Question for internet router experts

[Mobi]

I have a 3BB router which has been supporting 6 devices - 3 smartphones, 2 laptops, and one tablet, with  no problems.

 

The other day I bought my son a new smartphone as the old one was not working well and had flashes on his screen.

 

When we first connected his new phone the wifi worked fine, but the next day it wouldn't connect.

 

I re-booted the router and then, as well as his phone, my laptop also wouldn't connect - all the other devices worked fine.

 

I played around with the adapter settings on my laptop and managed to get it working again, but my son's smartphone still wouldn't connect.

 

I went into the 3BB broadband website and navigated my way to the DHCP IP Pool Summary. It lists 6 devices and their IP and mac addresses, and judging from the online form, it looks like the router will only accommodate 6 ip addresses or devices.

 

Including my son's old phone , we have 7 devices. I turned off the old phone but the new one still wouldn't connect. Then I turned off the tablet and the new phone connected.

 

Clearly, we have too many devices for the router.

 

What I can’t figure out is how to remove a device/address from the router pool of addresses so that I can accommodate the new phone. It doesn't seem to be sufficient just to turn off the phone, as the ip address is still allocated to the old device.

 

We only need 6 devices to work, so has anyone any idea how to fix this so that the router will work on my son' new phone and cancel out (or remove) the old one and allow the other 5 devices work when they are all switched on.

 

I realise the long term solution is to buy a better a router, but this will take time and I will need to find someone to help me configure it. In the meantime, I would like to find a solution and try to tweak my existing router.

 

My friend tells me that the 3BB router is crap, which it may well be, but I need to get it to work until I get a longer16worked22 term solution.

 

Thanks.

 

Mobi

 

Here is a copy of the 3BB router web page with names and  Mac addresses removed (by me)

 

 

DHCP IP Pool Summary

Host Name IP Address MAC Address Expire Time android-b6c69c25d660a1b7 192.168.1.2   2days,  20:6:6 yyyyPC 192.168.1.3   2days,  20:6:5 android-8beb685a4973e58e 192.168.1.4   2days,  20:6:59 android-ab08cd40a429ea9e 192.168.1.5   2days,  21:35:0 android-6dd62929bb69423c 192.168.1.6   2days,  20:7:2 xxxx-PC 192.168.1.7   2days,  21:53:5 android-2720bb3342f5003 192.168.1.8   2days,  23:3:22

 

 

 

 

Edited October 7, 2016 by Mobi

[Mobi]

Hold Everything! 

I just refreshed the 'pool summary and it's now showing 7 devices, as you can see from the diagram in my post.....

 

I think it's all working... so don't reply yet, unless you are very familiar with this issue and can explain exactly what has happened...

[Mobi]

All is now working so I'm Ok... for now. I've ordered a new router which hopefully will eliminate these connection issues.

 

M

[thedemon]

A possibility is that the router was using channel 12 or 13. The US FCC doesn't authorise use of those channels on the 2.4GHz band so often (but not always) devices sold in the US won't see WiFi on channel 12 or 13.

 

Wifi routers sold in many other parts of the world do use channel 12 & 13 but the odd device has those channels blacklisted even though not sold in the US.

 

A bit confusing and has caught me out before. 

[Mobi]

It's still a bit iffy.

 

The new phone lost it's wifi last night, so I turned off a couple of other devices and it reconnected. 

 

Today, all the devices are connected.... so far.

 

Who knows what is happening??? 

[The Fat Controller]

Somewhere in the router settings there will be a band of IP addresses that can be allocated, you may need to increase these to allow more devices to connect.

We have AIS now and TRUE up until a couple of weeks ago, all the routers had this feature and one of them had a limit on wireless devices too.

Maybe an idea to download the manual and see if you can tweak the settings.

Our desktop (Thai) will not connect to any wireless channel above 11 !

Edited October 8, 2016 by The Fat Controller

[smedly]

turn DCHP off or change the range to start at say 192.168.1.20 to 192.168.1.60 and then give all your devices a fixed IP address starting at 192.168.1.2 - no more problems

 

and if you are going to by a new router make sure you by a vdsl combo unit like the TP Link TD-W9970 so that is you want fiber you will already have the hardware, also if you current router is wireless n then in wifi setting change it to "N" instead of mixed mode

Edited October 12, 2016 by smedly

[Mobi]

I have bought a D-Link DSL 2544N, based on a friend's recommendation. Just waiting for him to come round and help me install it. meanwhile, the old router is all working, so I'll leave as is.

 

Thanks for the advice.

[smedly]

6 hours ago, Mobi said:

I have bought a D-Link DSL 2544N, based on a friend's recommendation. Just waiting for him to come round and help me install it. meanwhile, the old router is all working, so I'll leave as is.

 

Thanks for the advice.

unfortunately that modem router is not VDSL compatible, a better choice would have been  TP Link TD-W9970