Using a NowTV Hub Two as a Modem (Almost)

So, not much longer after I last posted saying I probably wouldn't be around with any new content for ages, and I'm back with new content. It's a bit niche but as is oft the case, it's something I stumbled around with so thought it might be worth talking about. Firstly though let me give a bit of exposition.

Basically, for years I've used my own equipment to connect to my ISP network. For some time now I've had a Netgear R7800, a decent router indeed but maybe a bit outdated by today's standards, though it gets the job done and the WiFi capabilities on it have always done right by me. However for years (nearly 8 now in fact), I've used a Huawei HG612 as a modem. The HG612 is actually a pretty good VDSL2 modem to be fair (technically it's actually a router stuck with locked firmware, but you can flash unlocked firmware, which I did), provided originally in the UK by Openreach (back then part of BT) to broadband customers who used their FTTC services. Eventually, they stopped supplying these modems to new customers because BT started using a modem/router combo device they'd supply instead. However for the longest time the old modem was still a good option for anyone connecting to many of the UK's ISPs that offered FTTC broadband connections.

It is getting on a bit now though, and doesn't support some of the newer technology that's often available to make faster broadband speeds a reality. Earlier on in the year I switched supplier to NowTV (a subsidiary of Sky), who as most of these ISPs do, provided their own modem/router combo device. Invariably these routers aren't very good at being routers, usually because they lack some features "power" users might find useful, or their capabilities are just a bit shite (the WiFi often being a good example of where they fall horribly short). When I got my new router from NowTV, which is known as a Hub Two, or to give its technical model number; the NR801, I obviously wanted to keep using my own equipment like I had done many times before, namely my R7800 router and HG612 modem.

However while this is possible (all be it slightly more involved with a NowTV/Sky broadband connection due to the fact they use MER authentication on their connections, I won't bother going into how to get around that in this article though), I did succeed in doing this but found that the HG612 wasn't connecting at any faster speed than I was getting previously, even though I was technically supposed to be getting at least a slightly faster connection than I'd been paying for with my previous ISP. So I wanted to figure out a way of getting around this; and the only way I could was to replace the HG612 with a more modern modem.

Seeing as I had the NowTV Hub Two, I didn't fancy buying another standalone modem (which are actually few and far between these days), or a more common router/modem combo that allowed me to set it up in modem-only mode (these tend to be somewhat expensive too), so I decided to try and set up the Hub Two to work as a modem. Unfortunately, harking back to what I said about ISP supplied equipment being lacklustre in some areas, the Hub Two does not have a modem-only mode. It's permanently in router mode and you can't change that. What you can do though, is switch off almost everything that makes it a router.

The first thing you do is set up the Hub Two: I decided to connect to it directly via Ethernet with my laptop so I could access the settings. I then turned off both the 2.4 and 5GHz WiFi networks (since the R7800 was going to deal with that) by unticking the Enable Wireless Access Point option for both networks under the Wireless tab. Then I switched to the Advanced tab and selected LAN IP Setup and made sure the router's IP used the same IP range and subnet as my R7800, but also made sure to give it a unique IP outside the DHCP range of my DHCP server (this would ensure it always had an IP that no other device on my network could be assigned).

I should note at this point that I use a Pihole on my network and use that as a DHCP server, I don't use the R7800 for DHCP and I did not want the Hub Two to do it either because of that. Your use case may be different of course, but in most cases, you'll want to let the Hub Two be the DHCP server as when you configure the R7800 to work with it, it disables its ability to act as a DHCP server anyway (more on that in a bit).

I don't use IPv6 on the LAN side either so I turned that off on the same settings page of the Hub Two. To be honest, I don't see the point in IPv6 in a local environment, it has its uses of course but I think in the vast majority of cases it won't be needed and will just make things more complicated for you. Unchecking Enable IPv6 on LAN side turns every option related to it off. After this I made sure UPnP was turned on on the Hub Two, again because the R7800 will lack this feature when you set that up, and once that was done I went and changed the password to login too (I mean you don't need to but I always do for security reasons).

That's your Hub Two set up. Now onto the R7800. First off, plug your Hub Two router into the WAN port of the R7800 with an Ethernet cable. Then login to the R7800. I highly (highly highly) recommend you don't use the stock firmware for the R7800 as it's rarely updated by Netgear these days and even the latest firmwares have known security vulnerabilities. I use a custom firmware on mine made by a chap who calls himself Voxel; here's his website with firmware for the R7800 though he has custom firmware for other routers too. You could also probably use something like DD-WRT firmware for the R7800, but I've never bothered trying that.

Anyway, on your R7800, you want to do the following and go to the Advanced tab, select Advanced Settings and then choose the second option called Router / AP / Bridge Mode. Then switch it to AP Mode. Setup your R7800 however you like after that, though likely you already have done if you were already using it as your main router beforehand. You shouldn't need to do anything else to it if you have, as when it goes into AP (Access Point) mode it disables a lot of the settings that make it a router since it's assumed you don't need them running in that mode.

Give everything a hard power cycle, and let it all boot up after making sure everything is plugged in correctly. You should, in theory, now have a working Hub Two running mostly just a modem and a DHCP server (unless like me you use something else as your DHCP server and turned it off), with the R7800 running mainly as your wireless access point and Ethernet switch. If like me you were using an old modem before you may even find you've got a faster and probably more stable Internet connection now too. Don't expect too much on that front though.

Broadband Workaround Routers Modems