BT Total Broadband/BT Home Hub.....

[lildevil]

Hi everyone

Been a while since i've posted. I am still around, just because I have left Rover 75 ownership doesn't mean I will be leaving the club....all you great helpful people!

Well I ordered BT Total Broadband yesterday (option 3) also got BT Talk. So in all it comes with:

BT Home Hub
BT Hub Phone
BT Talk
.....will get BT Vision soon.....

I would like people's good/bad experiences with BT in particular BT Total Broadband. I am currently on Tiscali so I am almost certain that BT will be much better than Tiscali.

Anybody with BT Total Broadband your opinions are appreciated.
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P.S The Lexus is doing very well, I do miss the 75 in some ways....but other people much prefer the Lexus. Need to get alloys refurbed before winter (Lexus wheels = bad corrosion) and the car appears to be making a vibration through the car when reversing.....any ideas?

Regards
Tom

[BMC123]

apart from some minor gripes with the hub phone (mostly put right via the BT forums) I am very happy with it. Also, 3 of my friends have recently moved over to BT after being messed about with both Tiscali and AOL, and they are very pleased as well. (of course they moveed before BT's latest offer of £30 for a recomendation)
The transfer over (via MAC code) was smooth and painless, I took the option of monthly payments, as its easier for me to deal with it that way

At the end of the day, by dealing direct with BT i am keeping all the resellers and package deal muppets out of the loop, and the service has been faultless and I have had no reason to contact them at all. (apart from the hub phone things)

My gripe with the hub phone was 1st it never seemed to hold the date/time this was sorted by setting it in the hub mamanger admin settings, were you also set things like what phone rings when there is an incoming call to the hub phone (mine is set to just the hub phone, the default seems to be all phones )

the other is that the wireless audio cuts out a lot but I am working on that.

[lildevil]

Originally Posted by BMC123

apart from some minor gripes with the hub phone (mostly put right via the BT forums) I am very happy with it. Also, 3 of my friends have recently moved over to BT after being messed about with both Tiscali and AOL, and they are very pleased as well. (of course they moveed before BT's latest offer of £30 for a recomendation)
The transfer over (via MAC code) was smooth and painless, I took the option of monthly payments, as its easier for me to deal with it that way

At the end of the day, by dealing direct with BT i am keeping all the resellers and package deal muppets out of the loop, and the service has been faultless and I have had no reason to contact them at all. (apart from the hub phone things)

My gripe with the hub phone was 1st it never seemed to hold the date/time this was sorted by setting it in the hub mamanger admin settings, were you also set things like what phone rings when there is an incoming call to the hub phone (mine is set to just the hub phone, the default seems to be all phones )

the other is that the wireless audio cuts out a lot but I am working on that.

Thanks for the info. Looks good, all the stuff is coming friday .

I know that the home hub is wireless but can I set it up so that the hub is downstairs plugged into power and phone sockets and then have computer upstairs with usb wireless dongle? So in other words connect the computer to the hub using wireless? Or does it have to have a physical connection to one computer using a Ethernet or usb cable?

Regards
Tom

[BMC123]

First off, if you are using Vista you will need the latest drivers from here:

http://www.btopenworld.com/broadband...l#yahoodrivers

everything is in the package for XP users

for wireless set up as far as i know that will not be a problem, but for first install I usually recomend people to set up via the ethernet cable first, and then once the hub has been set up, you could move the PC anywhere in range and work away. I will point out however it is very important to follow the instructions, esp the bit about NOT plugging it into your PC until the hub has "talked" to the exchange, this takes about an hour so spend the time reading up on the other bits and bobs.

the hub phone uses a pair of standard rechargable AA batteries, and they can take up to 16 hours to charge, so i cheated and used 2 i already had charged


once all is set up, wireless is a doddle, as the wep key and other info is on the back of the hub, remember to go into hub management and change your default passwords (for security).

to set up a wireless computer for internet use its a simple matter of plugging a dongle in, and waiting for it to detect the network, enter the wep key and thats it.

[lildevil]

Originally Posted by BMC123

First off, if you are using Vista you will need the latest drivers from here:

http://www.btopenworld.com/broadband...l#yahoodrivers

everything is in the package for XP users

for wireless set up as far as i know that will not be a problem, but for first install I usually recomend people to set up via the ethernet cable first, and then once the hub has been set up, you could move the PC anywhere in range and work away. I will point out however it is very important to follow the instructions, esp the bit about NOT plugging it into your PC until the hub has "talked" to the exchange, this takes about an hour so spend the time reading up on the other bits and bobs.

the hub phone uses a pair of standard rechargable AA batteries, and they can take up to 16 hours to charge, so i cheated and used 2 i already had charged


once all is set up, wireless is a doddle, as the wep key and other info is on the back of the hub, remember to go into hub management and change your default passwords (for security).

to set up a wireless computer for internet use its a simple matter of plugging a dongle in, and waiting for it to detect the network, enter the wep key and thats it.

Thanks for the info. This place is so, so helpful.

One more thing concerning BT Talk (if you don't have it don't worry) but can I plug my Bang & Olufsen phone into the Home hub and still get incoming calls from my normal land line on it?

Regards
Tom

[salop75]

I like the BT Homehub kit, its a nice package, but.... they should not ship with WEP! poorly implemented security is worse than no security at all.

Best bet is to use the hub admin interface to change the wireless security type to WPA or even better WPA2 - although some XP clients seem to have problems with WPA2.

When you change to WPA the key stays the same which makes things easy, although there is nothing to stop you using a different one.

[GreyGhost]

Access to the advanced settings on the hub, username admin, password admin.
All lowercase.

[lildevil]

Originally Posted by Grey Ghost

Access to the advanced settings on the hub, username admin, password admin.
All lowercase.

Thanks for the info.

GG your always helpful....it seems what ever I ask I can always expect an answer from you which is a good thing

I am assuming you have BT Total Broadband then GG?

Regards
Tom

[Z135T]

In place of continually using wireless throughout the home there is a new gadget called a "Homeplug" which allows you to use the mains electric wiring using a 3 pin plug in which you plug an ethernet lead into, it means no more hard wiring all over the gaff and if you have the Hub in another room and say desktop /btvision elsewhere you run an ethernet lead from the pc/stb into the plug works like a dream.

[GreyGhost]

Originally Posted by lildevil

Thanks for the info.

GG your always helpful....it seems what ever I ask I can always expect an answer from you which is a good thing

I am assuming you have BT Total Broadband then GG?

Regards
Tom

Yep BT BB now as no cable in my new home. Much cheaper as well so I'm happy.