How to recycle old router et al? 16 June 2019 at 9:17PM edited 30 November -1 at 1:00AM in Broadband & Internet Access 15 replies 11K views

anniecave

I recently changed provider and my new provider (Post Office) failed to send a router until I phoned up to ask why it hadn't been received, then it took a further 5 days to arrive. I currently have old routers for plusnet, BT and sky due to previous switches. Can someone technical confirm whether if I say re-signed up to plusnet or sky then would a previous router work, or would I have to use their newly provided router?



I'm just wondering if my old routers really do have no use, or would they possibly work in the above scenario?

Owain_Moneysaver

anniecave wrote: »

Can someone technical confirm whether if I say re-signed up to plusnet or sky then would a previous router work, or would I have to use their newly provided router?

Some routers are locked to an ISP or limited range of ISPs. In the router setup where it asks for

Broadband username or login name [email protected]

it might not allow an address that isn't plusdsl.net (or whatever).

However if your router once worked with Plusnet then it should still work - you'll just need to change the yourusername to yournewusername .

Also some ISPs don't need anything specific in that setup entry as they work from your BT line number.

You can usually reuse an old router as a wifi access point joining it to the 'main' router with an ethernet cable, and turn off DHCP server on the 'old' router.

Old/cheaper routers may not have newer 5GHz wifi (Plusnet Hub 0 doesn't have 5GHz, Plusnet Hub 1 is the same internally as the BT Homehub 5 and does).

hollie.weimeraner

Owain_Moneysaver wrote: »

You don't have a choice if it's Sky ADSL, they lock you to their own router.

Not any more.

This changed a couple of years ago, but they don't make it easy to get your login details.

https://www.google.com/search?q=sky+broadband+different+router&rlz=1C1GCEB_enGB798GB798&oq=sky+broadband+and+differ&aqs=chrome.1.69i57j0l2.8119j0j8&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

wild666

I bought my own modem/router so have no need to get one from the new ISP

macman

Owain_Moneysaver wrote: »

You don't have a choice if it's Sky ADSL, they lock you to their own router.

They try to. But it is not too tricky to extract the username and set up your own router instead.
Most routers more than 3 or 4 years old won't support fibre services (i.e they are ADSL not VDSL), so of limited use now ,as most of us have upgraded to FTTC.