Mesh wifi, 2 internet connections different places

We have a tall thin shaped house, with a DSL broadband service coming in on the ground floor at the front. We are currently using a Fritzbox 7530 as the main router and another Fritzbox device (I forget the model) as a wifi repeater higher up and further back in the house to cover the bits the main router does not cover.

I was hoping to add a 5G mobile connection as a backup when the DSL goes down. The Fritzbox 7530 apparently supports some 5G dongles connected to its USB port. However the problem the mobile reception in the ground floor of our house is poor - it would be much better for this to be located on the top floor or in the loft.

Other than a very long USB or network cable from the loft to the ground floor- is there any way round this? I was wondering if there are any mesh router products on the market that would cope with one internet connection going into one device and the other into another. The Fritzbox we currently have seems to assume both internet connections come into the property in similar locations.

Thank you in advance!

Get the NTE shifted (by the service provider) to a top floor, then move the main router up there, and have the secondary downstairs ?

In reply to a post by ashley84:

I was hoping to add a 5G mobile connection as a backup when the DSL goes down.

In general, Internet Protocols are designed to cope with different routes to the rest of the internet. However, consumer grade kit generally does not allow for that and certainly not across 2 routers. The best you can do is to make both internet connections available to one router and switch manually, or you might find a router which can make the switch automatically.

But for 2 routers, both of which can connect to the internet, and an automatic fallover between them, you are into serious professional kit. Even with a manual switchover, you would require an inordinate amount of network reconfiguration.

You would probably be able to achieve this with Mikrotik kit at a reasonable price, but the learning curve would be huge.

Another approach to this might be a point to point wireless link from the 5G router to the DSL router [Mikrotik comes to mind for this too]. Overall, given the options, you might find that a cable is actually the line of least resistance.

In reply to a post by Zarjaz:

Get the NTE shifted (by the service provider) to a top floor, then move the main router up there, and have the secondary downstairs ?

I did think about that. The problem is the existing line comes in underground through a duct (the whole estate was built this way in the 1970s) and there are no overhead poles/cables. So the place the line enters the house cannot physically change, and moving the socket would mean a load of internal cabling that could get damaged etc. If I have to run internal cabling I'd rather it was ethernet cabling / "our" cable rather than the service provider's.

Thank you for your suggestion though - if the cable was coming in overhead / off a pole then I'd definitely do what you suggest..

In general, Internet Protocols are designed to cope with different routes to the rest of the internet. However, consumer grade kit generally does not allow for that and certainly not across 2 routers. The best you can do is to make both internet connections available to one router and switch manually, or you might find a router which can make the switch automatically.

But for 2 routers, both of which can connect to the internet, and an automatic fallover between them, you are into serious professional kit. Even with a manual switchover, you would require an inordinate amount of network reconfiguration.

You would probably be able to achieve this with Mikrotik kit at a reasonable price, but the learning curve would be huge.

Another approach to this might be a point to point wireless link from the 5G router to the DSL router [Mikrotik comes to mind for this too]. Overall, given the options, you might find that a cable is actually the line of least resistance.

Thank you for your thoughts - I will have a ponder. Automatic switchover is not essential- I'm more trying to have a plan for when the DSL goes down, even if it does mean a bit of fiddling, so I'm not trying to figure it out when it's 5 mins before I start work !

Thanks again.

the 7530 doesn't support dual wan but does support wan fall over and will use lan 1 as a wan backup

https://fritz.com/en/apps/knowledge-base/FRITZ-Box-7...

get a 4g+ (cat 6+)/5g modem (or router modem and idealy with a bridge mode) and bung a cat5e/cat (6 or 6a) cable to lan port one.

In reply to a post by ashley84:

Automatic switchover is not essential- I'm more trying to have a plan for when the DSL goes down, even if it does mean a bit of fiddling, so I'm not trying to figure it out when it's 5 mins before I start work !

If you don't mind a couple of quick trips into the GUI for each router could you switch which of the routers is in bridge mode and which is doing the DHCP so when the DSL goes down that router is put into bridge and the previous access point has the bridge mode taken out and is now the lead router doing the DHCP. You could set any static IPs up in advance in each of the routers as they would only be activated when the router is not in bridge mode.

Should be easy to test once you have a USB/sim card to hand before you spend any serious money.

In reply to a post by ashley84:

... and moving the socket would mean a load of internal cabling that could get damaged etc.
If I have to run internal cabling I'd rather it was ethernet cabling / "our" cable rather than the service provider's.

You could keep the NTE [socket] where it is and run to an upstairs router position. That would be your cable and not require any involvement by Openreach.

May be now is the time to look at the bigger picture. Where would everything go if you have fttp at a future date? If the current NTE is where you would have your ONT for fttp, you could do your present fttc extension in cat 6 cable, which works fine for fttc and phones, and it would also be ready for connecting the ONT to the router upstairs.

You could keep the NTE [socket] where it is and run to an upstairs router position. That would be your cable and not require any involvement by Openreach.

Your suggestion would cause a bridge tap fault, which even on short runs, and circuits that get high sync rates, causes FEC errors, and eventually DLM to intervene.
You could bypass the NTE, but that is in breach of the suppliers rules, and if ever visited by one of their engineers, is easily spotted.

I suppose the OP could fit an SSFP and then run a Cat6 cable (future proofing) but in the meantime, use one pair for a data only extension ?

In reply to a post by DFScale:

You would probably be able to achieve this with Mikrotik kit at a reasonable price, but the learning curve would be huge.

For less learning I would look at Draytek. Not cheap, and you'll still need an understanding of TCP/IP networking unless in failover / fallback configuation for disaster recovery.
https://www.draytek.co.uk/products/business/vigor-29...

In reply to a post by jchamier:

In reply to a post by DFScale:

You would probably be able to achieve this with Mikrotik kit at a reasonable price, but the learning curve would be huge.

For less learning I would look at Draytek. Not cheap, and you'll still need an understanding of TCP/IP networking unless in failover / fallback configuation for disaster recovery.
https://www.draytek.co.uk/products/business/vigor-29...

theres wan fall back on the fritzbox on lan 1 or the usb port. So unless it doesn't work in practice, why spend money on a draytek

In reply to a post by Taras:

theres wan fall back on the fritzbox on lan 1 or the usb port. So unless it doesn't work in practice, why spend money on a draytek

my ASUS can do the same; but I suspect the Fritz!Box is the same as my ASUS, and the Draytek is a halfway house to the other product mentioned. Maybe you can set per device routing, or per internal subnet etc.

In reply to a post by Zarjaz:

You could keep the NTE [socket] where it is and run to an upstairs router position. That would be your cable and not require any involvement by Openreach.

Your suggestion would cause a bridge tap fault

Well, true. But only if not done properly, as you know full well.

In reply to a post by Taras:

the 7530 doesn't support dual wan but does support wan fall over and will use lan 1 as a wan backup

https://fritz.com/en/apps/knowledge-base/FRITZ-Box-7...

get a 4g+ (cat 6+)/5g modem (or router modem and idealy with a bridge mode) and bung a cat5e/cat (6 or 6a) cable to lan port one.

In reply to a post by Taras:

theres wan fall back on the fritzbox on lan 1 or the usb port. So unless it doesn't work in practice, why spend money on a draytek

The challenge of OP's requirement is that they require a fallover between WAN connections on 2 different routers. I doubt that Draytek or Fritz can do this, even if they can do it for both WAN connections on the one router.

In reply to a post by DFScale:

The challenge of OP's requirement is that they require a fallover between WAN connections on 2 different routers. I doubt that Draytek or Fritz can do this, even if they can do it for both WAN connections on the one router.

Yes, but it doesn't have to be an automatic process. The OP has stated that it will be OK to do a bit of tinkering to switch things over so maybe a lot of the discussion and solutions laid out here are actually an over-provision for what the OP has stated as the requirement..

Well, true. But only if not done properly, as you know full well.

Not so , any extension wiring connected, without running beyond a filter will cause a bridge tap, or an NTE across the pair , even with nothing connected to it, and the router at the end of the extension wiring, will cause a bridge tap …. also star wiring tees in before the NTE.

In reply to a post by DFScale:

The challenge of OP's requirement is that they require a fallover between WAN connections on 2 different routers. I doubt that Draytek or Fritz can do this, even if they can do it for both WAN connections on the one router.

he's using a second router as an wireless ap

We are currently using a Fritzbox 7530 as the main router and another Fritzbox device (I forget the model) as a wifi repeater higher up and further back in the house to cover the bits the main router does not cover.

so he just needs use wan fall back on the 7530.

Edited by Taras (Sun 25-Jan-26 09:01:26)

In reply to a post by GonePostal:

In reply to a post by DFScale:

The challenge of OP's requirement is that they require a fallover between WAN connections on 2 different routers. I doubt that Draytek or Fritz can do this, even if they can do it for both WAN connections on the one router.

Yes, but it doesn't have to be an automatic process. The OP has stated that it will be OK to do a bit of tinkering to switch things over so maybe a lot of the discussion and solutions laid out here are actually an over-provision for what the OP has stated as the requirement..

In context, I was replying to a post which was mentioning the fall back capabilities on various routers. I am fully aware of OP not requiring an automatic facility.

In reply to a post by Taras:

In reply to a post by DFScale:

The challenge of OP's requirement is that they require a fallover between WAN connections on 2 different routers. I doubt that Draytek or Fritz can do this, even if they can do it for both WAN connections on the one router.

he's using a second router as an wireless ap

We are currently using a Fritzbox 7530 as the main router and another Fritzbox device (I forget the model) as a wifi repeater higher up and further back in the house to cover the bits the main router does not cover.

so he just needs use wan fall back on the 7530.

And if he has WAN fallback on that router, he needs 2 WANs connected to that router, which requires the ethernet he does not want for the 5G WAN.

In reply to a post by Zarjaz:

Well, true. But only if not done properly, as you know full well.

Not so , any extension wiring connected, without running beyond a filter will cause a bridge tap, or an NTE across the pair , even with nothing connected to it, and the router at the end of the extension wiring, will cause a bridge tap …. also star wiring tees in before the NTE.

You must be having an off day. This can be done properly, as you have just stated.