Using A BT Smarthub, An Update

[#1]

@smallblueplanet 

No that's the wifi feature I was talking about earlier.

Presumably you have checked and the WiFi is actually off?

I can only think that the firmware update went wrong.

This has happened before with no explanation, see  https://community.plus.net/t5/My-Router/BT-Home-Hub-6-Conflicting-WiFi-status-on-home-screen-and/m-p...

[#2]

Yeah I read that post before I came back onto the forum. They show no solution unfortunately.

It just seems very 'coincidental' that a router that was working well before the firmware update now is 'broken'. Is there anyway to force a firmware update or flash the router? I'm back on Plusnet hub router atm.

[#3]

@smallblueplanet 

The only time that I have seen a software update is when setting one up after a factory reset. Otherwise it is a case of waiting for it to do its own thing.

If you want to persevere with iy then you could leave it in circuit and turn the Plusnet hub into a wireless access point. This will give you back your wireless and time to see if it recovers. https://community.plus.net/t5/My-Router/Using-a-2nd-Plusnet-Hub1-as-a-Wireless-Access-point/m-p/1385.... A factory reset will return it to normal operating mode.

[#4]

Hi @Baldrick1 thanks for the advice yesterday. Anyway I woke up this morning and thought I'd give it another try, powered it up and ... it works! Then just plugged it into the master socket. Dunno, maybe there was some residual old code hidden in a corner? #happy

[#5]

@smallblueplanet 

Great news.

Thanks for the feedback. I guess that we either put it down to it needing to be switched off for a while to allow residual internal voltages to fully discharge and internal memory to clear, or 'things that go bump in the night'.

I suspect the former! At least I know now should it crop up again.

[#6]

Not so happy. Lost connections got the 'wifi status: off' on the router main info page again.  

Don't know but am wondering whether our Sky Q box might be interfering with things, have you heard owt? Just going to google as I've turned off the Sky Q box connection and the BT router is back up with wifi status: on?!

[#7]

Hi @Baldrick1  our posts crossed. I think it's something else - my post above has one suggestion. It really was quite straightforward to set up this morning, something is bolloxing it or there's an intermittent fault when it's warmed up. I'm leaving the Sky Q with no network atm and seeing whether the BT router keeps going when 'warmed up'.

[#8]

@smallblueplanet 

If it keeps working try switching off Sky Q wireless bands in turn and see if it’s one of the two that’s causing the problem. https://www.gadgetmypad.co.uk/sky-q-disable-wifi-and-use-ethernet-only/
Can you switch off both and use Ethernet for the Sky box?

[#9]

Hi again @Baldrick1 . I was going to try that, so I turned the Sky Q box off to see if it made a difference. It seemed fine but then the BT HH dropped out and when it restarted the wifi status was back to 'off' again but 'on' in settings. 

So I can only guess that the router has a fault, it's setting doesn't seem to stay stable. 

Given up for now, can't do much else I don't think?

[#10]

@smallblueplanet 

It breaks my heart to agree but I’m out of ideas. If it was a general problem with Sky Q boxes then the BT forum would be full of it, but it isn’t. This could just be a red herring. I can imagine that there’s memory cells in the hub that have gone a bit flaky and the firmware update has either finished them off or started using them.

[#11]

Yeah, just Sods Law I suppose. I might keep an eye on eBay for a really cheap BT HH and try again, That would confirm that this current router is faulty. 

Cheers for your help.

[#12]

@smallblueplanet 

I keep a spare Smarthub set up with my Plusnet credentials and the same SSID / wireless password so that I can very quickly swap mine out if the need arises.

[#13]

Saw @smallblueplanet's issue with the wifi being Off when it's configured On; just wanted to say I hit the exact same issue just before the summer with a HH6 from Ebay - I had it all hooked up and configured in the afternoon only for the wifi to fail like this in the evening.. Factory resets couldn't get it going to put it down to a bad firmware update.

I've got a BT Business HH6 now and this has been a working like a dream (curing the infamous issues with Plusnet's Hub One - got fed up with the firmware updates not really fixing very much).  As @Baldrick1 says there's a few other examples of HH6 failing like this.. hope you get sorted with something.

Darren 

[#14]

Hi @drtodd thanks for your input. Is the BT Business HH6 different in some way, I'm not sure I saw one when looking to buy the HH6A router (which was new and shrink-wrapped! ).

What swapping routers has reminded me of is that the Plusnet hub seems to keeps a connection a lot better. We're out in the countryside and the line quality can be poor to good to very poor to what line?! The BT HH6A seemed to take forever to cycle back up!

I've been thinking about getting some plug-in wifi extenders to boost the signal somewhat so will look into those.

[#15]

Hi @smallblueplanet  - I hear what you are saying about the Plusnet Router being more stable. I too had a BT HH6 for a while as I liked the configuration of access control and stregth of the wifi signal. However we kept on experiencing some drops in service which was annoying when streaming Netflix or Prime movies etc.

Ours finally stopped working and despite resets and being on the help-line to Plusnet for an hour we could not get it receiving signals - the lines all tested OK for signal etc from the PN tech team.

Out of desparation I plugged the PN router and Openreach modem back in and all worked perfectly.  I boosted our house wifi coverage by getting a more powerful tplink router to use as an access point and it covers most of the house with wifi.

It was a good relationship whilst it lasted - I could easily block the kid's wifi when I wanted them to come out of their rooms 😉   but I'm unlikely to go back to it now.