Smart Hub(FTTC) with DV for primary hub; can I use 3rd party as secondary hub?

[drmeister]

Hi,

I have Fibre 67 Essentials with Digital Voice package. My connection is FTTC, so my grey  broadband cable is connected to the EE Smart Hub (2023) for internet and my DECT phone into the green DV socket. I want to set up my network as:

1. EE Smart Hub to provide incoming internet and digital voice as Primary Router;
2. EE smart hub to connect to a third party router via LAN (or WAN) to act as Secondary Router;
3. EE Smart Hub to NOT provide any other ethernet or wireless connectivity to any other device;
4. Secondary Router to provide all network connectivity to devices within the home and all Parental Controls, Security etc. as well as extension of wireless via mesh;

Is this technically possible - is it even right? Likely to purchase an Asus ZenWifi AIMesh router set but want to know this will work.

Reason: The EE App and Router config, especially segregated Parental Controls are quite limited plus the Smart Hub's wireless reach is short (not sure if EE Smart Hub Plus with WiFi 6 would be any better if EE could be persuaded to provide that).

Any help will be highly appreciated and I apologise if this has already been explained elsewhere already.

Thank you.

[drmeister]

I had landline socket but when I moved from BT to EE (even BT said this) to maintain your landline you have to move to DV. So the Hub is plugged into an extension socket that BT setup off my master socket many years ago via RJ11 grey cable, whilst my landline phone socket (master socket) is now redundant as I have my phone plugged into the Hub.

[drmeister]

When I open the app and try to do "WiFi Controls" it goes into a unending spinner on the screen. Sometimes gives a comeback later message and sometimes does not come back at all. Asked EE and they asked me to do all sorts of resets reboots etc, and ultimately asked me to put my BT Hub back (which is what I had before they sent me the EE Smart Hub) and as that worked they stated that "the serial number is not the one it was looking for" - when I asked if they can add the EE Smart Hub Plus serial number they refused.

[JimM11]

@drmeister And that would be the correct way to have DV on a fttc supplied service! Phone side becomes redundant and all extensions for phone side also follow suit.

[JimM11]

@drmeister What EE app do you use with the (2023) EE router that you have?

[drmeister]

EE App on iOS (not the EE Home App) it's called on App Store  "EE: Game, Home, Work & Learn"

[x91]

The ISP’S router needs to be directly connected to the phone socket/ONT for digital voice.  I did mine this way:

ISP’S router settings:

IPv4 DHCP off.  (The addresses here are best set as static addresses but you can use dynamic addressing if you want).

IPv6 DHCP to ‘Stateless’. (If possible).

Router itself set to a static IP of 192.168.1.254 and a subnet mask of 255.255.255.0 or /24, (the defaults).

DMZ host set to 192.168.1.2  (This helps with double NAT problems or at least it takes care of the port forwarding on the ISP’S router.  There is still address translation happening, however, so you may still have problems with multiplayer games, UPnP etc.  In fact, you only really need this if you have incoming external connections to a server etc.  Personally, I’ve never found double NAT to be an issue and I don’t use the DMZ setting.  Note, this setting allows a lot of traffic to effectively bypass the ISP’S router firewall, so you are relying on your own router’s firewall for security, just as if it was directly connected to the internet).

Turn off the Wi-Fi in favour of your own router.  (This may also be a good security move if you do enable the DMZ host.  I would still expect Wi-Fi traffic on the ISP’S router to go through its firewall but I can’t be sure how they’ve set it up internally).

Connect the DSL port to the phone socket on the wall, (or the WAN port to the ONT, if on FTTP).

DV phone/extension then plugs into the phone socket on the Smart Hub 2.

Own router settings:

IPv4 DHCP on, range 192.168.0.2-192.168.0.200  (Note the 0 in the third position, making this a separate network to the ISP’S router.  This is deliberate, not a typo).

IPv6 set as DHCPv6 Client.

Router itself is on a static IP of 192.168.0.2 and subnet mask of 255.255.255.0 or /24  (if using static addresses.  If dynamic, set it to get an address automatically).

Enable the EWAN port and set it to a fixed IP of 192.168.1.2, (so it is part of the ISP’S router network).  Gateway set to 192.168.1.254, (again, pointing to the ISP’S router).  DNS set to 192.168.1.254 (or whatever you usually use).

The EWAN socket on your own router (probably no.4) connects to a LAN port on the ISP’S router. 

(NB. This will not work if you use the DSL port on your own router).

[XRaySpeX]

OIC! It's just not recognised by the EE app, not surprisingly. That doesn't mean it's not recognised by EE BB.

[drmeister]

Correct, it works absolutely fine but you can't use the App and therefore Parental controls etc

[Timbo45]

Just to mention that when it's mentioned about turning off the wifi of the Smarthub it's best to DISABLE it rather than just turn off the individual bands. I'm assuming this is possible in the EE hubs as it is possible in the BT SmartHub 2. That'll prevent  BT/EE wifi being transmitted.

I set up DNS in my Asus router to be whatever I wanted like google's rather than using BT/EE's DNS in the hub.

[drmeister]

Just an update, tried this with the EE Smart Hub Plus as secondary router and it does not like it connected to the WAN .. it can;t connect to the internet if I put a LAN to PC from this secondary hub. Will try some more later.