The situation is that I'm trying to get a stable network at home, that will support WiFi for 3 or 4 streaming devices on TVs, lots of phones and laptops plus a few wired ancillaries (home hub for Hive heating, a few IoT devices) and some Raspberry Pi projects I have yet to build - maybe a NAS or a personal cloud.
What I've got it is a network that does most of that then falls over and does none of that!
Firstly, a little history in case it's relevant.
I've been a Virgin customer for many years (I was with NTL before they were taken over - that was 14 years ago!) and the service has always been fast when it work but baffling when it doesn't. I'm on a Super Hub 3 (SH3) and a 100Mbs fibre connection. I get good speeds and a generally reliable service from Virgin.
Several years ago I switched to putting the SH3 into modem mode and connected a Buffalo WiFi router, then another Buffalo as a repeater and then a third - I was running WiFi throughout the house with kids phones, laptops and several Roku media streamers connected. We then extended the house and things got a little sketchy - more devices, more distance and several steel beams later, the Buffalo kit wasn't up to the job, the Buffalo NAS died and well I relented and cleaned all that old stuff out and bought a Synology router - and that's where the real problems started. I got two dead Synology routers in a row from the supplier (or so I thought) one worked for a week then died, the next I had trouble setting up, it then worked few a few days then died. Both went back to the supplier and a full refund was made, they were very good and as they didn't say otherwise, I just assumed it was a dodgy batch of routers.
I went back to the drawing board and bought an Asus RT-AS88U - with it's features and multiple RJ45 sockets, it seemed ideal - and all was well with the world, it was set up (had to boot up router and SG3 in the 'correct' order but other that that it' was OK). Until Christmas came when I kept losing the internet.
Here's the current problem set
When the Virgin connections drops and with the loss of the internet, I cannot access the router - I can't get to the Asus dashboard nor can I get to any of the other PCs on the network- in the Buffalo days, if the Virgin connection went down, I could still access my local network and the video files on the various drives - so there was always some entertainment accessible. Now I get nothing, no internet means no access to the Asus router software page (or to the SH3).
So I've tried rebooting everything without success - doesn't matter which order I reboot, still no access to the internet or to the other devices on the network.
The only way I can seem to get a connection to the internet is if I factory reset the SH3 and connect it straight to the 'master' PC as either a router or a modem (both work if the Asus is completely bypassed). As soon as I connect the Asus, I lose all connectivity.
If you've read this far, well done and thank you!
I'm a baffled and have reached the end of my limited talent for these things so I need to ask for some help and this felt like a good place to start;
* Should I be able to operate the Asus as a router without the internet connection being live? It feels like I should and seems wrong that if I lose the internet connection I lose everything else - where's the dependency and is that right?
* Why would a working internet connection die when connected to a WiFi router (that was working yesterday!) Having been through two 'defective' routers already, I am suspicious that the 'failure' of the router is not really a fault with the router but something else - what?
* Is there an idiot proof walk through of setting up the kind of network I want that I can follow and/or a kindly guru available to hand hold?!
What I've got it is a network that does most of that then falls over and does none of that!
Firstly, a little history in case it's relevant.
I've been a Virgin customer for many years (I was with NTL before they were taken over - that was 14 years ago!) and the service has always been fast when it work but baffling when it doesn't. I'm on a Super Hub 3 (SH3) and a 100Mbs fibre connection. I get good speeds and a generally reliable service from Virgin.
Several years ago I switched to putting the SH3 into modem mode and connected a Buffalo WiFi router, then another Buffalo as a repeater and then a third - I was running WiFi throughout the house with kids phones, laptops and several Roku media streamers connected. We then extended the house and things got a little sketchy - more devices, more distance and several steel beams later, the Buffalo kit wasn't up to the job, the Buffalo NAS died and well I relented and cleaned all that old stuff out and bought a Synology router - and that's where the real problems started. I got two dead Synology routers in a row from the supplier (or so I thought) one worked for a week then died, the next I had trouble setting up, it then worked few a few days then died. Both went back to the supplier and a full refund was made, they were very good and as they didn't say otherwise, I just assumed it was a dodgy batch of routers.
I went back to the drawing board and bought an Asus RT-AS88U - with it's features and multiple RJ45 sockets, it seemed ideal - and all was well with the world, it was set up (had to boot up router and SG3 in the 'correct' order but other that that it' was OK). Until Christmas came when I kept losing the internet.
Here's the current problem set
When the Virgin connections drops and with the loss of the internet, I cannot access the router - I can't get to the Asus dashboard nor can I get to any of the other PCs on the network- in the Buffalo days, if the Virgin connection went down, I could still access my local network and the video files on the various drives - so there was always some entertainment accessible. Now I get nothing, no internet means no access to the Asus router software page (or to the SH3).
So I've tried rebooting everything without success - doesn't matter which order I reboot, still no access to the internet or to the other devices on the network.
The only way I can seem to get a connection to the internet is if I factory reset the SH3 and connect it straight to the 'master' PC as either a router or a modem (both work if the Asus is completely bypassed). As soon as I connect the Asus, I lose all connectivity.
If you've read this far, well done and thank you!
I'm a baffled and have reached the end of my limited talent for these things so I need to ask for some help and this felt like a good place to start;
* Should I be able to operate the Asus as a router without the internet connection being live? It feels like I should and seems wrong that if I lose the internet connection I lose everything else - where's the dependency and is that right?
* Why would a working internet connection die when connected to a WiFi router (that was working yesterday!) Having been through two 'defective' routers already, I am suspicious that the 'failure' of the router is not really a fault with the router but something else - what?
* Is there an idiot proof walk through of setting up the kind of network I want that I can follow and/or a kindly guru available to hand hold?!