Puzzling failure to open hub manager

[#1]

I have a strange problem with Hub One and a new computer (Win 11).   Plusnet tech support are currently discussing among themselves but I thought it might also be worth airing here. 

I have a number of computers on a home network, some connected by Ethernet and some by wireless.  All have full internet connection and all except one (the new WIn 11 desktop) can display the hub manager on 192.168.1.254 and access the USB stick plugged into it.  All computers display the same ipconfig /all results and the Win 11 computer is recognised everywhere (although File Explorer often fails to show one or more connected computers, they can usually be contacted from each other if only by using Quick Access).

So why is the new computer not showing me the hub manager page?  It just returns 'Unable to connect'.  It fails with wireless as well as Ethernet.  I've been through all the Firewall and Privacy settings but nothing makes any difference. I really need it to find the USB drive on the hub so any suggestions would be gratefully received.

[#2]

Try explicitly entering http://192.168.1.254 or https://192.168.1.254  to see if either make any differemce

[#3]

Thank you MisterW.  I had tried http but not https and the latter worked!  I say it worked but I had to disregard all the dreadful warnings that I shouldn't proceed because serious harm might be done etc.  So now I have to figure out what is different about the setup on the new computer (or Windows 11) that is creating such alarm.  It seems to be only the router home page that causes the problem so perhaps I will try unplugging everything else in turn.  But you have solved most of the mystery so thanks again.

[#4]

To be fair , I can't really take much credit . I got the idea from here https://community.bt.com/t5/BT-Devices/BT-Smart-Hub-2-manager-and-Windows-11/td-p/2246551

Knowing that the PN Hub 2 is basically a re-engineered BT Smart Hub 2...

[#5]

@MJL-PF 

Maybe it’s your security software blocking USB access? Unless the Hub firmware has been updated whilst I wasn’t paying attention the USB socket only supports the SMB1 protocol.  Microsoft default settings disables this because of security concerns. Have you set this on in order to access this USB port?  

[#6 · Accepted solution]

Thanks for your input Baldrick1.   The interesting thing was that, after ignoring the warnings following my use of https and thereby managing to access the hub home page, it subsequently went straight in without the use of any prefix at all.  I was able to access the USB port too.  Then, later in the day, I found that the hub page was again inaccessible - even with the https prefix!  However, having mapped the USB drive, I could continue to access that.  I thought the issue must be bound up with security somehow and there must be a key difference between Windows 10 and Windows 11.  I compared all the Windows features settings: where there were features in common the settings were the same. There are three items under SMB File-Sharing support - 'Automatic Removal' and 'Client' were ticked, 'Server' was not.  Same on both W10 and W11.  I tried ticking the 'server' box and now W11 allowed me to visit the hub home page when I used https (but not otherwise).  With W10 I could still go in without the prefix.

The next twist was that, despite displaying the hub home page initially, the Firefox tab in W11 computer continued 'loading' (a moving dot in the tab header) for at least fifteen minutes and then the connection was 'timed out'.  I tried some resetting using ipconfig and netsh but exactly the same thing happened - the hub manager appeared correctly with the https:// prefix but timed out after 23 minutes (albeit with a different message - it now said 'the page you are trying to view cannot be shown because the authenticity of the received data could not be verified')

I then tried getting rid of the trial security software found on new computers (Norton in my case).  I uninstalled that and it solved everything.  It was logical because the problem had occurred only the one machine.  I could now get on the hub manager without any prefixes and it loaded instantly.  With hindsight I should have tried that first but it never occurred to me that such a well-known product could be the problem.

Thank you for pointing me in the right direction.