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Compatible Mesh WiFi

CEB5000
4: Newbie

Hi, I recently bought the Eero Mesh WiFi system to extend the coverage of the THG3000 router. To avoid a ‘Double Nat’ situation I think my only option is to put the Eero in bridge mode, since the VF router does not have that functionality (bridge mode). This essentially turns the Eero nodes into wireless extenders and loses the smart features. If I proceed with this, will I also lose all the control features of the THG3000? Seriously considering returning the Eero, but before I do has anyone any recommendations?

14 REPLIES 14

mroshaw
4: Newbie

I had a Velop mesh system, before I rewired the house with cat 6.

Same situation, though. The Voda routers do not support "modem only", even if you deactivate DHCP and DNS. So I too had to run the Velop in bridge mode, losing all the fancy functionality. You will retain all the functions of the Vodafone router, limited though they are. It does work, though, and you'll get your Mesh network.

Let me know how you get on. 

HappyNomad
15: Advanced member
15: Advanced member

@mroshaw wrote:

You will retain all the functions of the Vodafone router, limited though they are. It does work, though, and you'll get your Mesh network.

Let me know how you get on. 


It is not really a mesh network though.  Hybrid at best with a non meshed router and what amounts to little more than an expensive extender whether it is a single node or multiple nodes meshing between themselves.

 

To get the range around my house & garden area I bought three Velop nodes and connected to the VF THG3000 with wifi off and a pihole handling DNS.  I cant remember which device I settled on for handling DHCP but I tried them all with fairly unsatisfactory results.

 

Soon after that I bought a Linksys MR8300 mesh router  (a Velop in a traditional router case) and a Draytek modem.  I could have used another Velop node as my primary router but I wanted the Gigabit Enet ports for my Smart home hubs and the 8 port switch for wired devices.  It has all been running happily ever since.  No down time, no dropped connections to my Apple devices, full range and lots of wired and wifi devices connected.

 

Of course, if I leave VF at the end of contract, I'll have to find another ISP that allows own kit but I’ll worry about that in around four months time 😊.  

Err, if you bridge the routers correctly you should lose no features of the new router and there's reason to disable the DCHP on either.

 

Simply have the Vodafone running on the IP range of 192.168.2.1 and then your router connects as 192.168.2.2 as a WAN connection. You can set as a static IP address in the Vodafone settings. Then on the new router you use the LAN PORTS IP address range of 192.168.1.1, your new router will assign devices on the 192.168.1.XXX range and the gateway is 192.168.1.1 but for the router the gateway is 192.168.2.1 but you don't see that part by your devices.

 

The benefit of doing this way is that you can then put your new router in DMZ mode which gives your new router full control over NAT, Port Forwarding and so forth.  Then to improve your wireless speed over the MESH disable the WIFI on the Vodafone router because even if you don't connect to the Vodafone router wireless it still uses bandwidth allocation because the band is shared. People in detected houses for example have better wireless speeds than those who live in flats because the bandwidth is shared regardless if your connected to them or not.

 

 

Silly question from a non-tech person currently on the Gigafast 900 fibre service with VOIP:

 

If you bridge the routers as per @SimonHayterUK will the VOIP still be left working on the Vodafone router?  I read from the support page that if you use a third party router the VOIP will not work (and they do not give out sufficient info to allow you to set up the VOIP correctly yourself on your own hardware), so the only option would be to try to bridge and then hope the VOIP still worked via the Vodafone router.

 

I'm looking to add a Unify UDM Pro plus CCTV and mesh access points etc, and the only thing stopping me at the moment is the fear that the VOIP will not work.

 

Any advice please?

Hi, You'll have to excuse my ignorance, but which options on the VF router menu do you use to set the IP - is it the manual DNS address?

Thanks,

Jayach
16: Advanced member
16: Advanced member

Don't know who you were asking that question of, but it's under Settings - Local Network on the THG3000, not sure on the earlier routers.

@jayach - thanks, I appreciate this thread is a little old.  I have the THG3000 so that should work - I am looking at a mesh network and some of the issues that arise using the VF router as you cannot put it into bridge mode.  I was looking at the Amazon Eero, although it does say you can run a double NAT with that so that may be another workaround. We'll see.....

I decided to return the Eero not long after starting this thread. Instead I bought a cheap tplink range extender which has performed better than expected. Still in pursuit of a mesh network I am waiting delivery of a Fritzbox 7530 and Fritz 3000 tri band mesh repeater. With this set up I can ditch the THG3000 completely.

Yep, ditch the voda router and go for a single system at least that way issues are easy to track.

 

I find the Asus mesh option very relaiable espiecaly with an ethernet backhual between difficult areas and there WRT based OS is not bad