BT Infinity 2 Set up

Ok, first of all I'm not a real techy so please bear with me.

After a recent fault on my home BT Infinity2 I think I may have an opportunity to create a decent wireless network in my home. I will try to explain:

The original HomeHub5 (hh5) went faulty after the thunder storms a couple of weeks back. An Engineer visit resulted in him installing a OR ECI modem linked to the original hh5 (I assume the modem part of the hh5 had busted but the routing was still working). He informed me to ring BT and request a new hh5, I did and they sent 2!

For info, when the house was rewired 5 years ago I had cat5 data points installed and these all run back to a Cisco Catalyst 2950 switch which was linked to the original hh5.

So I now have a kit list as below and think that if I can get some sound advice and help with design, set up and configuration I will be able to have a pretty good home network.
Kit list:
OR ECI Modem (Desc:NGA ECI-CPE-Modems Type 1B Model: B-FOCuS V-2FUb/r Rev.B
Cisco Catalyst 2950
hh5 (original - modem not working)
2 x hh5 swap box
TP-LINK TL-WA901ND (wireless AP)

I appreciate that I am asking alot here but I am really hoping that someone can help me take advantage of what I think is a great opportunity.

Please let me know if you have any questions or if I'm way off line with my thoughts.

Are the HH5's Type A or Type B ?

All 3 are Type A

Ah well. Another question is are you connected to a Huawei cabinet or an ECI cabinet?

That aside, you can use the HH5's as access points simply by ignoring the red WAN port and connecting them to your network using one of the yellow LAN ports. The other 3 LAN ports can be used for ethernet connections to other devices.

To make your wireless network a bit more integrated, you can change the SSID and passkey to be the same on the HH5's as the rest of your network.

You can also give them individual IP addresses within your network to be able to access their settings.

You can also turn off DHCP on the HH5's as there should only be 1 DHCP server on a network.

If you are using devices that can access 2.4 and 5GHz bands, you may find it an advantage to separate the bands by changing the SSID on the 5GHz band, for example by adding a "5" to the SSID. You can keep the same passkey.

You may find that the HH5's slow down from time to time and will need to be rebooted on a regular basis. I use simple plug-in mains timer switches to do this, but there are perl scripts available to automate this.

Thank you for the advice. Do I neet to change any of the settings on the HH5s for them to act as APs only or will it just work?

And how do I find out what type of cabinet I'm connected to?

Edited by deleted (Sat 18-Jul-15 14:22:47)

I think I'm right is saying you mean turn off the DHCP in the additional HH5s, not the original. If the OP turns it of on all 3 he would be in a mess.

And not "can" change the default IP addresses of the additionals. Surely "must" so they don't clash with the original.

Edited by RobertoS (Sat 18-Jul-15 14:28:52)

Yes, you are right.

The OP should also put a restriction on allocatable DHCP address that excludes those in use as APs.

For example: DHCP range x.x.x.64 to x.x.x.191 and then give te two addittional APs fixed addresses such as x.x.x.210 x.x.x.212 and his original other AP x.x.x.214

Thank you for the help and advice. I've got this set up with a couple of the HH5s and it's working great. I'll get to the other APs very soon.