I have a home hub 3..

Lately its worse than useless..

I've rang BT, they basically couldn't care less.

Problem is the wi fi keeps dropping or the net runs slow...

I've tried the obviously IE changing the wi fi Channel, but as Bt are tight and will never give me a new Home hub, What is the best router for using on their network??

The homehubs don't have very good wireless signal strength. If speeds are okay using a wired connection then it's just the wireless that is the issue.

If on the other hand it's still slow on a wired connection and is still dropping then either there is a problem with the homehub or there is a problem with your line.

The homehub 5 does offer better wireless speeds using Wireless AC rather than Wireless N, but I've seen so many posts on the BT forums of people having issues with it.

One solution would be if it's just the wireless is to get an Wireless AC access point and connect that to the homehub

There may be no "best" router as such - just one that works well for you. As mentioned many things can disrupt a wireless signal (assuming the wired connection is running at normal speed).

As it happens, "The Register" has published a review of 802.11ac (the newest standard) routers to-day. If not for you, it'll at least give you an idea of what's out there.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/08..._11ac_routers/

Brian

I can connect (just) to my HH5 at the bus stop which is round the corner with 2 houses in the way.

The HH5 is a cracking piece of kit, ok it is lacking some high end features but most people dont care about them anyway. There may be posts on the BT forum saying they are having problems but out of the many thousands of them in use it is a tiny fraction of the users having problems, same as with any product really.

This is my speed over WiFi, the PC is in a separate room to the HH5 and a brick wall separates them http://www.speedtest.net/result/3673775346.png

Can one use a third-party router (e.g. Airport Extreme) with BT?

You can, but if you also take BT TV services then you need a router that supports the multicast protocol BT uses for their internet channels. I think there is a thread over on Thinkbroadband which lists compatible models and how to set them up.

Yes I replaced the HH3 with a Billion BiPac 7800N - an excellent router. Currently I'm using a HH5 as I prefer the one box solution with FTTC. It's much better than the HH3 although the 5GHz band isn't much use if you have thick stone walls.

I just transferred from SKY FTTC to BT FTTC and i must say that the HH5 is a pile of muck. The first HH5 I had would not keep connected to the line for more than 1hour 50. I then went back to using my open reach modem and connecting that to the WAN port of the HH5. This was a lot better. I managed 5 days before the HH5 rebooted for no reason. BT then sent me an new HH5. I connected that as a lone unit. This one was a lot better. It only disconnected three times in 40 hours. Lol.

I have now given up and gone back to my open reach modem and connecting that to an Apple Extreme. Im sure this will stay connected for a number of weeks at least.

Overall HH5 is

I've finally got that to admit the Home hub isn't working right..

But there is a sting in the tail..

All they will do is send me another home hub 3..

So it'll probably work ok for a few months then suffer the same problems...

For you maybe! I have had the HH5 since March and it had been fine. Not perfect but very good.

It's also a dual-band router (which the Sky one and many others are not)

My HH5 has also been great, had it longer than i can remember now,.

If you sign up for a fresh 18 month contract they will send you a nice HH5.

I did that several months ago in order to get rid of the p2p throttling on my legacy "unlimited" account. Since then the new HH5 has been running with no problems whatsoever.

Problem is I've already done that in June, so looks like I've missed out

Since October 2013 I've had the HH4, and for the last 2 months I've had the HH5. Never had a problem with either of them. Bought the HH5 just because I needed to upgrade my switch as I needed an extra port, so I bought the 8 port BT switch and the HH5.

I used to be with Virgin Media and always used my own routers mainly D-Link. I wondered if the BT routers would be worse, result is the performance seems the same and usability is much easier to setup with the HH4/5... there's basically nothing to configure.

HH5 works great for me.

I've used a few different routers on my BT connection.

Dlink, Netgear, TP-Link and Asus.

The TP-Link was awful, constantly dropped the connection, Netgear was fine but lacked in wifi strength. The Dlink worked perfectly with no issues.

The Asus RT-AC68U has been the best, massively strong wifi, and not dropped a connection once since I started using it. This was the most expensive of the routers I've used, but worth it.
The Dlink and the Asus both need a separate modem, so I used the Dlink DSL 320B.

I actually bought an asus 68 router. Its been continuously connected for 3 weeks now. Its awesome. HH5 =

Hi everyone, my first post on the site and it's going to be an on-topic question.

My BT Infinity 2 is going to be installed on Thursday, hopefully.

There was no mention of a modem so am guessing that the faceplate contains the vdsl part, or the HH5 does.

I have no interest in the home hub. I have an AirPort Extreme which I am very fond of and is part of my wider Apple set up.

My question, would I be right in thinking that I can ditch the HH5 and use an openreach modem in place of the Draytek Vigor 129 that I currently use?

They aren't sending me a modem so I will source one myself. Is there a certain model I need?

Many thanks. Paul

The modem is integral to the HH5 model. You can daisychain your existing router off it if you wish.

Or there are plenty of Openreach VSDL modems - which people got free - being auctioned off on eBay!

That answers the question pretty much. Openreach modem it will be as daisy chaining the AirPort Extreme off a home hub has in my past experience caused issues with some of the Apple facilities.
Thanks for the info.

Getting infinity installed tomorrow, already have a BT OR modem, and have bought an Asus 68 router.

How easy is the install process, do I just need to put the U/P in or do I have to tinker with any other settings?

Thanks

Hitesh

The Asus should detect your internet connection automatically, mine did on ADSL, but it might be different for Infinity.

The only info I entered was the username and password.

Username - bthomehub@btbroadband.com
Password - bt

Again this might be different for Infinity.

Only other settings you will need to change is if you want to use different DNS, other than BT's, which are entered on the WAN settings.
Plenty more on the router to play with, but nothing else needed for your internet connection.

I left sky to go with BT fibre optic and it's the worst pile of shite I've ever had.

Wish I had not tried to save a few pounds, now I'm stuck with them for a while. Customer service is dire, if you ever get through after pressing a trillion buttons.