What hardware do i need to purchase?

Hi there,

Currently i have a wifi router downstairs, but its signal is not strong upstairs. I have tried a variety of routers and they don't seem to help.

I have a pair of 200mbit homeplugs which connect my computer upstairs and i get a 50megabit connection there which is reasonable. However i would like to connect 3 wired devices in my room, i think a network switch would be okay for this however i would also like to improve the wifi signal upstairs.

What hardware do i need to buy that can act as a switch and a wifi hotspot, using the homeplug connection i already have?

A normal router with 4 ports and wireless will normally be adequate. You need to turn off DHCP and give it an IP address within the primary router's range.

Which type of router do you currently have? For commonality it might be worth buying the same or similar.

Oh right I see, I currently have a TP-Link Archer C2 which i just purchased but i wouldn't want to spend too much money if I can help it.

I wonder if it would it be possible to use my original plusnet router, the TG582n?

Wouldn't he also need to set the allocatable DHCP range of his existing router to exclude the fixed IP address in the subnet range that he gives the new one?

Do both of them run on the 192.168.1.nnn subnet?

Maybe, but if it is in the range with a fixed IP and permanently on then it should not get allocated.

If that were the case, the default range wouldn't exclude the DHCP server address...

Just try it out.

Go in and turn OFF DHCP. Find the DHCP range of your new TP link maybe 192.168.1.xxx and give teh TG582 a fixed IP address towards the top end of the range

I believe they are on the 192.168.0.xxx subnet, I will give it a go thanks

So, on the TG582, disable DHCP and fix the IP address as 192.168.0.201


You could tweak the DHCP range in te TP-link to exclude .200 to .210 but that is nit really necessary unless you are planing to have 200 devices connected!