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Using BT Business SmartHub 3 as a satellite wifi point off another smarthub or any other main router

mikem77
Member

Hi

My building is a 275 year old Grade 2* listed property so walls are thick and damp and wifi doesn't travel far.

I have FF900 into the Office running a Smarthub 3 and want to put a separate wifi network in the flat upstairs. I have a spare business smarthub 3 so thought I could use that.

When I connect the hub (broadband RJ45) to the main router in my home (different building and broadband is through a virgin hub so no ip clash as such) the hub reports not connected to internet.

Have plugged the mac straight into the rj45 feed and it works fine.

So question is can I use a smarthub3 on another network or will it only talk to the BT box on the fibre ?

If I can what do I need to change config wise to make it happen ?

Mike 

3 REPLIES 3

BethM
Administrator
Administrator

Hi mikem77

 

So you're trying to use the SH3 as a wi-fi point? We don't support using our routers in such a way so can't provide technical assistance. You can find our help and support guides for this router here.


^BethM

Hi Beth

 

That seems awfully wasteful. It essentially means that old routers have to be binned. So changing the question. a bit...

 

I have a spare smarthub 3 I want to make use of to extend my network. Is it possible to do that (essentially plugging the hub into the ethernet port of another hub and then having a separate wifi network ?
I accept it is not supported.

aac74
Member

Some routers can be put in 'bridge mode' so that all their router functions are turned off (NAT, DHCP etc) and they can act as a simple WiFi access point when plugged into a property's main router. However, I doubt that BT smart Hub routers will have settings to do this. Most ISP routers are very locked down for security reasons.

 

Your best bet for having better WiFi in more of your property is a cheap and simple mesh wifi system that can be put into an access point mode to work with your BT Smarthub 3 as the main router (that is connected to the fibre line wall modem and is supported by BT and  works with your BT equipment e.g. phones).

Mesh systems are based on Wifi node that can be connected via lan cables or wifi. If you need stronger wifi in more places just add more nodes.

This works well for me:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Tenda-Nova-MX12-AX3000-System/dp/B09MLPNX49

Just make sure you turn the wifi off on the smarthub 3 via its web control panel (to prevent interference with the mesh wifi) and put the mesh system into access point mode (so all router functions are turned off). The mesh node that you plug directly into the smarthub via a lan cable becomes the main node. All other nodes connect to it either directly or in a chain of other nodes.