Changing the ip address on Home Hub 6

[countrypaul]

I will be changing from the HH6 to a SH2 shortly so in preparation I want to change the HH6 to use a different ip address such .251 rather than .254 which will allow me to connect the HH6 to the SH2 and migrate all the WiFi devices over time due to the number and not knowing at present how some of them have been setup , also significantly less agro when another family member can't connect without having to change their setup.

I could change the SSID &  Pwd on the new router to those of the old router but it also appears some of our youngest ones friends have our SSID and Pwd so they need changing regardless.

The problem I encounter on the HH6 is that if I change the IP address to anything other than .254 I get the error message  "The Hub's IP address cannot overlap the Start and End address" even though the DHCP range is set to end at .249. Trying .1 (also not in the DHCP range) results in the same error. Trying the default range for the DHCP server gives the same  if trying .1  All the above are using 192.168.1.x 

It appears I can't set the HH6 to use any IP address other than .254

Has anyone managed to do this and if so how? I have done this before on many routers, but the HH6 doesn't want to play.

HH6 Firmware version SG4B1000E081 updated 23-Feb-2023

We are due t change to DV very shortly - already have the SH2

[licquorice]

Can you change it if you disable DHCP on the hub 6?

Personally I would just ignore the fact there are kids that have the SSID and password that you rather they wouldn't have and simply give the new hub the old SSID and password

[countrypaul]

@licquorice  yes  I tried disabling DHCP on the HH6 and then changing its IP address but same result. I did discover someone else had a similar problem with a Business H6 and found that unless the DHCP range  excluded the required hub IP , the hub would not allow changing the IP - alas that does not resolve this one.

I am looking at using an old Plusnet hub set to the same SSID as the HH6 to replace the HH6 when I put the SH2 as the active router. Seems a long way round compared to "just" changing the HH6 IP address but I want to change the SSID we use and the second hub can be kept for guest access since the SH2 does not appear to support that.

[rbz5416]

@countrypaul 

I recently configured a SH with address of 192.168.1.1 & a DHCP range of 101-254 & don't recall there being any issues. Although in your use case you want the DHCP disabled, as the SH2 will be issuing address. I'll go & factory reset it in a while & go through the setup again & report an issues.

Edit:
It seems that changing the DHCP range resets the IP address to default. So you need to set the DHCP range first by clicking on it, then Custom, then Set & entering the new range & saving top right.

Then when it's rebooted, change the IP address to something outside the DHCP range you set.

Lastly connect to the new IP address & disable DCHP.

I didn't see any DHCP conflict messages as you reported. Could the DHCP range have already been changed to cause a conflict? If the above still doesn't work then maybe try a factory reset of the SH.

Note that after DHCP is disabled, you'll only be able to connect to it when it's physically connected to the SH2, or if you set a static IP address on the device you're connecting from.

[WSH]

BT's DHCP is one of the most flakey I've come across.  My experience, (with the SH2, I must say), is as rbz5416 said.

The trick is to reset the DHCP range, then save that, then set the new address for the hub and save it again.  It just ignores it if you try to do both at the same time and doesn't even report it as an error.

[countrypaul]

@WSH , @rbz5416  thanks for the comments very helpful - it is now working.

I rebooted the HH then set the DHCP range back to default, rebooted, set the ip address for the router, rebooted, disabled dhcp and rebooted and it has worked. Not sure I needed to reboot all those times, but thought it might be the most fool proof approach.