New BT Smart Hub 2 connection help

Hello all, i will bet getting BT FTTP at the end of the month and have a few questions/concerns about the Smart Hub 2 and other options.

So from what i have found out, it seems that i am forced to use the Smart Hub 2 in order to use the Digital Voice and connect the included handset. I would like to maybe use my own router (for wifi/ethernet connectivity) either on its on and not use the Smart Hub 2 or use both the Smart Hub 2 and my own router together. Is this possible? What options do i have to make this possible? I have been given suggestions as putting the router in bridge or use vlans, but a lot seems to be conflicting information and honestly i dont know what else to look for.

I have a few things that will be connected via ethernet and a few via wifi. I have a NETGEAR 8 Port Gigabit Ethernet Unmanaged Network Switch (GS208) and a netgear wifi extender to extend the wifi range. Also, what option would i have to use my phones (2 handset unit) to work with the new digital voice?

I have some knowledge of setting up a network, like connecting the router, changing passwords and ssid names, connect to the switch but thats about it, when it comes to vlans and static ip its a bit more complicated.

Hope to get some clarification on this before the openreach engineer shows up.

You could turn off DHCP on the Netgear router, leave the wan disconnected and connect lan1 of the Netgear to lan1 on the BT home hub, and turn off the Wi-Fi on the home hub.

The Netgear i have is a switch and a wifi extender but i get what you are trying to suggest. Unfortunately it still really doesn’t solve the issue without raising others. Seems like there is really no way around it.

The WiFi extender may well extend the WiFi from the SH2. Either reconfigure it and all your devices to match the credentials on the SH2, or just change the SH2 credentials to your existing ones so you do not have to update everything else.

The BT handset is DECT rather than WiFi, you may be able to register any other DECT handsets directly with the SH2 instead of using your existing phone base unit, however the handset - base functionality may be limited to basic GAP.

Alternatively just plug the existing phone base into the phone socket on the back of the SH2, however if you are using your existing phones and a BT handset paied with the SH2 you can't transfer calls between them.

Just been through this. BT are slightly disingenuous referring to Voice over IP - it is, but only as far as the Smart Hub 2 whereupon it's DECT. I got an adapter from BT which is a DECT extender so it pairs with the SH2 and you can plug ordinary phones (mine is a DECT base station) into it. I should have also been able to reregister the existing DECT phone with the SH2 as an alternative.

I have TP-link Deco mesh units so I just plug the first one of those into the SH2 and configure them as access points. I'd expect you should equally well be able to use your wifi extender.

In reply to a post by Hawthorns:

BT are slightly disingenuous referring to Voice over IP - it is, but only as far as the Smart Hub 2 whereupon it's DECT.

We can say a lot of things about BT’s Digital Voice but there is zero doubt it is anything other than 100% thoroughly VoIP.

The DECT protocol is one of the most power and spectrally efficient means of carrying voice over local radio. It is more commonly used to deliver “proper” VoIP across business and residential settings than perhaps you give it credit for. It is in very many ways superior to using other wireless protocols such as WiFi which were never designed from the ground up for the efficient carriage of digital voice. Using DECT does not in any way make a system less VoIP. It is a very much a complementary underlying carriage technology much like Ethernet on fixed cabling is.

So really BT are not being “disingenuous” here in the slightest.

Edited by Pheasant (Mon 14-Feb-22 23:55:10)

So my BT Advanced phone thingy has an IP address?

A wireless handset doesn’t itself need an IP address to be considered part of a VoIP phone system. If the base for the handset has a SIP client then that’s the VoIP ‘endpoint’.

There are many commercial phone systems that are pure IP, that incorporate DECT bases and repeaters. None of the handsets necessarily have an IP address.