BT Home Hub 5 …Alternatives.

Hi all we decided after many years of giving BT a try out given the cost involved and what you actually get,moved from Xilo which i have to say where exceptional connection wise and apart from the odd problem all i can do is heap praise on Xilo and we were very happy in the 3 years spent with them.

Now the dilemma,having upgraded first with Xilo and then a new Infinity 2 contract with BT for unlimited Fibre our Home Hub 5 packed up 2 days ago with a constant flashing green start up light,basically its 6 months old but BT have since replaced it within 24 hours so brownie point there.

Looking at what my download speeds were with Xilo they were around 66 to 68,with BT they are more like 56,not bad but about a 10 drop.

With the Xilo Fibre package we were on and the inclusion of BT sport it was costing us £50 smackers a month,with BT this now costs i think at the time of the contract £15.99.

I have also noticed that BTs claim of the best wireless connection is not what I'm experiencing with the Home Hub 5 and it was far better with Xilo and a Netgear router.

Now the question ?

Do i have to use a BT Home Hub 5 for BT fibre Broadband or can i by a similar product without having a open reach modem like i first had when using fibre with Xilo.

I ask this as i need a back up just in case something goes wrong in the future and I'm waiting on BT for replacement,my girlfriend works from home and its of upmost importance that we have stability,i now things go wrong and electrical appliances break down but I'm just limiting the options.

Also if there is a router on the market with the built in fibre modem capabilities i could also test if the wireless is better than this Hub5.

What i do like about the HUB 5 is the interface and the ease of use on the end user,unlike the complicated Xilo control panel that requires you to be complete technical geek to get past the first page and change anything other than basic settings.

So basically with BT am i stuck with Hub 5 or are there alternatives.

Cheers all .

In reply to a post by time2die:

So basically with BT am i stuck with Hub 5 or are there alternatives.

Both these will also do the job and are pretty well regarded:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00NEQZ12Y
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00K6D2ESM

You can use anything you wish - just keep the HH in case you have a problem.

As for WiFi - get a dedicated WAP and locate it in a suitable location to give the best coverage - which is unlikely to be at the modem/router location.


You mention the importance of a stable connection as your girlfriend works from home. Can I ask why you have gone for a consumer product for such an important connection? If it is critical then a Business grade connection would have been a better option with UK based support, a lot faster repair time - mine is normally NBD.

To be honest mate i never really heard of a business grade connection and generally it wasn't as important in the past as the days from home were perhaps 1 or 2 a week,now within the next 6 months she is totally going mobile and working from home full time with her job and oversea commitments.

Its another problem we are facing as we want to move back to a rural type property and also have a half decent connection as we live not half a mile from the local town at present.

I like the look of the second unit but the newer product listed Below it.

Thanks for the links i literally thought i was stuck with the Home Hub 5 and couldn't use alternatives,so basically when looking for a replacement to the Home Hub 5 it needs to be fibre ready is that correct or ADSL 2 ?

Why I'm on the subject are these routers just for fibre connections and could they work if in the future we could not get fibre but say an average 12 meg normal broadband connection,£132 for a router seems pricey but if it offers better wifi stability then i guess its worth it.

Tell me what you think ?

FTTC uses VDSL2 so you need it to have a VDSL modem

There are a lot of advantages of using BT Business rather than BT Retail/Consumer - those listed above are a start.

We had a major outage which could NOT be fixed in a day and took several weeks - not really BTs fault. However, they provided a 3G modem at no cost for the duration of the problem. Had it been a consumer service, as my neighbours found, that would not happen.

Another issue required 3 or 4 long visits from BT Techs, arranged at times suitable for ME.

And if she is working from home, putting Residential/Consumer through as a business expense can give issue whereas a BT Business charge is easily tax deductible and VAT recoverable.

In reply to a post by time2die:

I like the look of the second unit but the newer product listed Below it.

Good but pricey. I was excluding AC wireless routers since I think they're still a bit overpriced.

In reply to a post by time2die:

Thanks for the links i literally thought i was stuck with the Home Hub 5 and couldn't use alternatives,so basically when looking for a replacement to the Home Hub 5 it needs to be fibre ready is that correct or ADSL 2 ?

It needs VDSL2 as previously mentioned.

In reply to a post by time2die:

Why I'm on the subject are these routers just for fibre connections and could they work if in the future we could not get fibre but say an average 12 meg normal broadband connection,£132 for a router seems pricey but if it offers better wifi stability then i guess its worth it.

All VDSL2 routers are backward compatible with ADSL/ADSL2+.

Edited by Oliver341 (Sat 18-Apr-15 13:29:16)

Cheers guys for all the help, much appreciated

I wouldn't go out buying a new router just yet, the HomeHub 5 is an AC router and the routers suggested in this forum so far have wireless N standards which is worse than AC included in the HomeHub 5.

A lot of the Wireless issues on the HH5 are due to it having the 5Ghz and 2.4Ghz network named the same.

http://bt.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/44798...

You may find the 2.4Ghz signal is a lot better in some of the further and harder to reach rooms.

With the default setup I find it often stays on 5Ghz even when it barely works, whereas 2.4 will work fine in the same spot.

Also try out changing the wireless channel to 1, 6 and 11 on the 2.4Ghz band, you may just be using a congested channel.

Do not use in between channels such as 2,3,4,5,7,8,9,10,12 or 13... I don't have the time to explain but it's bad.

Edited by ukhardy07 (Sat 18-Apr-15 20:20:26)