Blatman Posted March 18, 2021 Share Posted March 18, 2021 1 minute ago, Lyonspride said: I've had a number of issues with home routers, where the DHCP pool was very small, less than 10 IP's, and the lease time was 48 hours or so, and it required a power cycle to clear the DHCP pool to allow new devices. I had myself a BT home hub which was restricted to 6 devices and the DHCP pool couldn't be changed at all, In 13 years of networking I have never witnessed either of those phenomenon on a BT hub or any other ISP supplied router, and I've seen most of them. Maybe you were unlucky in getting ones that had been altered in some way but I've never seen or heard of these situations on ISP supplied routers. 4 minutes ago, Lyonspride said: The AP isolation was a suggestion in case the AP set itself up with no WiFi password, i've had this happen before. AP isolation prevents wireless devices from seeing eachother and from accessing shared (files, folders, printers, etc) resources on the network, whilst allowing internet to pass through, I had to use this earlier last year when setting up a wireless AP for the missus to work from home, until I had a properly configured guest network working on a different subnet. The reasoning behind this was I didn't trust the laptop she was given, it had all sorts of "tools" that could have allowed someone in her works IT dept, to remotely scan, access and take copies of my network shared files via her laptop, this is absolutely not on. I mean at work expect no privacy, but at home that's MY stuff, MY network and that laptop is there by MY permission only, and I WILL shut that sh*t down, I will block ports and I will stop that stuff pinging back to some spotty oik in IT. You said it protects unsecured wif networks. It doesn't. It protects wifi hosts. BIG difference. And if you think the spotty oik in I.T can't get around wifi isolation then you're crazy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lyonspride Posted March 18, 2021 Share Posted March 18, 2021 37 minutes ago, Blatman said: You said it protects unsecured wif networks. It doesn't. It protects wifi hosts. BIG difference. And if you think the spotty oik in I.T can't get around wifi isolation then you're crazy. I was just saying it prevents devices connected that AP, from seeing other devices on that AP and also share files/folders on the network. https://www.howtogeek.com/179089/lock-down-your-wi-fi-network-with-your-routers-wireless-isolation-option/ It's not perfect, it's just better than nothing in the short term, and in the context of this thread, it would certainly be enough to stop an opportunist IF the AP did decide to use no password, for whatever reason. So at worst you'd only be giving out free internet access. Against a seasoned hacker, nothing is going to protect you, but thankfully they have bigger targets in mind than Fred in his shed. I have friends who do that stuff for a living, they got into it before you could get qualifications in it and before you needed to be a particular demographic. I get a lot of attacks on my home network because I run an Apache HTTP server, image hosting service, FTP, SFTP and FTP over TLS, SSH server for tunnelling, Domoticz for home automation, a Rust and DayZ gaming server for my nephew, and I even an Azure virtual remote desktop host. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blatman Posted March 18, 2021 Share Posted March 18, 2021 Not interested in any of that as I assume you have a decent firewall in front of the network and behind the ISP supplied router. My point was the advice that having AP isolation protects the network during set-up. It doesn't, and in most standard home networks having AP isolation switched on could cause more problems than it solves, because in a normal home network AP isolation solves nothing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mole Posted March 18, 2021 Author Share Posted March 18, 2021 2 hours ago, Lyonspride said: Be careful, because they're so much more secure than euro cylinders, there are criminals who go around blocking up these locks with various items, so that the owner breaks the lock and leaves the door without one for a day or two. Thanks..will bear that in mind.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mole Posted March 19, 2021 Author Share Posted March 19, 2021 Sorted! After some swearing..got one extender working no problem..tried everything on other but couldn't get internet.. in the end stuck a pin in the reset hole and started again and all working.. well inside.. tomorrow will plug in in workshop and hope it still works.. Thanks again for the help..you guys definitely know another language to me!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CraigHew Posted March 19, 2021 Share Posted March 19, 2021 Well done for perseverance, it can be very frustrating at times..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mole Posted March 20, 2021 Author Share Posted March 20, 2021 Sorry if I am annoying you experts but... Summary Had BT WiFi range extenders..one plugged in and connected to router, other in bedroom at other end of house.. all worked fine. I could almost get a WiFi signal 25 metres away in workshop same side of house as bedroom.. So couple weeks ago just unplugged BT extender from bedroom plugged in in workshop socket..full signal tinternet all worked fine.. but now no signal in bedroom. I looked for another BT extender but could not find new.. Therefore bought the TP link set of three.. eventually got working in the house last night.. Plugged into socket in workshop this morning..could get WiFi signal but no internet. Tried turning all off etc etc..still would not work.. Disconnected everything plugged BT units into same sockets and worked fine! So now connected one BT and one TP unit with two cables into router.. This seems to be working ok.. although last night I had the TP link unit plugged in downstairs below the bedroom in dining room and this did drop out the internet a few times..as it is doing again now... So at the moment I do have net in workshop and upstairs.. just one of the TP links drops out internet.. I may have to just turn that off... So to a lay man as me it looks like the BT units are more rugged in performance.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CraigHew Posted March 20, 2021 Share Posted March 20, 2021 Not sure if this will help you but...... When i upgraded my home network to use "better" kit i had to optimise the wifi channels from the router for best performance. If your router is dual band, you may need to optimise both the 2.4 and 5 Ghz bands. I downloaded a free app called wifi analyser to my phone which lets you see which wifi signals can be detected, along with their strength and channel number. Using the app you can see which channels are free from any interference ( from nearby wifi devices) and what the strength is in various areas around your home. Any wifi repeaters will simply re-broadcast the wifi on the same channel. Some routers will try to change wifi channels automatically if they see interference, which can cause fluctuations in performance.... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
corsechris Posted March 20, 2021 Share Posted March 20, 2021 Depending on how close you are to the neighbours, that can catch you out too. One of mine recently got a BT hub 6, which are notable for shouting very loudly, and that’s what triggered my purchase of the TPlink, as prior to that, the shed WiFi had been marginal but bearable, after that, I just couldn’t find a channel that worked any more. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Chairman Posted March 20, 2021 Share Posted March 20, 2021 1 minute ago, corsechris said: Depending on how close you are to the neighbours, that can catch you out too Ah, er, hmm, moved since then. I remember ten years or so ago, a few neighbours talking about how poor their wi-fi had become. Coincidentally, happened to notice one morning, leaving the house in the Westfield, that my phone was still fully working on my home Wi Fi a good distance away, probably 100/150m if not a little more. Also coincidentally, for the previous month, I'd been playing around with some ex-commercial Cisco wireless access points for house to garage, and on the drive for setting up the Westfield, network access. The Cisco's weren't particularly high speed - they were old designs, but they had, while testing, just seemed to punch through anything else. When I got back home, I quietly turned them off. Strangely, talking to neighbours later that week, they happened to remark that the strangely poor wi fi they were all suffering from, had sorted itself out now. 😄 1 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blatman Posted March 20, 2021 Share Posted March 20, 2021 6 hours ago, Mole said: Plugged into socket in workshop this morning..could get WiFi signal but no internet. Tried turning all off etc etc..still would not work.. How have you set up the TP-Link wifi plug? It may be that if you have simply "cloned" the BT settings that it hasn't worked very well and may need a coat of looking at. Connecting to the TP Links should be easy withe their free-to-download network tool. Also did you try a wired connection from a laptop to the TP Link in the workshop? Just cos wireless isn't working doesn't mean the plugs themselves aren't actually working at all, it may be just the wirless bit, which I am fairly sure can be fixed... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mole Posted March 20, 2021 Author Share Posted March 20, 2021 I didn't try laptop in the workshop.. however it said WiFi WAS working, just not internet! Also in the dining room I often have to turn off my WiFi on my phone then back on again for it to search for the IP address..however again it says WiFi connected but no internet... I will have a look at the TP link network tool.. Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blatman Posted March 20, 2021 Share Posted March 20, 2021 2 hours ago, Mole said: I didn't try laptop in the workshop.. however it said WiFi WAS working, just not internet! Also in the dining room I often have to turn off my WiFi on my phone then back on again for it to search for the IP address..however again it says WiFi connected but no internet... Wifi can be fully functional with no internet becasue of something called "order of operations". It's the order in which deviced go through their various steps to achieve a task. In and of itself it's a sign that something isn't working but the precise nature of exactly what operation is failing what we need to look for. As Craig mentions there are a number of tools that can help with diagnostics. Wifi Analyzer is one of my go to's for quick 'n' dirty testing. Can you confirm that when the plugs are where you want them to be they have TWO LED's Illuminated, the one for power and the one for "Network" which has a small "house" symbol next to it, as below: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mole Posted March 21, 2021 Author Share Posted March 21, 2021 Thanks blatters..will have a better look at this in the week or next weekend.. got westy started up today after winter rebuild.. BT extender wouldn't work today in workshop! So need to start again and use the tools you have suggested.. Will report back! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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