Why make the HH5 so complex?
noise747
Posts: 30,823 Forum Member
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My next door neighbour have had a HH5 delivered, I really thought that being BT it would be just plug in and go, ok I had to remove the modem and old router, but you know what I mean.
The flipping thing came up with something called Smart Setup, and no matter what I tried to do it kept getting in the way.
The manual says to go to a certain page something like BT.com/help/switchsmartsetup off, or something like that.
That really worked, not, because Smartsetup kept getting in the way and smart setup only works with Internet Exploder.
I had a tablet and connected to my own network and got to the page only to find out the setup is in the router settings itself.
Any I switch that crap off and managed to get the rest set up, printer and tablet.
The router itself seems great, but why put so much crap in it? This is another reason why I tend to use my own routers.
The flipping thing came up with something called Smart Setup, and no matter what I tried to do it kept getting in the way.
The manual says to go to a certain page something like BT.com/help/switchsmartsetup off, or something like that.
That really worked, not, because Smartsetup kept getting in the way and smart setup only works with Internet Exploder.
I had a tablet and connected to my own network and got to the page only to find out the setup is in the router settings itself.
Any I switch that crap off and managed to get the rest set up, printer and tablet.
The router itself seems great, but why put so much crap in it? This is another reason why I tend to use my own routers.
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The so called advanced settings are still basic and very restrictive.
I'd much rather have a full featured firmware something like DD-WRT or Tomato on the HH5 any day.
I agree about the smart setup though .. it's about as smart as a rock. :mad:
Also beware of 2.4ghz and 5ghz having the same SSIDs as it's known to cause wifi drops.
I have switched off my 5ghz entirely,most advice is to rename the SSIDs to something like HH5_2.4 and HH5_5 in order to stop your devices switching modes.
http://bt.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/44415/~/what-is-smart-setup%3F
http://bt.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/44328/~/switching-smart-setup-on-and-off-on-the-bt-home-hub-4-or-hub-5
I have not looked any further than the Smart set up and getting rid of it. Not my router and as long as it works then that is it as far as i am concerned.
Cheers for that, I will know what to do if they have any problems. So far it is still working I check now and again on my phone, if I can get a speedtest then it is working.
The Wi-fi signal is really good, the router is about 20 feet from where I am, the signal have to go through a solid wall dividing the houses and it is pretty thick and my bathroom wall to get here and it is still 90%. Well 90 on 5 and 80 on 2.5.
I must admit it looks nice, but I could not get the WPS to connect to the printer I had to do it the old way
Thanks for the links, but I did try to go there and as I said Smart setup got in the way. That is why I had to link to my network with a tablet.
Have you seen the manual that comes with the HH5? BT seems more interest in all the extras from my BT than telling you how to set up the router.
I have been setting my own routers up for years, I thought being a BT one it would be just plug in a go, but the Smart set up is a pain in the neck and not really needed.
Other providers gets away with not having some that silly on the router, or I hope they don't anyway.
thankfully Plusenet router is almost standard, not that I will be using it for long.
If I recall it was pretty straight forward, click a couple of buttons, enter your My BT Username and Password, log out of My BT and your done.
http://youtu.be/AsFFTHbAPEI
Most people want to just simply get online and their devices connected - not faff with logging into My BT, which doesn't seem to have any effect on the process of setting up the actual internet connection.
I could understand complaints if this had to be done everytime, but it's only once for each device which takes seconds to do.
It is not required and if you get someone who visit and use the network they have to go through it all. I tried doing it on a mobile phone, not good.
Turned off now anyway, at least Bt had the decency to allow that, which shocked me.
I had a look at it this morning and you are right. The only reasons we agreed to having it and not keeping the HH3 was because the Wi-fi is suppose to be better on the HH5 and it is a all in one, so the old BTOR modem can be put away.
I would not have one I would use my own.
Works great with a pfsense box+ open reach modem doing the routing if you need a cheep wireless access point/ ethernet switch.
Just like to say thank you for the above info. None of the mobile phones would conect, so I unsynced the freqs and used a different SSID for the 5Ghz one and my phone at least now connects
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Of course is is "basic". As 99.99% of the people using and operating it will have very little, if any, technical knowledge it has to be simple to operate. It doesn't make it less effective because of that.
So it is back to home hub 3 and separate modem, less hassle and it just works.
The HH5 seems a total waste of time.
But then I've had a HH5 for a couple of years or so and have had no problems connecting three phones, including a Windows phone, a tablet, a couple of laptops and 2 Kindles to it without any problems at all and I've never had a problem with the two wireless frequencies sharing the same SSID either, so it isn't fair to say all HH5s are poor.....
i don't know, I can't be bothered now, the set up is working with the old router and modem put back in place, that is all I care about.
Too much mucking around with other peoples machines and network.
Well this one is not working and I can not be bothered to muck around with it., If we had no choice then it would be a different thing.
Sometimes it is better that if it works, leave it alone, and I should have left the old modem and router alone.
Only BT was trying to push the HH5 for some reason, a waste of £6. Still it will do as a spare.