I agree or speak to an IT company that can do it for them.

Thanks
Dan

In reply to a post by PCJM40:

Secondly why on earth would you pay all the money for a leased line to then put a cheap and cheerful piece of kit on it like that.

You see it all the time, customer limited to ADSL or sub-30Mbps FTTC, needs a quicker connection, BT Local Business sell them on the merits of a leased line and a nice short five year contract, provide a proposal document that quite clearly says what they're providing (managed Cisco router) but don't really check the customer understands the implication of this, so they end up with a TP Link Wi-Fi router on the end of it.

🤣 ...nice short contract indeed.

Post deleted by adamrcl

Exactly this.

We were missold the product by BT Local and I have been asked to pick up the pieces. We are negotiating a deal on a managed Meraki router but in the meantime need a stop gap. It looks like the BTB Smart Hub won't allow a static WAN IP.

Thanks for all the replies.

Primarily for an office of 5 staff using email, Sharepoint, web browsing and printing. I am aware the router is the property of BT but we won't be ending our FTTC contract until the leased line is up and running.

Doesn’t sound too good. There’s usually other alternatives available these days to getting a dedicated circuit, especially from BT. The horse has bolted however.

Are you trying to get them to give you a Meraki without monthly uplift - or are you being offered a ‘special’ price over the term? If it is a monthly extra over, then you may well be better off providing your own kit.

The BT local chap has "gone away to see what he can do" on the Meraki option so not holding my breath.

As you say, third party router could be the better option - maybe something like a modern Draytek?

I know of a company with the same/similar setup. BTNet leased line (oversold and overcharged for!) with a managed Meraki. They have an issue with one site being blocked, but not in the usual Meraki way (with an error message).

Because it is fully managed they are now going to have to rely on BT to understand and fix that error, hopefully without blaming, server, DNS, PC`s, Anti Virus etc etc. Fingers crossed....

I would have my own kit on the end of that line if given a choice. Some don't rate Draytek kit, but although nothing is perfect, I get on fine with it.

Thanks for the update. I’m definitely a proponent of having and managing your own kit. However I do realise that it’s not for everyone and all situations and capabilities.

It’s a shame that there isn’t enough knowledge and awareness amongst small and medium business people about such practises and the sometimes enormous pricing and value disparities. Still a lot of people getting stung.

But you could equally level the same for any non-core business and/or IT function and expense.