Flushing DHCP

[Qazqaz]

I’ve just had a new BT hub installed, replacing an old one.

Everything is fine apart from a Netgear extender that seems to have connected to the router but I know can’t see when I search for wifi on my phone or PC.

Netgear support said it’s to do with old (IP?) addresses from the old router conflicting with those on the new one (TBH I’m not a techie and didn’t fully understand) but they suggested ‘flushing the DHCP’.

Does this sound right? Is it safe? And if so how do I do it?

I don’t want to mess up my whole system for one extender.

[Crimliar]

Flushing DHCP is going to do very little to nothing in this instance (why it's even necessary on a modern router such as the BT Smart Hub is beyond me).  The oddity here is that Netgear extenders/WiFi repeaters will continue broadcasting their own WiFi, even if they have no connection to the router (and hence the internet).

So daft question!  Having a new router, it'll have a new WiFi broadcast name (SSID), so did you change the settings on the extender to match that (if not you'll need to use the physical reset on the extender and add it to the new network);  Or probably more sensibly have you changed the WiFi broadcast name (SSID) and password on the new router to be the same as those on the old router (and kept a note of what they are).

[Qazqaz]

Hi Crimliar

I didnt change anything on the extender.

How do I do a physical reset on the extender? At the moment I cant see it on the mywifiext.net or the 192.... IP address so I cant get into it.

[Crimliar]

By far the easiest way to migrate to a new router is to take the WiFi SSID and password from the old router and put them into the settings on the new router (and keep a note of them).  In most cases doing that means you won't need to change the WiFi settings on any of your other devices - including the WiFi extender.

If you've already put the new WiFi details into your other devices (if you haven't and you are using WiFi that's a whole other issue), then you'll need to find the reset button on the extender (often recessed/hidden) and set that up from scratch with the Netgear App.

*If you are using the BT WIFi app on devices to access you home WiFi, you'll potentially not be getting the performance you would if you were to be signing your devices onto the WiFi properly!

[michaelkenward]

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@Crimliarwrote:

By far the easiest way to migrate to a new router is to take the WiFi SSID and password from the old router and put them into the settings on the new router (and keep a note of them).  In most cases doing that means you won't need to change the WiFi settings on any of your other devices - including the WiFi extender.

That is by far and away the best option.

When it comes to the Netgear extender,  it shouldn't be that difficult to set it up with the original WiFi SSID and password.

How you do it depends on the extender model. But this isn't the best place to go into that. Dig out the manual from the Netgear site and take things from there.

Start here, feed in the model number and read the manual:

NETGEAR Support | NETGEAR