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2nd Router in garden office

Mrtonline — Thu, 10 Nov 2022 16:44:05 GMT

Hi hopefully someone can help me out here.

I have a Smarthub 2 in the home. I have run an Ethernet cable down from the house to the garden office. I want to connect a 2nd Smarthub 2 in the office so I can have Wi-Fi and basically extended my internet.

I have seen that this is possible by setting the 2nd Smarthub up as a slave but I don’t quite understand how to do it could someone run me through a step by step to do this please.

My 2nd question is. Where the broadband comes in to the house, a Ethernet cable runs in to an RJ45 port under the stairs which then connects to another RJ45 in the living room what my Smarthub is plugged in to. Am I better to use an Ethernet switch under the stairs to effectively split it and run down to garden or just come out of one of the Smarthub ports on the back to run down to the garden?

Any help would be much appreciated

Re: 2nd Router in garden office

gg30340 — Thu, 10 Nov 2022 16:42:29 GMT

You can not have two routers running from the same broadband connection so you cannot split the Ethernet prior to your first Smarthub. You would need to run the garden office Ethernet from either the first Smarthub's Ethernet ports or connect your switch to the fist Smarthub and then run Ethernet from the switch to the garden room.

Rather than using a Smarthub 2 in the garden room which would require you to adjust settings in the Smarthub 2 to make it work as a wireless access point I would suggest that you buy a proper wireless access point, which is designed to do what you want and connect that to your Ethernet cable in the garden room.

You can buy wireless access points on Amazon from about £40 for a TP link dual band wireless access point and this is simply a plug and play device.

Re: 2nd Router in garden office

Mrtonline — Thu, 10 Nov 2022 16:48:20 GMT

Amazing thanks for you reply. I will look into the wireless access point. The only reason I was going to use another Smarthub 2 is that I have a spare

Re: 2nd Router in garden office

VeteranISPUser — Thu, 10 Nov 2022 16:48:35 GMT

Hi @Mrtonline Simply connect a Complete WiFi Disc to your office Ethernet cable. Or better still connect an unmanaged ethernet gigabit switch so you have both WiFi and Ethernet available. With the Complete WiFi Disc it will have the same credentials as your SH2.

Re: 2nd Router in garden office

gg30340 — Thu, 10 Nov 2022 17:00:45 GMT

Just so you are aware, if you do purchase a wireless access point, you can change its name and password to be the same as your house's Smarthub however I find it better to have a different name and password from the house's Smarthub.

This will allow you to see that your devices are connecting to the wireless signal that is being transmitted by the wireless access point in the garden room, where as if it is the same as the house's hub it could be that your wireless devices are "holding" onto the house's Smarthub wireless signal and you may not get the best speeds that are available from the access point whether that is a Wireless access point or a Complete Wifi Disc which is in effect a wireless access point.

You can get wireless access points with more than one Ethernet port if you also require a wired connectio in the garden room.

Re: 2nd Router in garden office

countrypaul — Thu, 10 Nov 2022 17:18:43 GMT

Since you say you have a spare SH2 you could try simply using that as an access point. You would need to decide whether you want the same SSID/password on both devices or different SSIDs. You should be able to just put an ethernet cable between the two SH2s and ignore the WAN/router functionality, you would also have to change the IP address of the second SH2 and disable DHCP on it. I have done this on several routers but not on an SH2.

Re: 2nd Router in garden office

Mrtonline — Thu, 10 Nov 2022 17:20:45 GMT

Thanks @VeteranISPUser @gg30340 I’m going to explore both options

Much appreciated 🙏🏼

Re: 2nd Router in garden office

Mrtonline — Thu, 10 Nov 2022 18:34:20 GMT

@countrypaul Thanks I think I’ll try this 1st before I buy any other bits

Re: 2nd Router in garden office

licquorice — Thu, 10 Nov 2022 18:37:17 GMT

Give the extension hub an IP address of 192.168.1.10 and turn off DHCP. Connect the 2 hubs LAN port to LAN port

Re: 2nd Router in garden office

Mrtonline — Thu, 10 Nov 2022 19:52:07 GMT

Thanks for all the help I think I’ve got it now. I will reply back once I have everything set up in the next week or so

Re: 2nd Router in garden office

burgpet — Fri, 11 Nov 2022 01:31:44 GMT

The answer is Yes plenty of videos how to do this on YouTube. To use a 2nd Hub ...I done this myself to give split 2.4 and 5ghz signal ..only the best option is to get a BT complete WiFi Disc If you got a BT smart hub 2 and run an ethernet cable from Hub to WiFi disc you don't have to use ethernet cable only this will give the best WiFi signal from Disc..depending on your BT package Phone BT sales may give you one at no extra cost

Re: 2nd Router in garden office

spile — Fri, 11 Nov 2022 07:44:28 GMT

There is a long an excellent thread on the AV Forums about repurposing a router as a switch and access point. I’ve been doing this for years and it’s a great way to get the most out of kit. In fact my old repurposed Plusnet router performs much better than my BT Smarthub in terms of Wi-Fi. I would also recommend a utp terminating kit/cutter and checker. Not a lot of money but very useful.