I have BT Infinity for broadband and have been having trouble "losing" other devices on the wireless network.  I reset of the router sorts this for a short while.

 

Beginning to think the problem might be with the BT supplied router (HomeHub 3 I think) which is now about 2 years old.

 

What other products are out there and what would you recommend?

Having BT infinity limits what you can use. For third party you'll need a compatible VDSL router which are few and far between and once you have that you'll need to somehow acquire the VDSL settings from the white external modem.

 

Far easier option is to buy either a HH4 or HH5 both of which are superior to the antique HH3.

 

The HH5 has an infinity port on the back, ditch the white modem and plug the phone line straight into the router. HH5 also has all gigabit ethernet ports and supports wireless AC and 2.4GHZ and 5GHZ bands.

 

The HH4 plugs straight into your existing white modem, just the same as the HH3. HH4 supports 2.4GHZ and 5GHZ, but not wireless AC, HH4 only has a single gigabit port with the remaining being 10/100.

 

HH4 http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BT-HOME-HUB-4-DUAL-BAND-WIRELESS-ROUTER-BT-hub-4-/181669567031?_trksid=p2141725.m3641.l6390

 

HH5 http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BT-Home-Hub-5-type-A-802-11ac-WiFi-router-modem-/181672422228?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item2a4c852b54

I don't think BT allow you to use anything but their routers. Might be worth enquiring after another if a reset isn't doing the trick.

Have you tried restarting the adapters on the devices. The NIC in my PC regularly throws a wobbler.

I don't think BT allow you to use anything but their routers. Might be worth enquiring after another if a reset isn't doing the trick.

Have you tried restarting the adapters on the devices. The NIC in my PC regularly throws a wobbler.

 

 

Wrong, in fact BTOR are dropping support for everything except the HH5 later this year and are stopping supply of the basic white VDSL modem to non BT customer installs.

 

 

@Slider,

 

If you are worried, buy a cheap TPLink Wifi router and set the HH3 to ethernet only mode, connect the TPLink to the HH3 and use that for the Wifi.

 

BTW, If anyone here has the BT VDSL modem and it has a BLACK wall wart, BT should be sending you a new WHITE wall wart as there is a safety issue with the original black one.

I have a TP-Link TD-W9980, this is a VDSL router so you can do away with both of the BT boxes, I did just this myself as my Home Hub 3 was playing silly buggers. I've had the TP-Link for a couple of months now and it has been rock solid - it was also a doddle to set up, cost me just under £70 from a company called Kikatek. I like the dual band aspect of this router as it makes streaming movies to my Bluray player easier as I have my laptop on the 5ghz band network and everything else is on the 2.4ghz band, meaning that the laptop has no other devices to compete with, so we can use all our other devices at the same time.

I'm considering the Billion BiPAC 8800AXL, which is a VDSL2(Fibre)/ADSL2+ Dual Band Wireless AC 1600 Modem Router with 3G/4G LTE failover 4 x Gigabit LAN, 1 x Gigabit WAN and 2 x USB port.

 

If you shop around you can get it for around about £140 and even less if you use Quidco or Topcashback.

 

Or you can get the cheaper BiPAC 8800NL @ around £70, which is almost the same thing sans the 3G & 4G LTE bit.

 

Amazon, Ballicom International seem to have the best prices at the moment of posting.

Wrong, in fact BTOR are dropping support for everything except the HH5 later this year and are stopping supply of the basic white VDSL modem to non BT customer installs.

 

 

@Slider,

 

If you are worried, buy a cheap TPLink Wifi router and set the HH3 to ethernet only mode, connect the TPLink to the HH3 and use that for the Wifi.

 

BTW, If anyone here has the BT VDSL modem and it has a BLACK wall wart, BT should be sending you a new WHITE wall wart as there is a safety issue with the original black one.

 

I did not know that. One of the things that put me off BT was the forced use of their routers

If BT are forcing you to use their own router, then it may be worth contacting OFCOM, as that could be construed as anti competitive.

 

What right do they have to dictate to you, the customer what equipment you use, as long as it meets their technical specifications, that's all that matters.

doing a bit of a search on eBay I see a BT Business Hub 5.  What is the difference between this and a Home Hub 5?

doing a bit of a search on eBay I see a BT Business Hub 5.  What is the difference between this and a Home Hub 5?

 

https://business.forums.bt.com/t5/Broadband-and-internet/Business-Hub-5-versus-Home-Hub-5/td-p/74873

I'm considering the Billion BiPAC 8800AXL, which is a VDSL2(Fibre)/ADSL2+ Dual Band Wireless AC 1600 Modem Router with 3G/4G LTE failover 4 x Gigabit LAN, 1 x Gigabit WAN and 2 x USB port.

 

If you shop around you can get it for around about £140 and even less if you use Quidco or Topcashback.

 

Or you can get the cheaper BiPAC 8800NL @ around £70, which is almost the same thing sans the 3G & 4G LTE bit.

 

Amazon, Ballicom International seem to have the best prices at the moment of posting.

I bought the Billion BiPac 8800NL based on some web reviews and it cut my broadband speed by about half. It's still better than my Plusnet supplied box of crap which drops signal every two to three hours for 30 seconds and then reboots, but I'm less than impressed with the speed it delivers. Although it's entirely possible that it's something I've not set up correctly.

Then again, I've just done a speedtest for the first time in a month or so, and speeds are back to what they were when I first signed up to Plusnet.

 

I have BT Infinity for broadband and have been having trouble "losing" other devices on the wireless network.  I reset of the router sorts this for a short while.

 

Beginning to think the problem might be with the BT supplied router (HomeHub 3 I think) which is now about 2 years old.

 

What other products are out there and what would you recommend?

 

My neighbour, "borrowed" my spare WIFI for a few days the other week as his HH (I think a HH2?!?) "lost" its WIFI aspect. BT just sent him a HH5.

BT will send out HH5's to customers still in contract, but you have to REALLY argue with them if you are a loyal, long term customer. Friends had a HH1 that was dying, but BT wouldnt send a newer HH replacement until they had been phoning and complaining for a couple of days (BT customers for 40+ years and BT internet customers since BT first offered internet access!!).

My neighbour, "borrowed" my spare WIFI for a few days the other week as his HH (I think a HH2?!?) "lost" its WIFI aspect. BT just sent him a HH5.

 

I had a long "discussion" with BT and "the best they could do" was sell me another HH3 fro £16.95!!

 

Have now bought an unused HH5 from fleabay for £39 delivered

easy peasy set up and cure the lost network issuses

My connection speed with Plusnet has yet again collapsed from 68 Mbps to a miserly 32 Mbps, it's absolutely horrendous at the moment, with disconnects, DNS issues & so on.

 

It's just a shame I've got 19 months left on my contract, otherwise I'd walk away, but the penalty is so steep. 

Yes, I've been having Plusnet DNS and disconnects issues over the past couple of days. Upside of this is my speed has increased by another 5Mb/s this morning. Clearly they're doing some work on their infrastructure and it's a bit dismal while it's going on, but it should get better as they put it back together again.

Then again, I've just done a speedtest for the first time in a month or so, and speeds are back to what they were when I first signed up to Plusnet.

your internet is 8times faster than mine!!

your internet is 8times faster than mine!!

This mornings test...

 

Ive just got 6mb/s.

My internet connection always runs at the speeds below, sometime the upload speed is higher at around 18meg but it depends on the server you pick.

 

BT are stridently denying they have congestion issues all over the country, so dont be too quick to blame PlusNet; I know someone on a PREMIUM ISP whose fibre connection for uploads was dropping below 2Mb/s for months, despite the ISP reporting no issues; then BT quietly announced they had just finished increasing capacity to her area, and suddenly uploads went back to 18Mb/s.

 

Bottom line, BT are quietly throttling connections - even of people who are not BT customers - to try and disguise the congestion issues.

 

Bottom line, BT are quietly throttling connections - even of people who are not BT customers - to try and disguise the congestion issues.

 

absolutely true - we were the first to connect to Infinity when it came to the village and had 75 mb download. Cabinet is at capacity now and we have dropped to 50mb.  That said its still a hell of a lot better than the 0.4mb we used to suffer!!