Dual Routers

I am currently with Plusnet with FTC and a TP-Link N600 router with the contract ending in March
Experimenting to see if Mobile Broadband will give me an improved speed and then ditch the slow FTC package
Now using Huawei E5576 Router with Plusnet/EE Data Sim .
The EE mast is less than 0.5 mile away in a straight line, so excellent signal
Trouble is I cant run both at once because when I connected the Huawei to the PN Server it disconnects the ADSL router
I need to keep the TP_Link active for my wifes work

I have the TP-Link on Ch 2 and the Huawei on Ch11, so channel interference shouldn`t be the problem
Any idea why this is happening

How are you connecting the Huawei router to the TP-Link?

Does the TP-Link have a second WAN port? If yes, that's where it goes. If you plug it into the switch side of the TP-Link then you'll have to disable DHCP on the Huawei router. If you want to run two WAN links though, you're probably better off with something like pfsense or a ubiquiti edgerouter

Edited by thematt (Thu 03-Feb-22 21:38:24)

Plusnet is bound to disconnect the "current" router when you try to log in through another, and when the Huawei logs into Plusnet it also of course kills the EE connection.

You can only use two routers on a single connection by connecting them in series, not in parallel. As sort of pointed out by thematt.

I would simply connect your wife's computer to the Huawei as well as your own. Which is what your plan seems to be anyway. Ignore the Plusnet for now. That would give you a realistic trial.

Unless you have a static IP with Plusnet and only that address is being accepted by her work server. In which case I doubt if a static (but different) address is available on EE mobile broadband. Have you checked?

If your wife's connection to work is via a VPN then I would expect that to work through the EE connection as well, unless the static address problem applies there as well.

Apologies, If I didnt make this clear
The TP-Link and Huwei are not connected to each other in anyway
Two entirelly seperate routers, one feeding the Wi-Fi via Mobile PN the other via FTC

So you have 2 completely independent routers connected to the same LAN segment (WiFi)?

If so, simply setting each one up as if they were on their own, won’t work. Not reliably or predictably anyway. This is because they are duplicating gateways, quite probably addressing etc. The results of any clients connecting to the WiFi network will be a complete coin toss.

You really need to make one or the other the ‘main’ router/gateway on the network for this to work.

bures

In addition to all the help above in making one network work. You could keep them as two seperate networks. With the mobile network on the Huawei router.

This would let you test the different network performances by picking the different wifi networks or changing the router the ethernet connects to.

This would keep your wife work active on the tp-link so that is the only bit you couldn't test.

It would also allow you to comparative test over time as mobile can react differently across the day due to sun heights and other environmental factors. ( Rain / snow etc)

Otherwise you need a switch capable of handling two network inputs and the configuration is not for the beginner.

Still not clear about your set-up and some confusion about how you access the mobile and FTTC routers, if they are not connected in any way then you just have 2 independent Wi-FI networks that you can access with different SSIDs (Network Names)

I have trouble understanding a couple of your statements, what do you mean by...

"when I connected the Huawei to the PN Server" Do you mean the Router on the FTTC service?

and also "one feeding the Wi-Fi via Mobile PN the other via FTTC"

How are they "feeding the Wi-FI" or are you referring to the Internet connection as WI-Fi which seems to be a common but incorrect thing these days.

Assuming you are saying they are separate circuits and not linked. One router to mast other router to phone line.
Have you tried using the TP link using 5ghz band. USB 5 ghz dongles are cheap if not on laptop.

@Bures,

Is it possible for your wife to connect to the PN router via ethernet? If she can then you could switch off the wireless on the PN router and only keep the wireless on the EE router. This would mean that if and when PN go down all she would have to do is switch over to the wireless connection and away she goes.

HTH,

In reply to a post by bures:

Apologies, If I didnt make this clear
The TP-Link and Huwei are not connected to each other in anyway
Two entirelly seperate routers, one feeding the Wi-Fi via Mobile PN the other via FTC

I understood that. It seems nobody else has done.

They also query what you mean by the "PN Server". I assumed you meant the Plusnet core gateways/routers and servers. Others seem to think you mean your Plusnet router at home.

The confusion seems to be whether you mean your FTTC router loses sync, or just the wifi to it fails.

My original point was that the gateways at the Plusnet end cannot accept two different routers simultaneously connecting to your Plusnet account's landline service with them. It has to be one or the other. Your EE Mobile Broadband, though provided for sales and accounting purposes by Plusnet, will (as delivered) be connecting to EE's mobile data network. Not Plusnet's landline network.

As I suggested earlier, your declared aim seems to be to ditch the FTTC if the Mobile Broadband service proves adequate. If I'm correct, your only valid way to test is to transfer your wife's internet connection to it along with yours. Giving it the full "normal" load that the FTTC used to have.

While you still have the FTTC there to swap back to.

Is the TP-Link supplied by your wife's employer?

If I understand you correctly, which I might not, you have two WAN connections and want to team them up them for outgoing traffic? Try a load balancing router ... TP Link makes some cheap ones.

But he only wants one. From his OP: "Experimenting to see if Mobile Broadband will give me an improved speed and then ditch the slow FTC package".

What he hasn't explained is what is special about the TP-Link. I haven't found the right form of words to get him to do so.

Is it part of a VPN for instance, with its MAC number set at his wife's employer's end. Is it on a Plusnet static IP address, also held at that same place. (Though presumably alterable if he can get a static address on EE).

It's all too woolly at the moment. Why can't his wife simply use the EE connection via the Huawei?

All sorts of unanswered questions.

Here is a simplified diag of my basic set-up
When I connect the Huawei router, in the Desktop Network Setting the Plusnet connection is disconnected

Same things occuers using EE 4Gee router

Router Diagram

One further clarification - are you setting the same SSID on the WiFI network?

Note: Setting separate channels but the *same* SSID is the same local network and will lead to the issues I pointed out above. Not good.

That helps.

Now an earlier question that a couple of us at least have raised. What did you mean by "when I connected the Huawei to the PN Server"?

I ask because Plusnet servers are at their end. If you put the same login details into the Huawei as you put into the TP-Link then one of them has to lose the broadband connection.

I assume you were supplied with different login details for the Huawei to connect to wireless broadband.

Similarly, as the previous poster said, if you are setting the same SSID in the two routers each with their expected WAN login details that will cause a right mess on your domestic wifi. In particular the TP-Link wifi is likely to see the Huawei as a stronger signal and swap to it. So do you mean that's what happens when you are connected to the EE mast, or do you mean the FTTC connection between the TP-Link and Plusnet is lost? Or both?

And as I posted earlier, you need to see if the EE connection will work well with both you and your wife using it. Is there something stopping you doing that? Because if there is, how will you ever ditch the FTTC?

Also as others have pointed out, the speed fluctuations on mobile broadband can be quite large.

If OP just wants to ‘test’ the quality/speed etc of the 4G connection - simplest solution would be to set a different SSID for the WiFi for the 4G connection.

Then just choose which connection to use from laptop etc.

Simples.

[don’t think OP is thinking anything more ‘fancy’ at this point, so don’t need load balance, round-robin, failover etc etc complication at this point…hopefully [smile]

I agree. That's what I've been suggesting in relation to both users.

He doesn't want both connections if the EE one will cope. So he should use it for both for his trialling. While he can still fall back to the FTTC.

That is exactly what I suggested in my earlier post, just have two wi-fi networks.

Looking at the Huawei E5576 specs it has an operating mode where it can connect to a Wi-Fi hotspot or alternatively use a mobile data connection. They call it LTE/3G/Wi-Fi Auto Offload. The OP may have this activated so the Huawei is connecting the TP-Link Wi-Fi. which could definitely cause issues.

Huawei E5576 Spec

I am still baffled by the statement ..."when I connected the Huawei to the PN Server" No idea what this means. We are only getting rather limited information from the Op so are struggling to find out what is going on.

To my mind a red herring that. Makes no sense. Possibly a misunderstanding by the OP…

I had a very strong suspicion from the OP that he was trying to mistakenly join both routers at the WiFi level when he said in the last para of the OP

I have the TP-Link on Ch 2 and the Huawei on Ch11, so channel interference shouldn`t be the problem

Second post where he said:

The TP-Link and Huwei are not connected to each other in anyway
Two entirelly seperate routers, one feeding the Wi-Fi via Mobile PN the other via FTC

Finally the network diagram seals it for me; it’s pretty clear he’s using the same SSID (just setting different channels) and by virtue of that fact completely screwing up the operation of the LAN - as far as local DHCP, DNS and predicable gateway/ routing to the internet matters anyway.