Replacing TPG's Router

Brouw3r on 12/01/2015 - 17:07

We recently got TPG's unlimited NBN which came with this router which has pretty ppor range, as it doesn't reach the far ends of the house.

Is it as simple as replacing this with another router; using the NBN modem that was installed by NBN co. (through TPG) which currently this router is connected to by an ethernet cable? Or would I need to reconfigure/login to our TPG account through the new router?

This linksys EA6500 looks reasonably well reviewed and is a price I'm happy to pay. Can anyone recommend anything different (ie, cheaper) which will do as good of a job?

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Comments

  • PLA74 on 12/01/2015 - 17:11
    +1

    What's the model number? It should be displayed underneath the router itself or on the side? I know with their ADSL 2+ connection, you can replace it with virtually any router that runs generic ie. not Optus or Telstra branded firmware and one that supports PPoE.

    • Brouw3r on 12/01/2015 - 21:22

      Here's the router netcomm N300 which looks like it comes preconfigured. Could I put these settings into a new router or am I forced you use this and bridge to the new router (which was what I wanted to avoid).

      This is the exact setup we have here, this router is connected to the 2.NBN connection box and I have tried plugging that ethernet cable directly into my laptop (instead of the router) and it doesn't connect to the internet.

      • PLA74 on 13/01/2015 - 11:33

        I think as long as your router support PPoE and is running generic firmware, you should be fine once you put in your TPG username and password under the Internet Settings and select PPoE as the WAN protocol. This should help you avoid using a secondary router a bridge/WAP. Just to be safe, before switching to a new more powerful router/before purchasing a new router, you can call TPG's technical support centre and get them to validate to the brand/model you're looking at switching to.

        I know I just ended up running a few WAP's using old routers I had lying around the house to get better Wi-Fi coverage through the house (I'm on TPG ADSL 2+ using the Telstra circuit).

        Hope this helps!

        • PLA74 on 13/01/2015 - 11:35

          Btw, what router are you looking to switch to? And yes, the router TPG usually give you for "free" as part of your contract are very basic and are meant for small homes/basic use.

  • geek001 on 12/01/2015 - 17:26

    You can setup the linksys router as your wifi router. I am on ADSL, my ADSL modem has pretty poor range too. I bought a wirelessN router as my wireless router instead.

    What I did:
    1. Take a note of the IP address of my ADSL modem and the DHCP settings.
    2. Set my new wireless router to an IP address outside of the DHCP range on my ADSL modem(but on the same subnet).
    3. Turn of DHCP on my wireless router.
    4. Turn off wireless on my ADSL modem.
    5. Connect the wireless router to my ADSL modem using a network cable. I used a LAN port to LAN port connection, instead of WAN to LAN.

    • SteveBuscemi on 12/01/2015 - 19:38

      What you want to do is enable bridge mode, this turns the supplied modem into a dumb modem that passes the WAN IP all the way through to the router and stops any potential double-NAT issues.

      According to the NF7 user guide:
      http://media.netcomm.com.au/public/assets/pdf_file/0013/1313…

      It should just be a case of changing the WAN VLAN setting from 'NAT' to 'Bridge' (pg.57)

      • geek001 on 12/01/2015 - 21:17

        I am not sure why there would be a double NAT issue, since I said to connect the to the LAN port of the wireless router and not going through the WAN port. The wireless router is effectively a switch for LAN connections and wireless AP for wireless connections.

        • SteveBuscemi on 14/01/2015 - 07:00

          In theory it's fine.

          In reality while DHCP is disabled you've still got a router that still thinks it has to NAT if you ever plug something into its WAN port, and all sorts of services (including, presumably a UPnP daemon responding to broadcast messages) still running. I've seen all sorts of weird behaviour in similar configurations particularly with online gaming.

          More importantly, by doing it that way you've still got the crappy underpowered ISP-supplied device doing all the routing and NAT while your expensive wireless router does very little acts as an AP. Generally resulting in a much less stable environment, particularly at high WAN speeds offered by the NBN.

  • Reverse Snorkel on 13/01/2015 - 11:45

    Just buy a WIFI range extender. You can plug in as many around as you like and scale the range up as far as you like. You won't need to replace the router then. They are cheap too. I have a Netgear one and it works fine.

  • Inhere6 on 17/01/2015 - 20:47

    A range extender is the worst way to do it, reduces your throughput by 50%.
    No need for bridge on the NBN you only need a router.
    The TP Link Archer C7 AC1750v2 Is the cheapest decent one at $135 but make sure
    you get the version 2 as the version 1, they no longer make new firmware for.
    For really strong wifi the ASUS AC68U Is the one to buy about $215.

  • Associatedponxy @ TPG on 24/06/2015 - 22:02

    I know this is an old thread. but I will be asking the same question as like the opening post.
    I'm a novice when I comes to computers/net. So please bare with me if i ask silly questions.
    There seems to be a few ppl who to sounds like they know what there talking about on this thread. who's advice do i take?
    I'm looking to upgrade my wireless router (spending budget is $150). because the current one is giving me pretty much the same speeds prior to nbn installation. current router is as stated in first post.

    any help would be greatly appreciated

  • ggkfc on 10/02/2016 - 12:30

    Didn't want to open a new thread

    In a similar situation

    TPG ADSL2+
    with default TPG router/modem

    Now the problem is not range like OP.
    Whenever the microwave is on or there is a train that runs past, the internet corks itself for a while till its over

    Any suggestions? Will replacing the modem or adding router to modem set up help the problem?

    • scrimshaw on 10/02/2016 - 13:02

      Does your router have 5ghz wireless? Switch to that instead
      a crap load of stuff operate on the 2.4 ghz frequency range. Microwave ovens and a lot of wireless communication devices operate on that same band, so that might be what's knocking out your wifi signals.

      If you take advantage of the ebay deal you might find yourself a better replacement. Look into getting one of the TPLINK Archer series, starting with the more basic D5 ($100 ish), D7 ($130 ish) and the D9 (upwards of $200).

      Also, while this is just conjecture on my part, it may not actually be your Wifi that's dodgy, but actually your ADSL connection.

      Try connecting your PC directly via LAN port and then login to the router.

      Pay attention to the router's ADSL status — fire up the microwave oven and refresh the status page, and see if that actually 'de-syncs' your ADSL connection. If that happens, that just means you have RF leakage, or maybe something is feeding radio frequency in your phone lines.
      https://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/2035785

      You might also need to call the network technician to come and diagnose your phone lines. Sounds of humming or crackling on the landline phone is also a symptom of poor quality copper wiring.

      Another thing you could look into is ferrite cores — basically ring-shaped 'collars' that clip onto power cables which help suppress EMI noise. Can be bought fairly cheaply from eBay. http://www.ebay.com.au/bhp/ferrite-core

      • Brouw3r on 10/02/2016 - 15:46

        What would they put the ferrite cores on? There wireless card is presumably causing the issue and there's no way to add a ferrite core to it. Adding it to the microwave wouldn't do anything.

  • Inhere6 on 11/02/2016 - 10:24

    Pick up yur landline phone and dial 1, any noise phone telstra (not your isp) and get them to fix your phone line. Don't even mention ADSL. (They wont fix your adsl but they must repair your phone line) I never have these sort of problems I use the ASUS AC68U router with a cheap modem bridged to it. Some mobile clients on 2.4 gig drop when a microwave is running because they and lots of other devices use that frequency range. Apple ipads, iphones are the worst, you often need to use 2.4 gig with 20MHz instead of 40MHz to keep them connected. (has something to do with their cheap bluetooth) 5 gig mostly works ok, but lacks the range of 2.4 gig.

    PS. don't buy the cheap Linksys, I also have the EA6900 router and it had really crappy firmware, you have NBN why buy crap? buy an ASUS AC68U router, good openvpn if you do torrents, or just don't need gov perving on you. Great wifi, get the best experience.

    • scrimshaw on 11/02/2016 - 12:05

      IS your response to Brouw3r or to ggkfc?

      Brouw3r has ADSL while GGKFC has NBN.

  • [Deactivated] on 22/12/2016 - 21:32

    Didnt want to open a new thread as well.

    My main problem is internet speed. A majority of our internet load comes from our two PCs with wired connections. Other than that there are 2 phones, 1 laptop and 1 tablet. The laptop is switched on occasionally. I have very little problems with the wireless devices as most of the time they are just streaming low res youtube or android games.

    The main problem is when both of us are gaming on our two PCs. We have an old N300 NB304n modem router, we are willing to pay up to $150.

    I know my way around the router software although I won't consider myself very tech savvy. I have blocked and filtered MACs while throttling certain MAC addresses as well and would be capable of other things if directed to a decent tutorial.

  • EnALup on 02/02/2017 - 18:56

    Hi Guys,
    Writing to this thread as I have TPG NBN NF12 modem as well which I got last year and could not get NAT configured.
    After logging in as admin, add button is greyed out and all the entries visible on that page have status Disabled.

    I want to port forward,a web server's IP address on particular port.

    I have a spare Billion 7800 VDPx modem which is compatible with NBN, though a bit old model now.
    I tried connecting that directly to my lapto's Ethernet, but cant figure out router's Ip. Tried after restarting laptop and disabling wifi. Gateway entries are blank in ipconfig command. Tried whatever ip is coming for laptop and replace last number with 1 as well.nothing works. Default ip does not work either.

    Any suggestion to enable on tpg modem or billion would be great.

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