Home Hub and PN

I am sure this has been asked before but could somebody kindly remind me which BT HH also works with PN out of the box?

My current router is showing a DSL connection uptime of 8 hours but an internet connection uptime of 21 days. How can there be a difference.

Either way I just feel I need a spare or replacement and my regular supplier is eBay!

Regards
Meldrew

Plusnet forum link, circa 2009

Thanks. I knew there was something about it somewhere. Should have done a search.

P S Typically there are not any about when you want one!

Meldrew

In reply to a post by meldrew:

Thanks. I knew there was something about it somewhere. Should have done a search.

P S Typically there are not any about when you want one!

Meldrew

I think there's a few available

Thanks for that link! I feel a bit stupid as my search was for "adsl wireless router" and only one HH came up in the list.

I got a HH 2.0, BNIB, for a few pence over a tenner inclusive of postage so i think that is a good deal. Was originally looking for a Netgear but they all seem quite old and a little pricey. I suppose that as usual one gets what one pays for,

Meldrew

Hi Meldrew, Could you post you experience with using the HH 2.0 out of the box.

Is it a Version A or Version B that you have? Version A is Broadcom Chipset and is made by Thomson. Version B is Sagem/ Gigaset and is made bt Siemens (I think?).

Out of the box report!

It is a V2.0A and arrived from ebay seller nicely packaged and still with the plastic sealed cover over the box. I clicked disconnect on my old (flashed HH v1) router and plugged in the new.

Access is by the usual 192.168.1.254. Annoyingly it would not let me enter my PN login until fully connected to the internet but then immediately accepted [email protected] with password and made a connection. There is also a compulsion to change the user password.

Interestingly there is an option for BT Internet or Other ISP. There is no obvious indication that it is restricted to BT and PN only but I cannot prove that. The proviso is that you can only use all the functions with a full BT connection.

Page 15 of the user manual includes the note: "If you are not a BT Total Broadband customer........check the instructions supplied by your ISP" which is encouraging for non BT users.

When fired up there are three main blue lights. Power, Broadband, and wirelaess. The Broadband light also flashes orange if connected to the ISP but not to the internet. Mine kept flashing orange every now and again while browsing and threw up an error message. Apparently even with an existing connection it takes a day or so to settle. 24 hrs later it seems rock solid. (Edit: You can set the blue light to flash or not to flash blue when date is transferred. Preset is not flashing)

Using the speed tester I have a profile of 7000k and downloads in the mid 5000s. Not significantly different to previous.

From a practical point of view there are also four network ports. Seems a nice piece of kit for the few pounds I paid for it and I do like new things to play with. Maybe an ex Sky Netgear next time!

Meldrew

Edited by deleted (Sun 18-Apr-10 20:12:55)

I believe that the firmware recognises the BT owned Domain IP addresses and will not accept other domains.

Did you select BT as your ISP? it would be interesting to know the behaviour if you select Non-BT.

I have bought one on eBay but don't know whether it is a type A or B or if it has been used before so the first challenge may be resetting the Password.

I will post my experience when I get it.

The label on the back will say if it type A or type B. Also the barcode label on the box.

As far as selecting the ISP is concerned you can either select the default BT total broadband or enter your full user name and password as with any other router. As it accepts PN without any qualms I am quite happy!

On a separate note you may be interested to know that PN logins do not appear to be linked to a specific phone number. I have a separate account in the South (market three!) and it will accept a login from the phone number in the North and vice versa. I discovered this by accident when swapping routers. Handy if you are running close to your limit. I somehow feel that the login process is not actually that clever!

Meldrew

The way it works (at least for us and therefore I'd assume for any reseller of BT) is the realm, in our case @plusdsl.net, is applied to the line. That line will then accept any connection from a login that finishes @plusdsl.net. The bit before the @ sign is picked up by our servers and that's what tells us which account is connecting.

So yes, you can log in using any plusnet login on any plusnet line (though some older accounts have different realms, and it won't work across @free-online.net and @f9.co.uk lines).