Smart Hub 6 Variants and Performance

[#1]

Hoping for some guidance - What Hub should I aim for?

Just signed up as a new customer - Line rental & Unlimited (basic) Broadband (Adsl).

However, if we have capacity issues - we may have to consider fibre in the near future.

Might as well get the most solid/capable router from the beginning.

If it happens I can make a request to Plusnet - to send me a variant that the community suggests - I will try. But if I can't - I will consider buying one from ebay.

Hope to start things on a solid footing.

So again - knowing what many of you know now, which router would you recommend - for your own Plusnet connection at home?

My sincere appreciation to all those willing to contribute.

Officejet. 

[#2]

If you sign up for ADSL you will get a Hub Zero. The wifi performance of these is very poor. If you later move to fibre you will be sent a Hub One which is a tweeked rebadged Home Hub 5A.

If you get a FTTC BT SmartHub 6 this will give you a very good wifi performance. They work on both ADSL and VDSL.

[#3]

Well after reading through this entire thread - I ended up more confused than when I started!

I need to keep the option of Plusnet Fibre open for the near future.

So there seems to be a difference in opinion. Some recommend the SmartHub 5, Smarthub 6 (home), Smarthub 6A, Smarthub 6 Business!

If members of the community are goign to purchase one of these - is there a consensus building around any of them? 

[#4]

Right, my summary:

1. Forget a Home Hub 5. The Plusnet Hub One is, apart from software tweeking, a HH 5A, a model long obsolete at BT. The SmartHub 6 has superior wifi performance.

2. There are at least four variants of the SmartHub. There is a residential Smarthub, a Business SmartHub, a FTTP Smarthub and an Ultrafast SmartHub. To add to the confusion there is a model 6A and 6B. There is some debate whether the B model is just a later model or the FTTP model.

3. Most of the SmartHubs for sale are the FTTC model, which is the one you want. Both the residential and business versions work with a Plusnet account. 

4. The difference between the residential and business versions ia that you have more control over settings with the business version, for example, you can select which DNS servers the router uses with the business version, the residential version presets to the Plusnet ones when the router initialises the Plusnet connection. Whether this is important to you depends on how much you want to tweek.

5. Don't let the variants put you off, there are plenty of FTTC Smarthubs available on Ebay etc.

[#5]

That clarification is exactly what I needed - thank you.

 So that I could contribute something of substance here, I've been doing some research into the BT 6 series Hubs.

I'm unsure if fellow community members are aware of the major issues that are being reported - specifically with the stability of connection and the inter-device connectivity within properties. It seems, that even BT engineers seem to be telling customers, that there are Major issues with the model 6 hubs, and in most occasions - are swapping them for model 5's -  restoring normal function:

Serious Issues with the Model 6 BT hubs

Why does my BT Smart Hub keep disconnecting?

I am unsure if these problems have been fixed. I am very interested to hear input and explore this discovery with members of the community - before I decide which one to buy! 

Officejet

[#6]

@Officejet That thread and article are over year and a half old nearly. Those issues have been rectified and I have found my bt business hub 6 to be very reliable.

[#7]

Likewise for the residential model

[#8]

@Officejet

I have experience of both the residential and business SmartHub 6. Both have been extremely stable. Despite being on the Plusnet network they check in with BT each night and update with the latest firmware when updates become available, so there's no risk of you being lumbered with buying one with out of date problematic firmware. The other thing to note is that they automatically reboot at night every two weeks.

If you read reviews you will find many negative comments. The trick is to look at the date of these reviews, obviously in the past the firmware had problems, which I believe is now fixed.

[#9]

@Officejet - ditto what has been said.

I'm on ADSL and changed to the HH6 Business edition - no drama at all. Better wifi, dual band and just a better router.

With PlusNet ADSL you'll get the Hub Zero (Sagecom 2704N) - it's single band and not very good. 

See this:

https://www.broadbandchoices.co.uk/guides/hardware/plusnet-hub-zero

The HH6 can do both ADSL and fibre, so if you do upgrade it can do double duty.

I do think that if you a new customer that you should possibly wait a couple of weeks for everything to settle down. Then check your stats and go from there. Check your hard wired speed and wifi.

The HH6 is a great piece of kit and for c.£30 you can't go wrong.

Moderator's note by Mike (Mav): Post released from Spam Filter.

[#10]

Ok - that seems settles the choice of the BT hub variant to aim for.

One aspect that hasn't been touched much on this thread:

What are the risks/concerns/warnings that we should be aware of if using a Hub 6 router - instead of the one supplied (supported & maintained) by the the ISP?

Are there key settings & configurations that must be carefully changed on the BT Hub 6, when connecting it to our Plusnet line.

I'm guessing there are automated systems (on Plusnets' side) that manage risks/security - at infrastructure scale. I'd also imagine, that Plusnet routers are designed to work 'hand in glove' with Plusnets' network monitoring/attack mitigation systems (remember TalkTalk)?  

If any such settings are listed anywhere - could someone point the way?

What are the things we should be aware of, before they go down this route of substituting with a non-Plusnet router?

Just trying to get a grasp of all the aspects involved of doing this - before I proceed to by a BT Hub 6.

[#11]

I fear that you’re over thinking this. You set them up as per the instructions you will find in this router, there’s no hidden gotchas. The only thing I can think of that might worry you is that the optional Plusnet filter Plus-guard might not work (I don’t know if anyone’s tried it?) but that allegedly doesn’t work at times anyway. 

[#12]

Just put your username and password in, no special settings required, I pretty sure that PlusNet don't have any automated security systems that you mention, certainly not by communicating with the router. The router firewall should take care of most threats. I have never used an ISP supplied router and have had no problems, but I do use a enterprise grade router and implement a "deny all" firewall strategy that only allows certain traffic to get through.

[#13]

@Officejet - as @Baldrick1 and @RealAleMadrid have pointed out, you are overthinking it too much.

The Plusnet Hub One router is bacically a BT router. The HH6 is a BT router. They just work.

If you look at the instructions and posts by others on here, they are very clear. @LifeonMars wrote a very good guide.

It takes literally 2 mins to set up - it really is that easy. Enter username and password and away you go.

You're turning something relatively simple into .....  🙂

[#14]

https://community.plus.net/t5/forums/v3_1/forumtopicpage/board-id/Broadband/page/3/thread-id/306720

See post 41 on above thread. Re setting up BT SMART HUB

[#15]

I read TalkTalk have announced a new Super Router. Both the BT Smart Hub and new Super Router are manufactured by Sagemcom.

https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2018/05/new-and-faster-wifi-router-spotted-at-broadband-isp-ta...

May be this will finally nudge Plusnet into offering the Smart Hub ?