Improve wifi for household on CenturyLink - brittag/maintenance GitHub Wiki
| Aspect | Info |
|---|---|
| Context | Residence |
| Date started | 2024-12 |
| Date finished | 2025-02 |
| Status | Complete |
| Summary of outcome | Success |
Background
Household subscribes to CenturyLink broadband (40 Mbps). Fiber comes out of a wall into a Calix optical network terminal (ONT). The Calix ONT connects via Ethernet cable to an old CenturyLink C1100Z "modem" (router and wifi access point), which provided the household's wifi network.
Problem
The C1100Z wifi network didn't reach the whole home, and it only provided 2.4 GHz. We did not want to pay CenturyLink's inflated price for a new "modem". We already had a somewhat newer device on hand, a TP-Link AC1750 router and wifi access point, and we wanted to use that for wifi because it should provide stronger signal and better support for multiple devices online at the same time. It also offers both 2.4 and 5 GHz. I did not have an adapter to plug an Ethernet cable into the available laptops, so I needed to arrange this over wifi.
Approach
- Plug the AC1750 into power and turn it on. Tip: try not to knock everything over while rearranging all the plugs to make things fit.
- Run an Ethernet cable from the modem to the AC1750. I don't know if it matters whether to plug it into the WAN port or LAN port, but I plugged it into a LAN port.
- Connect to the AC1750 network via a laptop, log into its admin panel, and configure it to serve as only an "access point". This allows the C1100Z to continue serving as the router. I thought this might be easier than connecting the Calix ONT directly to the AC1750 and configuring PPPoE credentials on the AC1750, although that was my backup plan, because other people have figured it out. (It's a documented option.)
- Confirm that the AC1750 network provides access to the internet. Do any necessary firmware updates at this point.
- Connect to the C1100Z wifi network via a laptop. Log into the C1100Z admin panel and turn off its wifi radio. (Might have been a better idea to just change the wifi credentials to something else, so I'd have it as a backup option, but I figured I could reset it and start from scratch if things didn't work out with the AC1750.)
- Connect to the AC1750 wifi network again. At this point, I couldn't access the AC1750 admin panel through a web browser. Instead, I had to connect to the AC1750 wifi network on my phone and download the TP-Link Tether app. Using the TP-Link Tether app, I updated the AC1750 wifi network to have the same username and password as the old C1100Z wifi network, so that nobody in the household had to update wifi credentials on their phones/computers/etc.
Outcome
It worked, more or less. Connection speeds mostly improved throughout the home, although I still saw some inconsistency.
Second attempt
- Bought an Eero 6 2-pack ($115).
- Tried to get the PPPoE password out of the modem configuration, but that didn't work, because the password hash was salted. Used CenturyLink help chat to request PPPoE username and password (surprisingly fast and easy).
- Connected Calix ONT to Eero gateway via Ethernet cable (needed to be in LAN port 4 on ONT).
- Configured Eero gateway to use PPPoE username and password, VLAN 201.
- Set up second Eero in another location.
Final outcome
Connection speeds are finally good throughout the house!