We had to switch from PlusNet to Virgin Media Business when we moved offices in January 2019 as there was a significant lack of FTTC on the BT network. Going back to 10Mbps just wasn’t going to happen when we had been enjoying 65; not the fastest in the world, but it provided the service we needed. The alternative was Virgin Media Business with 350Mbps which, although the only real option anyway, seemed quite a good choice.
Initially we used their Hub 3.0 as both modem and router, but after a while we got annoyed at having to reboot it every now and again to sort network issues out. We also started to miss the features we had on our old Draytek router we’d used previously on the BT line so we started to look at alternatives to the Hub 3.0.
Disappointingly, you *have* to have the Hub 3.0 on your network, but we did find that it could be switched to modem only mode, allowing the connection of a 3rd party router of our choice. Taking advice from DrayTek we bought a Vigor2862ac.
The first change needed is that of switching the Hub 3.0 to modem only mode. This is where our complications started! We have a static IP address, as some of the systems we connect to require them to whitelist our address. The problem this created for us is that the Hub 3.0 doesn’t provide the option for modem only mode with a single static IP address. If you’ve got a dynamic IP address, the option should be there under the Gateway Mode menu option; we can’t talk from experience though! The only other solution to the problem of modem only mode is multiple static IP addresses, so we elected for this option. This normally takes 24 hours to be processed, but ours took around 4 days…
When the change was completed we received an email from Virgin Media Business giving us the IP address range and a list of instructions on how to change your settings. However, this assumes you have a computer connected to the modem, and says “You'll first need to configure the Network card ('Network Connections' / TCP settings) on your Laptop / Desktop”. Not helpful. To be honest, the letter was more confusing than useful, and created a very difficult situation with nothing working. However, the purpose of this article is to help those in the same situation by wading through the letter to the important information.
Once the change by Virgin Media Business was made, the Hub 3.0 was automatically placed in modem only mode, so there was nothing to do there. What we *did* do was remove the port forwarding, even though this should have been ignored automatically. Connect a single computer to the Hub 3.0 via Ethernet (WiFi is disabled now it’s in modem only mode) ensuring you are on the same subnet as the Hub 3.0, and using your web browser, enter the original IP address (we’d changed the default to 192.168.1.1 to fit in with our network). Log in and disable the port forwarding. Log out, and disconnect the network cable from the Hub.
Plug the network cable into the DrayTek and log in to 192.168.1.1 (its default IP address). One of the first messages you will receive is that you are using the default password, so go ahead and change it. Now, if you don’t want to change the gateway address on every NIC across your network, we suggest you change the LAN1 IP address to match that of your HUB 3.0. Don’t worry about address clashing when you connect them as they will be on different networks. Ours was 192.168.1.1 anyway so we could leave it unchanged.
Now, this is the bit that caused a lot of headaches here, but once we got to the bottom of it, was quite simple. We need to set up the network between the 2862 and the Hub 3.0 which will use WAN2.
From the dashboard, click on WAN2, and select “Static or Dynamic IP”. Ours was set to Enable by default, but check as this does need to be enabled. The guide we previously found advised on setting the 2862 to “Obtain an IP address automatically”, but for some reason, ours would never be assigned one by the Hub 3.0, even though we checked several times that the DHCP server on the Hub 3.0 was enabled. So, the solution is to “Specify an IP address”. This information is given in the letter from Virgin Media Business, and is actually all you need from it, right at the bottom of the last page. Virgin Media Business provide you with:
| IP address: | 111.222.333.445 |
| Subnet Mask: | 255.255.255.248 |
| Gateway IP: | 111.222.333.444 |
| DNS Servers | |
| Primary: | 194.168.4.123 |
| Secondary: | 194.168.8.123 |
Obviously we’ve used redacted IP addresses here, but whatever it says on your letter, enter those into the IP address details for WAN2 and click [OK]
Connect WAN2 on the front of the 2862 into any of the ports on the Hub 3.0, though we used port 1 and you should see the WAN2 line on the dashboard turn green.
Set up your port forwarding under NAT > Port Redirection to match anything you had on the Hub 3.0. If you had WiFi set up on the Hub 3.0, you’ll need to change the settings on the 2862, though it is enabled by default; you might want to alter the settings to match those you had before.
From here, you are good to go.
Now we’re off to go and set up our VPN again; one of the main reasons we bought the DrayTek!
Hope this has been of some use. Please feel free to send us an email if you have any questions about this and if we have any experience of your issue, we’ll try to help.