topic Re: Which is better - BT Smart Hub 2 or Plusnet Hub 1 ? For the man Baldrick1 in Full Fibre

Which is better - BT Smart Hub 2 or Plusnet Hub 1 ? For the man Baldrick1

steve56 — Thu, 03 Feb 2022 12:42:05 GMT

I hope that Baldrick1 gets to read this as he seems to be the man who knows all 😉

Ok, I have moved from BT to Plusnet and I'm using the Plusnet Hub , I do though still have my BT Hub 2.

I have 2 WD My Cloud NAS drives attached to my Network ( via the router ), one WD is the MC Mirror 2nd Gen'

Something I have noticed since the change over, when I copy over a file from my Laptop or Desktop to the MC Mirror it seems to take an age to copy over where before ( using the BT Hub 2 ) it transferred the data very quickly, example; yesterday I transferred a file which was 2.26Gb it took over 7 minutes, which to me is very slow.

So my question is would I be better using my BT SM Hub 2 ?

Steve

Re: Which is better - BT Smart Hub 2 or Plusnet Hub 1 ? For the man Baldrick1

Baldrick1 — Thu, 03 Feb 2022 13:02:39 GMT

@steve56 Welcome to the forum.

The Plusnet Hub One is a repurposed BT Home Hub 5A. The Smarthub 2 is currently the latest BT offering. It has better WiFi performance than the older device. The latest Plusnet Hub Two is based on the Smarthub 2.

The Smarthub 2 has one downside, which is that you cannot separate the 2.4 and 5 GHz bands. If you were previously having no wireless connection issues with the Smarthub 2 then use it.

As it is already configured for your connected equipment all that you will need to do is remove the DSL cable, change the username to your Plusnet account username@plusdsl.net and enter your password BEFORE plugging in the DSL cable.

I would also recommend switching off Smart Setup.

Re: Which is better - BT Smart Hub 2 or Plusnet Hub 1 ? For the man Baldrick1

Correlated — Thu, 03 Feb 2022 13:12:40 GMT

If you moved recently I'd be calling Plusnet and asking why they didn't send you the Plusnet Hub 2

Re: Which is better - BT Smart Hub 2 or Plusnet Hub 1 ? For the man Baldrick1

steve56 — Thu, 03 Feb 2022 13:14:50 GMT

Many thanks Baldrick1, I knew you would be the man .

So I've got this right, unplug Plusnet Hub, connect the BT Hub 2 but not the DSL cable , question on that , will I still be able to see ( connect ) to the router via my computer to change the details ?

I will give it a go this afternoon and see what happens.

Many thanks

Steve

Re: Which is better - BT Smart Hub 2 or Plusnet Hub 1 ? For the man Baldrick1

steve56 — Thu, 03 Feb 2022 13:18:51 GMT

I did, I started the process 'before' the Hub 2 was released although I didn't get connected until after it was released .

A little peeved shall we say that they couldn't see it in their heart to send me the newer one !

Hence to Q about going back to the BT Hub 2

Steve

Re: Which is better - BT Smart Hub 2 or Plusnet Hub 1 ? For the man Baldrick1

Baldrick1 — Thu, 03 Feb 2022 13:26:36 GMT

@steve56

That's correct. You only need the DSL cable to connect to the outside world. You can still connect to your router and devices on your network without it.

Once you plug the DSL cable in the hub talks directly to Plusnet's servers. If the DSL cable is already plugged in before you make the changes the hub is already connected to the BT servers. Once you try to change to Plusnet the BT server recognises it as a non BT address and rejects it.

Re: Which is better - BT Smart Hub 2 or Plusnet Hub 1 ? For the man Baldrick1

steve56 — Thu, 03 Feb 2022 13:25:11 GMT

Many thanks for that, I'll report back later, keep fingers crossed.

Steve

Re: Which is better - BT Smart Hub 2 or Plusnet Hub 1 ? For the man Baldrick1

steve56 — Thu, 03 Feb 2022 15:03:08 GMT

Good news, I am connected with my BT Hub 2, thank you very much Baldrick1 😁

One last question ( I hope ), should I turn on the FTTP mode ?

Thanks again

Steve

Re: Which is better - BT Smart Hub 2 or Plusnet Hub 1 ? For the man Baldrick1

steve56 — Thu, 03 Feb 2022 15:14:19 GMT

A bit more news and success 😎

This how much better the BT Hub 2 is V the Plusnet Hub 1

Just did a Data transfer test to my NAS Mirror, now just you all know with the Plusnet it took over 7 minutes to transfer a mire 2.26 Gb, I have just transferred 5.7 Gb in 4 minutes ( using the BT Hub 2 ) - Result 😂

Steve

Re: Which is better - BT Smart Hub 2 or Plusnet Hub 1 ? For the man Baldrick1

Baldrick1 — Thu, 03 Feb 2022 15:17:55 GMT

@steve56

FTTP mode? I must admit that I don’t have a Smarthub 2 to check and I didn’t know it had such a control. Any way the answer I’d no. FTTP does not need to use the modem section, which you need for the Plusnet FTTC service.

Re: Which is better - BT Smart Hub 2 or Plusnet Hub 1 ? For the man Baldrick1

Baldrick1 — Thu, 03 Feb 2022 15:29:52 GMT

@steve56

Are you communicating with your NAS over wireless? On an Ethernet wired connection I would be surprised. My Hub will transfer data to the NAS at about 100MBps, which is about the limit of the NAS disks.

Re: Which is better - BT Smart Hub 2 or Plusnet Hub 1 ? For the man Baldrick1

steve56 — Thu, 03 Feb 2022 15:36:48 GMT

I'm connected with both via Ethernet cable direct to Hub.

And thanks for the advice on FTTP

Steve

Re: Which is better - BT Smart Hub 2 or Plusnet Hub 1 ? For the man Baldrick1

MisterW — Thu, 03 Feb 2022 16:27:16 GMT

FTTP mode? I must admit that I don’t have a Smarthub 2 to check and I didn’t know it had such a control.

I believe that sets the SmartHub 2 ethernet port 4 as a WAN port (and maybe disables the DSL?). Its normal mode is for all 4 ethernet ports to be LAN ports, unlike the PN Hub2 which ALWAYS uses port 4 as a WAN port

Re: Which is better - BT Smart Hub 2 or Plusnet Hub 1 ? For the man Baldrick1

Baldrick1 — Thu, 03 Feb 2022 16:31:23 GMT

@MisterW

You have to ask why on earth this is not included in the Plusnet Hub 2.

Re: Which is better - BT Smart Hub 2 or Plusnet Hub 1 ? For the man Baldrick1

steve56 — Thu, 03 Feb 2022 16:40:06 GMT

When you login to the router via the web, in the settings there is an option to turn FTTP on, hence the question. Its interesting that you mention that the PN Hub 2 ( which I dint have ) doesn't seem to have a separate WAN port as there is one on my PN Hub 1 ( its Red ). Anyway I won't be using FTTP now I've got everything up and running 😉 with my BT Hub 2

Steve

Re: Which is better - BT Smart Hub 2 or Plusnet Hub 1 ? For the man Baldrick1

MisterW — Thu, 03 Feb 2022 16:41:09 GMT

@Baldrick1 assuming my understanding is correct (I dont have a Smart Hub 2 to check), then yes , you do🙄

Re: Which is better - BT Smart Hub 2 or Plusnet Hub 1 ? For the man Baldrick1

Baldrick1 — Thu, 03 Feb 2022 18:16:58 GMT

@MisterW

I have one and the option is not there.

Re: Which is better - BT Smart Hub 2 or Plusnet Hub 1 ? For the man Baldrick1

Baldrick1 — Thu, 03 Feb 2022 18:26:11 GMT

@steve56 wrote:

When you login to the router via the web, in the settings there is an option to turn FTTP on, hence the question. Its interesting that you mention that the PN Hub 2 ( which I dint have ) doesn't seem to have a separate WAN port as there is one on my PN Hub 1 ( its Red ). Anyway I won't be using FTTP now I've got everything up and running 😉 with my BT Hub 2

I haven’t said that there isn’t a WAN port. One of the LAN sockets has been repurposed as the WAN socket. The Plusnet Hub Two therefore has three LAN and one WAN port, the same as the FTTP versions of the original BT Smarthubs.

Re: Which is better - BT Smart Hub 2 or Plusnet Hub 1 ? For the man Baldrick1

bobpullen — Fri, 04 Feb 2022 01:08:26 GMT

@MisterW wrote:

FTTP mode? I must admit that I don’t have a Smarthub 2 to check and I didn’t know it had such a control.

I believe that sets the SmartHub 2 ethernet port 4 as a WAN port (and maybe disables the DSL?). Its normal mode is for all 4 ethernet ports to be LAN ports, unlike the PN Hub2 which ALWAYS uses port 4 as a WAN port

It toggles the fourth port between WAN/LAN and stores it to flash memory so it survives resets etc. It doesn't do anything to the DSL capability.

@Baldrick1 wrote:

@MisterW

You have to ask why on earth this is not included in the Plusnet Hub 2.

There's a whole wealth of things to consider here e.g. customers regrading between technologies/refurbishment of devices/user error etc.

For the techncially minded it makes sense. For the majority, I'm not so sure.

@Baldrick1 admittedly a different scenario, but you'll have seen as many examples as I have of folk getting confused about the bridging functionality of the Hub Two. This is despite it doing exactly as one would expect it to.

The fact @steve56 is deliberating the FTTP toggle on his BT hub also speaks some volume

Re: Which is better - BT Smart Hub 2 or Plusnet Hub 1 ? For the man Baldrick1

Baldrick1 — Fri, 04 Feb 2022 09:39:05 GMT

@bobpullen

Accepted that there’s a need to make these hubs as simple as possible for the non technical customer to use

However BT/Plusnet do seem to flip flop if you look back through the WAN port options from the 2704N, Hub One/BT HH5, Smarthub and Smarthub 2 approach.