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Message 1 of 8

Using Digital voice with an alternative router

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I have recently been forced to change from my normal Bt phone line to digital voice. I have always used a tp link archer vr900 for my BT broadband as the wifi has been poor with the Bt hubs.

On receiving the digital voice phone I realised that it can only connect to a BT Hub. I have searched through forums and it seems the only way around this is to connect my tp link router to the bt smart hub 2 and connect one of those to network terminal. I have tried to do this but not being tech savvy in this sense can't seem to get this to work.

I wonder if anyone can explain how to do this step by step "Barney style" please.

 

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Message 2 of 8

Re: Using Digital voice with an alternative router

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Message 3 of 8

Re: Using Digital voice with an alternative router

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The first thing to do is put the VR900 into Wireless Router Mode rather than DSL Modem Router mode.

Disable DHCP server and connect one of the Hub LAN ports to one of the VR900 LAN ports.

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Message 4 of 8

Re: Using Digital voice with an alternative router

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As Liquorice said, the easiest way is to switch the TP-Link to Access Point mode, (if it has one), then skip to *.  If it can’t do that then it is still doable but this is where it gets more complicated.

Two things to remember.  You can’t have two routers in a network, so you are not using the TP-Link’s router function.  Nothing should be plugged into its WAN port or DSL port.  Secondly, two DHCPs in a network will cause problems.  (Not strictly true, but the ISP’s kit is usually not up to it and you would need to know how to configure them to work together anyway).

Basically, to make this work you have to switch everything in the TP-Link off, except for the wireless function.

What you also need to do is give the TP-Link a static address inside your network but also outside the range the BT hub is issuing.  I seem to recall the BT smart hub is already set up to allow addresses 1 to 63 to be used as static addresses.  Go into the TP-Link and set it to use 192.168.1.20  (They both need the same subnet mask, if it asks for it.  Usually this is 255.255.255.0 on ISP’s equipment.  If necessary, check what the BT hub is using).

*You will also need to turn off the wireless function on the BT hub.  (The two Wi-Fi’s may interfere with each other if you don’t).

You then connect the BT hub to your master socket, (or ONT if full fibre), and the TP-Link from one of its ethernet ports to one of the BT hubs ethernet ports.

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Message 5 of 8

Re: Using Digital voice with an alternative router

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The TP Link has a default address of 192.168.1.1, no need to change it.

There is no need to turn off the wifi on the hub, just fix the channels to be different on each device.

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Message 6 of 8

Re: Using Digital voice with an alternative router

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Thanks for the advice. Need more help. I have put the VR900 into Wireless Router Mode, disable DHCP server and connected one of the Hub LAN ports to one of the VR900 LAN ports.
I have connected the broadband from the wall socket to the hub instead to vr900 as it was before. Is this correct?

My devices that previously used wifi via the vr900 now have no internet access. Also I can't access the ip address of VR900 anymore since the changes. What am I doing wrong or completely misunderstanding?
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Message 7 of 8

Re: Using Digital voice with an alternative router

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Okay It all of a sudden does work. I changed the Ethernet ports I was using on the VR900. 

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Message 8 of 8

Re: Using Digital voice with an alternative router

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I guess you connected to the WAN port rather than a LAN port.

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