How to solve this question??

[meowimacat]

Hello everyone,

I currently have the BlueCurve 600 with the wireless TV boxes. I am looking to use my own router but according to Shaw, I cannot bridge the modem and therefore I cannot use my own router. Anybody knows what I can do? I have searched and seen that for some it was possible, but I don't know if that is the right method. Do I need to switch the wireless boxes for wired? 

[rickatk]

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@meowimacat wrote:

Hello everyone,

I currently have the BlueCurve 600 with the wireless TV boxes. I am looking to use my own router but according to Shaw, I cannot bridge the modem and therefore I cannot use my own router. Anybody knows what I can do? I have searched and seen that for some it was possible, but I don't know if that is the right method. Do I need to switch the wireless boxes for wired? 

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Why don't you want to use the Blue Curve Gateway for wifi duties?

[meowimacat]

There is frequent disconnects on either TV or devices, and thought using own router would be more stable. I also had bridge mode before the TV plan but at that moment my bridge mode stopped working and I couldn't figure out a solution, so I accepted it as is.

[mdk]

@meowimacat -- I am looking to use my own router but according to Shaw, I cannot bridge the modem and therefore I cannot use my own router.

That is only a partial statement.

If you do "bridge" the BlueCurve, its WiFi is disabled -- no more WiFi signals to your remote TV boxes -- but you can connect your own router, and use its WiFi network for your smart-phones and other WiFi-capable devices (PC laptop/notebook, iPad).

If you do NOT bridge the BlueCurve, its WiFi connection to your remote TV boxes will work, and you can connect your own router, and connect your wireless devices to your own router's WiFi network.  If you can use a long (50 feet) Ethernet cable, your own router can be in a different room than your BlueCurve.

But, the larger question is the physical distance (and the number of walls) between the BlueCurve and all your WiFi devices (including the remote TV boxes). Too much, and the signal-strength is reduced.

Take your smart-phone, and connect via WiFi to the BlueCurve's WiFi, while standing beside the BlueCurve. You should get "4 bars" of signal-strength. Move one room away, and stand with your body "between" your smart-phone and the BluCurve. Do you still get "4 bars", or just 3? Move to a more-distant room away from the BlueCurve, wait a few seconds, and recheck the number of bars. Fewer? Keep moving "away" from the BlueCurve, and keep measuring.

One friend has a BlueCurve in a room at one end of her "rancher" floor-plan house, and purchased a LINKSYS "repeater", and placed it in the "middle" of the house. That raised the signal-strength at the far-end bedrooms from 1 bar to 4 bars.  So, good coverage for her wireless devices (iPad, iPhone, 2 Alexa boxes). She only has one TV, just one room away from the BlueCurve, so its remote TV box connects directly to the BlueCurve's "built-in" WiFi (on a "hidden" SSID), rather than connecting to the "visible" SSID from the BlueCurve.

Shaw "rents" a repeater, for $10/month. The cost of LINKSYS was approximately equal to 12 months of "rental" from Shaw.

> Anybody knows what I can do?

Can you move the BlueCurve to connect to a coaxial wall-port in the "middle" of your home, and use the remote TV boxes at each "end" of your home, to create a "strong" signal in the middle, and "adequate" WiFi signal to the TV boxes further away?

[wcoady]

I have the Shaw blue curve modem and it is set to bridge mode so that I can use my own wireless mesh network and connect it to the internet via Shaw’s modem. Works just fine. I had the technician from Shaw do this during the initial install of the Shaw services. 

[meowimacat]

Do you think I can just switch the wireless boxes to wired boxes and bridge? That is probably the only answer that I could find, other than seeing that people somehow reported that they could use wireless boxes if they kept the same SSID details before and after.

[meowimacat]

Does this mean that I put the router in bridge mode instead? Do you know why exactly that the wifi boxes do not work when the modem is in bridge mode? Shouldn't I just search for the wifi network when I get the router set up?

[mdk]

@wcoady -- the person wrote: I currently have the BlueCurve with the wireless TV boxes.

but you seem to have the Shaw BlueCurve modem, which to me implies that you do not have any wireless TV boxes -- just Internet.

Those boxes are "fed" from the hidden WiFi network that is available only when the BlueCurve is not bridged.

So, your solution won't work for that person's configuration.

[mstevulak]

Modem can be bridged

[mdk]

@meowimacat - people somehow reported that they could use wireless boxes if they kept the same SSID details before and after.

The wireless TV boxes connect to a "hidden" SSID that the BlueCurve creates; they do not connect to any SSID that you create.

On this forum, one person complains that switching their BlueCurve into "bridged" mode does not stop it from broadcasting that "hidden" SSID, and that when Shaw remotely switches it to "bridged" mode, the BlueCurve does stop broadcasting that "hidden" SSID. I wonder what the difference is between those two procedures.

I also wonder whether the person powered-off the BlueCurve (by disconnecting it from AC power), and then powered-on it, as a "hard" reset to complete the reconfiguration, or whether the person used the BlueCurve app (or the BlueCurve's web-interface) to do a "soft" restart of the BlueCurve.

My recommendation is to leave the BlueCurve as "non-bridged", so that your wireless TV boxes can connect, and add your own router, if you want/need to, to provide more Ethernet ports and/or to provide your own SSID for your wireless devices. 

One friend, instead of adding their own router, bought and added a LINKSYS wireless "repeater", located two rooms distant from their BlueCurve, to provide a stronger WiFi signal to their wireless devices that are four rooms distant from the BlueCurve. In some provinces, Shaw also rents the BlueCurve Pod repeater.