Sky required their hub to use their broadband never mind digital voice.

It only changed when they bought o2 and by extension Be* (of which I was a part of with Be*) that they allowed 3rd party routers although that I think has fallen by the wayside again.

I used a Billion 7800N on sky for quite a while until FTTC became available and I switched to Plusnet for my own internet.

I always considered myself a bit more knowledgeable than the average user, and have been using my own routers for years as i never trusted the ISP supplied stuff, or found it to be limiting.

But after switching to digital voice a couple of weeks ago, I thought I would try the BT Smart Hub 2... and it seems to work fine.

DHCP/DNS servers - could be annoying, but I have disabled DHCP and set my pi-hole to act as the DHCP server so it gets round that issue.

Wi-Fi - I also have Wi-Fi disabled as I have a third party mesh system, and I dont see any entries relating to Wi-Fi, except for a few things that happen at boot-up. Possibly you are getting entries due to the public Wi-Fi.

As for turning off the public Wi-Fi, I think it's fair enough that if you turn it off you lose access. I don't use it so it didn't bother me turning it off.

Honestly, I don't think it's that bad and although it's got far less options than my Billion 8800AXL r2, in my day to day use the user experience is the same. The internet works fine across all devices, and the wife who works from home hasn't complained. It's pretty stable compared to earlier BT hubs.

The only thing it can't do which my Billion router did, is send me an email when the WAN IP address changes, but it's not an essential feature.

It's fine for the 99% who just want to plug and play and will never log into the user interface.

Edited by troublegum (Fri 29-Apr-22 19:11:48)

They (well my dad really) isn't keen for public wifi on the SH2 at all.
Also my dad put the renewal through thinking he'd just be renewing the FTTC/landline service he had. It's safe the say the horse had bolted when the install and switch over happened etc. Mobile data....they don't have a whole lot.

Also, seperate VoIP provider is extra hidden costs since having to pay for extra equipment (be it VoIP phones or an ATA) and being 70 year old pensioners extra costs aren't a great thing....one thing I'll say for BT is they sent DV adapters for free

Extra cost limits choice where with BT equipment (including DV adapters) was free, with a VoIP provider you typically have to pay out for equipment :|

In reply to a post by bowdon:

OP, isn't it possible to port the phone number over to a VOIP provider then just order FTTP broadband from BT?

The horse has bolted on that one as they had renewed contract as it was out of contract not realising/knowing/really being properly made aware of the switch to DV and even if they had when my dad ordered, they wouldn't have really understood the ramifications of it. No I wasn't involved in the ordering/renewal process, I deal with tech support/aftermath!

I hear you.

I think the VOIP situation is going to be a big issue for many non-tech people this year, even for a lot of younger people who can use software/devices but they dont know the tech side of things.

The ISP's don't make it that clear. I'm looking to upgrade to FTTP via BT and the first page that opens is Broadband only, then on a clickable link line of writing it says something like "if you choose this then you will lose your phone number". It's like they are trying to scare/direct people in to the ISP's preferred choice.

I'd like to set up a pihole myself and i did think of using it for DHCP but it's more expense and....well the best device to run it on is a Pi and good luck finding those in stock any time soon :|

Yeah you don't see WiFi entries because you opted out of BT WiFi, something I've done for the too at the moment.
It's really sketchy though that turning off WiFi doesn't actually turn off WiFi.

Yes they do seem to be hard to find at the moment. You don't need a high end one, mine runs fine on an old model 2b which can probably be found on ebay for not a lot of money.

https://rpilocator.com/ - keep a lookout here

Pihole will run on pretty much anything even the zero but a USB ethernet port is an unwanted added expense

I have an older Orange Pi that also works fine so other boards are suitable and maybe easier to source currently.

Regarding the SH2 - It really is a device that works for 95% of BTs users so I understand why they do some of the things they do.

I haven't used my Homehub for around 10 years and the BT wifi still works which is another added benefit from leaving it enabled and using your own router (where possible of course).
I really cannot fault BT for VDSL tbh as I have a fantastic connection but Swish are currently installing so will move to full fibre hopefully this year.

My Broadband Ping

Edited by smouty (Sat 30-Apr-22 09:26:53)

So, you are complaining about the complimentary drinks that came free with the service ?