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[Glamdring]

Tried yet again to get my Netgear D7000 VDSL router to work with TalkTalk. I know it works with Plusnet, and we gave it a firmware update.
No bloody luck.
Back to the old TalkTalk one. I know others have got it to work with TalkTalk with little bother.

[Glamdring]

Finally done it. It occurred to us that Talktalk is an auto login ISP, unlike Plusnet for instance, and the first question that pops up when you access the router for set up is 'Enter login details'. So we did and continued having bother.
Finally we tried leaving it blank and it worked instantly.
Bugger and yay, at the same time. I have my Netgear D7000 working finally.

[Wooster]

I did mention that they don't normally use passwords for those circuits, only a username.

[Glamdring]

I was messing in the interface today. It had been factory reset in an attempt to get it working so the password is back to admin/password. Not sure where to change that now. There are options but I'm nervous of changing the wrong one. Had a few line drops on my mobile this morning for no good reason. Turning the mobile wifi on and off fixed it.

I notice in Setup that my country is set to UK but the ISP is set to Adam, with Talktalk not mentioned. I don't get that at all. What is it?

[loughor]

On an earlier page, one that I cba to locate, it was mentioned about connecting two routers on the same network. It may have been me. There's a page in June 2018 Computer Shopper outlining how to use a second router as a wifi range extender. It isn't hard at all even if you have just a clue about settings. I took a screenshot on my iPad, just in case I decided to try it. There are other pages on setting up other things like mesh networks but just the range thing took my attention. Hooray for free e-mags from the library service. You should all use your local facility.

[Wooster]

I've not used my new local library yet.
I was never out of the old one when I was a kid. :/

A lot of the confusion is probably down to the multiple ways that two routers can be employed on the same network. (It's confused me at times)
Mesh isn't really something you'd use at home. It's normally used for resilience (Root WAP connected to the WAN link goes down, so they all connect through another WAP with access to it), or avoiding obstacles by routing around them.
It's quite lossy as well, each 'hop' halves the bandwidth. (As does a Range Extender connected wirelessly)

[loughor]

I'm not going for mesh (except the Sonos doing what it does). I was interested in using the same SSID interchangeably on both routers. The thing is, if my kit can use a wire then it has gigabit Ethernet. It is only my iPad, iPhone (the kid's HTC) and printer that use wifi. Wires are still the way to go.

[Wooster]

There's nothing stopping you using the same SSID's/Passwords, the problem is the handover(roaming).

Enterprise kit running from a controller sets up the handover in advance, so you don't really notice you've moved to a new WAP.
It manages this (iirc) by making the new host WAP look the same as the old one, so the client device has no idea it's moved until there's enough downtime for it to drop the pretence.
(It's for stuff like voice calls, where you don't want the stream to disconnect while it moves to the next station...as sometimes happens on a mobile call when you're driving.)

Home kit has no such capability, so the client devices decide when they'll switch and trigger the authentication process.....which is fine if the signal from one WAP is noticeably and consistently stronger than the other, but if it's on the cusp it could keep switching between the two WAP's it sees at similar signal strengths.
Logically it shouldn't matter if it's switching to a different SSID or not, but they tend to be 'sticky' and only roam when they need to and it can be quite annoying.

It's a trade off.
Consistency Vs Bandwidth.
Set roaming too aggressive and it keeps hopping around looking for the best signal strength, set it too passive and you get down to 1mbps before it starts looking for a better connection.

For home stuff I prefer to just split SSID's between frequencies, with 2.4GHz 802.11b/g/n on one SSID and 5GHz 802.11ac on another.
I also disable 802.11n on the 2.4GHz band if possible, since this uses channel bonding and with only three potentially congested channels available on this frequency, it's just asking for interference problems.

[loughor]

Yes, they mentioned that sometimes handover might not be smooth but then it is only like it would be without the second router. It is something for a really boring day, or if I want to extend the signal into, say, the garden - a place I try and avoid.

[Wooster]

I'd probably go for separate SSID's then.
The only reason is that it's easier to connect to the stronger network manually because it has a different name.
If they're both the same SSID you're never really sure which of them you're connected to unless you start digging into the details.

[loughor]

As I said, I have no plans to do anything at this time but this thread is here in case I do. I like my wires and switches.

[Wooster]

I'm the same, but much of my job is knowing that WiFi isn't quite the panacea it's usually sold as.
It's convenient but not infallible and highly fallible in some environments, so I have to manage expectations that are sometimes far lower than those promised by salesmen.

[richietog]

The geezer who used to be in the other room that has the router, left the old rj45 and microfilter in....dastardly deeds

[Wooster]

Why?

I was once called out to a student residence for a faulty network port in a room and it turned out that the person in the room on the other side of the wall had taken the faceplate off, cut the cable to the other room and then put it back together.

Now that's dastardly deeds.

[richietog]

Because I feel that it is the cause of all the disconnection problems since the new internet arrived. I have to obviously verify that of course