Netgear R6220 instead of BT Hub2

[licquorice]

How is changing DNS going to do that?

[Keith_Beddoe]

@LordWazon 

In my opinion, Pi-Hole is the best solution to that problem, it blocks most of that by default, and you can add you own domains to be blocked as well. The audit log it produces, give a good idea what is being accessed, and you can look the site up to see what it is, then add it to the blacklist if you do not like it. It filters all requests.

You disable the DHCP server on the home hub, and use Pi-Hole instead to use whichever DNS servers yo wish. I use Cloudflare  ones.

[LordWazon]

@licquorice PiHole has a community driven blacklists which holds domains that advertisers use and by creating DNS sinkhole it prevents ads to load.

You can read about it here if you're interested:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pi-hole

@Keith_Beddoe 

Yeah, I've been using it for a while now, love it, but main question was to change the DNS on the router itself but BT is blocking it.

[Keith_Beddoe]

@LordWazon 

You disable DHCP on the home hub, and use the DHCP server that is part of Pi-Hole.

I have both a Home Hub 4 and a TP Link router, but I prefer the TP link one, as its not under the control of BT. Its the TP link one in use below, hence the gateway is 192.168.1.1

It also has the advantage that you can reserve IP addresses, and name clients with sensible names.

[LordWazon]

@Keith_Beddoe 

Oh. Oooooh. Ok, thanks! I didn't knew that it has that option, really. Perfect, I'll get right to it!

[Keith_Beddoe]

I have used a long lease time, as most devices stay connected all the time, and are reserved anyway. The main advantage is that all devices will use those settings. If you have a Smart TV, you can block the adverts, and stop it reporting what you view.

Don`t forget to set the DNS server addresses on the DNS tab. I only chose CloudFlare, as its supposed to be private.

Getting a bit off topic now, but the info may be useful for others.

[michaelkenward]

I see that no one has suggested another option.

Leave  BT's Hub in place and tell it to put the Netgear router in charge of everything on the local network.

You can use the two routers on the same network without causing clashes.

The key is to set up the Hub2 with a local IP address that does not clash with whatever you have the Netgear router on.

By default Smart Hub2 squats on 192.168.1.254. That clashes with the Netgear router which will allocate itself 192.168.1.1.

I wanted to keep that for everything already on my local network. All those fixed and reserved 192.168.1.XXX addresses.

I set my Smart Hub2 to use 192.168.2.1. Then I went to:

• My Devices

On the SH. Look in the list for your Netgear router's IP address – in my case, it was on 192.168.2.175.

After I connected things, I went into the Smart Hub2

• Advanced settings
• Firewall
• Configuration
• DMZ On

Look at the drop down and pick the IP address that the Smart Hub2 has allocated to your Netgear router.

Use the Netgear router's IP address as the DMZ address.

Then you can set the Netgear on 192.168.1.1

Since doing that all has been well. No conflicts between the two routers. (I have turned off the redundant wifi from the Smart Hub2.) Both routers are accessible using the a web browser and the graphical user interface (GUI) aimed at their IP addresses. I have yet to be forced on to Digital Voice so I don't know if that works.

This is from memory a few months ago. It still works, but you may have to tweak it for your setup.

Then again, the R6220 is not a particularly powerful router. I is also a bit long in the too, launched in 2015. The BT device may be better on that score.

In my case the Netgear device is an MK93 mesh system that supports 6GHz Wifi.

[WSH]

Similar to my own setup.

I would add that you only need the DMZ settings if you are allowing unsolicited incoming traffic, like a server.  I don’t & don’t use the DMZ setting.  The OP indicated security was his concern.  If that is the case, I would leave out the DMZ unless he needs it.

Yes, DV works, assuming the SH2 is the first thing connected to the internet.

[michaelkenward]

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@WSHwrote:

I would add that you only need the DMZ settings if you are allowing unsolicited incoming traffic, like a server. 

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In that case, doesn't the main router catch uninvited guests?

The original stated aim was to change the DNS. As it is in my setup, the Netgear router allows that.

Maybe I am missing a bit of information. Why does @LordWazon want to use a different DNS?

Which DNS do they have in mind?

As it is, the reasons that @LordWazon suggested, safety and security, are, as @licquorice hinted, not really associated with the choice of DNS.

For that, as @Keith_Beddoe suggests, there are other options. I was just offering one alternative.

To be honest, I would not go down the DMZ router with something as old as the R6220. Never that capable, and now on Netgear's list of end of life kit:

NETGEAR End of Service | NETGEAR

[licquorice]

The key bit of information @LordWazon omitted to impart in his original post, was the use of pi-hole.