In reply to a post by Michael_Chare:

Maybe the EU should insist that the hubs should work with other ISPs, just like they wish to standardize mobile phone charging sockets, and the UK want to make it possible for mobile phones to roam from one network to another as they do when they are used abroad,

We are leaving the eu , and we don't want them meddling any more

In reply to a post by tommy45:

We are leaving the eu , and we don't want them meddling any more

I care more about the environment than the EU. Anything that reduce the numbers of routers ending up in landfill is worth exploring.

Argument for making the metwork sockets on a router the demarcation point?

No more filter fandango when your ADSL/VDSL connection doesn't work as it should though if that manifesto pledge of full fibre everywhere by 2025 comes to pass (not holding my breath) that'll become a moot point.

As long as ADSL/VDSL persists then yep, make it fully managed.

Or ensure the network demarcation point is a standard Ethernet RJ45 connector with DHCP or PPPoE. At that point a choice of NAT router or "hub" or "gateway" is the customers choice.

What we had with cable in 1999.

In reply to a post by Zarjaz:

In reply to a post by PaulKirby:

Why would anyone want to use the rubbish Smart Hubs, they are full of bugs that never got fixed while I used one and become sluggish when using the whole connection

Conversely, mine works a treat.

Different strokes innit.

*dons tin hoil hat

Ah, but you work for BT so they hand picked yours

In reply to a post by techguy:

Ah, but you work for BT so they hand picked yours

I had a HH4, it was ok but the reboot every 14 days irked me. From what I gather, this is still a "feature" of the Smart Hubs.

Conversely, the Plusnet firmware on the re-badged HH5 does not do this.

In reply to a post by Oliver341:

One argument in favour of loaning routers is that most likely many of them end up in the dustbin after changing ISP, which is bad for the environment.

I would point out that putting a router or any electrical item in the dustbin has been illegal under WEEE regulations for at least a decade. Perhaps it's about time that councils enforce existing regulations. They should go in the small electrics at the local recycling centre.

In reply to a post by jabuzzard:

I would point out that putting a router or any electrical item in the dustbin has been illegal under WEEE regulations for at least a decade.

Indeed, I have my doubts as to how well observed the WEEE regulations are, and it would be hard to collate statistics on compliance. I don't know if the councils can afford to pay people to scour every individual's rubbish for prohibited waste.

In reply to a post by jabuzzard:

They should go in the small electrics at the local recycling centre.

There is no doorstep collection of small electricals like there is for other types of waste adding to the likelihood of people choosing the dustbin, maybe councils need to bring this into consideration and provide some kind of doorstep provision.

In reply to a post by jabuzzard:

I would point out that putting a router or any electrical item in the dustbin has been illegal under WEEE regulations for at least a decade. Perhaps it's about time that councils enforce existing regulations. They should go in the small electrics at the local recycling centre.

It is unclear if domestic users are at risk of prosecution under WEEE; there are bigger fish to fry. Corporates are heavily fined for not correctly disposing of WEEE.

The regulations were for Producers and Distributors. In theory you should return the WEEE to the distributor (e.g. local supermarket, Argos, or Amazon) for recycling.

I suspect this is why BT want unused Hubs back.

In reply to a post by Oliver341:

I had a HH4, it was ok but the reboot every 14 days irked me. From what I gather, this is still a "feature" of the Smart Hubs.

Conversely, the Plusnet firmware on the re-badged HH5 does not do this.

I also had a HH4 that rebooted every 10 to 14 days, very annoying as hell, my Smart Hub use to stay up for months so that was better, but sadly it became sluggish when we used our full connection, plus it had other issues, so I moved over to a Linksys WRT 3200 ACM and never had any issues like I was having with the Smart Hub.

Plus there is no place to report bugs and issues with the Smart Hub to, where there is for Linksys.

Maybe the firmware on the Smart Hub is better now, but I have no way of knowing, plus the Linksys router is all running and setup as I wanted, so I am not messing with it LOL

I was also offered one of the new Smart Hubs when I renewed for 2 years where I got my very good deal, but I told them I would never use it due to all the issues I had with their previous version.

Paul