Do I have to change my wireless router when I change ISP?

[fuzzypicklehead]

Apologies in advance if this is a really dumb question! I'm about to switch my broadband service and phone from BT to Sky because they've offered me a better deal. Sky have sent me a new wireless router, but I've been really happy with the wireless reception we get from the BT Home Hub. Can I just leave my setup as-is, or do I have to swap the router over when the new broadband service starts?

My techie guru isn't around for me to confirm this with, but... I think there's info programmed into the routers. It's probably possible to re program them, but I've never known anyone do it, and I would imagine it isn't easy.

The Sky hub is likely to work just as well, a lot of it depends on whether you've found a good spot for it in the house.

Do BT not want the homehub back? A lot of companies say it should be returned if you change providers. I've not had to send them back when I changed ours... and my Mum's but that was because they were so old they were obsolete.

The router has a number of functions, first connecting to the exchange, then 'logging in' with your ISP username and password, and finally, linking your local computers via your ISP to the internet.

The middle task, logging in, has a username and password specific to the ISP.

Usually the username looks like a mail address someuserid @ some ISP name
the password might be one you choose (with some ISPs) or set up by the ISP and be a cryptic mix of letters and numbers.

You might find some users who have switched on the forum at ThinkBroadband.com (forums.thinkbroadband.com) who can advise - I don't know how easy it will be to switch from one to the other (you will need to login on your BT router, then find the page concerning ADSL or WAN settings, and then enter the Sky details which may have been sent to you in an e-mail).

In theory it's totally possible, ADSL modems are pretty generic pieces of kit.

However either BT or Sky might have locked down their box so that you either can't get the logon information that Web Dude mentions out of it and don't have it on paper (in the case of Sky) or don't let you change the options the box uses (in the case of BT).

As WebDude says have a hunt around your paperwork and through your router config web page (which is usually something like 192.168.1.1). You're looking for a page that might talk about things like "Auto Detect ATM/DSL Settings", PPPoE, PPPoA and so on.

Thanks for your replies, that makes a lot of sense. It sounds like the easiest thing to do is to give the new router a try and see how it goes. But if I'm not as happy with it then I'll look into reprogramming the old one.

EasterBilby: Nope, they don't want it back as the "old" white one. Actually when I rang BT to say I was switching, they offered to send me a new black home hub if I would stay--Like maybe that's why I'm switching. "Sorry, your router doesn't work with my current colour scheme so I'll have to switch providers.

From experience I know that the BT Home Hub is locked to BT ADSL only.

Personally I would have (and do use) a third-party non-BT, Non-Sky wireless router, that way I'm not locked into anyone, but that's just me

It is a condition of the Sky broadband contract that you only use their router, and they make it difficult in practice not to do this.

Their router is not bad, but does not do logging.