Connecting a router/repeater to a BBox
brupala Posted messages 111942 Registration date Status Membre Last intervention -
Hello,
I have a fiber Bbox installed in the basement;
it feeds my RJ45 sockets on the ground floor (desktop PC, TV box, landline phone)
on one of the available RJ45 ports, I have a cat6 RJ45 cable that goes up to the first floor, where I want to install a TP-Link WiFi router to supply the RJ45 network on that same floor, adding the WiFi repeater function of the router...
is that possible?
because when I connect my router to the Bbox, it blocks the corresponding LAN port on the box...
help!
thank you,
3 réponses
Hello,
first of all, a router is not a Wi-Fi repeater; it creates an additional Wi-Fi network unless it's a Wi-Fi router.
If you want to power RJ45 sockets, an Ethernet switch is enough. If you want to add Wi-Fi on the same Wi-Fi network as the one downstairs, you can put a Wi-Fi access point on this switch.
The rest: I don't understand what you mean by:
"because when I connect my router to the Bbox, it blocks the LAN port in question on the box..."
If the router is on this port, it’s just the router (WAN port), or else you’re configuring the router in bridge/access point mode, so it’s no longer a router and then you risk creating a network loop.
Specify the exact model of the TP-Link and the connections that you’re making precisely.
Otherwise, if you haven't already purchased the equipment, you could consider creating a mesh Wi-Fi network with two TP-Link Deco, for example, and turn off the Wi-Fi of the box.
And there you go, voilà ....
But goodness, the line spacing is so annoying!!
Hello,
thank you for your reply.
My model is a TP Link Archer AX58, Wifi6 router.
House with a basement, ground floor, and first floor.
All connections are made with shielded RJ45 cat6 cables.
Fiber Bbox in the basement (5 output ports) which feeds 3 RJ45 sockets on the ground floor via RJ45: 1 desktop PC, 1 TV box, 1 phone (via RJ45/RJ11 adapter).
1 cat6 RJ45 cable plugged into a 4th port of the box to reach the first floor of the house; the cable that I connected to the WAN port of the router.
This router on the first floor is intended to feed the 4 rooms on that same floor with RJ45, and to broadcast Wifi because the Bbox in the basement cannot cover the house (a concrete slab to cross with underfloor heating... ridiculous Wifi signal on the ground floor and zero on the first floor).
Following this connection, I ran the Bbox management utility, which tells me that the port connected to the WAN port of the router is causing a loop, and thus it is blocked until the next reboot of the Bbox; even if the box is properly connected to the router (since I can see in the utility that the router's IP is listed as one of the devices connected to the Bbox).
So, have I inadvertently configured my router in bridge/access point mode?
Thank you in advance for your help!
OK, thanks, that's very precise like that.
If I'm following you, the box doesn't serve at all for the WiFi network.
What puzzles me the most now is that you have two patch panels?
I assume you have wall sockets upstairs; does the cable between the router and the box go through wall sockets or is it a direct connection?
It would be better if your router were in access point mode, but you absolutely need to avoid a loop in that case.
In router mode, you shouldn't have a loop if you connect the WAN port to the box, and to have a loop via WiFi, the router needs to be in client access point mode and a LAN port also needs to be connected to the box. You can also have a loop just via Ethernet if you have two ports of the router connected to the box. So you need to make sure of the cabling behind the router where they arrive.
Since the router isn't being used right now, it might be best to start by resetting it to factory settings.
It's still not easy to create a loop via WiFi with this kind of router.
You could also imagine an extreme twisted scenario where the Bbox is compatible with easy mesh and automatically connects to the WiFi mesh network with the router.
In a second step, after the factory reset, if the issue is still there, we should check if the loop is via Ethernet or WiFi; for that, turn off the WiFi of the box, which isn't used anyway. If it's via Ethernet, disconnect the ports one by one until the issue disappears.
The topic is specific but interesting; in any case, in principle, it should work in router mode or access point mode, with access point mode being better because you then have a single IP network.
Thank you for your precise response!
Indeed, given the little Wi-Fi provided by the box, I don't use it. (It never allows me to do anything...)
What does "2 patch panels" mean?
On the ground floor, I do have wall outlets that work very well.
Upstairs, for the moment, there are waiting cables; the cable that connects the box to the router is male-male, which I wired in 568B both at the top and the bottom (maybe this is a mistake, but it doesn't change my current problem because when I connect with a pre-terminated cat6 cable by placing the router next to the box, the problem is still there)...
I will reconfigure the router according to your instructions, without it being connected via RJ45 to the box; then turn off the Wi-Fi of the box, and then connect the two devices via RJ45: LAN port on the box, WAN port on the router, having disconnected all the other ports connected to the back of the box.
I will check via the box management software in my app what it says as I go through the steps.
If I switch to "access point" mode, will the ports at the back of the box that supply my ground floor still be functional? Or is it completely unrelated?
It shouldn't change anything for the ports in the ground floor's router configuration; the only thing that will change is being able to communicate from the ground floor to the upstairs for certain applications, particularly for viewing network shares or video files: a simple ping is possible from the top to the bottom, but not from the bottom to the top, due to the router's NAT function, which does not exist in access point mode, so everyone sees each other as if they were on the same floor.
The patch panel, the idea is this: https://img-19.ccm2.net/xNziDgckm0J2Smg3LiCFFtC0hj8=/a06b417ed6b14d7cbf580ceb1a943a31/ccm-ugc/Brassage-fibre-adsl.png
And in practice, it's this: https://lafibre.info/images/orange/201304_rueil-malmaison_fibre_orange_3.jpg
But that's not what you must have done; clearly, you directly connected cables with male plugs at the end without RJ45 patching cores.