Using A BT Smarthub, An Update

[#1]

@smallblueplanet 

When considering whether a Smarthub is more stable than a Hub One, a bit of background. Under the case the Hub One is an old BT Home Hub 5A. This was first released to BT customers in 2013. This has had its firmware tweeked for use by Plusnet but essentially it is the same beast. This was superceded by the BT Smarthub in 2016. I suspect that your problems are due to the hub doing a lot of checking as it has not been connected for years (evidenced by the early firmware version you originally had) and laterly by this problem. There is little in the way of solid evidence that they are any slower to boot once they have updated themselves to the latest firmware.

Since the end of 2019 BT have not been 'giving' Smarthubs away, they loan them to you whilst you are in contract and charge around £50 if you don't return them when you leave. So whilst you may spot a shrink wrapped one for sale it may well be 'unused', but is unlikely to be 'new'.

The Business Smarthubs use the same hardware but have different firmware. For example, you can use you own choice of DNS servers, rather their being locked to Plusnet's. There are other bells and whistle functions.

If your wireless is inadequate then before buying extenders this might be of interest. https://community.plus.net/t5/Tech-Help-Software-Hardware-etc/Distributing-Data-around-Larger-Proper...

[#2]

I have waited a couple of months until posting,but can now say that the difference for me has been astounding
I followed Baldrick1's instructions and have had no issues with my connection since
Many thanks

[#3]

Thanks so much for all of this info. I tried following your original steps to set-up a BT Hub6 (due to VERY noisy plusnet wifi).
All went well up until step 6, where I wasn't able to save the changed broadband name and password; I continued on to the following steps as suggested, but the light is now orange and on the BT home page it says there's no service 😖 Any suggestions?! Thanks very much.

[#4]

@Techno_phobe 

The biggest mistake many people make is to plug the DSL cable in before instructed to do so. This MUST be left out until after you have entered your Plusnet credentials else it will revert to the BT troubleshooter.

Otherwise have you read the rest of the first post on this update topic, relating to special characters in your Plusnet password etc.

[#5]

Thanks @Baldrick1 for your reply and responding so quickly.  I've gone back and re-tried following your directions from the start again and thankfully it seems to have worked this time 🤞  Thanks again for the help. 

[#6]

....having said that it's now working (which it is), now that I've got everything up and running on the new system it's again really noisy! 🙉 (which was the main problem I was trying to rectify originally!) Any suggestions?!

[#7]

@Techno_phobe 

This is a new one on me. What precisely is noisy?

[#8]

Sorry for the slow reply @Baldrick1 ... I've been doing some investigating in order to answer your question, and have discovered that in fact the noise in the living room was coming from a different device altogether, and doesn't appear to be related to the wifi 🙈 Doh. However when I have my laptop opened there's still a noise coming from that/the plug - a pulsating, high-pitched, faint but extremely annoying noise, which stops when the laptop is closed (but still plugged in). Any suggestions would be very welcome! Thanks.

[#9]

@Techno_phobe 

That sounds to be the switched mode power supply that generates the low voltage dc used to charge the laptop battery and power the laptop. You need to try a different laptop power supply.

[#10]

Thanks @Baldrick1 .  I replaced the cable not long ago so hopefully shouldn't be a problem with that, but I've just tried switching to a different plug socket (which is a pain to get to!) and it seems less of an issue on that one so must be something to do with that.  Thanks so much for all of your help 😁

[#11]

HI all,

I've had an incredibly frustrating week. I've been using plusnet through a smarthub for almost two years with no issues. I set it up first time using Baldrick's excellent guide.

Fast forward to Tuesday just gone and ther was a planned broadband outtage for my area as openreach were doing some work. For some reason my service wasn't restored. I've had calls with plusnet, an openreach engineer out and finally this morning they have told me the issue is resolved.

So because router had been reset etc I went through the whole process again to set up the smart hub. I've followed the instructions exactly several times now and I still can't seem to get past the BT sign in issue on all my devices.

In communication with plusnet they seemed to know I was using a third party router could something have been put on my account to prevente using as I've no idea why it won't work now.

Any help greatly appreciated

Cheers

[#12]

@xurek - no, we won't have blocked anything.

It sounds like Smart Setup is still enabled on the BT Hub?

[#13]

Hi Bob,
No I turn smart setup off straight away after the factory reset as per the guide.
Thanks
Sam

[#14]

I've followed all the instructions exactly as listed. 3 times over with a full reset before each go (smart set-up off, no DSL until broadband login entered & saved), and I always end up with a flashing purple light on the front. 

According to BT, this means flashing purple means: 'Your Hub is working but the broadband cable isn't connected'.

I'm using fibre and have a double master socket, plugging the Smart Hub Type A directly into the left broadband socket, as I did with the Plusnet Hub. 

Essentially I can put the wire into the plusnet hub, and it connects and works, then unplug and insert the same wire into the BT Smart Hub, and it doesn't work (flashing purple).

Checked my broadband login to ensure it is {username}@plusdsl.net

I've reset my plusnet login password to alpha-numeric only to rule out the special character issue. 

Any clues with what to try next and where I'm going wrong here?

Thanks

[#15]

@xurek 

What BT sign in issue? Can you post screen grabs after obscuring personal information?