Apparent DHCP error

[Dlt1518]

Thanks in advance for any help offered.

So at our property we have our main house which has the pole to house fibre connection with router and disc. We have 4 holiday let properties  on the land which, once the appropriate planning and work is done, will be rented out on a full time basis and will have their own fibre connections sorted out, but this will take some time.

When the previous owner built them and the question on giving these properties a internet connection arose, the decision was made to basically run a fibre connection out of one of his routers ethernet ports, split it and run it underground to each individual property where it is plugged into one of those TCP repeater devices so that each property has it's "own" WiFi. 

However the issue we are having now that there is people actually using the property and the lets, is that we are constantly being met with the message "connected but no internet connection". This is solved by disconnecting and reconnecting the device however whenever the device naturally disconnects, I.E. I leave home with my phone or turn the Tele off, when I come back home again the device will have the "connected but no internet connection" message.

BT have sent an engineer but they have confirmed, unsurprisingly so, that the issue is with the "home network" rather than anything to do with BTs router etc .. the engineer was very helpful in basically confirming to me that the "network" set up is very amateurish and explaining that effectively the properties are all fighting for IP addresses and referred to it as a DHCP connection error. 

Finally getting to the point, does anyone have any advice on things I could do within the admin settings that may help us rectify the issue.

Apologies for the length of this post.

[ptrduffy]

Hi @Dlt1518 

Before we can answer your question we would need more detail on how the 4 properties are actually connected back to the Hub.  You say

to basically run a fibre connection out of one of his routers ethernet ports, split it and run it underground to each individual property where it is plugged into one of those TCP repeater devices so that each property has it's "own" WiFi.

Is it actually a fibre connection from the main property to the lets?  And if so, what router is used at the main property?  And how is the fibre 'split' exactly?

Or is it actually an Ethernet link from the main property to each let, run from an Ethernet router port?  In which case, that Ethernet cable would need to run into a switch, which then has cables running to the lets?

And what are the 'TCP repeater' devices in each let?

[Dlt1518]

Morning,

Sorry let me clarify. A ethernet connection comes from our router (BT Smarthub 2) goes to an outside box where there is then connections run to the individual properties. The devices in the other properties are TP-Link repeaters. 

[licquorice]

Sorry, that doesn't clarify anything.

We need to know EXACTLY  how things are connected not just vague terms.

[ptrduffy]

As @licquorice says, the detail of what happens in the outside box is key here - what is housed in the box?

[david2609]

You've mentioned a TP-Link Repeater. Update the firmware, it's a known issue with some devices and ones new from the factory with the update haven't replaced the old ones on shelves yet.