Give Me One Good Reason To Persist Using A Bt Home Hub?

[ProDave]

History:

My first broadband was with Talk Talk. they provided a wired router.

I then wanted to connect wirelessly to our laptop. So I bought a wireless insertion point that plugged in the network cable between my desktop PC and the router. (my desktop does not have wireless built in)

This worked well.  Not only did it allow the laptop to connect to the internet by wi-fi,. it allowed the desktop PC to see the laptop via wi-fi so we could share files.

Later on we bought a wireless printer, and both laptop and desktop could see and use the printer via wi-fi.

So while my router set up was a little clumsy, it worked. And I quite liked the fact it had activity lights so I could see traffic flowing both over the network and over the wi-fi (it alerted me when B&B guest were using the internet)

Roll forward to 3 days ago.

Changed internet supplier to BT. They sent us a shiny new home hub.

That works to connect the PC and the laptop to the internet.

BUT the desktop pc can no longer see the laptop via w-fi (or vice versa) and can no longer see the wireless printer.

Also the home hub has no activity lights so no easy way of seeing traffic.

Now, I know my old router works with the BT internet (I tried it first thing Tuesday morning before the home hub arrived in the post)

So give me one good reason why I should not revert back the the old router?

About the only reason I can think of is if I had a problem, and BT would not support anything other than their home hub (I could always plug it in again if that was an issue)

 

[OnOff]

Home Hub 3 is it? Plug in an external HDD to the USB port on it then access all your files, vids, music etc from ANY device on your network........................once you can see 'em that is!

 

[ProDave]

Home Hub 3 is it? Plug in an external HDD to the USB port on it then access all your files, vids, music etc from ANY device on your network........................once you can see 'em that is!

That's an interesting idea. Might have a play with that.

Still won't let me talk directly to the lappy though? Nor solve why I can't see the the wireless printer from the desktop pc.

 

[OnOff]

That's an interesting idea. Might have a play with that.

Still won't let me talk directly to the lappy though? Nor solve why I can't see the the wireless printer from the desktop pc.

I had similar issues with my HP wireless printer...................all working now. I had to set it up via the LCD screen on the printer i.e. tell THE PRINTER to search for & then connect to the router. Depends I guess what printer you have.

If you go http://192.168.1.254/ in your browser you should be able to check your router settings in the BT Home Hub Manager. All the devices on your home network SHOULD show up!

What printer do you have btw?

 

[wozz]

it alerted me when B&B guest were using the internet

What happens then? pull the plug? ask for money? Some how see what they are looking at?  ;

 

[ProDave]

No, just have a polite work.

We have always been on a limited bandwidth service before, which was fine for general browsing.

But occasionally we would get something like a guest streaming a film over the net from iplayer or something, using up a whole months allowance in one evening.

Anyway, the home hub is back in it's box. I'm back to my old router, and everything works again.

And I can spy on the guests usage :innocent

 

[wozz]

So do you include the wifi connection in the price?

 

[OnOff]

I'd just spy on the guests!  :innocent

 

[kalross]

Sorry...can't think of anything.  DDWRT all the way

 

[septiclecky]

I'd just spy on the guests!  :innocent

 

[septiclecky]

I'd just spy on the guests!  :innocent

Don't know what happend but my text has disappeared.

If anyone can pick your broadband signal up then you need to password protect it and stop any Tom, dick or Harry from using it.

 

[ProDave]

And who says my old router can't have password protection?

This was just about the question should I use the shiny new home hub, or my old router from 3 ISP's ago.

It turned out too much time needed just to get the new one to do all that the old one was doing perfectly well before. So I'm back using the old one and everything works as it should.

If it ain't broke........

 

[OnOff]

As I've posted elsewhere I've just hardwired two HomeHub 3's together (a model A and a model B). Everything is peachy  across the whole house tbh. No dropout on the wireless. One is now "MyHub" and the other "MyHubSlave". Plus 4 more hard wired ports in the study. Link here:

http://community.bt.com/t5/Other-BB-Queries/Link-BT-Home-Hub-3a-and-3b-together/td-p/526998

 

[ProDave]

The bit that got me "stuck" with the BT HH was wireless access BETWEEN PC's in the house.

Desktop PC, no built in wifi

Laptop PC built in wifi

Desktop hard wired to router.

Desctop can see and access the wireless printer and wireless laptop and use the printer and swap files with the laptop.

Now substitute the HH for the old router.

Both PC's still see and access the internet,  but the desktop PC could no longer see the wireless printer or the laptop.

There was no reason why it should not work but I spent many hours investigating and gave up.

On the basis that the HH did not make my broadband any faster or any more reliable than the old router, I saw little point battling for hours just to get the functionality back to what I had before.

The HH will stay in it's box. Just about the only conceivable time it will get used will be if I have a broadband fault, where I fully expect BT not to be interested in fixing it if I am not using their HH. so if that happens the HH will be plugged in while the fault is being sorted, then disconnected again.

 

[col]

I'd stick with the old one also but if it packs up you could try a wireless adapter in the desktop.

As I understand BT's HH by default has no password so roamers can use your wifi, supposed to be secure tho