Extender

[Geoffden62]

My home wi fi signal is poor in a couple of rooms. I have used now 2 extenders but still have a black spot. How do I go about getting a third (even if I need to buy them) Interestingly I do have 3 extenders from my former BT  set up. could these be adapted to work off a vodafone router?

[Jayach]

On Pro you are entitled to up to 3 extenders, if you need them. Presumably you just need to ask Vodafone.

Try live chat as that is usually the easiest way to get through. https://www.vodafone.co.uk/bbservcd/

I don't know enough about the BT extenders to say if they could be used on another router,

[CrimsonLiar]

With the BT extenders it really does depend on the model!  The best way is to try them and see.  You'll need to individually power them on, reset and power off.  Then connect one (if the set has a master use that) and set it up as a replacement for your existing WiFi before adding the others.  If it works, it should be great!  If it doesn't work, then you may have a set that requires the BT router to be set up as the master, and there's nothing you'll be able to do about it

[Geoffden62]

That’s great idea . I will give it a go

[Jayach]

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@CrimsonLiar wrote:

With the BT extenders it really does depend on the model! 

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I think you are right. I believe the early ones were black and basically generic. The later white ones need the BT router to operate. I didn't like to say that as it's just info I have "gleaned" and have no proof of.

As you say i think "suck it and see" applies here.

[Geoffden62]

Yes the fears are correct they are not working or picking up the wi fi in the way they did. I am now wondering if I plug the bt router into the Vodafone one can i simply have the same home network that I had before?

[Cynric]

.@Geoffden62 This is worth trying. I used to have something similar, thus :

Internet -> THG3000 -> Netgear Router -> all my devices

Some contributors who have also done this have had issues with "double NAT" because the data packets are being changed from, say, 192.168.1.13 (your PC) to 192.168.0.1 (your router) to 192.168.1.1 (the VF router) to 92.aaa.bbb.ccc (external IP) and this upsets some programs. I didn't have any probles, so it's all a bit take-your-pick. From my experience it worked nicely when changing ISP as nothing of my internal network ever had to change. But you are likely to have a slightly slower response time if you look at the figures from tracert etc. You can look at the performance with a browser based tool such as https://www.waveform.com/tools/bufferbloat to see how much latency is gained with two routers.

[Jayach]

It should be possible to use the BT router and extenders as an access point, and avoid the double NAT.

It basically means connecting the Vodafone LAN to the BT LAN connectors.

Try googling "use old router as access point" for more info.

[CrimsonLiar]

If you are really lucky some of the BT hubs have hidden abilities that allow them to work with other ISPs, or just as APs (Access Points).  Again though its suck it and see because there are multiple variants and it can even depend on firmware versions!