Vodafone supplied router poor wifi Connect Asus router

Hi, I'm new here and have poor wifi from my Vodafone supplied THG3000 roter / modem.

I have a large house but the smart tv and PCs around various bedrooms get poor wifi.
I measured this using my Samsung phone with an app called WiFi Analyzer.
Even standing next to the router the signal strength is showing as -60dBm, barely out of the "poor" sector.

I bought an expensive Asus RT-AC2900 (also says RT-AC86U) dual band router but cannot set it up.
I'm a novice in this area.
The Asus info says it connects to the modem (which will be the Vodafone unit) by plugging the bundled network cable into it.
I've plugged that into one of the LAN ports on the back of the modem but the red light on the Asus shows WAN no physical connection to a wide area netwrork.
The other lights are OK, ie 2GHz and 5GHz and power all OK.

Do I need a different modem to get a WAN connection, please?

I'm aware that I might need to put the modem

Many thanks for your help.

There are several different answers to your situation

1. Replace the Vodafone router with another router
2. Connect a Wireless Access Point to the Vodafone router or use the new router as aWireless Access Point
3. Connect another router with adequate wireless to the Vodafone router and put the latter into bridge mode
4. Connect another router to the Vodafone router and use double routing

Of these choices, [4] is the worst and will lead to pointless double processing of your traffic. [2] would be the natural choice, because you could put the Wireless Access Point in an optimum position - or even add other WAPs to get full coverage but you have already made the purchase.

You could do [1] and you seem to be trying to do [3]. To do [3], you need either to buy a modem or put the Vodafone router into bridge mode. As you say you are a novice, I suggest that you don't fiddle with any of the settings on the Vodafone router, so you can always plug it back in and have at least wired service and wireless, albeit poor. So, unless you buy a modem, the need to fiddle with the Vodafone router rules out option [3].

So that leaves you with [1] or [2]. Your choice.

If you do [2], you need to do the following:

• connect the 2 routers LAN port to LAN port, not WAN to LAN
• disable DHCP on one of the routers - I suggest you do that on the new router
• if change the LAN IP address of the new router to be on the old router's LAN and outside the range of its DHCP pool

So my recommendation to you is to put the Vodafone router to one side and go with [1]. You will need to set up the new router, but however badly you mess that up, you can always factory reset and start again - and have the Vodafone router available in a known working state.

In reply to a post by DFScale:

If you do [2], you need to do the following:

• connect the 2 routers LAN port to LAN port, not WAN to LAN
• disable DHCP on one of the routers - I suggest you do that on the new router
• if change the LAN IP address of the new router to be on the old router's LAN and outside the range of its DHCP pool

This is what we did using an 'old' Fast 5364 router supplied by TalkTalk, fairly simple to do, and much better wifi.

In reply to a post by burble:

In reply to a post by DFScale:

If you do [2], you need to do the following:

• connect the 2 routers LAN port to LAN port, not WAN to LAN
• disable DHCP on one of the routers - I suggest you do that on the new router
• if change the LAN IP address of the new router to be on the old router's LAN and outside the range of its DHCP pool

This is what we did using an 'old' Fast 5364 router supplied by TalkTalk, fairly simple to do, and much better wifi.

Have you not sent it back. I have 3 but I got a letter and pre-paid sack to send back. One has gone back to TT.

Thanks, you have really helped me. I've installed Option 2.
What was surprising was how little I knew / know and how useless the staff at Curry's Hull (St. Andrew's Quay) really are and how little info there is in the supplied manual..
Vodafone weren't interested in changing their router, so I decided to just buy a new one.
The Curry's staff said my new Asus was a modem router (it isn't) and I just bought the most expensive one they had.

So, I took the plunge last night.
I set the Asus with the same Vodafone logon details as the Vodafone one, by using a LAN port linked directly to a PC.
I then chaned the port on the Asus to the blue WAN port and plugged the other end into a LAN port on the Vodafone unit.
Everything was then OK and I have signal strength I've never seen before.

I recognise that I should disable the wifi on the Vodafone because my phone is showing 3 separate vodafone signals, a 2.4GHz, a 5GHz and the new one all with the same name so I don't know which one the TVs, PCs and suchlike will choose.

Is it like mobile phones where they constantly look for better signals?

What a remarkable Forum this is, housing great people. Thank you very much.

In reply to a post by Banger:

In reply to a post by burble:

In reply to a post by DFScale:

If you do [2], you need to do the following:

• connect the 2 routers LAN port to LAN port, not WAN to LAN
• disable DHCP on one of the routers - I suggest you do that on the new router
• if change the LAN IP address of the new router to be on the old router's LAN and outside the range of its DHCP pool

This is what we did using an 'old' Fast 5364 router supplied by TalkTalk, fairly simple to do, and much better wifi.

Have you not sent it back. I have 3 but I got a letter and pre-paid sack to send back. One has gone back to TT.

I'm still a customer of TT at another property, not withstanding that they did ask for 'equipment' to be returned last year during the mess they made of my contract and transferring phone to VoIP, when I asked what they wanted returned, at first they said I was leaving TT, then they couldn't explain why I had the 'return equipment' letter. I did in the end send back the ATA as it seems locked to TT.
From TT I have an Eero router which is in a box in case I ever have to send it back, I then have(had) 5 Fast 5364 routers, one I gave to a friend, one each at two different houses, and two spare, I also have several TT HG633's which I'm about to 'play' with to see if they are any good as WAP's.
p.s. if your Fast 5364 router is from TTB, then it can't easily (if at all) be reconfigured as a WAP as the DHCP can't be disabled.

Edited by burble (Sun 18-Jan-26 14:42:20)

I'm still a customer of TT at another property, not withstanding that they did ask for 'equipment' to be returned last year during the mess they made of my contract and transferring phone to VoIP, when I asked what they wanted returned, at first they said I was leaving TT, then they couldn't explain why I had the 'return equipment' letter. I did in the end send back the ATA as it seems locked to TT.
From TT I have an Eero router which is in a box in case I ever have to send it back, I then have(had) 5 Fast 5364 routers, one I gave to a friend, one each at two different houses, and two spare, I also have several TT HG633's which I'm about to 'play' with to see if they are any good as WAP's.
p.s. if your Fast 5364 router is from TTB, then it can't easily (if at all) be reconfigured as a WAP as the DHCP can't be disabled.

Thanks for that. Yeah I kind of figured the 5364 wouldn't be useable. I am using 3 x Asus RT-AC68U routers as access points with the PlusNet Hub 2 doing the talking to the ONT. I have the 900mbps package and get about 500mbps on non wired wifi points which will do me. Wired I get the full 930mbps.