topic Re: Using the WAN port on an old Plusnet Hub One in Tech Help - Software/Hardware etc

Using the WAN port on an old Plusnet Hub One

sunnyrio — Fri, 28 Jul 2023 10:38:26 GMT

I read here of someone successfully plugging a printer into it: https://community.plus.net/t5/My-Router/Plusnet-Hub-one-WAN-port/td-p/1490185

I've reconfigured mine as advised elsewhere (to stop it doing DHCP and trying to get on the internet and producing a wireless signal), and the yellow ports work fine as a plain ethernet switch. But if I plug a computer into the red port, the computer can't get on the net. What am I doing wrong? Having only 4 ports means since I waste two connecting it to the other switch, I'm only gaining 2. I'd like to gain 3.

Re: Using the WAN port on an old Plusnet Hub One

Mustrum — Fri, 28 Jul 2023 10:47:08 GMT

@sunnyrio The WAN port is an input port, so will not work in the way you want, and I can't see in the post you linked how it would. Perhaps back then it had some dodgy firmware.

All you need is a switch with more ports.

Re: Using the WAN port on an old Plusnet Hub One

sunnyrio — Fri, 28 Jul 2023 11:19:06 GMT

In the linked post, the OP says "I have plugged the new printer into the WAN socket and it prints fine."

I wouldn't call it "dodgy" firmware if it added usability. What a waste of a port.

"All I need", yeah I'll just go waste money on one. I've got 12 machines, and enough expense without having to buy more switches!

P.S. don't tell Plusnet how much bandwidth I get through 🙂

Re: Using the WAN port on an old Plusnet Hub One

Baldrick1 — Fri, 28 Jul 2023 11:20:14 GMT

If all you want is a switch then over the course of the guarantee period, if buying a new one, you will find that the difference in power consumption will save you as least as much due to the lower power consumption, compared with a hub, as the cost of a cheap switch.

Re: Using the WAN port on an old Plusnet Hub One

sunnyrio — Fri, 28 Jul 2023 11:27:55 GMT

It may not be environmentally sound, but I don't hug trees. I like to use old stuff and keep it running. My car was made in 2002. I have 12 computers dating back to 2007. It doesn't seem right to throw things away. You don't kill off your grandparents because your kids can mow the lawn faster. Anyway the power is not wasted, it creates heat. Then I don't need a heater.

Re: Using the WAN port on an old Plusnet Hub One

sunnyrio — Fri, 28 Jul 2023 11:45:32 GMT

Actually the cheap switch I already have makes just as much heat. You need an expensive switch to save power, which is counter productive.

My neighbour paid about £1500 for a new gas boiler because it was more efficient. It lasted about 4 years, during which he saved about £600 on gas. Mine from the last century still runs.

Re: Using the WAN port on an old Plusnet Hub One

Baldrick1 — Fri, 28 Jul 2023 13:48:23 GMT

Tp-Link ls1005g 5 port switch

Cost <£10

Power consumption 3.5W

Plusnet Hub power consumption approx 10W

Power saving 6.5 W

6.5 W 24 hours per day at 30p per KWh costs about £17 per annum.
Payback time 7 months.

Re: Using the WAN port on an old Plusnet Hub One

Mustrum — Fri, 28 Jul 2023 14:25:26 GMT

Think you are wasting your time with logic @Baldrick1 - seems to me the shields are firmly up!

Re: Using the WAN port on an old Plusnet Hub One

sunnyrio — Fri, 28 Jul 2023 14:36:31 GMT

Life is boring if you calculate it. If it ain't broke don't replace it. The switch I have gets warm, the Plusnet hub equally gets warm. I don't buy stuff to save money. Spending money to save money is daft, like when the government paid us £2000 to actually scrap a still working car! And re-read the other example about the unreliable modern boilers. You might not buy your electricity at 30p a unit. You might have solar panels. And consider extra power consumption makes heat, which you might use. It's not as simple as just numbers.

Re: Using the WAN port on an old Plusnet Hub One

RealAleMadrid — Fri, 28 Jul 2023 17:52:49 GMT

@Mustrum I think you are absolutely spot-on there. There is no way through.

@sunnyrio Whatever you are trying to do with the WAN port I think you are wasting your time. It can only be used for an outgoing PPPoE connection to a VDSL2 modem or FTTP ONT.

Re: Using the WAN port on an old Plusnet Hub One

RobPN — Fri, 28 Jul 2023 19:18:14 GMT

@sunnyrio wrote:

... I don't buy stuff to save money. Spending money to save money is daft, ...

... You might have solar panels. ...

Unless someone's giving away free solar panels, bit of an oxymoron there methinks @sunnyrio

Re: Using the WAN port on an old Plusnet Hub One

sunnyrio — Sat, 29 Jul 2023 03:59:46 GMT

@RealAleMadrid wrote:

Whatever you are trying to do with the WAN port I think you are wasting your time. It can only be used for an outgoing PPPoE connection to a VDSL2 modem or FTTP ONT.

So explain how the guy in the link I first posted got a printer working on it?

I'm just trying to use it for a computer. I have many computers, and control them all with remote desktop from this one. They're running Boinc science projects. They need to retrieve and send back data sets to various universities.

Re: Using the WAN port on an old Plusnet Hub One

sunnyrio — Sat, 29 Jul 2023 04:03:32 GMT

@RobPN wrote:

Unless someone's giving away free solar panels, bit of an oxymoron there methinks @sunnyrio

Actually, if you shop around, you can create electricity with solar at ONE TENTH of the price of grid electricity. You need to think outside the box more, do things yourself, grab free stuff on freecycle, build your own things. I can make a log cabin out of old furniture (which is in huge supply on freecycle) - cut up the thick wood and make your own joists! And solar is not the only way to get free electricity, for example hydro power if you have a stream, 24/7 not just in daylight. Never ever buy anything from a big company.

Re: Using the WAN port on an old Plusnet Hub One

RealAleMadrid — Sat, 29 Jul 2023 06:45:27 GMT

@sunnyrio You are relying on a post from over 5 years ago from a user with 2 posts on the forum as concrete proof that the WAN port can be used as a LAN port, when there is no way to configure the router to achieve that. As you have found out by connecting a computer, it doesn't work.🙄

Edit: Maybe the printer was working over wi-fi and not actually using the ethernet connection at all.🤔

Re: Using the WAN port on an old Plusnet Hub One

sunnyrio — Sat, 29 Jul 2023 06:50:39 GMT

To run the printer on WiFi he'd have to give the printer the password so he couldn't have done that by accident.

It only takes one to succeed, to prove it can be done. I find it hard to believe they "upgraded" the firmware so it has less functionality. There's no reason to prevent someone using the port out of spite.

At least the hub one has one more yellow port. The new one is less usable!

Re: Using the WAN port on an old Plusnet Hub One

Champnet — Sat, 29 Jul 2023 06:52:32 GMT

In the original post the user asked "Can anyone please advise me whether I can use the WAN RJ45 socket on my Plusnet Hub 1 router as an ethernet port ? " then went on to say "I have plugged the new printer into the WAN socket and it prints fine."

I wonder if he/she had plugged the printer into the USB port ?

Re: Using the WAN port on an old Plusnet Hub One

Dan_the_Van — Sat, 29 Jul 2023 07:03:46 GMT

@Champnet

I wonder if he/she had plugged the printer into the USB port ?

The USB port does not support printers on either Hub's supplied by plusnet.

Re: Using the WAN port on an old Plusnet Hub One

sunnyrio — Sat, 29 Jul 2023 07:04:53 GMT

I've only ever encountered one person who mixed up an ethernet and a USB port (snapping the pins). My neighbour's wife. She also can't understand negative numbers, despite being her husband's "accountant" for his self employment for 10 years. She called me round to fix a "problem with her internet" which turned out to be "not receiving the half price discount for installing fibre". She'd been given the £30 discount on the 1st bill, and charged the £60 installation fee on the 2nd bill, and I could not convince her it was ok to give the money back before she'd paid it. Her husband eventually said "I think Peter's right", mainly to shut her up so he could concentrate on the football match.

Re: Using the WAN port on an old Plusnet Hub One

Baldrick1 — Sat, 29 Jul 2023 07:13:16 GMT

@sunnyrio wrote:

@RobPN wrote:

Unless someone's giving away free solar panels, bit of an oxymoron there methinks @sunnyrio

Actually, if you shop around, you can create electricity with solar at ONE TENTH of the price of grid electricity.

I do have solar panels.

However, I do not waste the free power that they generate using it to power old inefficient kit, excess power not used to reduce the basic household load is diverted into the immersion heater to provide hot water. I would estimate that there is only about 1000-1500 hours a year when the water is at maximum temperature and I am actually exporting back to the grid. This would make the payback period on a new switch to less than 9 months.

Re: Using the WAN port on an old Plusnet Hub One

sunnyrio — Sat, 29 Jul 2023 08:07:23 GMT

Do not export back to the grid, they don't pay you enough. Buy some LiFePO4 batteries and keep it for yourself.

It's not wastage to power old inefficient kit, because you're not buying the new kit. Which saves money and the environment by not running the manufacturing and recycling processes.

The amount of power used by a switch or hub compared to the many computers connected to it is tiny. No point in trying to save on the small things instead of the big things - that's what the water companies try to do with hosepipe bans, ignoring the fact that 95% of water use is industrial. It's the computers which need modernising, but the cost of newer processors is absurd, especially when the old ones are completely free.

I don't use hot water, I've never seen the point. Soap and shampoo dissolves at any temperature, I use a cold shower and wash my hands in cold water.

Well I do use hot water in the dishwasher and washing machine, but those are stupidly designed and heat their own water with electricity instead of using the (for most people, cheaper heated by gas hot water), I'd have to modify them to input heated water, or make sure the water I give them never exceeds the temperature I want to wash at. But since I don't use gas at all, it doesn't really matter at what point the water is heated, as it will always be by electricity. Might aswell do it on demand in the appliance.