I've just had my broadband upgraded and now I need to use a vdsl modem. The new "super" router provided with the upgrade is unsatisfactory as a dhcp server. It only allows a maximum of 8 reserved IP addresses and I want more. If I'm counting correctly I have 11 devices connected to my home network via ethernet and another 8 via wi-fi. In most cases I need a known IP address for network shares and remote desktop operation. Almost all of them need to connect to the internet.

I have a Zyxel 16 port gigabit switch connected to a TP-Link router which connects to a Dynamode router which now connects to my new Huawei HG633 (Talktalk) vdsl router. The TP-Link router acts only as a switch - the ethernet connection between the Zyxel and the Dynamode won't work properly without it. I have turned off the wireless and dhcp functions in the Talktalk router. The Dynamode wireless and dhcp functions work well. The Huawei broadband connection is about as good as I can expect it to be, but I can't get any of my devices to connect to the internet. I'm writing this message on my laptop which is tethered to my phone. I can probably get the system to work by assigning fixed addresses to most of my devices, but I would prefer to avoid that much work.

Any suggestions and / or explanations would be much appreciated.

You need to manually add the DNS server and gateway information into the Dynamode router. The DHCP server needs the information to pass to your devices when they acquire an IP address. Normally the router is the gateway and so passes its IP address and DNS information it acquires from the ISP.

You might be able to switch the Talktalk router to bridged mode. This will disable its router functionality and then you can use the Dynamode router as the main gateway / DHCP server. You can then leave it its default mode which will automatically get the DNS servers from your ISP.

Thank you. Problem solved (I think). the solution is obvious now that it's been pointed out to me. Essentially the Dynamode router is just another computer with a fixed address. I wish I had realised that sooner.