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)

When you find the time, please explain what's wrong with channel 13?

So i read your link and made the appropriate changes Cheers for the tips

Good stuff, now try out both the 5Ghz and 2.4Ghz bands. I highly doubt the 2.4 will be worse signal wise than your old netgear device....

Ok will do later today.

What about the Billion BiPAC 8800AXL VDSL2(Fibre)/ADSL2+ Dual Band Wireless AC 1300 Modem Router with 3G/4G LTE failover 4 x Gigabit LAN, 1 x Gigabit WAN and 2 x USB port

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Billion-8800AXL-Wireless-fai...

Yeah thats the one i put in my reply when the other guy suggested routers i could use instead of the BT Hub 5.

I've also been considering replacing my BT HH5 (A) (on Infinity 1). (My main reason is because of wifi issues: every time the VDSL re-syncs (which it does frequently) it causes home network chaos by dropping all our wifi connections - but that's a story for another post!)

I presume none of the alternative routers would maintain the open BT WiFi hotspot that my BT HH5 has alongside my secured private WiFi? If so, would BT detect that I'd effectively disabled the hotspot and so bar me from using all other BT WiFi & FON hotspots elsewhere?

No. BT customers get free access to BT Wifi, no conditions.

OK thanks, BatBoy.

From the BT WiFi section of My BT:

When you opt your home hub out of BT Wi-fi, we will automatically disable your access to use BT Wi-fi across our millions of hotspots in the UK and abroad.

So if you opt out you also lose access to the hotspots. However, if you just use your own router and do not tell BT that you are opting put then the hotspot access is not affected. I know this because I had no problem accessing the hotspots prior to having my FTTP Infinity 2 deployed. However, since deployment I have seen no reason to replace the HH5.

If you opt-out of a service, you lose it. That seems to be the point of opting out.

OK now I'm really confused! Does changing to a third party router amount to "opting out" or not? Or am I still "opted in" unless I log into my account and specifically say I want to "opt out" of BT WiFi?

You can goto the BT website and OPT OUT of BT WiFI... that's what's being referring to. Using a thrid party router isn't considered opting out by BT. So you'll still be able to use other peoples BT WiFi Hotspots.

It's brightd's post that is confusing, as it reads as if BT authorise the use of other routers. Try this version of the post:-

From the BT WiFi section of My BT:

When you opt your home hub out of BT Wi-fi, we will automatically disable your access to use BT Wi-fi across our millions of hotspots in the UK and abroad.

So if you opt out you also lose access to the hotspots. However, if you just use your own router and do not tell BT that you are opting out then the hotspot access is not affected. I know this because I had no problem accessing the hotspots prior to having my FTTP Infinity 2 deployed. However, since deployment I have seen no reason to replace the HH5.

Edited by RobertoS (Mon 20-Apr-15 13:52:46)

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

It's brightd's post that is confusing, as it reads as if BT authorise the use of other routers.

I thought BT does authorise other routers? Or at least does not forbid it?

Just be aware that if you have BT TV the router has to support Multicasting, otherwise you lose your extra channels. Even some routers that are supposed to support Multicasting still need the Homehub at the start of the chain. I tried to swap the HH for a Netgear Nighthawk - great router but I couldn't get multicasting to work without the HH still connected to the modem.

I've noticed TalkTalk routers have a second virtual circuit set up in addition to PPPoA, a bridged connection of VPI 0 VCI 65 (I think, can't check because I deleted it), for TalkTalk TV.

Not sure if the HH has something similar (maybe hidden) which may need to be configured on the third party router. Some routers don't support more than one virtual circuit at all.

Just a minor point/condition - you must have your wireless turned on at home, or no "free" BT Phon/BT WiFi.

In reply to a post by lelboy:

Just a minor point/condition - you must have your wireless turned on at home, or no "free" BT Phon/BT WiFi.

It doesn't matter what router you have set up at home or how it's configured, as long as BT Wifi is enabled in the online control panel, you can use BT Wifi out and about.

Hello Oliver, That's the only point I made - many that don't use their wifi facility at home often turn it off, for reasons best known to themselves. I have no idea about alternative routers.

Agreed . I just struggled for half a minute to think of the correct word to use, failed, and gave up. I'll alter it if you come up with the right word/phrasing in time.

In reply to a post by lelboy:

Just a minor point/condition - you must have your wireless turned on at home, or no "free" BT Phon/BT WiFi.

I'm sorry, you're completely wrong. It doesn't matter if you have wireless on or off at home BT Wifi is unaffected. You can still use BT Wifi anywhere.

In reply to a post by lelboy:

That's the only point I made - many that don't use their wifi facility at home often turn it off, for reasons best known to themselves.

Right, but turning off wifi on their home router won't affect their ability to use BT Wifi out and about, and I thought you were saying it did. All that matters is what you set up on the BT Wifi website.

The Homehub still transmits BT Wifi even if you turn wireless off. To get it to stop, you either have to replace the router or opt-out.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

Agreed . I just struggled for half a minute to think of the correct word to use, failed, and gave up. I'll alter it if you come up with the right word/phrasing in time.

I don't know what word you want, since I didn't find brightd's post confusing!

In reply to a post by BatBoy:

The Homehub still transmits BT Wifi even if you turn wireless off. To get it to stop, you either have to replace the router or opt-out.

Yeah. I was just saying to lelboy that it doesn't matter what wifi choices are made on the router's GUI, since it won't affect BT Wifi either way. As you say, there is no router-side BT Wifi kill switch.

Only if you are lucky enough to be able to log on okay. I can very rarely managed to log onto the free BT WiFi.

In reply to a post by timl:

You can goto the BT website and OPT OUT of BT WiFI... that's what's being referring to. Using a thrid party router isn't considered opting out by BT. So you'll still be able to use other peoples BT WiFi Hotspots.

you need a BT email address though. When I signed up for Infinity none of the acknowledgements etc I received detailed such an address.

My BT login is a user name not an email address.

The acknowledgements etc will have gone to the (non BT) address you supplied. Obviously until you actually became a BT customer you will not have had a BT email address. I was then asked what I wanted my BT email address to be:something@btinternet.com.

When you login to your BT account and go to the Mail tab what does it show you?

The only non-email userid I use with BT is for their support forums.

In reply to a post by gomezz:

The acknowledgements etc will have gone to the (non BT) address you supplied. Obviously until you actually became a BT customer you will not have had a BT email address. I was then asked what I wanted my BT email address to be:something@btinternet.com.

When you login to your BT account and go to the Mail tab what does it show you?

The only non-email userid I use with BT is for their support forums.

I have never been asked and the Mail tab on MyBT just asks me to login with my email and password

I suggest you check the email account which you *did* give to BT for an email entitled

Your BT service is ready: see what's nextþ

pretty much all vdsl2 modem/routers are backward compatible with adsl, the 8800nl definitely is as I own it so I know.

You will want a device which has a broadcom chipset, no idea on the TP, but the billion 8800NL is broadcom based so recommended, the 8800AXL is a higher spec'd alternative.

Just looked at that router mate,Its a Billion and it has very good reviews apart from the last bloke���very tempted ?

But I'm still going to look for a even better one,not keen on the looks but if its a great performer what does it matter��don't like White