PP Wifi with TG582n, help and advice needed - updated due to bizarre issue

[#1]

hi,
I have a PN TG582n and the wifi is at best pp, but it did it's job.
Until that is my neighbour replaced his aging BT router with a talktalk dual channel beast which is dominating most of the channels and is much stronger than my local pp thomson
I have already avoided putting stuff on wifi where I can (Smart TV ,loft bedroom and main pc all on ethernet) but there is a lot which is wifi dependant (phones, tablets, laptop) and I can't do much about.
So,
I happen to have a Be setup TG587n router lying around which I felt had a better wifi signal
My questions are therefore:
1.  Is the TG587n wifi better or just as bad as the TG582n?
2.  Is it possible to, how easy is it and how can I swap the two modems?  I will need clear instructions, diagrams for this
At some point, when my compo finally pays out, I plan on getting a proper modem to fix the problems completely, so...
3. What would people recommend?
I have seen the Asus N66U on here but my budget is likely to be £100 at most and the prices of this have gone up recently, besides it's am old modem and technology races forward.
Much obliged for your time and thanks in advance
PS, I should add that my PN setup is unlimited FTTC and my old Be setup was LLU and Annex M (I like in out speed and volume on my internet!)

[#2]

I used a TG587nv2 with O2 and yes it's far better IMO.
Unfortunately the router is locked to O2 (suspect the same for Be) and can not be made to connect to Plusnet.
What you can do however is place the TG587 at the end of one of your ethernet cables and use it as a second wireless access point
See http://npr.me.uk/together.html

[#3]

hi,
ta for that
Can you not flash the OS on the router to the OEM version?

[#4]

Not without getting the soldering iron out.
I've tried and failed -- unable to identify the jtag pads.
If you're interested in trying to unlock the thing, start with downloading "Thomson_all_unlock_v1.1.7z"  from here:
http://download.modem-help.co.uk/utilities/JTAG/Alcatel/

[#5]

hi,
Anyone else got any advice?
Also as all my ethernet's are in use
can I connect  other devices to the 587 via it's ethernet ports as well as the sharing the wifi?
ta

[#6]

Yes, say you've got a PC upstairs connected via ethernet.
Just pull the ethernet from the PC and plug in the TG587n (any port) then use a second cable to connect TG587 to PC.
Note:
You need to disable DHCP and change the gateway IP on the TG587 as described in the link.

[#7]

Right
Your setup thing was dead easy and worked streight away - Recommendation from me!
I stuck the TG587 on to the cable that feeds the TV on the grounds that it's more central and easier to get at.
As a matter of interest I have a Be TG585 V2 too (I know, I know.  I actually have 3 or 4 Be routers knocking around as I was with them for a long time and they kept saying I could keep them)
I assume it's possible to put a 2nd repeater on the network?
If so, is there any effect to the network in general having the 2 repeaters (they will be on quite different channels)
Also, is there any significant affect to the throughput on the network for something having to go through a repeater?  Such as streaming from my PC to the TV via DLNA
ta

[#8]

Just ensure you put the 3rd router on a different IP, eg 192.168.1.2 in place of 192.168.1.1
I don't expect any performance hit from going through 3 routers, but I've never tried it so perhaps you can tell us when you've tried it. 

[#9]

they are not going through 3.
It's the main router with 2 switches off 2 of it's 3 ethernet ports.
the TV blanked out a minute ago on the DLNA (the kids started to shout at me) but I think that was glitch as the cable I used wasn't very good quality.
Much obliged for all your time on this,

[#10]

hi,
so this worked great for 7 days.
Hadn't touched the routers since the 12th.
Then yesterday my phone (Android, galaaxy s2) started having intermittent problems with the wifi.
It was showing as connected to everything but it wasn't getting any data.
turning on the phone's wifi/resetting it would temporaliy fix it.
By the end of yesterday this problem was perm though and no ammount of resets helped.
It had also spread to the Ipad/Ipod and other wifi connected devices (other android phones)
Only the wifi was affected, everything else was fine.
It didn't matter which base station the item connected to
The routers were showing a connection, the device was showing as connected,
but still no data came through.
After much hair pulling and investigation I tracked the problem down to the DNS settings on the various mobile devices.
They were no longer defaulted, but had switched to mainly one of the extra' routers  fixed IP though one of the divices had another random internal IP.
Setting the DNS on the various devices manually to openDNS fixed all the issues.
However, why would the wifi routers suddenly start overwriting android and apple devices defualt DNS settings?
Baffled

[#11]

Double check that DHCP is disabled on both the extra routers. Sounds like one still has it enabled and so has issued IP & DNS addresses to its wireless clients rather than getting them from the primary router.

[#12]

ahh, yes, the one that's overwriting it's ip in the dns settings had reticked dhcp.
it must have been restarted at some point and settings had not perminantly saved, will need to keep an eye on it.,
it's a TG585 v7 running 8.2.23.0 from be
cheers from that