BT Business 900Mpbs

Well just ordered BT Business 900/110 with failover dongle and digital phone line for £58.95/pm. About the same as we currently pay just for 300/50.

It comes with a hub (Hub 2) but we run a UniFi USG-Pro4 (and I'd upgrade to UXG if it is released, might pull the trigger on UDM Pro if I have to). It seems I can avoid the BT Hub and set the connection up straight in the USG but that presumably means no Failover to EE but avoids double NAT. I do use VPN on occasion (when on holiday) to check network is working and security cameras and such.

I could set up the BT Hub so it works and then manually plug it back on failure at which point it will presumably fail over to EE. But would be better if it could be left in place and still have everything work. Anyone any idea on VPN pass through or similar if I leave the hub permanently connected?

The digital phone seems to suggest it can be connected to POE which infers it doesn't have to be connected to the hub directly. Does anybody know if this is actually the case? Will I still need the BT hub acting as router.
I haven't ported a number and just told them its a complete new line, the existing copper line isn't in my name and I have no authority to change it. Want time to check suitability of VOIP and sort handsets. We currently have 5 DECT handsets and couldn't do with any less (its a big house).
Any pointers appreciated.
Dave

The BT supplied phone is totally independent - it is a Yealink with locked firmware and set up. You cannot add lines to it or use teh line on another VoIP base.

You can get extra Yealink handsets through BT but cannot get it to work with Gigaset.


I run PPPoE direct into a UDM-Pro with v4 and v6, the BT hub and dongle are sitting there idel, just in case.

You can keep using the BT hub and put your firewall as a DMZ host to forward all ports to it.
It would still be double NAT but would fail over to the 4G

Thanks
Dan

FTTP in a rural setting has been extremely reliable in my experience. I’m not sure you’ll honestly see much out of the 4G backup. I suppose it’s good to have though just in case.

I’m not really much of a fan of the BT hub setup with their phone service. Too restrictive for me. I prefer to be able to roll my own solution and use whatever voice provider with whatever devices etc. But that’s just my preference.

I've never used a BT Home Hub, but you could avoid the double NAT *if* it lets you add static routes.

Text
1 23 45 67 89 1011 1213 14	.  |   ONT   |   BTH   |.1    | --+--+----- 192.168.1.0/24       |      |.2     your-rtr      | |    ---+-|--- 10.0.0.0/24        |    -----+--- 10.0.1.0/24

On BTH: add static route to 10.0.0.0/8 via 192.168.1.2
On your-rtr: set WAN addr to 192.168.1.2/24, default gateway 192.168.1.1, disable NAT

In reply to a post by MHC:

The BT supplied phone is totally independent - it is a Yealink with locked firmware and set up. You cannot add lines to it or use teh line on another VoIP base.

You can get extra Yealink handsets through BT but cannot get it to work with Gigaset.

I run PPPoE direct into a UDM-Pro with v4 and v6, the BT hub and dongle are sitting there idel, just in case.

I think this is what I have envisaged as the likely worst case scenario. I don't have automatic failover because I need to plug it in, but its there if I need it, And the phone line as its a new number I can either use it or not. 4-extra handsets that aren't of my choosing possibly means it won't get used.
So I am still only paying £58.95 for 900Mbps on business usage - which is fine with me.

In reply to a post by Pheasant:

FTTP in a rural setting has been extremely reliable in my experience. I’m not sure you’ll honestly see much out of the 4G backup. I suppose it’s good to have though just in case.

I’m not really much of a fan of the BT hub setup with their phone service. Too restrictive for me. I prefer to be able to roll my own solution and use whatever voice provider with whatever devices etc. But that’s just my preference.

Yes agreed FTTP has been rock solid since installed, and will continue to be until it isn't! But the premium was almost nil. £58.95 is competitive on business, and TalkTalk is pennies cheaper on an ongoing basis. It does offer 3 free months out of 24 so it ends up being a choice of no bill for 3-months (£180) versus failover protection for 24-months. So £7.50/month for failover protection and a free VOIP line which I can learn about VOIP with on a no pressure basis.
We pay £55/month +VAT for 330/50 plus phone line. So £58.95 for 900/100 and failover and VOIP is a bargain.

Plus we run holiday cottages, if it ever fails then the failover might save us from 1* on Tripadvisor.

In reply to a post by candlerb:

I've never used a BT Home Hub, but you could avoid the double NAT *if* it lets you add static routes.

Text
1 23 45 67 89 1011 1213 14	.  |   ONT   |   BTH   |.1    | --+--+----- 192.168.1.0/24       |      |.2     your-rtr      | |    ---+-|--- 10.0.0.0/24        |    -----+--- 10.0.1.0/24

On BTH: add static route to 10.0.0.0/8 via 192.168.1.2
On your-rtr: set WAN addr to 192.168.1.2/24, default gateway 192.168.1.1, disable NAT

Yeah its the 'if it will let me' I'll have to sort, in the middle of a busy summer of guests & my kids demanding WiFi, working from home in the day job etc. etc. Will be sitting waiting for guests to go to bed so I can down the router and try things out. Not much experience of DMZ/Static routes. Only self taught but can handle VLANs and other stuff so I'm sure I'll work it out.

I'm hopefully overlapping Cerberus and BT by a month so we have zero downtime. I'll use that time and some other spare old router to try the static route stuff (now I know its a potential route).
Cheers
Dave
Sometimes its just the understanding of what you can do thats hard. Once I know what I'm googling for I can most likely get it sorted.

Can't you plug the ONT into WAN 1 on the USG - configure the PPPOE as the primary connection.

Plug the EE dongle into the HH and set its IP to be a different subnet (e.g. 192.168.10.1) and then plug that into WAN 2 of the USG and configure as failover in the controller.

The HH is permanently connected to the EE dongle but is only in use if needed if your FTTP goes down.

I have done this on my line (admittedly g.fast not FTTP and using udm pro) and it works without any issues. I have seen that there is something to do with fault logging if the EE dongle is in use but as no traffic is passing over it then not sure if that would count and have not had anything from BT in the last 4 months since I set up this configuration.

Edited by NGDragon (Wed 30-Jun-21 15:56:37)

I am on a 300/50 at £51.95/month! So a reasonable price for 900/110

I did find an "issue" with the BT Business Hub in that it restricted the upstream to around 33-35 Mbps, whereas a Residential Hub or direct PPPoE gave just under 50. There is the possibility the bug/issue may still be there and restrict the 110 to a lower level.

I have three other VoIP numbers which are routed through my Gigaset base and those are used most of te time. The single BT one is there and rarely used - some people still use teh number or for outgoing 0800 calls.