How do you switch off BT Wifi on Smart Hub 1 when no longer a customer?

[#1]

If you're no longer a BT customer, you can't log in to https://www.btwifi.co.uk/ as far as I can tell, and therefore you can't switch it off. I presume you couldn't even if you were logged in, as the router is no longer connected to BT's network.

For the same reason, I would hope that the "BTWi-fi" network being advertised won't actually work, so as well as being an annoyance to me, won't this be an annoyance to any passing BT customers whose devices will connect and then get no service?

Thanks.

[#2]

@NonPlussedAgain 

You can’t switch it off on the residential Smarthubs but as far as I can ascertain it does not work. If you know of a BT customer I would be interested to hear if they can connect to your hub. Again I suspect not as it would need to synchronise with BT’s servers.

Why is this an annoyance to you? There shouldn’t be any traffic on it so the fact that it uses the same channel is irrelevant.

[#3]

Thanks for the quick reply - good to know.

One reason why it's annoying is I think it comes up before the main network when the hub reboots, resulting in me getting hotspot login notifications coming up. I'm sure I could get rid of these if I tried hard enough but I shouldn't have to. And it's just unnecessary pollution of the available networks list and the spectrum (I agree by a tiny amount).

[#4]

@NonPlussedAgain 

When you say that you should not 'have to' put up with this irritation you must bear in mind that we Plusnet  customers are cheekily using this premium BT ISP hub on their budget Plusnet service. BT do not 'have to' allow this, with a small firmware tweek they could easily lock us out.

I suggest that you keep your head down or do what you might think is the right thing, avoid all this airwave pollution that you are causing by using a Plusnet supplied hub.

Why do you need to be rebooting your hub anyway?

[#5]

No it's not cheeky at all: BT did not want the hub back when the contract ended so it is obviously no longer of value to them. They only said I could send it back if I wanted to for recycling. I have already paid for it during my contract with BT.

What is cheeky is BT locking down their hub to prevent it being used with other ISPs apart from their other ISP Plusnet. That's why I am now on Plusnet. I'm sure they would love to lock it down even further, but the outcry would be considerable especially in the light of growing awareness of electronic waste and right to repair.

As for premium, well the firmware hasn't been updated since 29th March last year (SG4B1000E020) and while vulnerabilities may not have been discovered since then, I have my doubts.

Bear in mind I could have had a "free" Plusnet router. By continuing to use BT's, I have reduced electronic waste (I hope).

[#6]

Oh and I didn't reboot my hub - it reboots itself occasionally, presumably when it's given a new IP address. It did it this morning (my IP address has changed since Friday when I would have last noticed), and in the process lost my username and password for the VDSL. Hence I was getting hotspot login notifications but no actual network.

[#7]

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@NonPlussedAgain wrote:

Bear in mind I could have had a "free" Plusnet router. 

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Which is also similarly ‘locked down’. I think that in many cases it’s less a case of hubs being locked down and more of ISPs locking out any hub but their own, which are properly locked down.

From I think around the end of 2019 BT stopped the free supply of these hubs and now charge if you don’t return them when you leave.