BT Infinity router swap

I'm planning on changing my BT homehub for an Asus RT-N56U and was wondering is there anything I should be aware of?

I imagine I've got to disconnect the Internet from the BT homehub to get it to release it's IP before swapping the router over, but I am not sure if there are any other things I should be careful of?

Get a complete reboot and clean start. You could just replace router and off you go, but a clean restart is nicer.

Power down everything and disconnect all cables.

Power-up modem, power-up router. Allow two minutes for both to fully boot.

Connect incoming line from phone socket to modem - wait until DSL light is on (synced).

Connect Ethernet (RJ45) cable from modem to router.

Connect PC to router.

Unplug old router

Plug in new router and wires

Turn on

Easy right?

If this fails (can't see why it would) - turn everything off and on.

If the old router uses 192.168.x.x and the new 10.0.x.x any connected device could continue with the old IP address ... and not work. Hence my suggestion of a complete fresh restart.

Surely when you unplug the old router, the devices connected would not / cannot stay connected.

When you plug in the new router. On the devices connected, you'll have to either a) reconnect them to the new wifi network or if using ethernet do nothing.

The new IP will be resolved via DHCP server. It wont hold onto the old ip unless it's set as a static IP?

The only issue I COULD see, is the modem might not recognise the new routers MAC address and require a reboot to provide internet access via the new router - although in reality I've not seen this occur.

I guess a fresh restart will resolve some issues that COULD but possibly should not occur. Whether it is necessary, I'd argue not.

Edited by ukhardy07 (Fri 18-Nov-11 16:25:15)

Try it ...

I have been setting up some new routers today using my PC.

My network uses 10.0.0.x ranges and te routers are on 192.168.x.x as default. I unplug my PC from my network, and then plug in to the router I am setting up. I need to refresh the IP address either through Network connections or a Command Window and IPCONFIG. If I don't, I will be trying to access the router at 192.168.1.254 from my PC with an IP address of 10.0.0.100

I disconnect from 1 router

as soon as i disconnect the network state goes to 'disconnected' in task manager

When I connect to the new network, in less than a second, it has the new IP

Bearing in mind the IPs are completely different

I do not have to go into network connections or anything.

It's the same on both pcs I have here right now. Possibly different network cards / drivers all behave different.

Personally it would really annoy me if it wasn't automatic as I'm always moving between 3 different networks all with different IP ranges.

It behaves the same for both wifi and ethernet for me.

But yes, given your circumstances and given that everyones systems probably do not behave like mine. I see your reasoning.

Thanks guys for your help.

I figured it should be straightforward but I remembered having problems last time I changed my router and just wanted some reassurance.

Powered everything off, connected the new router together but no joy. New router doesn't pick up an IP address. Tried auto config and PPoE settings but no luck.

Connected old router and everything works fine. Seems like it's tied to the HomeHub in some way. Any suggestions on what might be causing this?

My thoughts are going to back to figuring how to clone the MAC address of the WAN port of the HomeHub. I've looked at all my settings for my HomeHub and have got the username and no password which I presume is normal.

Figured it out, I think. Seems like the router didn't like having no password for the WAN connection despite it not throwing up any error messages. Popped in a full stop as the password and it's all working now.