BT Smart Hub 2, no guest network...aaaargggg!!

I've just had bt fttp fibre installed which is now setup using the supplied Smart Hub 2 and digital phone handset.

However ive now found out that the Hub won't allow you to setup a separate guest network?

I've got 2 uni student daughters who visit with their mates and I'm worried that they'll bring all their digital infections with them, and I've recently had all my nas media files locked by malware, so annoying.

So any advice would be really appreciated.

Maybe I need to invest in a new wan wireless router?

In reply to a post by gjbrunsdon:

Maybe I need to invest in a new wan wireless router?

You can't replace the BT-supplied router, without losing your phone service entirely.

But you can connect a separate wireless access point (it doesn't need to be a router). You would need to configure it to allow access to the Internet but not to your internal private IP addresses, e.g. 192.168.x.x. I know that Unifi access points can do this - they can run up to 4 SSIDs, and you can set one of them to be a guest network.

If you do use an additional wireless router, that can work too: you connect the WAN of the guest router to the LAN on your own network, and the guests will be behind another layer of NAT (which you don't care about). But you *will* still need to configure it with a rule to block outgoing traffic to your private IP range.

You can set up separate SSIDs with Unifi but without VLANs is it not all just the same network still?

Install BT Wi-Fi apps on your daughters devices so they use that rather than your ssid to connect to the sh2.

In reply to a post by candlerb:

You can't replace the BT-supplied router, without losing your phone service entirely.

And this is the problem with this new digital voice thing, There need to be some way that people can change hardware if they want to and still have access to digital voice. This is like going back to the old days when we could not use anything unless it was supplied by the GPO, but with more providers.

In reply to a post by zyborg47:

In reply to a post by candlerb:

You can't replace the BT-supplied router, without losing your phone service entirely.

And this is the problem with this new digital voice thing, There need to be some way that people can change hardware if they want to and still have access to digital voice. This is like going back to the old days when we could not use anything unless it was supplied by the GPO, but with more providers.

If I've understood things correctly you have to use the BT supplied router to access the BT VoIP service but there is nothing to stop you using the router of your choice and migrating your existing phone number to one of the third-party VoIP providers.

Edited by GonePostal (Sun 27-Nov-22 10:49:29)

Correct. Doing the latter though will cease the BT account as the voice service is bundled with the broadband, so porting the number acts as account cease.

In reply to a post by smouty:

You can set up separate SSIDs with Unifi but without VLANs is it not all just the same network still?

I run several (manually designated) separate VLANs through my Ubiquiti APs, so those networks are fully segregated from one another - however UI have another one click "Guest Network" setting in network type which creates a somewhat restricted guest network, to quote from the portal manager:

"Your Guest Hotspot Profile will automatically be applied to this Guest Network. Connected clients will be isolated from all other internal networks. These restrictions can be modified in your Guest Hotspot Profile."

So the Guest Network setting provides an automated way to create a restricted guest network, although my understanding is that the restrictions not as thorough as using a fully separate VLAN for the same purpose (there are some security holes), but for most folks its good enough and simpler to setup and manage.

In reply to a post by GonePostal:

If I've understood things correctly you have to use the BT supplied router to access the BT VoIP service but there is nothing to stop you using the router of your choice and migrating your existing phone number to one of the third-party VoIP providers.

That is not the point, i already use VoIP, so it makes no difference to me. The thing is now it is more hassle for people.

In reply to a post by Pheasant:

Correct. Doing the latter though will cease the BT account as the voice service is bundled with the broadband, so porting the number acts as account cease.
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I forgot about that, but yes that is true. Maybe they should bring out a unit that will connect to any router and allow people to use the phone service on any router. i know Out of reach have some sort of VOIP box for people that don't have broadband, can that fit onto another router or does connect directly to the phone line?