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Can I Use EE Smart Router as Modem Only?

Hammerman
Investigator
Investigator

I am having EE Broadband fitted this week having been with Virgin Media (and previous company guises) for over 20 years.

 

Our house has some thick internal walls so a few years ago I fitted a Nokia wifi mesh system which greatly improved wifi reception around the house.  In order to achieve this the Virgin Media hub needed to be turned to "modem only" mode.

 

From what I've read the EE Smart Router cannot be turned to modem only.

 

Is this true and any suggestions please.

4 REPLIES 4
XRaySpeX
EE Community Star
EE Community Star

No, EE routers have no modem-only mode.

 

Try mimicking To make a second Brightbox as a WAP on your LAN to the main Brightbox

If you think I helped please feel free to hit the "Thumbs Up" button below.

To phone EE CS: Dial Freephone +44 800 079 8586 - Option 1 for Mobile Phone & Mobile Broadband or Option 2 for Home Broadband & Home Phone

ISPs: 1999: Freeserve 48K Dial-Up > 2005: Wanadoo 1 Meg BB > 2007: Orange 2 Meg BB > 2008: Orange 8 Meg LLU > 2010: Orange 16 Meg LLU > 2011: Orange 20 Meg WBC > 2014: EE 20 Meg WBC > 2020: EE 40 Meg FTTC > 2022:EE 80 Meg FTTC SoGEA > 2025 EE 150 Meg FTTP
Nicholas_rubin
Explorer

I am in a similar situation. Was with Virgin and because of poor coverage by Virgin router, switched it to modem mode and connected a Netgear Orbi Router and Satellite.

I have just switched to EE FTTP and whilst the EE router cannot be put in modem mode, assuming your third party router can support FTTP, it can be connected direct to the Openreach modem.

At least in my case the trick was to:

i) login to the EE Router and make a note of your PPPoE username and password (see thread here: https://community.ee.co.uk/t5/Archived-Posts/Username-and-password-for-own-router-yes-I-ve-searched/...)

ii) Disconnect your third party router and power down.

iii) Disconnect your EE Smart Router from the Openreach Modem (i.e. unplug the ethernet cable from the back of the Smart Router and unplug the power).

iv) Setup your third party router as though it is a new router. Part way through setup it may fail to establish an internet connection or may as standard ask you to enter Advanced Settings and/or PPPoE username and password. Enter these and continue. It may be that this still fails to establish an internet connection even though the router home network is setup - in my case the Orbi app kept getting stuck trying to establish an internet connection and it turned out the Orbi router needed to refresh its IP and internet settings (possibly a hangover from its original connection to a Virgin router in modem mode) but this was only possibly by firstly connecting a laptop to the router's admin url/IP address (in my case orbilogin.com) and then configuring the 'internet' settings (i.e. entering the PPPoE details) through the browser admin function.

Hopefully this helps or at least points you in the right direction!

@Nicholas_rubin : What are you talking about? There is no separate OR modem for FTTP. The ONT is the modem. No modem is involved in any router used on FTTP.

You can use practically any router on FTTP.

In Home Broadband settings you'll find almost everything you need to set up your own router.

If you think I helped please feel free to hit the "Thumbs Up" button below.

To phone EE CS: Dial Freephone +44 800 079 8586 - Option 1 for Mobile Phone & Mobile Broadband or Option 2 for Home Broadband & Home Phone

ISPs: 1999: Freeserve 48K Dial-Up > 2005: Wanadoo 1 Meg BB > 2007: Orange 2 Meg BB > 2008: Orange 8 Meg LLU > 2010: Orange 16 Meg LLU > 2011: Orange 20 Meg WBC > 2014: EE 20 Meg WBC > 2020: EE 40 Meg FTTC > 2022:EE 80 Meg FTTC SoGEA > 2025 EE 150 Meg FTTP

Hi @XRaySpeX .

Apologies I meant the ONT (is this not a modem? It's referred to as a modem on the BT website).

As for connecting to a third party router - I wasn't aware of the advice on the EE website - I am sure I searched and failed to find and when I called the EE tech support they gave me the impression that using a third party router was unfamiliar territory and wasn't pointed to the website for advice - though it may be the way I described my original setup with Virgin, i.e. Virgin router set to modem mode to allow third party router to connect and transmit.

Also, having started to follow the Orbi app's setup it got stuck and Netgear tech support eventually advised connecting to the router's admin settings via a browser - only then did PPPoE details stick.

Either way, things are up and running now and hopefully by sharing my own experience, in addition to your advice, it will help others.

thanks.