Home Hub Simple Trouble-shooting

Jan 2008


Some common problems with the BT Home Hub , in association with the guys at the Home Hub Forum..

1. My home hub will not connect to my wi-fi PC
2. Can't get into the hub's settings
3. Can get into the hub but can't get the internet
4. Downloading files seems very slow
5. BT CD lost or not compatible with my Operating System.
6. MAC based PC will not open Hub's Admin Pages.
7. Hub 2.0 doesn't show my connected devices

More How-to's

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1. My hub will not connect to my wi-fi.

There are several possible reasons for this
a. The hub now has version 6.2.6.C or E firmware and the Wi-fi is unstable.
b. You have conflicting Wi-fi managers on your PC
c. You may have connected to another unprotected router by mistake.
d. Fixed IP address or other setting in wireless card config is preventing connection.
e. Other factors related to Home hub Settings.
f. Other factors unrelated to Home hub Settings.

a. Hub Firmware problems.

Hub Version 1 and 1.5 This is a relatively common problem with later versions of firmware like 6.2.6.B,C and E. The usual fix is to Change wireless channelfrom auto to manual (apply) then back to auto. Alternatively find a manual channel that will stay stable. You will need to temporarily connect by ethernet cable to do this.
Firmware 6.2.6.H onwards should not have this problem, but try it anyway.

Hub Version 2 - if you have unstable wifi and you have all wireless-g PC cards or older PCs set the wifi interface type in Advanced Settings from /b/g/n to /b/g. Changing channels, as on the older hubs, is always worth a try.
Finally on V2 hubs, ensure that if you have a Throughput Enhancement option in windows Wireless Network Connection/Configure/Advanced tab, it must be set to "disabled".

b. Conflicting wi-fi managers.

I came across this problem myself when I bought a Belkin USB wireless dongle, but my son, and many others, reported similar problems when they had inadvisedly run the BT Install CD.

SYMPTOMS may include "Limited or no connectivity" messages, frequent dropouts of the PC to Hub connection, and/or messages that say you have a good connection, but in fact you can't even get to the hub admin let alone beyond it to the internet.
Also typically on boot-up, Windows establishes a wifi connection, then the other wireless manager disconnects and re-establishes the connection.
All this whether or not you have ticked the option to "allow windows to manage my wireless connection"

Tackling the BT CD first see my BT removalhow-to and remove it.

Tackling the USB dongle, or other plug-in wifi adapters, these often come with a CD or driver "executable" file which installs a program similar to the BT wi-fi manager. It too can cause similar symptoms.
The trick is to look for a "Drivers Only" solution.
Using the Belkin USB dongle as an example, having uninstalled the Belkin Wireless Monitor package I looked at their site online and downloaded a "Drivers Only" executable that installed just three files in a folder. I then simply plugged the dongle into the USB and Windows New Hardware Wizard asked me to point to the folder that contained the drivers. I then usd Windows to manage my Wi-Fi as above.
If your manufacturer does not do a drivers-only option, look in the package they provide and look for files like xxx.cat, xxx.inf, xxx.sys which should be the drivers.

If your wi-fi card is a built-in card you might simply want to reinstall the windows-provided drivers. To do this, go to System, Hardware, Device manager, find the wireless card, click on "Uninstall" then reboot the PC. It should pick up fresh drivers from Windows.
Alternatively you can use the options to refresh drivers from the internet but you need to connect to the hub by ethernet cable first!

Now use Windows to connect the Wi-Fi

Having sorted out the wireless drivers, to get windows to connect to your hub simply right-click on the wireless connection icon in the System Tray, or Notification Area in Vista, and select the "Connect to Network" or "View Available Wireless Networks" or similarly named option and connect to the network bearing your hub's name.

If you cannot find the icon in the system tray...

For Windows XP perform the below steps:

Start
Run
ncpa.cpl
Right Click on the Wireless Connection
Click 'View available Wireless Networks'
It should come up as 'BT Home Hub XYZ' or Something similar.
When it asks for the network key this can be located on the back of the home hub entitlted 'Wireless Key'.
You are now connected. To access the internet use 'Internet explorer' or Firefox.

For Windows Vista perform the below steps:
Start
Search
ncpa.cpl
Right Click on the connection and click 'Connect/Disconnect'
Look for 'BT-Home-Hub""' and then double click on it
When it asks for 'Network Key' this can be located on the back of the home hub. You are now connected to the internet. .
For more details on this see here.

c. Unintentional connection to an unprotected network.

This is very annoying, especially as people should not run wi-fi routers without at least WEP, and preferably WPA-PSK encryption. Any decent wi-fi manager will try to connect to anything going, and IF there is no requirement for a wireless encryption key, it may just connect. It's likely that the careless neighbour's hub is so far away that you get maybe 30% signal, and not only is it poor, it will not let you connect to your own hub properly.
Simply disconnect from their hub (it's illegal anyway) and try to connect to yours - then have a quiet word with them!

d. You have a bad setting set in the wifi configuration.

1) You may have set up your laptop to connect to a wifi hotspot at work and there is an IP set up in the Windows wireless network connection configuration. See hereto see how to change the setup, either to automatic, or to a fixed IP in the range of the Home Hub

2) You should also check that the laptop is not switching off the wireless card to save power. To check this you need to check the configuration of the wifi card:-
For Windows XP perform the below steps:
Start
Run
ncpa.cpl

For Windows Vista perform the below steps:
Start
Search ncpa.cpl
then click on the ncpa.cpl program at the top.

In either Vista or XP, Right Click on the Wireless network connection you will see.
Select Properties in the right-click menu.
Then when the properties are displayed, click on the Configure button.
Look at the Advanced tab and make sure the box that says "Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power" is not checked.
Click OK and work backwards.

e. Other reasons releated to Home Hub Settings

These can be :-
corrupt settings,
SSID hidden,
Wifi disabled on hub,
Encryption too strong in hub,
MAC address filtering has been applied on the hub, or hub set not to accept any more registrations,
Channel being swamped, etc.

The trick for all these is to
1) Reset the Home Hub and try again using the wireless key on the back of the hub.
2) Most PCs accept WEP encryption so on V2.0 hubs set to WEP in the advanced wireless settings and try again.
3) If you can see the SSID of the hub being transmitted but still cannot connect
- Try another channel in the Hub's Wireless Configuration.
- On V2.0 hubs try setting to /b/g instead of /b/g/n

If still no joy see f. below.

f. Other reasons unrelated to Home Hub settings

1) IP address problems. Your PC should either be set up in Windows Network Connection to automatically accept an IP address from the Hub, or else can be set up with :-
- a fixed IP address of 192.168.1.100 (suggested value),
- a subnet of 255.255.255.0
- DNS of 192.168.1.254
- Gateway of 192.168.1.254

Any other setup will not work. See hereto see how to change the setup, either to automatic, or to a fixed IP in the range of the Home Hub

2) Vista and XP wireless managers both store wireless key and SSID information, and it is not always easy to re-use them with different keys. Go to the relevant place and delete all your wireless profiles and start again.. 3) Try reinstalling the drivers in your PC's wifi card.
4) Check the PC's software firewall settings for the hub's IP address range. It should not stop the PC and hub connecting but it may stop any internet access. Try disabling it temporarily.

5) If you get this far it's time to start eliminating by substitution.
- Try another wifi card or use a USB wifi dongle.
- Borrow another laptop and try that to eliminate the hub as a problem.
-Take your PC to another home hub household and try to connect there.
- Finally give up and take up snooker.

2. Can't get into the hub's settings.

This is almost always because either the hub has got itself into a tiz-waz, or more likely you forgot what you changed your password to. You have tried all sorts of combinations of name and password and nothing works.

This problem can also present itself as being able to get onto the internet but can't get into the hub admin page at all, not even http://bthomehub.home


Don't worry simply Reset the Home Huband when it has settled go into http://bthomehub.home
If you have the latest hub firmware you will need to create a new password.If you have older software you may just need to enter admin and admin when you go into the advanced settings, where you should create a new password.

3. Can get into the hub but can't get the internet

There are all sorts of reasons for this, from corrupt DNS servers to BT just having a problem.

Fortunately the Hub has a Troubleshooting section which is accessed on the home page of the hub on http://bthomehub.home
where you will then see a "Check Connectivity" button. Click this - You will need the admin password (see above)

results will look like this

Test Results
(Tick) DSL
(Tick) ATM
(Tick) PPP
(Tick) IP
(Tick) Internet
(Tick) Connectivity to Gateway (xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx)
(Tick) Connectivity to DNS (xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx , xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx)

If any of these items are missing or not ticked, it will indicate where the break is in the communications. If you have DSL ticked the chances are it's a problem with BT that will probably recover in an hour or two.

Ironically in the forum we experienced two other cures for internet access problems.

Changing to Firefox browser can get rid of some access problems.

Resetting the hub can also fix some strange access problems.

However it may be that the DNS server is not getting allocated, therefore try setting the Windows Nework Connection to obtain IP address and DNS automatically and restart the PC.

It may also be a good idea to reload drivers for your network adapter.

4. Downloading files seems very slow

This is most probably the server at the other end. Take a look at the speedssection.

You could possible try P2P or torrent programs, BUT this will almost certainly cause BT to "shape" or throttle your speeds. See BT's Fair Usage Policy.

5. BT CD lost or not compatible with my Operating System.

Don't worry, you DON'T NEED IT!

Unless you want to connect using USB (NO you don't really!) NEVER load the BT CD. You simply plug in an ethernet cable, or use Windows or Linux or Mac wireless connection managers.

Get into your hub admin using any browser and http://bthomehub.home or http://api.home or http://192.168.1.254

Get into your Yahoo mail using any browser at http://bt.yahoo.com See also this How-to.

6. MAC based PC will not open Hub's Admin Pages.

Typically it allows you to enter a password but will go no further.

This is a problem with some Safari versions and some Hub firmwares. Best is to download a MAC version of Firefoxand try that.

7. Hub 2.0 doesn't show connected devices.

The old hubs were a bit dodgy but Hub 2.0 has a definite choosiness about displaying connected devices on the Home Network pages. My Wifi connected laptop is shown as "Dell Laptop", my ethernet connected laptop is not recognised by name but shows as "Unknown-xx-xx-xx-xx-xx", and my slave hub is not seen at all.

This is not usually a problem if the devices are working, more an annoyance, but if you want to open up ports for, say, a camera or a NAS device accessed from outside the firewall, it becomes a problem. It is not possible to Select the device from the dropdown in Application Sharing if it is not recognised.

Thr trick is to go to Advanced Setings, Application Sharing, and select User Defined, then enter the IP address of the device.

The device must have a fixed IP address for this to work.