Use Broadband Talk on the Slave Home Hub.

Until recently I thought this was not possible, but it is! This is a process pulled together from postings on theScream.co.ukand from Moog (L D Ablow), Bunny and Ned Ludd (Geoff) on the Home Hub Forum
My style is to take process ideas worked out by people cleverer than I, test them out, then present them in a relatively easy to follow way

This will NOT work on landline calls!

Note March 2008: This has been tested on my own setup of Master Home Hub running 6.2.6.E and slave home hub running 6.2.2.6 in a configuration connected by ethernet cable with the slave as 192.168.1.175 .

Note August 2008: This has also been tested on my own setup of Master Home Hub Version 2 and slave home hub running 6.2.2.6 in a configuration connected by ethernet cable with the slave as 192.168.1.175 .

Tarquin Loombreaker-Smyth (Bob) on the homehub forum has also tested this with hubs connected wirelesslywith WDS.

If anyone tests this and finds problems or omissions please let me know. My email is on my Website Index


To print this article please use mouse to select page in sections. Print each section using File/Print then select "print selection" (or similar) from your printer's options.

The aim

is to get access to Broadband Talk telephony on the slave hub by changing the configuration of the slave hub settings, and then configure the slave for BBT using a copy of the configuration http text normally used on the master from bt.com/bbt.


The result of all this is to have a slave hub with a working hub phone, or phone connected to the hub via the phone port.

This example uses two home hubs and at the end of all this I had two hubs with phone light showing on both hubs, and both hubs/phones able to use BBTalk, with Landline on master only (by pressing 5).

Sequence of operations

1. Capture the "configure to Broadband Talk" http text
2. Convert slave to 6.2.2.6 and create Root user
3. Disconnect and convert to wired slave operation.
4. Reconfigure telephony to work on local network.
5. Configure the slave hub BBT phone connection.
6. Backup the configuration file

Capture the Configure BBT text

To do this you need FIREFOX browser because of the advanced properties management.

Now if you are planning to use two home hubs as in the illustration you can do this next operation with the existing master hub.

If you plan to use a home hub with telephony as slave, but another type of router modem as master, you will have to temporarily connect the home hub as master to do this process step.

Enter www.bt.com/bbt in your browser.
Input your BB Talk number and BB Talk password.

Click "Next"
Click on Configure hub/router


This is where Firefox comes into its own because of the enhanced Right-click functionality

RIGHT-click on the red Configure button

Click "Copy Link Location"
Open NOTEPAD and paste the link location with Ctrl-v.
The text will begin
"http://api.home/voipsetup.api?
SIPTransportProtocol=UDP&SIPTransportPort=5060&"

Save this as a text file, eg VOIP.txt

Convert slave to 6.2.2.6

This pageshows how to do that. There should be no need to activate the lock as this hub will not be connected to BT overnight and should not receive updates. However if you need to connect it to ADSL for any length of time, activate the lock.

You will need the Root user(jarvis3r in my example) for the telnet session below.

Disconnect and convert to wired slave operation

This pageshows how to do that. If you want to use Homeplugs or BT's Powerline Adapters instead of cable it will still work.

(I have not tested the WDS connected configuration)

Configure telephony to work on local network

The idea is to change VOIP functions to default to LocalNetwork instead of Internet. You also need create and to point to the internet Gateway address which in the case of a Home Hub as master is 192.168.1.254.
Other modems may use different gateway addresses.

This process uses telnet.

In your start menu get a DOS window
(XP do start/run/cmd, in Vista do Start then type "cmd" in the search box and click on the underlined "cmd" at the top of the pane.

You will get a DOS window.

Type in telnet 192.168.1.175 (or whatever the slave IP is)
Log in with the Root user and password that you created in the "lock into 6.2.2.6" process (e.g. jarvis3r and jarvis3r)

You will then have a telnet session with full privileges.

If your master hub is a homehub, highlight the text below with your mouse.

:ip rtadd dst=0.0.0.0 gateway=192.168.1.254 intf=LocalNetwork
:dns client dnsadd addr=192.168.1.254
:dns server config WANDownSpoofing=disabled
:dns server route add dns=192.168.1.254 intf=LocalNetwork
:voice config intf=LocalNetwork
:system config defaultconnection=LocalNetwork
:config save filename=user

(The colons allow the telnet commands to be pasted in as a "script")

(NB if your master hub is not a home hub you will have to change all occurrences of 192.168.1.254 to the IP address of your modem's Gateway.)

Right click on the header of the telnet window and select

Edit>Paste

You will find all the commands entered as a batch script with the save filename command outstanding.
Hit ENTER and after a few moments the prompt will return and you can enter EXIT to leave telnet.

Configure the slave hub BBT phone connection

Open your VOIP.txt file in Notepad
Change
"http:// api.home/voipsetup.api? " to
"http:// 192.168.1.175/voipsetup.api?"

Highlight the entire text and Ctrl-C to copy it then in your Browser paste the text into the address bar (where you normally put a website address) with Ctrl-V, and then hit enter.

You should get "Configuration Successful"

You SHOULD now have a phone light on the slave hub as well as the master hub.

The main thing is to test the phone, whether or not you have the luxury of a phone light as the light is iffy enough on the main hub at best of times.

You will not get to landline by pressing "5" but you will get BroadbandTalk.

Backup Configuration

The beauty of 6.2.2.6 with root access is that you can now save all this configuration

In slave Hub home pagetype http://192.168.1.175select Advanced then Continue to Advanced, (log in with the root account not admin) then in System select Backup Configuration.

Hit the backup text and save your user.ini somewhere safe where you can restore it in case of having to do a reset.