Wireless Printer Help required - GEEKS?

H8OAG · Post by **H8OAG** » Mon Dec 30, 2013 9:50 pm

robin wrote:BTW, that useless BT home hub will create three wireless networks - your private one plus BTWIFI and BTWIFI-with-FON. If you connect to either of those two you will be able to connect to the internet but not to your printer. Personally I would preempt a whole load of grief jettison the BT router ASAP. The BTWIFI stuff is pervasive and evil.

Cheers,
Robin

Agreed Robin

But the kit is standard issue for BT Management Employees (Gail) for home-working

I may invest in another BB for my sole use

Post by **campbell** » Tue Dec 31, 2013 12:25 am

I suspect the use of an alternative (more fit for purpose) router will not compromise Gail's employed status or ability to work. Although if she relies on some fancy phone technology which it provides, that may of course be another matter.

I think you may be able to sling an additional router into the mix alongside the BT one, which you can use for your own purposes, if the BT one really must stay - but Robin will need to advise on ramifications of that I'm afraid, as I haven't tried it...yet...

robin · Post by **robin** » Tue Dec 31, 2013 10:38 am

H8OAG wrote:
Agreed Robin

But the kit is standard issue for BT Management Employees (Gail) for home-working

I may invest in another BB for my sole use

For so long as that BTWIFI thing is present, it will fcuk you over

You can get it turned off (it is a customer option), but it will still broadcast on the radio waves and get in the way ... so best bet is to chuck out the BT router and replace it with another one configured to login to BT DSL service. However, if you can persuade your MAC to totally ignore those BTWIFI things and use your own BB service then you will be OK.

Cheers,
Robin

robin · Post by **robin** » Tue Dec 31, 2013 10:44 am

Campbell, you can have as many wireless base stations as you like - the main thing is that you "forget" or "block" all BT ones from your wireless network lists so that your devices never try to connect to them. Note that a router and a wireless base station (aka access point) are not the same thing, though commonly bundled together in BB router offerings.

Realistically the BT thing will have to stay as I suspect it would be politically inappropriate to ditch it.

Cascading a second wireless access point off it is cheaper than getting your own BB line, and probably has the same result (provided you don't need to separate from the BT line for other reasons).

Cheers,
Robin

Post by **campbell** » Tue Dec 31, 2013 3:47 pm

To avoid thread hijack, I'll have a natter with you on this another time, Robin

H8OAG · Post by **H8OAG** » Tue Dec 31, 2013 4:56 pm

No thread hijack
Rag It resolved problem

To clarify matters , I am considering another broadband connection in addition to the BT one that exists
Unless you can convince me it's not necessary?

Post by **campbell** » Tue Dec 31, 2013 7:04 pm

H8OAG wrote:No thread hijack
Rag It resolved problem

Just didn't want to distract with our own requirements - which are more to do with children's online safety. Robin proposed a 2nd wireless network for the house, which we totally lock down with web site filtering, and assign the kids' devices to that net instead of our mainstream one.

Just need to clarify how to physically deploy the 2nd router. Eg can it hang off one of the Ethernet ports of our primary router, or is that too simplistic...

Etc

Anyway Robin should be off for Hogmanay now!!

Sent from my AT300 using Tapatalk

Sanjøy · Post by **Sanjøy** » Wed Jan 01, 2014 11:11 pm

Yup just hang it off it. I have several setup like this.
Set their ip as a local internal one that is not in the dhcp range that is given out by the main router and disable dhcp on the 2nd one. Then change its default gateway and DNS to be the 1st router.
Sister bought my niece an iPod touch for Christmas. I had no idea you can lock the down so much. No Safari etc.

S

Sanjøy · Post by **Sanjøy** » Wed Jan 01, 2014 11:17 pm

BTW Mr B this BT routers are utter barsteward when it comes to channel squatting. You have x channels for wifi (13?). Most routers settle on a single quiet one automagically. Not the BT ones, well not my neighbours. It leaks across what looks like 3 according to DDTBs analyser dongle. Ended up buying a new router and moving to 5Ghz.

robin · Post by **robin** » Wed Jan 01, 2014 11:55 pm

The BT routers are hated by the amateur radio people. No need for second bb just hang a WiFi access point off the BT box. To reduce radio wave pollution you can place the BT box somewhere out of radio range. We can discuss next time we meet.

Ta,
Robin

Post by **campbell** » Thu Jan 02, 2014 12:22 am

Sanjoy wrote:Yup just hang it off it. I have several setup like this.
Set their ip as a local internal one that is not in the dhcp range that is given out by the main router and disable dhcp on the 2nd one. Then change its default gateway and DNS to be the 1st router.
Sister bought my niece an iPod touch for Christmas. I had no idea you can lock the down so much. No Safari etc.

S

Thanks! Another winter project lined up then...!

Sanjøy · Post by **Sanjøy** » Thu Jan 02, 2014 2:22 pm

The next question is which router / AP to buy that supports what you want to achieve. You can get a router for £5 off ebay that will work as an AP hanging off your main router but you need to know the models to udnerstand if they do content filtering or connect to a cloud service to provide more active content filtering based on genre rather than static URLs.

IIRC the Sky netgears offer a subscription service via mcafee.

If you are looking for a project take a look at DD-WRT and Tomato Routers.

S

Post by **campbell** » Thu Jan 02, 2014 6:33 pm

Ta. I have a Netgear WGR864 (or 854?) lying around which I was going to trial. I think it has pretty simplistic filtering, but good enough to experiment.

Scottish Elises