Connecting 3rd party router to utility warehouse modem

Hi everyone, I�m at my wits end trying to sort out better WiFi in my nieces bedroom, so I�ve come here hoping some of you can help me.

In their house their internet provider is utility warehouse. They are on the �ultra� package, so the WiFi should cover the whole house, but as the walls are concrete, my nieces bedroom, which is furthest from the modem gets barely 1 bar of signal.

I had the same situation in my own house, which is supplied by virgin media. I ran an Ethernet cable from one of the 4 outgoing lan ports of the modem to a cheap tplink router upstairs and it works fine. The tplink router works wired and wireless and I have no issues.

I�m trying to do the same thing from the utility warehouse modem, it just won�t pick up the internet. First I ran an Ethernet cable from one of the outgoing LAN ports of the UW modem to a TP Link N450 cable router. The router didn�t pick up the internet from the modem (no led light indicating internet connection).

I read on the UW website that their �ultra� service is a vdsl line and thought maybe that�s the issue, and so I tried the TPLink N300 VDSL/ADSL modem router. As this is a MODEM router it�s main Ethernet input is a 6 pin rj11 socket, but the cable running from the UW modem is an 8 pin RJ45 plug. One of the 4 outgoing ports on the n300 accepts an rj45 as a LAN/WAN supply but will only work as a wireless access point when used this way. I want to be able to use the router as wired and wireless (wired for smart tv, wireless for phones etc), so this is no good.

Ultimately my question is:

Am I correct in thinking that I need a specific type of router to work off of the UW modem, because it�s a VDSL line?

I�m sorry if I�ve not explained my situation well, I�m not familiar with all the correct terminology. As stated, I usually just plug a router in off the modem and it just works.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks

If you are connecting to a LAN port it won't pickup "the internet" - ie the Internet light will never go green. You aren't using the modem part of the second router at all - just using it essentially as a switch/wifi repeater.

Plug one end of the LAN cable into the LAN port of the utility warehouse router and the other end into a LAN port of the second router. Log in to the second router and ensure DHCP is turned off (you want the devices to pick up IP details from the main router not the secondary).

I read on the UW website that their �ultra� service is a vdsl line and thought maybe that�s the issue, and so I tried the TPLink N300 VDSL/ADSL modem router. As this is a MODEM router it�s main Ethernet input is a 6 pin rj11 socket.

Sorry to break the bad news, but the 6 pin RJ11 socket is NOT an Ethernet input, but rather a VDSL2/ADSL/ADSL2+ input.

Plugging all the kit together because the cables fit will not fix your scenario you need to be able to configure the additional kit you plug in.

e.g. the TPLink N300 is far from ideal but can be configured as a wireless access point where the wireless and LAN ports are available, i.e. disable the DHCP on it and ensure no IP address clashes with the existing Utility Warehouse kit.

Another problem in your concept of what you are doing is that the UW modem is NOT a modem but is already a router and for most services providers supply it is a modem combined with a router.

For those not familiar with the terminology the simplest path to do what you want to do is to add a wireless access point, some do have multiple LAN ports e.g. this Asus https://amzn.to/2C3Fj0J at £64.99

If you want the challenge of a fiddle then http://www.coolwebhome.co.uk/wap/configuring-wap.html shows the steps needed to configure a Netgear router as a wireless access point and the same techniques work on most devices.

Thanks for your reply. I did indeed call the tplink helpline who helped my configure the router as an access point and it worked, until I unplugged to router to move it and when I rebooted none of the devices would re connect. They seemed to get stuck while obtaining the IP address.

Would any type of access point work? Or would it have to be compatible with vdsl?

Thanks for your reply, I will try turning off the dchp later and see if that helps.

Wireless access point does not care whether it is VDSL or not

If it was working and then was not either the configuration had not been saved, or you changed something around what leads were plugged into what ports.

Or possibly the longer ethernet cable has an issue and is not working.

I did think that, but when connected directly into a laptop it works fine.