Trying to bridge a CellSpot router to my pre-existing router

[address_unknown]

Hey everyone. I want to see if I can set up this TMobile/ASUS TM-AC1900 Personal Celspot Router to work in harmony with my pre-existing SBG6782 SURFBOARD modem router combo. I don't want to use WiFi via the AC1900, I just want that router to improve my cel service. Is this possible? Below is some backstory info that may be useful.

I recently moved to a new apartment and I have absolutely no cell coverage (tmobile) whatsoever inside my place. SO a few weeks ago I picked up a signal booster thinking that would give me some bars since there is one corner of a room where I'm able to get 2 bars of regular 4g (but no LTE). No luck, I tried placing the thing everywhere and leaving it for hours to set up and never got it to work.

So fast forward to a few days ago, I took the signal booster back to tmobile and asked for one of their "Personal Celspot routers" which is actually an ASUS AC1900 that tmobile took and setup to be a celspot/router combo, if you're not already aware.

I hooked it up according to Tmobile's cheesy video, and noticed very little improvement, my phone (LG-G4) gets one or two bars (no 4G or LTE) around the house but those aren't really usable anyways because they aren't 4G or 4G LTE. The thing has basically been plugged in sitting there not doing much. I talked to ARRIS tech support about the issue and he suggested to call ASUS about possibly "bridging" the two routers, and turning off the TM-AC1900's actual router functionality so that it doesn't cause any interference issues with the SURFBOARD router (which I have no idea how to do). I tried calling ASUS but their tech support line takes forever to get to a human being as well as their reps signal is bad and laggy so communicating with them is not simple by any means, so I came here instead.

Currently, I actually don't know how to log into the TM-AC1900's config page, the standard 192.168.0.1 goes (unsurprisingly) to the SURFBOARD's config page.

So that's where i'm at. I hope this post isn't too long or redundant. Can I get some help on this?

 

[smitbret]

Hey everyone. I want to see if I can set up this TMobile/ASUS TM-AC1900 Personal Celspot Router to work in harmony with my pre-existing SBG6782 SURFBOARD modem router combo. I don't want to use WiFi via the AC1900, I just want that router to improve my cel service. Is this possible? Below is some backstory info that may be useful.

I recently moved to a new apartment and I have absolutely no cell coverage (tmobile) whatsoever inside my place. SO a few weeks ago I picked up a signal booster thinking that would give me some bars since there is one corner of a room where I'm able to get 2 bars of regular 4g (but no LTE). No luck, I tried placing the thing everywhere and leaving it for hours to set up and never got it to work.

So fast forward to a few days ago, I took the signal booster back to tmobile and asked for one of their "Personal Celspot routers" which is actually an ASUS AC1900 that tmobile took and setup to be a celspot/router combo, if you're not already aware.

I hooked it up according to Tmobile's cheesy video, and noticed very little improvement, my phone (LG-G4) gets one or two bars (no 4G or LTE) around the house but those aren't really usable anyways because they aren't 4G or 4G LTE. The thing has basically been plugged in sitting there not doing much. I talked to ARRIS tech support about the issue and he suggested to call ASUS about possibly "bridging" the two routers, and turning off the TM-AC1900's actual router functionality so that it doesn't cause any interference issues with the SURFBOARD router (which I have no idea how to do). I tried calling ASUS but their tech support line takes forever to get to a human being as well as their reps signal is bad and laggy so communicating with them is not simple by any means, so I came here instead.

Currently, I actually don't know how to log into the TM-AC1900's config page, the standard 192.168.0.1 goes (unsurprisingly) to the SURFBOARD's config page.

So that's where i'm at. I hope this post isn't too long or redundant. Can I get some help on this?

You need a little clarification here.

First off, the IP address of the CellSpot is going to be 192.168.1.1 or 192.168.29.1

Second, the CellSpot router has absolutely nothing to do with the Cell Network or the strength of your cell phone signal. The CellSpot is just a WiFi router with T-Mobile's firmware. You are supposed to plug it into your home network and then use T-Mobile's WiFi Calling with your T-Mobile branded phone. WiFi calling just uses a WiFi signal to place and receive calls over your exisiting internet connection. If your phone isn't T-Mobile branded then it most likely will not support WiFi calling, making the CellSpot pointless. Asus won't support it, T-Mobile will.

Third, since you already have a WiFi signal with the Surfboard, you can simply login to your existing WiFi and get the exact same thing when you enable WiFi calling on your cell phone and log in to the WiFi network.

Finally, T-Mobile intends to have you use the CellSpot as the main router in your house. As I mentioned, there might not be any benefit to doing this since the WiFi from the Surboard will provide the same thing since WiFi calling on a T-mobile phone will work with just about ANY wireless signal.

T-Mobiles's suggestion (and mine as well) would be to run a Cat5e from the Surfboard to the WAN port of the CellSpot and just reboot them both. I would probably turn off the WiFi in the Surfboard before doing this, though since the CellSpot has a few features that might make it a more desirable WiFi router than the Surfboard. Once you reboot, the SurfBoard will just be a modem and the Asus will now be your network's Router.

If you want to keep the Surfboard as the main router and just use the CellSpot as a WiFi Access Point somewhere else in the home, then you need to adjust the DHCP address range in your Surfboard, set a static IP for the CellSpot and then turn off DHCP and NAT in the CellSpot. Finally, create SSIDs on the CellSpot that are the exact same as the SSIDs on the Surfboard, just with different channel #s. Now you will have multiple, identical SSIDs throughout your home that your devices can log on and off of depending on which one is strongest.

If you need more clarification on this, see the following links:
http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/basi...onvert-a-wireless-router-into-an-access-point
http://ezlan.net/router_AP.html

 

[JackMDS]

smitbret +1 Very Nice summary.

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In general, the problem is that the users at large do not understand that adhering to Marketing "Verbal Manipulation" and some basic knowledge of "Water plumbing" is Not a replacement to learning basic (or even better moderate) Networking tecnology.