable	Edit
192.168.1.55 /1-65535 /ALL	2	200	1150	100	11000	Enable	Edit
192.168.1.56 /1-65535 /ALL	7	5	800	100	11000	Enable	Edit
192.168.1.61 /1-65535 /ALL	7	20	1190	100	10000	Enable	Edit
192.168.1.116 /1-65535 /ALL	3	100	800	100	11000	Enable	Edit

Re: Modem replacement for FTTC or put homehub 5 into modem mode?

Keith_Beddoe — Tue, 26 Jan 2021 15:19:54 GMT

@JamesD1

Please note, these examples were from my TP Link W9970, so your TP link will be different in the way the controls are applied. I would have to look at the emulator to see that.

The principle is still the same.

Re: Modem replacement for FTTC or put homehub 5 into modem mode?

JamesD1 — Tue, 26 Jan 2021 15:33:23 GMT

Thanks Keith,

For now maybe the MU-MIMO in the new router will take care of my jittering zoom web meetings so I am going to leave well enough alone and see what happens. The speed is something like what I'd like to see (I'm sure it was faster a couple of years ago, but given the whole village is online it's still fast enough & I believe I may eek out a few extra MBs once the system 'calms down').

Is there a BT wholesale site to check download speeds to the router? I assume it has optimised itself (or will do) and thereos no more for me to do other than relax and enjoy the increased wifi range?

Re: Modem replacement for FTTC or put homehub 5 into modem mode?

Keith_Beddoe — Tue, 26 Jan 2021 15:39:43 GMT

Correction and apologies.

The VR2100 works differently, and does use the device MAC address. It make more sense that way. Much simpler options as well, so it should solve your problem.

From the emulator.

Re: Modem replacement for FTTC or put homehub 5 into modem mode?

Keith_Beddoe — Tue, 26 Jan 2021 15:38:40 GMT

You can use this speed check.

https://speedtest.btwholesale.com/

Re: Modem replacement for FTTC or put homehub 5 into modem mode?

JamesD1 — Fri, 29 Jan 2021 11:25:43 GMT

Sorry to drag up this resolved thread but I've been connected a few days now and wifi is much better through the house and I don't have an issue when streaming for work calls. Overall very happy with the setup and think it was £100 well spent.

I have though been keeping an eye on the information for DSL up time (monitoring SNR to see if I can squeeze out a little bit extra speed) and I am noticing that I disconnect approximately once a day. It's happened once while work, didn't take long to get back online but if it's happening once a day is this some sort of settling down of the system, normal, or something I need to keep monitoring?

I'm only using the app on the router so I don't have logs of information or is there a setting somewhere I should use to monitor?

Thanks

James