Setting up third party router issues: Draytek Vigor 130 & Linksys MR7350

[J1D2A3]

Hi everyone,

I’ve been wanting to replace the VF modem / router with a mesh wifi network. I’ve bought a Draytek Vigor 130 modem and a Linksys MR7350 router which can form the main hub for their Velop system. 

I’ve got my username and password from VF support but whenever I try to enter them I’m told they are incorrect. I’ve tried setting up through the Linksys app and directly from the modem to my laptop and neither work. I double checked the details with support and they confirmed the same username / password. I’ve gone into the modem settings and enabled bridge mode, VDSL only, and then back to factory settings with no avail. 

Does anyone have any suggestions for what to try next? Thanks in advance!

[Anonymous]

It's best to get the un and pass set your in an email, or copy from text chat - VF have a tendency to mix up 1 & l and a few other letters.

The other thing VF tend to forget to tell people is that the username should end with @ broadband.vodafone.co.uk (no space after the @).

Also make sure the Vigor 130 you have is UK spec - it's just a modem, there should be no router settings available on it!

[J1D2A3]

Thanks for such a quick response. I immediately thought there was something different between your un example and the one that VF had given to me - they’d put Vodafone.broadband rather than broadband.Vodafone!! Switched them round and connected first time. Thanks again. 

[HappyNomad]

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@J1D2A3 wrote:

Thanks for such a quick response. I immediately thought there was something different between your un example and the one that VF had given to me - they’d put Vodafone.broadband rather than broadband.Vodafone!! Switched them round and connected first time. Thanks again. 

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👍Good stuff. 

Enjoy your Velop set up.  If it is anything like mine,  it will be almost entirely trouble free.  
Nodes 2 or 3 (wirelessly connected) very occasionally drop out and need to be switched off and on with the switch on base to reconnect and you forget just how crap the Linksys app is until you go into it (very rarely) but other than that it has been superb.

Oh… it 'phones home' a lot too - one of the most prolific phone home devices in my LAN - but Pihole stops it with no apparent detrimental effect.

[J1D2A3]

I seem to be getting a reliable connection all over the house and garden now so that is a promising start. I invested in the Velop line for Apple Home Kit Secure Router support but apparently didn’t do enough research or I would have found that it doesn’t support mixed mesh networks like mine with the MR7350 as the main router and the WHW0303 nodes spread across the house. On the off chance, I don’t suppose you know if they intend to support this in the future?

Thanks for the note about ‘phoning home’ as well! One of my next projects is to get another Raspberry Pi for PiHole and PiVPN so good to know that it will be worthwhile. I also need to come up with a better solution for arranging my modem, router and all of the various smart home hubs so that they don’t resemble the leaning tower of tech but that is a job for another day…!

[HappyNomad]

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@J1D2A3 wrote:

I seem to be getting a reliable connection all over the house and garden now so that is a promising start. I invested in the Velop line for Apple Home Kit Secure Router support but apparently didn’t do enough research or I would have found that it doesn’t support mixed mesh networks like mine with the MR7350 as the main router and the WHW0303 nodes spread across the house.

That surprises me a little - a coffee break quest for knowledge shows most reviewers and associated blurb going along the lines of:

“the MR7350 is more than just a Wi-Fi 6 router, it’s been designed to play nicely with Linksys’s Velop mesh Wi-Fi network systems”

 My first V/node is connected to my mesh router by ethernet cable with nodes 2 & 3 operating wirelessly.  It perhaps makes a difference to the mesh performance given the thick stone wall between the main router (a tri-band Velop in a traditional wifi router case) and the three nodes 

On the off chance, I don’t suppose you know if they intend to support this in the future? 

No idea - sorry..

Thanks for the note about ‘phoning home’ as well! One of my next projects is to get another Raspberry Pi for PiHole and PiVPN so good to know that it will be worthwhile. I also need to come up with a better solution for arranging my modem, router and all of the various smart home hubs so that they don’t resemble the leaning tower of tech but that is a job for another day…!
👍

[HappyNomad]

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@J1D2A3 wrote:

Hi everyone,

I’ve been wanting to replace the VF modem / router with a mesh wifi network. I’ve bought a Draytek Vigor 130 modem and a Linksys MR7350 router which can form the main hub for their Velop system. 

I’ve got my username and password from VF support but whenever I try to enter them I’m told they are incorrect. I’ve tried setting up through the Linksys app and directly from the modem to my laptop and neither work. I double checked the details with support and they confirmed the same username / password. I’ve gone into the modem settings and enabled bridge mode, VDSL only, and then back to factory settings with no avail. 

Does anyone have any suggestions for what to try next? Thanks in advance!

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I have the Draytek Vigor 130 and a Linksys 8300-UK mesh router along with three Velop nodes.

Setting up the modem and router really was as simple as entering my Vodafone username in the form of ' dslnnnnnnnnnatbroadbanddotvodafonedotcodotuk ' (where 'n' represents a number in the 0-9 range and the words at and dot are the appropriate single characters rather than words) and eight character password. 

As Keith says above, the username is often supplied incorrectly - if it doesn't look like the example above then get back to them.