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[crdrummond]

Hi all
I am trying to turn an old BT Home Hub 5 into a Wireless Access Point as per this page: http://unixetc.co.uk/2014/03/04/reuse-a-spare-bt-home-hub-as-a-wireless-access-point/

I'm getting stuck at the changing the IP address part.  Issue is that my home main router (Fritzbox) has an IP address of 192.168.178.1 and DHCP range of xxx.20 to xxx.200 (note the Home Hub's default is 192.168.1.254 / xxx.64 to xxx.253).

I've tried to change the Home Hub IP address to 192.168.178.19 and also tried 192.168.178.201 and after hitting apply i can no longer access the Home Hub using the new IP address selected (nor the old one).  Any idea where I am going wrong? (note this is even before I have tried to hard wire to the existing home network, so that can't be messing anything up I don't think).  I have tried resetting to factory settings a number of times but to no avail.

Thanks for any suggestions you might have!

[licquorice]

That procedure assumes both routers are in the same subnet. When you connect your laptop to the hub 5, DHCP will serve it an address in the hub range, when you change the address of the hub, it will be in a different subnet. Give your laptop a static IP address of 192.168.178.15 after you have changed the hub IP. You should then be able to connect to it.

[crdrummond]

Thank you for this.  I have to say that this is beyond my limits of IT/IP knowledge.

I am on a work laptop (it's all i have) and so i expect that I will be unable to fix my laptop's IP address (even if I knew how to, I don't have admin rights which I would guess that I would need).  Is there a workaround for this?  Eg if i unplug the cable and then plug back into the laptop, will the router re-assign to a suitable new IP address?

[licquorice]

Change the IP address of the hub5 and turn off DHCP before saving the changes so both happen at the same time. Now connect the Hub5 to the Fritzbox LAN port to LAN port and then connect your laptop to either the hub or the Fritzbox so that the Fritzbox serves your laptop with an address within the same subnet that both devices are now in.

[Alex Atkin UK]

Do bear in mind that the WiFi on the Home Hub 5 is not great.

Better than nothing especially if you're using it to extend into an area with no signal at all, but it struggles to do over a few hundred Megabits and the range is not great either.  Although that probably makes it even better as an extender in an area well away from the main WiFi.

[crdrummond]

So I have now followed the instructions above.
Oddly, after changing the IP address of the HomeHub, I couldn’t get my laptop to access the it using the new IP address I set it up with, but having connected the HomeHub to the Fritz via LAN, the HomeHub does appear to be providing internet to devices connected over Wi-Fi.
Now, I’ve set up the HomeHub to have the same SSID and Wi-Fi password as the main Fritz network.
Thing is, I was surprised to have to reconnect my installed Ring devices to the new Wi-Fi by entering the password again, as I was expecting it to be an extension of the main house network. Have I just managed to set up 2 networks with the same name and password but which are separate?
Ideally when guests come I only want them to have to input the password once, regardless of where they connect, but to be able to move from the house to the garden room (where the HomeHub is) and for the device to switch to the strongest Wi-Fi source.
Any thoughts appreciated!

[Alex Atkin UK]

So I have now followed the instructions above.
Oddly, after changing the IP address of the HomeHub, I couldn’t get my laptop to access the it using the new IP address I set it up with, but having connected the HomeHub to the Fritz via LAN, the HomeHub does appear to be providing internet to devices connected over Wi-Fi.
Now, I’ve set up the HomeHub to have the same SSID and Wi-Fi password as the main Fritz network.
Thing is, I was surprised to have to reconnect my installed Ring devices to the new Wi-Fi by entering the password again, as I was expecting it to be an extension of the main house network. Have I just managed to set up 2 networks with the same name and password but which are separate?
Ideally when guests come I only want them to have to input the password once, regardless of where they connect, but to be able to move from the house to the garden room (where the HomeHub is) and for the device to switch to the strongest Wi-Fi source.
Any thoughts appreciated!

Generally anything with the same SSID should be considered the same network and clients will try whichever appears the strongest signal.  However, in some cases a client might lock to the BSSID, which is basically the Access Points MAC address, it could be the Ring devices were doing that.

[crdrummond]

That’s what I thought but my other half’s iPhone has done exactly the same thing and is asking for the password for the garden room Wi-Fi network and not automatically connecting to it.
Am I doing something wrong?

[g3uiss]

Of course you need to make credentials the same !

[crdrummond]

Thanks g3uiss.
Could you elaborate a little please?

[g3uiss]

Make the password the same on both your wifi access points

[crdrummond]

Thanks g3uiss.
I have made the SSID and passwords the same already…

[g3uiss]

Once the password have been asked it shouldn’t again. I think I might have suggested a slightly different setup. Using a different SSID and password. Then the iPhone ( or other device ) would connect to the stronger SSID. that’s how it is here !

[crdrummond]

Thanks for clarifying!
The odd thing is that I have set up (I think) the HomeHub as a WAP at IP 192.168.178.19 and when I log into the Fritz box it sees something connected at that IP address but that it is a “PC”.
In addition, if I type in that IP address into my browser I cannot actually access the HomeHub (the page doesn’t connect) - is this expected?

[Alex Atkin UK]

No, you definitely should be able to access it.  Have you tried different LAN ports on the HomeHub and/or power cycling it?

I mean it doesn't matter, as once its bridging WiFi to LAN you don't strictly need access, but if a setting might need changing....

One thing that could possibly trip up the auto-connect thing, using different security settings.  eg one SSID is using WPA2 TKIP/AES and another WPA2 AES.  I think its expected that if its the same network and SSID, the specific security settings should match too, not just the password.