BT Home Hub

BT's Total Broadband package provides a Home Hub router that connects to BT's broadband service (a BT/Yahoo collaboration, as is the email service provided) and provides wireless access as well as VoIP (once the phone handsets arrive, anyway). I can't find details of what make the router actually is, but I think it might be a Thomson Speedtouch. It works pretty well, though the configuration options are a bit hard to find: connect to bthomehub.home and switch user to Admin to make changes; the most useful settings are those for the wireless network.

Encryption by default is WEP: use the page linked above to switch to WPA-PSK and enter a key (use a WPA-PSK key generator to get a key of sufficient length and randomness, if you like). Set the encryption to WPA only, not WPA+WPA2: with the latter setting, I couldn't get OS X to connect.

The port forwarding options allow you to easily forward ports (for Azureus, say) to specific devices.

There's an option to enable WDS and scan for available WDS-compatible devices, but I have a feeling the Home Hub only acts as a WDS client, not a bridge: I haven't been able to get an internet connection working when connecting through an Airport Express in WDS mode. The Airport Express will connect as a client to the hub anyway, although I haven't got AirTunes to work properly yet: the speakers attached will rarely show up in iTunes (they did once, but I'm not sure what was different that time).

There's a useful BT Home Hub discussion thread on Digital Spy forums.

Update... there still seems to be trouble with WPA: OS X is regularly dropping the connection every 15 minutes or so. Switched back to WEP for now (OS X also doesn't handle switching between encryption protocols very well: you have to delete the network from 'Preferred Networks' and re-add it with the right encryption, otherwise it'll claim to be connected but won't get an IP address).

September 16, 2006

Comments

Any further idea about why WPA fails with OS X? WEP is really just not good enough.

FWIW, it will reconnect by doing a "renew dhcp lease" in network preferences/airport/tcpip.

This all makes me suspect it's a TKIP problem, where re-keying is not done correctly somewhere. But I have no particular evidence for that.

Any info on this would be greatly appreciated.

Posted by: zgatt on October 30, 2006 6:47 AM

Another incident: WAP+TKIP doesn’t work with MAC address control enabled. At least it didn’t work for me. All my laptops are PowerBook so, I’m not sure if it’s AirPort Extreme/OS X problem or something wrong with the hub. This page http://www.littlehome.co.uk/homehub is usefull to configure the hub using CLI commands.

Posted by: baba on November 12, 2006 1:37 PM

Thank you so much for crossing out your comment about iTunes Airtunes and the HomeHub. I was just about to give up when i stumbled accross your comments.
Connected successfully then for some reason it disconnected my laptop, so i reconnected using wep128bit password from the selection box. Sweet i connected!
Thanks again.

Posted by: Ian Tearle on January 4, 2007 7:27 PM

Hi, thanks for this, your link to the wireless settings page is the only way I've found to get to that page in the router settings. I've been trying to find the page where I can try out the wds settings, It says where they are in the online help, but that option doesn't seem to appear in my menu?? Would you be able to add that as a link too? Thanks, Max

Posted by: Max on January 25, 2007 7:19 PM

Anyone know how to use the Home Hub with an ISP other than BT?

Posted by: Peter Crowe on February 8, 2007 6:19 AM

Hi - you say that the "Airport Express will connect as a client to the Hub anyway". I've tried for weeks to get this to work. Via both the Airport Admin Utility and the Airport Express Assistant, the reconfig of the AE seems to go OK but when the AE restarts it never comes back online... Is there a good detailed description of how to do this with all the parameters etc.? Thanks...

Posted by: Derek Duerden on April 10, 2007 10:40 AM

Derek: try setting it up using DHCP and no encryption. If that works then you can switch to WEP and try again.

Posted by: alf on April 12, 2007 4:43 AM

WPA-TKIP on OS X

Hi all, it took me ages to work out that with some 11g access points/routers OS X requires that you enter the WAP personal password as a 64 hex string. Not only that, it requires it as the pre-shared key that is generated by combining the SSID of the access point WITH the passphrase. The following site can help you to generate the proper 64 hex string which you then need to enter into the passphrase field.

http://www.badtech.org/tools/wpa/

The string must also be preceded by a $ symbol. I suggest copying and pasting then adding the $ - my typing is crap...!

Posted by: Paul on April 12, 2007 4:46 AM

BT HomeHub can connect to airport express in two ways or the AE can connect to BTHH in two ways; 1. as part of an existing wireless network or 2. create a new wireless network.

1. Isn't much use apart from sharing iTunes
2. Much better as you can use iTunes and use the AE to act as a local wireless network which will link to BTHH and onto the internet. Better speed and connectivity if your BTHH is far from your laptop.

It is somewhat convoluted to configure but I managed it using WDS, Mac address of BTHH, WEP, DHCP and same channel. I can give more info if anyone is interested. It took me well over three weeks on and off trying a lot configurations before it worked and even now, some 5m from the AE the speed is not much more than 18 – 24 Mbps – so was it worth it really?

Posted by: Jim on January 24, 2008 4:45 PM

I'd be interested in details of this Jim... thanks

Posted by: Adam on March 17, 2008 3:26 PM

I too would like to know/try the magic involvved in this .... i've tried justabout everything:-(

thanks ian

Posted by: Ian Newby on March 19, 2008 4:38 PM

Hello,
I too would dearly love information on how to set up this ***** device. The problem is simple: big house, thick walls, BT HH far away from some laptops. Solution: use Airport Express as extension to wireless network. Problem: Although I have set it up automatically a zillion times, and several times more manually, AX does not come back when reconfigured. Just sits there flashing amber until re-set to factory defaults. Using the ethernet cable works...but does not significantly improve the network reach. So round and roundwe go again. I can hardly believe I am doing this..it is such a waste of life. If you can provide a simple, step by step guide to setting AX up to work wirelessly with HH I shall be eternally grateful. Regards. Andrew

Posted by: Andrew Bargery on March 30, 2008 1:31 PM

Adam, Ian

sods law, been so long since I configured this, I can barely remember now but you will want to try the following;

(Not necessarily in order)

Connect AE to BTHH through ether net
Enable BTHH repeater and WDS from BTHH advanced config pages -- > advanced-configure-wireless-repeater page.
Complete reset of AE – hold reset for 15 secs or insert AE to power whilst holding the reset button
The AE light should be green – you should have default settings for AE 10.0.0.1
Start AE Admin utility; Try the flowing:
Airport Tab: Name WEP encryption (can change this later) Create wirelss network, set a specific channel
Internet tab: Use WDS, Important MAC address is address either from back of BTHH or when you do a ipconfig look up – this is important to get right and they may be different so it easy to pick the wrong settings Configure using DHCP
Network: No setting
Port Mapping: No setting
Access Control: NO setting
Authentication: NO setting
WDS: Enable WDS, enable as remote base, Main Airport ID is same as MAC address in internet tab
Music : Enable iTunes and name room

This is as far as I can remember, I have a DHCP enabled on BTHH – non static IP Save settings and restart AE. Should go green again, it does, good, then unplug Ethernet and try and without cable after another restart, just pull out AE and put into another socket.

With WDS enabled in BTHH and with WDS enabled in AE, AE treats BTHH like a main router and your AE is a remote station. You must have the correct MAC address of the BTHH and correct encryption on both AE and BTHH – you do not need dollar signs or the like, a simple password will suffice to start and then you can do what you like after. Hope this helps, good luck.

P.S> Remember to set the same channel in the BTHH pages, from auto to manual and set same as AE

Posted by: James on May 29, 2008 7:02 PM

Thanks for posting this - it really helped me out when I set up my Dad's Home Hub last year.

Incidentally, I had no problems with dropped WPA connections using OS X 10.5.5 and home hub software 6.2.6.E (but did have problems with the same MacBook and my D-Link access point until I swapped out the Wi-Fi solution).

Posted by: Mark Wilson on November 3, 2008 7:56 PM

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