Plusnet Hub 2 new firmware forcing https

[#1]

@bakerboy83 In answer to your first sentence - absolutely never, because their only desire is 'to do something', but fail to understand what they are actually trying to do, or it's real-world implications.

[#2]

Ah well, Thanks for the information. That explains the padlocks. Thanks again, I can log into my hub.

I have been using some ESP01 and DS18B20 and Thonny to measure room  temperatures over WiFi. 

I note that the "over the air -OTA" firmware update feature has been depreceated. 

I had an idea or invention of putting a DS18B20 temperature chip  into a smart light bulb to monitor the temperature in each room. Trying to search for "warm and cold" to see if this was already available was really difficult!

The ESP01 run about 10 degree above ambient! 

Hopefully my https://hub tip instead of http://192.168.1.254  was useful.

Having to accept the "unsafe" self signed certificate warnings is uncomfortable after  all the mandatory security training courses!

[#3]

This has just happened to me after a problem with wifi switching off, maybe to do with an update on my Hub Two. However, I cannot access the hub at all, just keep getting redirected to the message. When I try https://hub I get 'This site can't be reached' on Chrome. Is there any other way of accessing the hub?

[#4]

I think that https://hub will only work if your network connection is set up to use the Hub 2 for DNS. 
If you have different DNS settings, try using your Hub's IP address (usually https://192.168.1.254)

[#5]

Thank you AndyLeonard. I've tried both but just get 'This site can't be reached' now.

[#6]

I think I'll try a factory reset and see what happens.

[#7]

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@ChrisHarris wrote:

This has just happened to me after a problem with wifi switching off, maybe to do with an update on my Hub Two. However, I cannot access the hub at all, just keep getting redirected to the message. When I try https://hub I get 'This site can't be reached' on Chrome. Is there any other way of accessing the hub?

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Hi @ChrisHarris, you're best using https://192.168.1.254

On Chrome the steps to access should be...

[#8]

Thank you bakerboy83 just managed to access following the factory reset using http://192.168.1.254 !!

[#9]

Even after a cold boot, mine still takes 30s to show the home screen in Edge (around 15s in Firefox) when I go to https://192.168.1.254/

[#10]

@ChrisHarris

I am using a windows 11 PC and the cmd terminal. I can do these:

ping hub

ping hub.home

ping bthomehub

ping bthomehub.home

Pinging bthomehub.home [192.168.1.254] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 192.168.1.254: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64

I have never found a command that lists the hostnames allocated to the devices on my homehub or lists the ip addresses.

I wrote a webpage that tries to get an image from each address on my subnet so that you could use arp -a .

[#11]

@andyleonard Interesting. I am using the Plusnet Hub2 as supplied.

I can address my Raspberrypi by its hostname from my raspberry pi and other pc.

I use Windows 11 or raspberry pi or Android. The smart TV does not find the local devices by hostname.

I can use hub.home and ping responds.

I have also tried hub.local or hub.net, but it if difficult to find the standard or RFC that explains what to use.

[#12]

Hi everyone

Just had this problem Monday evening.

Eventually, a factory reset worked, but it took several goes, as it appears the firmware update also corrupted the wifi password and some other bits (default gateway set to x.x.x1 instead of x.x.x.254), which the initial factory resets did not fix, just got everything connected again, 3:30 am Tuesday after about seven hours chasing my tail.

Will be making a complaint to PlusNet, I would encourage anybody who spends more than 10 minutes fixing this firmware-based problem to also to do. 

Maybe it is just the Plusnet version, but enforcing HTTPS on a device that does not support it was bound to lead to problems. It actually took me more than two hours and the help of Co-Pilot just to get into the router interface, as I lost all bypass options across multiple browsers, machines and platforms.

[#13]

@PoBear 

as it appears the firmware update also corrupted the wifi password and some other bits (default gateway set to x.x.x1 instead of x.x.x.254), which the initial factory resets did not fix, just got everything connected again,

Where you able to use 192.168.1.254 to get access to the Management screen?

You should have seen this message when you first connected to http://192.168.1.254  did you? 

Clicking on what do I do? takes you to https://www.plus.net/help/hubgui/hub-warning/ 

You should have been presented with a Warning message "Your connection is not private" or similar depending on browser used. The expected next steps would be to click on 'Advanced' then 'Proceed to 192.168.1.254 (unsafe)'

The WiFi password used, have you changed it from the Hub default?

Was the default gateway wrong on the IPv4 setting page? (>Home ->Advanced -->My Network --->IPv4)

What were the other bits?

[#14]

Dan_the_Van

Should have, did not, apart from the first time, which timed out on me while I was trying to figure out why my password was being rejected, which, of course, was because the authentication system on the router had been corrupted. It was only after several router restarts and three factory rejects that the bypass became available again.

I tried multiple browsers on multiple Windows machines, my wife's and my own phone. I have to assume the router had indicated that it would not accept any non-HTTPS access and this affected the browsers offering the bypass.

I was connecting using 192.168.1.254, but could not get past the splash screen you included in your post. To repeat myself, the bypass option was not offered; there was no "Advanced" option displayed.

The router was running with my own wifi password and had been for at least a year, it was still being displayed in the router settings when I eventually got in.

The router was showing 192.168.1.254 as the gateway, all of the other settings appeared to be as previously set. After the factory reset, I set the wifi up as before, including DHCP but was still unable to connect to wifi. 

It was only after, I think, the fourth factory reset that I was able to connect using the factory defaults for SSID and password. I then updated the password to my choice and was able to connect, and then updated the SSID and was again able to connect. After this, my other devices reconnected, but I am still left with half of my smart home not working.

Stephen 

[#15]

@PoBear 

I would avoid using Wireless devices for this situation, as this requires a stable and connectable WiFi access.

Using a tablet or mobile can make things worse as browsers modify the display size to fit the device screen, this can be ignored by setting the browser to use 'Desktop site' but the text may become very small.

Clicking on Switch to HTTPS I would expect the security warning message next.

Is your Hub now working as expected apart from some of the smart devices?