| Archive for Downsizer For an ethical approach to consumption |
| Treacodactyl |
BT Home HubFor a similar price I'm paying my ISP I could get "BT Total Broadband Option 3" with a Home Hub. Does anyone have one? Any comments?Is it completely wireless or can I turn off the wireless bit and use a cable (PC next to phone socket so not needed and I'm not keen on the security). Is the Hub Phone only an internet phone so will I also need a normal phone? |
||
| Nick |
I have BT total broadband with the Hub.
It's wireless with a decent range, through walls, upstairs, etc. You can also plug USb or Cat 5 cables in it. I have speed which, although I've never measured it, is good enough to watch live streaming TV through it (I also have their TV stuff). It's *never* gone down in 4/5 years, except when a tree brought down my phone line. Never had to use customer service, but the ring me every so oftern asking me to re-sign. I say no, and they drop their rates. Not the cheapest, but I couldn't fault it. And they've sent me a free printer, free phone and various other bits for re-signing. Phone is totally regular phone. (Well, the line. No idea about the handset they supply, we don't have one of theirs.) Anything I've missed? |
||
| Treacodactyl |
I don't suppose you've had BT out to change any wiring? I have an old 'master-socket' with all sorts of rubbish behind it which is BT's. I would like them to put in a new socket and remove the ancient bits, about 10 min work for me so I don't fancy paying a fortune though. | ||
| woodsprite |
Same as Nick, no probs here although we've only had it since Nov when we moved. Its great taking the laptop out to the polytunnel to work! | ||
| Nick |
Many times, but not for this, I'm afraid, no, only when I've had new lines added, or changed to ADSL, a long time ago.
The Hub didn't need anything doing, and it got delivered and was self installed (very, very easily). One minor issue is it sometimes forgets connections with our laptops. Simply turning it off an on resets this, and all is hoopy. I've had to do this twice in the 2 years I've been running wireless. |
||
| Silas |
I too have a home hub and have found it to be very good. I have the later model (the black one). | ||
| Treacodactyl |
Thanks for the comments. Does anyone know if you get a static IP address? | ||
| Silas |
Don't even know what a static IP address is. | ||
| Drewsephine |
I've had both types of home hub and they have both broken.
When I phoned BT I was assured that nothing was wrong with their kit, or their lines. I tried a spare router that I had and my tinterweb then worked fine 
|
||
| gz |
This is son#2 speaking (The Geek Wizzard so called!)
Most people don't need a Static IP Address. If you just want occasional access from your workplace you can use Dynamic DNS (see http://dyndns.com/). Some routers will let you add the DynDNS details in so that whenever you re-connect to the ADSL service, it updates your IP address in the DynDNS records. This means you can access your machine using exampleuser.dyndns.org regardless of what IP address DHCP decides to give you that day. SEEMPULS! If you really do want a Static IP, for a Mail or web server for example, ISPs may charge extra, although I know Be Internet (now part of O2) will do a free static IP, and have a very good network. Cheap too. See bethere.co.uk See if BT will do it cheaper without the homehub, I picked up a Netgear DG834GT off ebay for £20. |
||
| Cathryn |
Interesting, ours does that as well. Aside from that though they have been trouble free. I did once call the technical help desk who were hopeless because they didn't once listen to me and merely worked through their list of questions despite me saying repeatedly, yes I know that bit works, it's not what I want to know about. I actually wanted to know what I could do to increase the signal but he was so breathtakingly arrogant about it I ended up giggling through the entire conversation. Have a friend coming today who is involved with telecoms and computers, he is going to boost ours (because the signal isn't making it through the beach boulders that make up part of the walls of the house). I will let you know what he says about it all. |
||
| Nick |
No idea. But, you can see where I post from. Is it mostly one address? Possibly two, as I go through a VPN from here sometimes (like this post). |
||
| Emyr |
Ok, now I have my own account. I am the aforementioned Son 2 (cue "wooohoo, dadadadadada woohoo")
Apparently BT Total Broadband will not do Static IPs unless you're a business customer. http://www.beta.bt.com/bta/forums/thread.jspa?messageID=31236稄 There are people in that thread using DynDNS directly from their Hubs also, so that should be fine. Any particular reason for wanting a Static IP? |
||
| sean |
Welcome aboard. | ||
| vegplot |
IP address are in short supply and ISP's will use what they call dynamic IP addressing that is you are allocated an IP when you need it, it may not be the same IP address you had before. Static IP addresses mean you retain the same IP address rather which makes it easier to provide some services which require a static IP address. However, most home customers don't need one but business customer may, if they run a mail server for instance. |
||
| Treacodactyl |
We will occasionally require a static IP address for work purposes, and currently have one with my ISP. It might not be a problem if we can work round it so we'll ask next week.
I know BT might not be the best ISP but as they provide my land line it keeps things simple getting everything from one place and they should be better than my current ISP for the same cost. Thanks for all the help. |
||
| JB |
and back to the original question - you can turn off the wireless (which is exactly how I use mine wired to one PC with another remote hub / WAP connected further elsewhere) the hub phone is useless as quality is so low that I gave up and just use the land line (though I have the same problems with VOIP in the office, VOIP is overrated)
Only problem with the home hub is that it only provides two RJ45 connections hence the second hub elsewhere in my setup. Upsides are that they seem to be reliable and with a bit of techincal jiggery pokery you can even make it work as a local network print server. Downside with BT is that they're not the cheapest ISP but from my experience they do seem reliable and, as mentioned in another thread, there are advantages to having the same company for phone and broadband. |
||
| Treacodactyl |
Yes, that's what I'd do, hard-wire the PC and turn the wireless off. It might have a play with the wireless at some point so it would be useful to have.
Cost-wise it's the same as my ISP and at the moment I'm spending too much time sorting out the connection so a year with BT should be value for money if it sorts out the problems. |