Re-purposing an old router

arciere

rmg1 said:

I've got the following from the router help page:-
Product name - Plusnet router
Serial number - N7171171B006289
Board version - F@ST2704N

There's various other things on there but mostly to do with speed, wifi channel, wifi security, etc.
Am I looking for anything specific?

It doesn't look like it can do any wireless bridge mode.
To be honest, it's not something you commonly find in a router, especially low-end and very cheap ones (those that ISP give you).
Wireless bridge mode is normally found in access points, rather than routers. But as I said, the best way to use it with your current set up would be to run a cheap CAT5e cable between the two routers and do the other steps, but I know it's not always possible to run new cables in the house, that's why I suggested taking a look at powerline.

rmg1

Oh well, bang goes idea number one.
I can't run cable unfortunately (it's against my tenancy agreement) so can you suggest a good/cheap alternative?

arciere

rmg1 said:

Oh well, bang goes idea number one.
I can't run cable unfortunately (it's against my tenancy agreement) so can you suggest a good/cheap alternative?

Powerline adaptors with or without WiFi (if it's without, you will need to use the router).

rmg1

Anything you could recommend that's not too expensive?

arciere

I would stick with known brands, the cheapest are probably Netgear and Tp-Link. They do both WiFi and non-WiFi. Check on Amazon or eBay, there's a lot of out of stock items at the moment due to Covid.

rmg1

Cheers.  I think I'll go with non-WiFi (probably cheaper) and have a look at using my old router to supply the WiFi signal.

J_B

rmg1 said:

Cheers.  I think I'll go with non-WiFi (probably cheaper) and have a look at using my old router to supply the WiFi signal.

Sorry, I'm out of my depth here, but why use two devices (one of which is old) to do a job, when one will do?

almillar

J_B said:

rmg1 said:

Cheers.  I think I'll go with non-WiFi (probably cheaper) and have a look at using my old router to supply the WiFi signal.

Sorry, I'm out of my depth here, but why use two devices (one of which is old) to do a job, when one will do?

Homeline power plus even an old router can provide better performance than a WiFi Extender, due to the reasons that anciere stated earlier in the thread.

rmg1

Plus, I'm assuming the non-wifi homeplugs will be cheaper and why buy extra if I already have kit I can use.

arciere

rmg1 said:

Plus, I'm assuming the non-wifi homeplugs will be cheaper and why buy extra if I already have kit I can use.

Not by much.