Does this happen to you too?
It feels like most evenings, at around this time, the BT Home Hub checks for a software update and perhaps updates the firmware of the device, who actually knows (!?) - but in doing so, drops the connection and stops whatever I'm doing at the time completely. Not so bad for web browsing, but very bad for uploading files and an application which requires the user to maintain a live Internet connection.
It's nothing short of dreadful and I find it incredibly frustrating that as a user,
- I receive no warning that my Internet connection is about to be lost (otherwise I could prepare for it)
- I have no choice about whether I want to have my Internet connection service disconnected
- I have no way setting an alternative time when updates can take place.
Surely in most people's lives, 4am is much much better than 1am ?
In fact my own server access logs tell me that the least access to my pages takes place between 4am and 5am. Bizarre. Why don't BT think to set automatic updates at this time too?
I recently ran into a whole heap of trouble when the BT Home Hub refused to reboot after an update. After several support calls to BT Support... I finally got through to a Mac specialist who explained that the version of the Home Hub firmware was corrupt and that I needed to reinstall the firmware. Handily enough, the firmware is available on the installation CD and that I could reinstall the Home Hub's firmware software myself with the equipment I had... how cool is that!?
OK, not that cool really as I shouldn't have had to do this in the first instance.
...but hey, I'm all into fixing things myself.
Simply,
- Insert BT Home Hub CD.
- Connect an Ethernet cable between Mac and BT Home Hub
- CTRL click the Install icon.
- click on Show Packages.
- Look inside a folder called 'UpgradeWizard' and click on 'menu'.
- Follow screen instructions.
Hope this is useful, but that you never need to experience the pain for yourself.
Please keep this service running.
Due to the enormous interest in this page and the large amount of traffic coming to my server host, I would really appreciate a donation towards the hosting costs of this service. Many thanks for your understanding.
Shirley
Hey! It happens to me too but I hadn't thought about why the hub behaved badly! Thanks for the explanation and the advice, Jonathan.
Apart from the update - and I also wish there was at least a five-minute warning - I'm very pleased with the BT Home Hub. And the service is generally fast as well, great for downloading and not too bad for uploads compared to other ISPs. Or maybe I'm just lucky.
Robert Rawson
You will find the Home Hub is fine but the quality of line and or the distance from the exchange is restricting your ability to receive maximum speeds
Jonathan
Thanks Robert. I would agree with you that distance from the telephone exchange is the determining factor in how fast the broadband service is. However, although not my experience, others report using alternative routers and finding a better quality of service.
DavidBarrett
This is true, however I live 200m from the exchange and still cant get the ful 8mb/s so its not the only factor!
ryan
living too close to the exchange will limit your download aswell..you would be better at about 1/2 mile - 1 mile away...also if you got a 60 yr old line that wouldnt help matters.....cheers ryan
yeeeh
yeeeh i think it MIGHT also be to do with the fact that the person you're downloading from probably wont give u a dedicated upload speed of sumthing as ridiculous as 8 mb/s. when bt says 8mb/s they mean capacity not the download speed you will have for life
mat alex
even though it says you can have 8mb broadband the factors involved to acheive a true 8mb are many , u may have an 8mb package but your router-exchange distance is 1 factor,another is the speed of your line to that exchange,the type of wire and how old it is also plays a part in speeds,u may see an upstream of around 5-6000kbps for fetching pages to you but your download speeds may only be 4-800kbps which isnt even 1mb,now if u read the isp's terms etc ull notice it says UPTO 8mb thats a clause for them legaly so in theory they cud give u dialup speeds i.e 56kbps and get away with it as they say UPTO, a true 8mb broadband is only realy 8mb through cable not a foneline,the fone line depends on distance the data travells,the computer proformance u have,the local and national usage on there servers and a whole host of other things whereas with cable its a fibre optic (like the lights that change colour u can get) thats a fibre optic (light) not a pulse through a copper wire like bt etc, light travells faster than electricity through a wire so the data loss is very VERY minimal, if you want a true 8+mb connection go with virgin media or similar as they are doing upto 20mb speeds at the min,i use virgin media and my upstream is currently 19558kbps (19.5mb)and my download/downstream is currently 18023kbps ..(18mb just over), another factor in all this is the wlan card speeds u have , the ethernet port speeds ur pc has etc,
i used to be with an isp called bulldog and they said i could have 32mb!! 32mb in the uk is at this time impossable and the true speed i got with them was around 10mb on a good day....at worst it was around 3mb,
the uk is currently behind the whole planet on broadband but is updating as we speak
in france you can get 15-50mb broadband,in germany u cant get any lower than 30mb ,america has 20-50mb and japan is currently testing 200mb over a new technology due out in a few years
if u want to inprove your speed you can try various things from isps to simple download managers
Gary
Someone mentioned earlier about going with Virgin Media. I WOULD NOT recommend this as I work in IT and sometimes help people with their broadband lines and Virgin have been nothing but a problem. One case I am dealing with has been going on for 9 months, have spent about 150 hours on the phone, wrote to them to complain and tried to get written confirmation of the problems. They have not even responded so am taking the case to the Communications & Internet Service Adujdication Scheme (CISAS)to see if they can resolve this issue as a middleman. The speed I am getting in that one case with an 8mb line is between 60 - 250 kbps, then was advised to downgrade to a 2mb line to give more of a constant rate and no change. I must admit hardly any ISP is a good ISP now days as they have to offer a cheap service and support it using cheap labour, but they seem to be making their money on support calls, I think the cost to customers phoning their ISP was about 32 million last year for ISP technical\customer queries. But just to say DO NOT go with virgin, you will be ok if you have no issues but if you do have problems then good luck on getting them resolved
BT Guy
No one ever gets the full 8mb. Around 0.5mb is lost due to overheads on a ADSL line.
Shannon Naylor
Can anyone help me find my WEP key for my Nintendo DS and PSP it wont set up automatically :(
BT Guy
If you have no idea what your Key is, then you will need to reset your router and enter a new key. This time write it down. If you have a BT home home look on the sticker on the back of the router and you will find it.
jarviser
I agree, more likely to be the line and/or interference. Provided you have the latest firmware (6.2.2.6 at time of writing) the hub will not try to upload a new one. However if the hub is 6.1. and fails to get the upgrade it will continually seek new firmware which is why the manual upgrade process fixed the problem. Mine too needed a full reset after getting its new firmware but it has performed faultlessly ever since, and at 6 times the speed after I disconnected the bell wires from terminal 3 at the master.
Mike Kelly
I beg to differ. BT has openly acknowledged that, when certain conditions apply, the connection is dropped. I have experienced this periodically when using Limewire myself. At 1pm BST each day my download speeds drop considerably. Where I was getting 700kb before, the rate would drop to <20kb. Perhaps, I hear you say, it is Limewire that is limiting the connection? Not so, use limewire on a Tiscali connection, after 1pm and I can still download at +600kbps.
When Challenged BT acknowledged that they reduce the bandwidth for those users who use P2P software. Most dont notice, but the heavier, or more experienced, users do. (I am an IT specialist, so count myself in the second category).
James
That would explain a lot! I could tell it wasn't right when I was running P2P software!
donaldinlondon
Took me a while to work out what was going on with my connection being 'randomly' disconnected during a 'silent' HH upgrade. I'm on my 2nd HH and 3rd HH 'phone and in spite of all my efforts with the BT Helpdesk in India still find the 'phone also randomly disconnects during calls - v v annoying indeed!
BT clearly have an issue with their upgrade procedures. It is simply unacceptable to go on with the circus that currently prevails!
I'll give it a while longer then it's back to AOL with me.
Jonathan
Thanks Donald.
I had an issue with the BT Business Broadband yesterday here at school. BT claimed not to have made any changes to their network operation or setup but I discovered, unbeknown to us, that they had changed their DNS settings causing our machines to not have access to the Internet through web browsers.
The solution was to modify the DNS server address on all our machines.
Jonathan
topboy
Similar story blah blah blah
Got bt homehub (deathwatch beetle of routers) before christmas, and personally think i was conned into it. I installed it fine, did everything it said on the tin. So thought away we go, until about the middle of april...started getting drops in connection.
No problem i thought ...phone up heldesk and get it resolved. Little asian fellow on the other end answers and seems to to tranlate drops in connection for slow speed connections (yeah think it is in the bt training manual to tell you what they think is wrong). they booked me in an engineer and said they would work on it.
sure enough they sped up my connections, but still had my connection dropping....curse them!
Be prepared here comes the shopping list
I have gone through four filters, three rj 11 cables (including one high speed), two new phones, two new phone sockets, a full pc system reinstall, plugged in sky, unplugged sky, moved homehub off pc, away from speaker, unplugged extension phone. installed homehub software god knows how many times!............phew.
I am starting to think that bt have a secret plan to make us all learn hindu or something.
the point to all this is this
i have noticed that when my home hub drops connection (and i would like to know if anyone else can confirm this) if i make a phonecall for any length of time it reconnects. If they are any techys are out there that can explain what this is. I'd love to know!
I have recently replaced my monitor as it got into a fight with a bb gun and unfortunately lost, and it is looking the homehub is going to suffer the same fate unless someone has any ideas
cheers Topboy
Bri
Topboy is quite correct - phoning the line, or better still making an outgoing call on the BT line line will re-establish an ADSL link which has 'gone to sleep' , in fact you can hear the ADSL being re-established as you make the call on the earpiece of the landline handset.
Nothing to do with the router ( I have a linksys ) great little unit - but occasionally I will come
home - no Internet - I just phone my mobile from the landline, don't even need to answer the call - and you can hear the ADSl coming back to life - I don't know why it works but it does
cheers bri
andrew
Wow, I hope that works, really gets on my nerves.
THX!
purplehaze
OMG am i relieved to see i am not the only person having trouble with bt home hub. the indian tech guys are making me feel its all down to me. had a bt engineer round a couple of days ago and thought we solved the problem of the line dropping at random times and fluctuating connection speeds. it worked fine for a day, however now i'm back to square one and getting really fed up phoning technical help and them telling me "done a line test and every thing is fine"and "try another micro filter" etc etc. Would it help me changing ISP or would i have the same problem with the next service provider?
pissed of in bridgwater
in the math question line i stated ask an indian he'll come upwith the party line!
its about time we all refuse to deal with companies that force us to deal with foreign call centres who lately all seem to be called timothy or sean and stop putting up with corporate lies
Claire
Hi,
I've had Home Hub for around a year now and not once have I got my wireless connection working properly. With numerous calls to India, with technical staff who neither speak English or Techie from what I can see. After routing around inside my laptop remotely 3 or 4 times they managed to bring up some permanent error mesages in my laptop and give me 3 seconds of wireless connection before hanging up. So I've been using the ethernet cable ever since, which is looking a bit worse for wear now after been jossled around on a laptop so much. I was informed by 'BT Tech' that my wireless card wasn't good enough. A card in a brand new laptop that can easily pick up my 4 of my neighbours wireless connections - maybe I should just pay them for internet access?
I've also recently purchased a new pc, which unfortunately has windows vista on it. The BT installation disk freezes on the main installation and never recovers.
For those who just want the broadband in their pc however it is possible to install it into windows vista. You run the installation disk twice with the ethernet and usb cable plugged in to both pc and home hub. It will crash both times, but your internet will also be working by the second time. Just open a browser and tap in a website URL and it should appear. You won't have access to BT Hub Manager or Soft Phone, but you're internet will work as long as the ethernet cable stays in the pc.
It's no good for me as I need that cable for my laptop, but it might help those with only 2 pc's in the house, as there are 2 ethernet ports you can use the hub and vista. It'll be installed badly, but will access the net at least. I've installed it working on 2 Vista pc's ..but everytime I unplug the second pc for my laptop to have internet, the internet in the pc dies.
So overall it seems you can't access the internet with windows vista and a usb, or with wireless on the BT Home Hub.
Richard
I have a BT home hub and have had the same wireless drop out probs as you - wired always works, but the 3 wireless units in our house constantly drop off - few tips I have found to help -
change the broadcast channel (11-13 works best for me, but experiment)
leave all hub settings the same (then when you reset you don't have to go around all the wireless units inputting new WEP code!)
complain - eventually they gave me a new hub and so far have only had to reset it once, which is a great improvement - explained that it was not a PC/interference/line probe as all 3 wireless units dropped off and that my previous linksys never had a prob...
Overall I think the BT hub is useless - had a Linksys unit on AOL Silver before that I never had any problems, and on which connection speeds were more constant.
Jonathan
Hello Shirley,
Thank you for your comment here... but clearly we are amongst several thousands of users who are also subscribed to BT's Broadband service and using the BT Home Hub. Of course the problem needn't remain, since one of the updates could include a new control panel that allows the user to configure the auto update procedure.
I agree about the quality of service and speed at all other times, download speeds are fast, and upload speeds reasonable given the technological limit imposed.
Hope you are well,
Jonathan
Ian
I think my experience with the BT HomeHub reaches new levels of customer dis-service.
I have Orange as my ISP and wanted BT Broadband Talk. Having been told this was no problem the equipment they sent me was incompatible with my Netgear router and to their credit they sent me a HomeHub as a replacement. I followed the simple instructions, entered my Orange user id and password and hey presto everything worked OK, and it has continued to work OK until yesterday when my internet connection disappeared.
Many hours later after having spoken to more people in India that their President I was finally let into their secret. My HomeHub was originally running software version 6.1.1.M until their secret raid on my kit on Sunday night, after which it now runs 6.2.2.6. It was then revealed that the latest version has been specifically written to prevent the HomeHub addressing any ISP other than BTBroadband. Added to which it is not possible to re-load an earlier release and it would be pointless anyway as every time they updated it I would lose my connection.
So with some instructions from a faceless individual who never has to stand and answer to the customer my kit was disabled. No letters or emails, no warnings or apologies, just dead. Their answer when asked what they were going to do about it......nothing. They aren't prepared to give me the necessary access and therefore have nothing to offer as a solution.
Had I been servicing a business with my Talk number or passed it out to many people I would have been very tempted to look for damages as a result of breach of contract. As it is I've just exercised my customer rights and cancelled the Talk contract.
I was a very contented customer and now I'm just really p..... off.
Jonathan
Crumbs... that is a total nightmare... seems that BT have little regard for customers, only kit and ensuring updates are carried out. As for disabling the kit from being able to be used with another ISP, that's just ludicrous and stupid. I've never really understood why mobile phones are locked to a provider, other than to protect the provider and ensure that users are forced or 'locked into' the provider. Kinda smells of fear and insecurity if you ask me.
Clearly, BT want their Talk package to only work on their network - again bizarre.
I still hate the nights of being kicked off, even momentarily. It's just bad manners.
I'm sorry to hear of your ordeal, I'm confident you aren't alone here.
Dan
BT Homehubs are pretty terrible in my opinion
Michael O'Toole
You are aware that Orange do their own "HomeHub" of sorts, and you can to the best of my knowledge use it with a BTSoftphone-type application.
Chris
The only thing i hate about the Bt home hub is the fact that we have 3 computers connected to in and as soon as someone downloads they steal all my connection and i end up with 600+ ping on most servers and am kicked i have never had this with any other service, BT is the best i have had so far been with AOL, Tiscali, and Sobroadband i am never disconected like you guys, but as soon as anyone starts a download the rest of us have to wait for it to finish.
Jonathan
Hi,
Are the three computers connected wirelessly or through Ethernet? I've not experienced this issue and I have had three computers connected to the box.
adam
that never happened here,why are you paying for faulty broadband?
yeeeeeeh me again
yeeeeh its not bt's fault you just have to tell your bittorrenting friends to limit their download speeds from UNLIMITED to something more sensible such as LIMITED. split it evenly between 3, dont worry about the .33 im sure you can work that out between you in a match of rock paper scissors - best of 9
felim
hi guys
can anyone please tell me what's the test speed result for the bt home hub,because my one reeds 900 kbs not even 1 mgb ,and i am paying for 8 mgb
Jonathan
yes of course, will let you know tomorrow.
J
Tim
This damn hub, i work during the day on weekends, so i like to come home, nab some tea, and settle down to some games with my friends, now this can go on till early in the morning, sometimes even 3AM, such as it was tonight.
i installed the damn thing today, in the middle of an online match, suddenly, "Disconected from server", the damn thing was updating, 10 mins later found all my friends had gone offline through impatience.
this is inconvinient, and sadly knocking on to the long que of complaints i have for BT, is there any way at all in which i can stop the damn updates, surely there must be an option so that i can update when i want to, like in the afternoon when i head out to work?
David
I agree it would be a nightmare to be logged off without warning, especially if you were in the middle of on-line banking or on-line ordering. I can't find in any of the above text, what sort of time the Hub does up-date. Is it early morning, early eving or what??
felim
hi guys
can anyone please tell me what's the test speed result for the bt home hub,because my one reeds 900 kbs not even 1 mgb ,and i am paying for 8 mgb
thanks
Jonathan
Here is a screengrab of the BT Home Hub connection details:
As you can see 8,128Kbps is the downstream speed.
felim
thanks jonathan
Stacks
well my Hub came on Saturday and the longest I've stayed connected is now 34 minutes but the norm is about 16! Now spent the last 3 days when I get home from work on the phone to the Indian tech support people who eventually told me that this is the norm and the the Hub is "learning" how to get the optimal config and will be like this for 10 days with intermittent outages. Intermittent is not every 16 fcuking minutes!!
Anyone else experience this sort of hehaviour with the hub? The wireless light stays on but the Broadband and internet lights just go out and only come back if I switch it off and on again at the mains.
V annoying!
Mark
I "upgraded" to BT Total Broadband just before Christmas and it took 3 weeks before it settled down to find a suitable speed. The instructions tell you to wait 10 days (so I did) then the polite people in India gave me a list of 20 things to do to make it stable. However, the one that worked was changing the microfilter. It seems that the microfilter supplied with the HomeHub is made to work with the HomeHub and others might not be so good.
I now have a 3.5Mb/s uplink and it seems stable.
DSL is line-length dependent. 8Mb/s works if you're 100m from the local exchange.
j.k.
i have exactly the same problem, and i am exactly p.ssed off!
used to have a BT voyager router, now its home hub, but the old one was ever so good, never had a problem with connection.
i am now a one of customers they regret purchasing total broadband and bthomehub, not because tech problems, but because neglect and ignorance of BT!!!
carl
yes it is a faulty hub ask for a replacenent
will
yep i have the same problem with this, i have to turn it off at the mains to reset it, the internet light always goes out, and then i just cant surf the internet, is there away to fix this?
thanks
pls reply asap
Jonathan
No, can't see a solution there, sorry - I'm glad to report that I'm now not using the BT Home Hub at all - what a relief!
Jonathan
LOVE_YOU_INDIA
Buy Router like Delink,Belkin,etc. don't go for the cute looking BT HOME HUB, it is a low grade router with high features.Yes you will get limited support from BT THD regarding this other router,But they will help you with most of the things...But the other routers will connect quickly to the server if the line is working and the connection will not drop due to router problem.
Anky
Have had BT Broadband for 4 years, little to complain about. Just as I start to consider other options they call and offer me better service lower costs etc. The latest deal included Home Hub. Cool, I get to replace my Belkin wireless router modem (now 4 years old and getting a bit long in the tooth).
4 hours later, the HH has been ripped out, Belkin back in place.
I set the HH up with the wired server no problems, then tried to get my notebook with USB 802.11g attached. Could see the network >80%, but WEP key not correct (yes I did read it from the grey label on the back). I use the set up disk from BT (same result), I try the PC in my home office, It sees the network, accepts the key, detects proxy settings but no internet access.
Enough I do not need this.
Wife still wants to use it, any idea's?
Try changing the default
Try changing the default gateway settings and the preferred DNS options, I had the same problem but this resolved after I ran some network diagnostics on the (Non) routing traffic.
Keith
Hi Anky. I have the same problem. I'm using the install CD from BT but it claims the WEP code is wrong. (it's not, it's the one in the grey box onthe back of the unit). Did you ever find a solution?
cheers.
Ross
Try changing the WEP Key, in the advanced section. Mine works fine with my own key.
Rod
Anky
I too have had BT Broadband for about 4 years and the rest of your story sounds like a carbon copy of my situation. I did give the BT HH 3 days though before I ripped it out and replaced it with my original Netgear hub! I could NOT understand why on my Dell laptop I was able to install the software but on my desktop (with a strong connection signal) it kept on telling my the WEP key was incorrect!!
Aaarrggh!!
I was interested in the idea of making broadband telephone calls so would be interested in how to overcome this WEP problem and/or change the default settings (How to..)?
felim
Hi stacks
i'm really having trouble with mine also is a home hub,my one didn't even reach 1 meg speed test,they told me to wait for 10 days,still the same ,i have phoned again they told me another 3 days,still the same speed they told me to wait for another 2 days ,is still the same,i really think that this hub is a low quality components inside it .if you go to the web site called :www.2wire.com and click on speed test and let me know please.
Jonathan
BT Technical support aren't really helping very much. I was told to wait a whole weekend for the BT home hub fault to be 'automatically' corrected. My own hunch was right - the hub hardware was missing its software so there was no chance of it resolving the problem itself. Could you try reinstalling the software on the Home Hub and see if that solves your problem?
Have you tried connecting the hub to any other extension in the house? Could the quality of the BT line be a problem? Or perhaps a cabling issue to one of the sockets?
Here are my test results:
Test 1
Your current bandwidth reading is
2.39 Mbps
Test 2
Your current bandwidth reading is
2.93 Mbps
Test 3
Your current bandwidth reading is
2.80 Mbps
Are yours much different?
Mark
I don't think the HomeHub is 2wire - I thought it was Thomson
Gordon
Hi All,
Have been with BT Broadband for several years and generally very satisfied with uptimes, though speed is one area I'll never be 100% satisfied with, unless I move to a house next door to an exchange. I agree the people on the service desk read from scripts with no imagination and assume that everyone on the other end of the line is a total newbie.
Back to uptimes: I use a Vigor 2600 ADSL router - fantastic piece of kit but not a brilliant user interface. Last I checked the uptime was 31 days. Previously I've noted 60days plus and over. Therefore, your reports of limited uptime with the HH are worrying, as that is what I was considering going for to get the Talk option (though I may get-by with using the 220V - see below).
On to Speed: I've got a quoted 8Mb/s link, but then so has everyone else these days. My problem is that I'm near the end of the line and as far from the exchange as possible. Therefore, adslguide.org.uk (for example) reports my speed as 1.8Mb/s (best I've ever achieved even at 08:00 on a Sunday), though other sites have reported as low as 800Kb/s. It will never go above 1.8MB/s though, simply due to line length - even though BT's own speed capability check quotes the max I could possibly get is 4Mb/s. I've also checked the speeed using a BT Voyager 220V (capable of VOIP but not actually used for such) and get the same results.
I think the speeds quoted by previous respondents are, therefore, more likely to be related to line length and quality. Though I have to admit to confusion as to why it takes 10days for a piece of kit to 'determine the optimum settings'! I'll check with a colleague to see if he's had the same probs with his HH.
PS. The Voyager 220V also has given good uptimes. I know, since it was previously connected to a second line in the house.
PPS. To disconnect un-announced for downloads/upgrades is appalling! So much for always-on connections. I agree the upgrade time should be user selectable and I'll be pushing this point very strongly with any comms. I have with BT.
Tron
I hate that tech advisors (from all ISPs) always tell the customer that it's the equipment that's adjusting within the first ten days. That's just not true. The DSLAM at the exchange is adjusting. Within the first ten days, while connected (even if you're not using it) the exchange will send different speeds down the line. This tends to lead to masses of disconnections as the line can't support some of the speeds sent (line length, blah blah...) After the ten days, it will (well, should) then stabilise on the highest speed that your line supported.
The main problem is that DSL MAX is adaptive, so the more people on your exchange with the same or higher access priority as you, the slower it's going to go. Though it *shouldn't* have much of a drop in speed even at busy times.
Tekk
It seems that everyone thinking that moving closer to their local exchange will cure speed problems... the fact is it may, but not necessarily. You may not be connected to the closest exchange. You are always connected to the closest exchange with spare capacity. Your closest exchange may not have free capacity and thus you could acctually be connected to an exchange several miles away.
The techs you call do not read from scripts and have not for about 5 years. However, it may sound like that because there are only a few possible problems and only a few possible solutions. They are going to sound like script readers but the only thing that is scripted is saying your name 3 times, what is classed as suitable proof of passing your security checks, the opening - "hello - your through to..." and the closing "thanks for calling...". The rest of the work they do is done through a proceedure that *all* techs use called SBS - or Step by Step. If you miss a step you could miss the solution so good techs go through the SBS poor ones assume they know the answer and skip bits - they are the ones to avoid.
I doubt that the techs all think everyone is a newbie, however, 99% of the calls are from newbies and that includes many of the people who say "I'm an IT expert..." anyway experts would only call BT Broadband's tech support for a tiny proportion of problems and wouldn't need the tech to answer questions but to simply report the fault to BTW (BT Wholesale).
UpTimes: Every 24 hours your IP is refreshed this could result in a new IP, which means a disconnection and reconnection is required. I have not noticed my HH updating nightly and find it unlikely that Thomson's write and release patches on a daily basis - way too expensive a process. Also, remember that the HH does not belong to BT but to Thomson - BT just license it. This license is why the HH is locked into BT - why should they pay Thomson for a license just so that some other ISP can take advantage of the technology. Most ISPs lock their licensed hardware. - That is the same for mobile phones. Therefore, BT have no control over the update time, or freqency of the owners of the hub. If you don't like your free hub get another one - most free hubs from most ISPs are junk and the HH is far from being the worst.
Hardware: Imagine a car dealership which only has two types of car. One is free and the other you need to pay for. Common sense tells you that the free car is not going to be as good as the paid for car. Buying a hub, can improve your speed, and stability of connection. Just as having Gold jacks connecting your cables is better than having rusty ones. How many of you have Sky or another Digital device connected to your line? Well some hardware is happy with it and some are not - so a change of router can help with inconsistent lines. Yes, filters can be a complete pain, but changing a filter can double your speed in less than a few seconds and certainly less time than it takes for you to get an answer from any ISPs technical support line. Finally, BT Broadband provides you a limited service as most ISPs do. That is the cables, exchanges etc are not owned, maintained or controlled by BTBB. BTBB just like AOL and others have to contact BTW (BT Wholesale) and requst an engineer is sent to fix faults in the exchange or your premises.
BTW only warrants that they need to provide a cable to your property from the exchange they do not guarantee it will work. However, if you do have a working phone line BTBB says they will provide (if they can) a signal to your MAIN Juntion Box, that is the big one that sticks out from the wall. If you have more than one that sticks out from the wall then it is an unofficial upgrade not under any warranty or guarantee. All BTW dependant ISPs are in the same boat here.
VOIP: You can use many different systems for VOIP not just the HH Phone - which is okay, nothing special - but then it is free. BT will even provide (if you ask nice) a converter which will allow you to plug any normal phone into your router and use it as a fully dedicated VOIP phone.
Speed: The big one. If you use VOIP you lose bandwidth to the VOIP phone, or if you are like me to the VOIP phones (multiple), line noise, line length and many other factors determine your speed including how many other people or online at your exchange using your cards, where you are connecting to etc. Use Microsoft.JP at 9pm GMT and get blazing fast speeds (the Japanese are sleeping) MS.COM is end of business for the Americans and yep - all the kids are home from school and using up the US network bandwidth. I don't recall from the top of my head, but I think anything under 200kb Speed test result is a fault, anything above is not - that is for all ISPs in the UK using non-cable solutions.
I think people are getting confused between the speed of the line and the speed they receive. If your router tells you you have an 8MB line that is not your BB speed. That is the speed of your line! Your BB speed is dependant upon your BB Package. Residential customers have a contention ratio of 20-1. That is up to 20 other people are sharing that 8MB conection, often it is only 10, but it could be up to 20!. So you should be happy with 800KB download speed on an 8MB line. Business standard has a 10-1 ratio with Business Network having something like 5-1 on average. Although you can get Assurred connection where you have the line to yourself.
Your upload speed is based a portion of your download speed. You are using Asymetric lines - that is your upload and download connection is on the same line. You can get SDSL, Symetric connections (expensive) which will give you the same upload and download speeds. The only way to increase your upstream speed without going for SDSL with most BTW based ISPs is to go for a network package, I only know of BTBB as providing this service which increases your upstream to a max of 800KB (remember its shared so about 10% of your downstream - or in this case about 80Kb in real usage)
The line settle period of 10 days is part of the ADSL2 standard agreed and adopted by all participating ISPs. The system is now automated so that over ten days the system can determine your top speed. Basically it starts at a middle speed 4MB, if you suddenly lose connection, even if it is you playing with the HH the system says that 4MB is too fast for you, and cuts you down to 2MB... and so on. The next day the system speeds you connection up until you lose connectivity.. it the starts back down the scale again. 10 days was determined during testing to be the shortest period of time the average user required to run their system to get the best speed possible.
ISPs: If the ISP uses BTW as the line provider then they all perform the same in provision. Their differences are only in cost, customer service, technical support, and the hardware supplied. Splitting your BB and Telephone (PSTN) provider is not a good idea. It is like buying a car from Australia, which can only be serviced using Autralian know-how, yeah you can drive it here in the UK but if you have problems with it - then you are going to have to try to co-ordinate your local garage and the Australian experts and hope things work out well.
Well I guess you have heard enough of my voice. If you do have any other questions on BBW based BB you can contact me directly using: dave@computercrimeservices.co.uk
Thanks for your time.
rich
ive had speed issues ever since i started using the BThomehub.An engineer came out and tested my line at 3.4mb with his laptop and voyager router.However im getting less than 512kbps with 2 different bthomehubs(they sent out replacement).Ive now asked for a replacement voyager router.
Owain Davies
hi there. im 14 years old and have a nintendo ds. i think i can use the home hub to play my games with other people across the world. i am asking if u know where i might find a WEP key. could you e-mail me at owain_davz_1992@hotmail.com plz. thanx
Im finding im loosing access
Im finding im loosing access to the internet but think like MSN still work , the only way to get back browsing working again is to turn off / on the hub then you get another few hours before browsing stop again. :|
Leigh Villiers
Yeap, I have the same problem...
I'm on my 3rd BT HomeHub, the first of which just never worked, the 2nd the wireless never worked (BT man in India told me to use it wired!!!) and the current one needed a secret update by another man in India whilst I was on the phone before the wireless would accept the WEP key.
Now it keeps dropping the connection which is a hugh problem for me as I'm an IT contractor and I use VPNs to the office and everytime the hub dies I need to reset the VPNs.
I think i'll end up going back to my trusty linksys.
Stacks
Now spent average of 2 hours every night for the last 9 days on the phone to BT's technical departments in India and today they tell me they are sending out another Home Hub becuase they think that might be the problem. No one seems to able to do a standard line check or to send an engineer round to check things out. Might still be in the same situation in 5 days time when the new one arrives!! The connection now only stays alive for about 5 minutes befire I have to restart the Hub.
dp
loosing connection as well. the HH looses internet access, though msn messenger stays connected. switching the hub on and of helps, but a few hours later it does the same. I have a feeling it has something to do with the DNS Cache being overloaded or something like that, and it can be reset through the ipconfig/flushdns
Jonathan
Interesting that you say MSN messenger stays connected which suggests the network connection isn't dropped and, as you say, points towards a DNS issue since MSN doesn't require the DNS server. Clearing the DNS cache on your PC using ipconfig/flushdns hasn't anything to do with the Home Hub... bit of a puzzle.
Khanh
I have exactly the same problem since iv'e been with BT broadband. I've tried everything i can find info on. Still no luck. i've tried, changing the channel, hub update - but keeps failing no matter what, wired connection, just hopeless. please let me know if you find the solution. Kca03@hotmail.com
Phil
We have a BT Homehub that randomly cuts off too. Also it won't give a ping higher than about 400ms for online gaming. Typically it's around 1000ms. Yes, that's right - a one second ping. I may as well send my keystrokes by mail... Any one got some configuration tips for this piece'o'crap?
Jonathan
Not sure there is much to configure to be honest. Are you connected by Ethernet or Wireless?
randeemags
Hi Jonahtan,
Thanks for this wonderful site, it gives loads of information. My situations seems to be different. I just subscribe to BT Broadband option 2, I tried to set up the broadband as per their instructions, BUT....only the wireless light is switch on, despite so many times i tried to do it all over again, pressing the button at the back, disconnect cables, change filters, etc, still it does not work....am still struggling how to make this work....the customer service was of no help as well, I was told that they will send me a new hub, which, hopefully will enable me to access the net, for now, am still using dial up while waiting for this broadband to fully work out....needless to say, the line has been activated several days already, it's just the hub does not work properly. Hope you can help and/or share some inputs.....thanks...
Jonathan
I discovered that when my Home Hub went wrong, assuming the electronics were functioning correctly, I could completely reinstall the software on the Home Hub from the CD. I'm imagining that you are on a Windows PC machine and so I'm not familiar with the procedure but I am sure similar software is available on your platform. Would this be worth exploring whilst BT send out a replacement unit which might be days away yet?
Randeemags
Thanks for your comment, I do have Macbook too, it's just that, am not sure if I could go through with the installation of the Hub, considering the broadband light is not coming out, the only light that comes out on my hub is the wireless part only despite the line has been activated already fro broadband for almost a week now .....nonetheless, I was told that they will have to send me a new hub, hopefully this time, it will definitely work....fingers crossed though.....:)
Jonathan
Yeah, I wondered that about the Home Hub. Mine appeared to have no life in it at all, apart from one light. I plugged in the Ethernet cable that came supplied with the unit, causing the Data light to appear.
Then follow the instructions as above. It was easy.
Fingers crossed it arrives very soon.
How are you finding the MacBook... gorgeous machines aren't they?
Randeemags
oh yeah, macbook is great, though i have not explored it to its fullest, due to this most awaited broadband connection where I can go wild with my macbook, for now, I settle for iphoto and imovie, it's a good piece of entertainment device indeed....I did try to connect the hub to my macbook, and still it didn't work, only the wireless and the data switch on when i connect the ethernet cable, apart from them, nothing else came to life....just have to wait for the hub am afraid......cheers...
Jonathan
thanks for your response.
Good luck with the Home Hub this time around. Send us an update if your problem is resolved.
Randeemags
Hi Jon,
Just got my problem sorted, an engineer was sent to fix the problem at the exchange, now, am enjoying internet to its fullest, am using my mac through wireless connection.....can you help me how to view my safari in full screen? it seems that it's not full screen and there is no command for maximize like in windows.....thanks for your help...
Jonathan
Hello,
That must be a feature (!) as Apple have never really resolved this. Clicking the green button, as you know, simply resizes the window to the full height.
However, click here to maximise this window.
I found this handy button, amongst others at J.Y. Design - thanks guys.
J
Randeemags
thanks a lot....am enjoying my macbook now, exploring every bit of details possible.....cheers..
Dave
Just a quick one. I have a speed problem with my BT home hub ever since BT Vision has been installed (although I think its more to do with resiting the hub than the Vision box). Basically I'm getting download speeds of around 240k whereas I have always had (since the hub went in last year) speeds between 4mb and 8mb. I need to call BT about it...
But on the subject of disconnecting from the net...I have experienced a problem using a Belkin 'dongle' type wireless receiver for my PC in that it drops for seemingly no reason sometimes and takes ages to detect the internet connection at times. My laptop using a Belkin PC card never has ANY problems connecting to the net via the hub. After speaking to my father who is with another ISP but has the same issues with the Belkin dongle, I am looking to replace it with a BT dongle (which their engineer gave me free). Could be an idea if anyone is having problems
Jonathan
Hello Dave,
Firstly, although wireless is great and offers enormous freedom to computer users, it is still notoriously unreliable. I'm not sure there are many days when wireless "just works" for me without any issues. I do connect to several wireless access points, so maybe I'm perhaps a heavier user than most - but even so, todays technology should just cope.
Where possible, I still recommend connecting desktop computers with an Ethernet cable. In fact, in my place of work, I take the opportunity to plug in whenever possible. Not only do communication issues go away, but data is transferred SOOO much faster too... gigabit networking on these MacBook Pro's (!)
The BT dongle you mention - is that a wireless adapter or the ADSL line filter that you plug into a BT socket. I wasn't aware BT supply networking equipment other than their wireless routers. I have certainly seen more reliability when you pair a manufacturer's wireless adapter with a wireless access point / router of the same manufacturer.
Hope this helps,
J
BT HITS ENGINEER
Did know for fifty pounds we will visit your home install the homehub,we prove faults on adsl, sort y its not working we have a direct number to tech centre we carry filters wireles dongles,laptopcards spare hubs we r also buisness fault and install engineers so u r getting lots of experiance u must be mad to put up with all this agro when u can pay this .Most problems r pc faults or diy wiring in houses
Jonathan
That's helpful to know. Can imagine DIY cable issues being attributed to most problems in home installations.
BT Global Services Engineer
Beware of a £50 "Visit". This can turn into £60 an hour plus parts visit. The direct number to tech centre is in India.
Mick
My friend is have a nightmare with her home hub. It's costing double that for a BT engineer for an hour! Then another hundred something for every hour after that!!
Stacks
got my 2nd Home Hub through in the post on Saturday and to my amazement it actually works!! Have not had a single dropped connection for over 48 hours now and although the speed is nowhere near 8meg it is normally gets up to between 3-5.
Sent a stroppy letter to the Director of Customer Service at BT asking for a refund of costs during my down time and a refund of the cost of me spending many many hours on an 0845 number to the nice people in India but got nothing back from them yet. I suppose I will have to wait for my next bill before I get on the complaints trail again!
It seems from the reading I've done and my experience that the Hub is very unreliable. If mine goes wrong again I will just go out and buy a different one rather than having to go through all this again, it's just too much hassle.
Jonathan
yeah, hassle you don't need really. As I say time and time again, us users wouldn't feel nearly so bad if there was a proper network of support offering high quality advice.
Good luck on your letter asking for a refund of costs... seems entirely reasonable.
In the meantime, here's hoping your Home Hub continues to work for you.
Michael
I have given up with my Home Hub Box and gone back to my orginal Netgear Box. I have just purchased a Linksys PAP2 Box which I am using for my Broadband Talk Connection. I am still expirencing problems with the service dropping out every 9 mins or so. I have to then reconnect the box and get a Dialtone.
Has anyone been having similar problems with either the Home Hub or Sofphone??
Jonathan
Hello Michael,
Plenty of problems with Home Hub as you'll see above. Read some of the comments above and see if there is some advice there.
thanks for your comment.
J
Ray Brown
I have just read that BT are with drawing support for third party adaptors.
Would you please advise me of the Set-Up for a PAP2T linksys adaptor, I am finding help hard to find.
Paul
Had my BT Homehub on the 6th not managed to get any apeed out of it. Just to make the point, I am less than 100m from my local exchange! I'm sorry I ever upgraded. The Homehub is useless so BT suggested I go back to using my Voyager 2091! Surely a sign of a major weakness in the new system. Still wondering where all the speed has gone, connecting slower than a 56K modem. Upgrade, worst decision I've ever made!
Jonathan
I'm saddened to say, but looks like Steve's YouTube video is the best advice so far. From all the comments people have made so far, this appears very much to be a hardware problem rather than a BT line service issue. By all accounts, when you use an alternative router, the problems cease.
steve
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJvcgyIhzmI
Jonathan
Fantastic... :-)
Stubee
HH went in today, seemed ok until we started using the Voip phone. As soon as the call was put through the internet stopped. If I could get it to work I would check the speed (but she's still on the phone).
Have read much of above. My main concern is that as we are at the end of the line our speeds are going to be low. This 8M broadband was supposed to improve on the other 1MB and provide the voip phone. I recall from the original sales call that I could cancel the package up to the point the line went live (or rather before I could test it) and not after.
Not thinking that it would be totally useless I believe I may now have signed up for year for a package that's worse than the one it's replaced.
Not looking good....
peter gray
hi weve just been told we are getting our hh number 4!
nothing but trouble since we first installed it
have spent hours on phone but keep being treated like one knows nothing..
every time unplug trhis plug in this reset cmd ping! ect....
i think we should all send them back and sue for misrep on tv..
but don't forget first you must report to india bt , them bt engineer to be given the important uk engineer... and a nice new hub! thinking of giving them to people that upset me as presents..
Chas
The Home Hub appears to be the worst mistake BT ever made! Have been a loyal BT customer for many years, using the voyager etc... but after spending the last 4 months battling with the HH, I have given up and will be switching over to a Belkin.
The down time has been ridiculous and has caused endless problems with 2 laptops and a desktop being used in the home at the same time.
Tim
Hi there, I figured i would post here and play a little devil's advocate (appologies in advance).
I've been with BT for 7 years now for broadband and i have to say that i have had very little by way of problems with them. Their customer service has been excelent all the way through and i use them because you have the option of ignoreing all the extras like Yahoo! and only using the connection. This is fine for me as i'm an internet computing studdent.
on the flipside, i have had a few small problems (more annoyensies) with the BT Home Hub. First the restart>upgrade thing, but more importantly the software on the hub itself. a couple of moths ago i accessed the hub to set the routing for my webserver and found i couln't navigate the system because all the software had changed. the menus, icons everything. i had to learn it all over again.
for those of you that have commented on the internals of the box, it is actually a custom built Thompson Speedtouch router-modem, since Thompson is pretty much the industry standard inthe UK for router modems, i can't see there being any problem by way of this.
However, the system software is built and released by BT themselves, this is evident simply by the level of customisation and branding within the software itself.
Perhaps instead of complaining to bt as indaviduals we should try to find out what department is responsible for writing the firmware and form a pressure-group to make them program in the features that would be most useful to us and accept our feedback to fix bugs etc...
Change can be forced by numbers - Start a revoloution! :D
Darren
never had the disconnection problem. however did have the uploaded software crash my home hub. It took me 5 mins to find the disk go through it find the upgrade wizard run it and back up again. ten days to get a stable connection very strange it took no time at all for me. however the problem i am having is that now (after i ran the upgrade wizard) my phones connected through the hub no longer ring. Yes i know that there is a setting in my hub to stop phones connect to it from ringing, however i cannot now connect to the hub (though internet still works.) The home hub help program cannot connect to the hub and i cannot see it in internet connections. This one looks like it has got the better of me. So looks like the only option is to forget my talk line (no probs there) go get an old fashioned phone and plug it back into the hole in the wall. Unless someone else knows better. :)
Kneale
If you ever reinstall the firmware from the cd then you need to activate BT Talk again at www.bt.com/bbv
Garry
Hi all, well I had a problem with the WEP key. I rang BT Support (India). The guy asked me to uninstall IE7!!then reinstall since then and for the last 4 days I have had total hassle. Whilst my internet connection is OK and the speed is excellent, I have lost access to Internet Options thro Tools or thro Control Panel. I cannot print my e-mail or open attachments. i cannot print off the internet or download - for eg yahoo toolbar. My delete button is not recognised on the internet.
Four days and they still cannot resolve the issue.
An absolute disgrace - think i will go back to broadband and my voyager router!
Kenton
Same for me - when I pushed, I was told that there was an inompatibility issue with IE7 and that I needed to complaint to microsoft!!! Since uninstalling IE7 I can no longer get my computer to validate it's own software which means I can't reinstall IE7 - and to cap it all my scripts have stopped running in the help section
Brian
Got BT Home Hub set up on 1st feb since then had nothing but problems. A friend of mine who is very computer literate came round and spent hours to try and get the router installed had loads of problems. In the end the broadband wasn't staying on. So in the end we had to get a BT Engineer to come and set it up and the cost of ££££'s and even then he had to get outside help as he couln't set up correctly. Everything now is set up on wireless, but every now and then all the lights go out on the router box and I have to wait some times for hours to connect back to the internet. And some times to re-connect I have to disable the wireless and re-enable it. Even though the wireless is showing very good signal strenth. The extra phone what I have plugged into the box can sometimes cut of completly when I'm using it. This is all very annoying as I use ebay alot and when the HH cuts outs its annoying as sometimes I loose the items I'm preparing to bid on as the internet connection has gone down !! The call centre which must be from India can be a painful experiance as sometimes they don't know what you trying to explain to them. I would definatly not recommend BT HH Broadband to anyone cause even thought the broadband is quite fast the router you get is terrible.
alexander mcrobbie-munro
hi there people of bt s madness on the homehub for the past 2 days I spent trying to get a friends homehub up and running on a new comp running windows vista.....despite frequent calls to India today the guy told me he wasnt competent onwindows vista and that an engineer would call tomorrow, so I have to be at my friends house for 9am not that I mind Id say Im very competent on a pc......however I keep getting an error code 814 no network adapter installed yet the nic is plugged in and light up also tried using the usb connection to no avail went and downloaded vista drivers from www.btyahoo.com/drivers installed still same problem however we now have all lights on home hub light up.....also I can get the laptop connected to the net but not the tower has anyone came across 814 before and can they assist please
Martin
yes i have read all of the above comments and not found anything i cant relate to.. well except the indian tech support... as i have been wound up too much to talk to them i insist on talking to the supervisor well
BT TECH "how may i help you"
MARTIN "by putting me through to somebody i can understand"
(i know it sounds racist but i have a hearing problem and its bad enough trying to understand somebody with a queen's english accent)
but yes i agree where you all come from between 00:55 and 01:15 my internet cuts out... i refuse to put up with it and just unplug it from the mains... i work nights 4 nights a week and the rest of the week i have trouble sleeping so i come and have a chat or a game.. its damn right inconvienient when your internet connection drops out after writing a post in a forum (the length of this one) and then you click ok and it says "your bt homehub is not connected to a broadband line" pain in the AR$E if you ask me! so 15 days ago...... i replaced the bt homehub with a crappy horrible belkin wireless router.... it may be crappy, horrible, dusty and unused.... BUT IT HAS CUT OUT TWICE IN 15 DAYS! much better than twice a day! as for the whole 3 pcs switch a download on yada yada... it still happens... but its bt not the router... as if i have a bittorrent client running on more than one machine it kicks the adsl connection.. (EG light starts blinking rather than static) if this happens much longer i will be reading the TOS and finding some loophole how to end the contract early due to their incompetence! FYI i have copied this message... just incase... although i dont need to with a BELKIN???!!! router.... surely bt have got to be better than belkin... b0110x!
paul
hi guys well ive just got the hub the speeds where fine at the start ,but it kept cutting out somtimes,and now the last few days my speed is 135kbps spent 2 and a half hours on the phone with india today as my speed is supposed to be 4.5 mb .Im using it wireless ,tried using the ethernet cables no use,keep getting kicked from online games to high ping have to phone india tomorrow again phewwwwwww anybody got advice .thanks
Isaac
Does the Home Hub work with 3rd party ISP's? The BT India say no and BT UK say yes i.e you have change settings in hub manager....
They wernt clear to be honest?????
Jonathan
Hello Isaac,
My understanding has been that the BT Home Hub hardware is locked into BT's Broadband service, so this wouldn't permit you to use the equipment with another ISP. I don't think it is possible to access the configuration settings to enable you to configure the equipment for any other ISP either.
Hope this helps,
Jonathan
Michael O'Toole
Although unsupported and unorthodox you CAN flash the BTHomehub with it's intended and original Thompson firmware removing all traces of BT from the inside of the box, this allows it to act as an ordinary Router.
Gaz
Isaac,
I too wanted to use by BT HH on another ISP's (AOL) DSL and allow me to use a BT BB Voice (VoIP)line. (albeit that the other ISP uses BT ADSL). BT UK advised me that it would work, as did 2 guys from tech support in India. In fact, the guys in India gave me the script to access the advanced HH settings and change the internet username and PW to my other ISP.
However, having tried to do this I get authentication errors, despite the username and PW being correct. I have just spoken to India tech support again and this time I am being told that the HH will only work with BT Broadband. If this is correct then I have wasted money on the hub, plus ordering a BT BB Voice line that I cant use.
I have reverted to my faithful Netgear DG834 router for the internet, but this does not have a connection for VoIP services.
Does anyone know if the HH can be used with AOL and if so how to resolve the authentication failure, or, can you connect the HH to another router and just use the HH for the BBV?
Thanks,
Gaz
Alan Tucker
As a long-term (and ignored) 2 Meg BT broadband user, when I threatened to leave I was offereda good deal on 8 Megs and a free HomeHub and Hubphone etc. But, I found the HomeHub quirky and went back to my trusty Voyager 2091 - quite painless and easier to configure, for an old techie like me. That meant I couldn't use the newly supplied Hubphone, but I got around that by 'associating' the Hubphone account and extra phone number with BT Broadband Talk Softphone - so now my laptop has a built-in wireless BT phone, with its own number.....!
I notice the Hubphones sell for a reasonable price on ebay, but the HomeHubs are literally given away, whereas the old Voyagers still sell for a decent price. Not surprising. I live in the depths of Dorset, miles from the exchange, and really old BT cabling, but the Voyager chunters along happily at 7 Megs, whereas the HomeHub struggled to get past 5 Megs for the short time I used it - once BT remembered to take off the old 2 Meg limit......(sigh)
Is it a coincidence that the HomeHub is shaped like a small tombstone ?
Regards, Alan.
Jonathan
Hello Alan,
Thanks for your detailed account of the above. So many users report a similar story, unfortunately. Interesting that many of them had a Voyager router before the BT Home Hub.
I loved your quip about Home Hub being shaped like a tombstone... it's so apt and without coincidence I think!
Jonathan
Bob
I had a voyager 2091 no problems until it broke, still under guarantee so phoned help desk. Long story but not worth telling. Eventually they sent me a home hub not the promised voyager replacement. I have now spent hours asking them to send a replacement voyager it will probably be easier in the end just to buy a new router. All I get from India is the extras that can be done with home hub. I just want standard internet access.
Marcela
Hi there,
I've had the HUB for the past few months wiht no problems. However, since receiving a new desktop Dell PC with Vista (I used XP before) the connection to my PC keeps falling at least 20 times a day. I don't think that there is a problem with the actual HUB as my wireless on a laptop is fine, but the desktop's connection just cuts off. I've spoken to both BT (was asked to restart the HUB) and to Dell (was asked to talk to BT as maybe the HUB is not Vista compatible??) but no luck with sorting this problem out yet. Does anyone have any idea?? I'm starting to get pretty fed up with coming home every night and hearing my brother moan about this problem...
Many thanks
Marcela
Jonathan
Sadly, I can't help you on this one. With Vista only recently released, it may take a while for other people to experience similar issues to yours. Watch this space - it's a very popular page, someone is bound to respond.
Jonathan
DK65
Hi there,
I too had the same problem with the new vista, my friends just got a new computer which had the vista already installed, we followed all the instructions to install the BT HUB (my friend too used an XP computer before upgrading to the new vista computer) the connection to his PC worked fine with XP plus it works fine with a laptop that too was working on XP.
This is the messgae i keep getting : with the new vista BT Internet I've tried everything but nothing works:
(814 The underlying Ethernet connectivity required for the broadband connection was not found. Please install and enable the Ethernet adapter on your computer via the Network Connections folder before attempting this connection. )
i've just found some info on BT site with Most BT-supplied modems and routers are compatible with Windows Vista.
BT Voyager 2091
BT Voyager 2500V
BT Home Hub
BT 1250
BT 1800HG
These routers are compatible with Windows Vista. We suggest connecting your router to your PC using either Ethernet or wireless. However, if you prefer to connect your computer by USB, you will need to download a Vista-compatible USB driver From BT hope this helps
I'll follow up to give update when issue has been resolved
dk65
DK65
Found the problem with the 814 error I needed to switch off the computer, when it was turned off, I then needed to press & hold down the Delite button on the computer, Then restart it holding the delite button down, when it had fully loaded I needed to check/tick all the drivers/usb ports, to enable them / switch them on? The ZOOSTORM computer Manufactures forgot to enable the above before sending them out.
Marcela
Hi there,
We're actually using ethernet so there shouldn't be a problem from that side. I've just spent an hour talking to BT and they've asked me to disable MacAffee and should call me back within 2hrs during which I'm supposed to check the performance of the PC. It's a nightmare as noone seems to be able to figure out what's wrong. I think that there is an incompatibility issue with BT HUB and Vista (no matter what BT says) and the system just can't cope with it so it crashes down regularly. What is, however, even more worrying is that the whole systems seems to be freezing now as well - I'm pretty sure these two things are connected. If I figure out how to correct this problem I'll let you all know, otherwise we'll have to reinstall XP and wait for about 6 months until these problems are sorted.
Thanks
Marcela
Ash
Hi there,
I have recently purchased a new Dell PC with Windows Vista and upon upgrading my BT to the new Hub I have had constant problems trying to install let alone actually get it working. It hangs when installing the BT Broadband Desktop Help program. I attempted to connect both ethernet and USB (whilst also trying to install the USB drivers on another attempt). End result - nothing!! And like somebody else has mentioned - now my PC is running really slow and taking an eternity to respond to any mouse clicks or typing.
BT should really do some intensive testing before saying that the Hub is compatible. Or at the very least bring out some specialist software just for Vista OS.
I'm going back to my old School Speedtouch 330 which is awful but does the job very efficiently. I was only upgrading my router to get faster speeds - wish I hadn't bothered now.
Any suggestions most welcome - I'm always up for trying new things.
Jonathan
Hi Ash,
Thanks for your post. I haven't heard any suggestions yet, but I'm sure they will be forthcoming in time - just need a much greater take up of BT Home Hub users using Vista.
Good luck.
Jonathan
Eric
Hi Marcela
Recently got Sony vaio laptop with Vista and BT Hub and initially kept loosing the connection when wireless. More reliable with the ethernet cable attached but still dropped out. I continually lose IP Configuration and often the default gateway. After nine calls to India -Nekibur, Puja, Kastourie, Mukaish, Ansar, Chakrie, Venu, Anshul and last but not least Ritu, I'm no further ahead.
I have to switch on the computer first then the hub. If I do it the other way around or switch them both on at the same time I can't connect. I can't even put the computer in sleep mode when not in use without having to switch them both off then start again.
Passed from Technical help to the line check dept and they could find no fault so referred back to Technical help.
I contacted the free 90 day softwear support folk for the computer and they confirmed it's definately the hub. 'Just request a replacement'
I tried that and they seem in denial and will not send a replacement and seem to imply that wireless is not guaranteed. After all my calls to India it's frustrating at having to pay to be shafted but after reading some of the comments here I might be better off sticking with the faults I have. This website is the best therapy I've had. I'm not alone !!
Dave
Got my HH last Tuesday, had 30 seconds of tediously slow internet access since, my Belkin Wireless PCI card very rarely sees the HH.
Going to try it wired tonight and change the default channel (1) on which the HH works, to see if this helps.
If not, im not ringing India, I will go back to my old BT router, and be happy that my new deal is saving me a fiver each month.
Dave - IT Manager (Nottm)