Use your spare BT Home Hub as a wireless repeater!
Maybe not strictly a repeater, but an
alternative wireless access point that you can connect to when range is a
problem.Note June 2008: It has been reported that 6.2.6.H does not allow DHCP to be disabled. Until I get a copy of "Preparation H" as it is becoming known, I can't recommend any action to work around this, but as soon as I have I will update the page. In the mean time I can only suggest 6.2.2.6 or Speedtouch 6.1.9.6 on the slaves assuming they will work with "Preparation H" on the master.
Note May 2008: This has been tested on hubs using 6.2.2.6 and 6.2.6.E firmware. Also works with slave hubs on Speedtouch7g firmware 6.2.9.6.
Also tested on v1 and v1.5 hubs (any colour!). V1.5 hubs should only be used on the later firmwares - they will work as a slave on 6.2.2.6 and speedtouch firmwares but the lights and buttons do not behave as designed. (see 6.2.2.6 article)
See also the later section on Roaming.
I welcome feedback. Email address is at Website Index
Caution
The Home Hub is unpredictable! Whereas the following should work, getting the hub to connect to a wifi PC can be a pain at the best of times. The following worked for me but if you are not prepared to experiment and repeat the process til it works you may be disappointed. See Troubleshooting.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.
WDS
The BT Home Hub is designed to use "Wireless Repeaters" to extend the wireless range. These repeaters must support wireless distribution system (WDS). Any wireless router with WDS can behave as a wireless repeater or wireless access point if the DHCP IP address server is switched off. As there are a number of cheap BNIB Home Hubs on internet auction sites, such a Home Hub can be a cheaper alternative to purpose made repeaters.
The diagram shows the end product. When it is fully set up the slave hub will simply be connected to the mains power supply and can be put in an attic, garage or wherever convenient so that you can extend the wireless range.
Telephony
I originally thought that the DECT telephony and some other BT features on the slave home hub cannot be used, however recent postings on theScream.co.uk and filesaveas.co.uk show that by fooling the slave to think that it is on the web it can be doneSee my new Repeaterhub Phonepage
I have it on good authority that functions that rely only on ethernet, such as BT Vision, do work without any changes.
The setup
The sequence is important!!The process is much easier if you have two PCs, each connected to one of the hubs. If you have only one PC you will have to disconnect, re-connect and reboot the PC to each hub in turn.
The master hub is connected to the PC by ethernet during setup, and is also connected to the ADSL filter and the BT Internet system.
The slave hub is connected to a PC by ethernet during the setup and no other connections. I would strongly recommend against trying to set up either hub wirelessly as it causes major headaches. Always use Ethernet cable to set up initially.
Reset both hubs to start
If you have many complex settings already in the master hub you may not want to do this, but some settings may prevent repeating successfully. so I recommend starting from a clean slate by doing a "hard reset".On the original V1 hub (shown) do this by holding in the wireless association button on the back for 15 seconds or so, until all lights come on and a click is heard, then release the button and wait for the lights to come back as follows:-
On the master hub which is connected to a PC by ethernet cable and connected to the ADSL wait for the Broadband, Internet and Data lights to come back on steady. The phone light will only come back if you have Broadband Voice and also you reactivate it at www.bt.com/bbv.
On the slave hub which is connected to a PC by ethernet but no ADSL connection wait for the data light to come back steady.
In either hub the wireless light may also come back.
You may have to reboot the PC to regain access to the hub after a reset. N.B. Despite some web postings, NEVER turn off the power to the hub during a reset, or indeed at any time whilst the lights are flashing!
If you have one of the new (2007) V1.5 hubs with three buttons on the side, resetting is a slightly different process - see manual.
Set up Master hub
Connect a PC to the Master hub by ethernet cable. Go to http://192.168.1.254 to get into hub manager home page.Click on “advanced”, then “Continue to Advanced”
User Name is admin and Password is admin (or on 6.2.6.E whatever you changed it to after the serial number window - see here)
In Configuration/.wireless/ Configure
Change the SSID from BTHomeHub-xxxx to masterhub
Set wireless channel to manual then when the table appears select channel 6
hit "apply"
in Configuration/.wireless/Security
change WEP Encryption Key to 5544332211 (for example)
hit "apply"
If you have older firmware like 6.2.2.6, go to System
In Admin Access change admin password to mypassword1 (for example).
You will then be asked for your name and new password - enter these to continue. This will help protect your hub from neighbourhood hackers.
Set up Slave Hub
Connect to the slave hub by ethernet (if necessary disable wireless on PC)Go to http://192.168.1.254 to get into hub manager. You may get a screen saying that the hub is not connected to the internet. Do NOT hit the "Try Again" button, but re-enter the IP address, or refresh the browser, to get the hub's Home Page.
Click on “advanced”, then “Continue to Advanced”
User Name is admin and Password is admin (or if you have 6.2.6.E whatever you changed the password to after the serial number window)
If you have older firmware like 6.2.2.6, go to System
In Admin Access change admin password to mypassword2 (for example).
You will then be asked for your name and NEW password mypassword2 - enter these to continue
In Configuration/Wireless/ Configure change SSID from BTHomeHub-xxxx to slavehub and Set wireless to manual, then when the table appears select channel 6, then hit "apply"
In Configuration/.Wireless/Security change WEP Encryption key to 5544332211 (i.e. the same as the master hub's key) and hit “apply”
In Firewall, turn off the firewall by selecting "Disable" radio button, and hit “next”
We now need to set a fixed IP address in the slave hub within the range of the master hub's private IP address pool.
(Dec 2007 - I have changed the sequence after a couple of emails where the process can stall with some hubs)
Click on Configuration/.IP addresses
Uncheck DHCP box, and hit "Apply"
You will see two blank boxes for adding IP addresses.
Type 192.168.1.175 in the first box and 255.255.255.0 in the next box and hit “Add”
Now we need to access the slave hub using its new IP address.
Enter http://192.168.1.175 in the browser address bar and hit enter or click Go
You may get a screen saying that the hub is not connected to the internet. Do NOT hit the "Try Again" button, but re-enter http://192.168.1.175 to get the slave hub's Home Page.
Now click on “advanced”, then “Continue to Advanced”
User Name is admin and Password is mypassword2
Go to IP Addresses.
You will now have a stack of 4 static IP addresses with the new one you just added at the bottom of the stack.
Delete the top 3 working from the top deleting 192.168.1.254 last of all.
You will get a warning that you will lose connectivity - hit “OK” (You will not lose connectivity because you are using the new IP address!)
In Configuration/.wireless/repeater section scan for wireless access points. (OK the warning message about losing connectivity). Wait a few minutes for it to scan.
In the list tick the masterhub then hit "apply"
Last step
Reconnect PC to Master hubGo to http://192.168.1.254 to get into hub manager
Click on “advanced”, then “Continue to Advanced”
User Name is admin and Password is now mypassword1
in Configuration/.wireless/repeater section scan for wireless access points.(OK the warning message)
In the list tick the slavehub then hit "apply"
Now start using it!
Reboot the PC you wish to be connected to the repeater and connect to “slavehub” wirelessly or by ethernet cable. The master hub will issue the IP address to your PC via the slave. You can also connect to the master by wireless or by cable, as you wish.Use http://192.168.1.175 to get into slave hub manager if required
use http://192.168.1.254 to get into master hub manager if required
Notes
You can connect to either hub, either wirelessly or by cable as convenient.You can use any wireless channel so long as both hubs are on the same channel. However some channels may not repeat properly depending on the hub and the firmware.
You can use any SSID and encryption key but must use WEP. WPA will not work in a repeater situation! There are other ways to stealth your network. The WEP encryption keys MUST be the same on both hubs.
You can use the same SSID on both but they should really be different to avoid confusion from the wireless manager.
Using two home hubs may mean that each has 192.168.1.253 assigned to their USB-A socket and you may not be able to successfully mount a drive on the USB-A without more work, because the PC may be confused as to which is which.
See my networkfor suggested solution.
I suggest using different admin passwords as above, as it's easy to lose track of which hub you are logged into.
If you have Firefox or similar,I suggest bookmarking the two hub addresses on the Bookmarks Toolbar.
Advanced: If you need to connect directly to the slave after switching off DHCP you may have to set a fixed IP on the PC, but if connecting to the slave via the master, the master should issue an IP address to the PC as normal.
Security
Even though BT use it as standard with the Hub, WEP is not the most secure type of encryption. Whilst better than nothing it can theoretically be cracked in 10 minutes if someone is prepared to get the kit together. For that reason you might want to look at MAC Address Filtering here.Roaming
Once you have got the setup working, you can experiment with Roaming. That is by using the same SSID on both hubs the PC should automatically connect to the strongest signal and should change to the strongest signal if the first gets weaker. As this is a feature of your PC wireless management I will let you experiment, but I have had one person (thanks Iain) write to me to tell me it does work.IP addresses
I have recommended 192.168.1.175 as the slave IP address. I changed this from my previous suggestion of .75 as it was a bit too near the working range fo people with more than 10 network devices (and that is not unusual if you have webcams, network hard drives, vision boxes etc.It has been further suggested to use an IP outside the hub's DHCP range and I know that 192.168.1.60 works fine with no danger of it interfering with the hub's assignment range of 192.168.1.64 to .237
I think it really means use an address either below the private range, or near the top end of the private range, but any IP in that subnet will probably work just fine.
Troubleshooting
If your hubs will not detect each other, or you can't connect to one of them wirelessly, try the following.Try different channel,
Try Master on auto, slave on matching channel.
Make sure you don't try to connect with Wifi and Ethernet at the same time.
Try to use Windows to manage your Wifi rather than BT (I never use any BT software from the CD)
Try fixed IP on the PCs in the range 192.168.1.76 upwards.
Try a different firmware version.
Vista - when using Vista to connect wirelessly, it can take one or two minutes to complete the connection, starting with "Local Access Only", before getting an internet connection. Just leave it til the Notification Area icon gets its little blue ball.
Don't write to me - experiment!