BT Home Hub 5 Replacement Help

[ricksen24]

Hi Guys

Looking for some help here we have a BT Homehub 5 which was sent out as a replacement due to the wifi signal dropping out constantly we have set up the new one and a few months later still the same old problems.

Ive heard and read online that these Hubs struggle when you have lots of devices which we do seems to grow by the week!

Also the coverage even when it drops out and its working fine barely makes it to the rooms upstairs - in fairness it reaches but only just

My plan is to buy a router which would offer greater coverage and hopefully not drop out like the current set up

Problem is I don't know where to start I would ideally like to do away with the hub and get a router with a modem built in if that works?

Also we have Sky Q in the house which obviously needs to work along side the new hardware

Anyone been in a simiar boat that could help?

Help as always greatly appreciated

 

[sja360]

Could do an easy switch to a BT smart hub, you'd have to check though I'm sure there is two different versions out there. This would give you more antenna's and hopefully better signal & speed.

Reason i went this route was you can find them cheap for £10-20 on the bay and it fixed the range / speed at the same time.

 

[WJA96]

I doubt very much that yiu have a Home Hub 5 if you received it recently from BT. It’s more likely a Smart Hub or a Smart Hub 2.

Contrary to popular opinion BT’s hubs are pretty decent wireless performers so it’s really unlikely that you’ll find something better in a single unit. The main issue I see is that people position the wireless access point near the point where the wall connection is and that’s usually behind the TV (it’s like a huge WiFi blocker) or by the front door (miles away from everything). So the first thing you could try is to plug the wireless access point in somewhere else in the house, somewhere high up and central. Most recently built houses have phone extensions and your Hub will plug into any of those just as well as the one by the front door or behind the TV.

The fact that Sky Q is working would suggest it’s hub positioning that’s the issue rather than wireless technology per se. It’s the same technology and actually not as good as BTs.

Suggesting a combined unit with a router/access point/modem is difficult without knowing what broadband technology you’re running. The fact that you’re asking for a modem would suggest it’s ADSL or VDSL. Could you clarify which please?

 

[Orcvader]

One thing you can try is turn off the smart WiFi feature and lock it to a channel, ideally 1, 6 or 11 for 2.4GHz, and anything between 36 to 64 for 5GHz. When swapping channels it could be the cause of the dropouts since the devices will need to reconnect again.

As above though, if coverage is also an issue, a new router may not be the correct fix if the current placement is in a bad spot. One option is to run a cable to upstairs and then stick an access point up there, or if that's not an option, a mesh setup could also work.

 

[varkanoid]

Looking for some help here we have a BT Homehub 5 which was sent out as a replacement due to the wifi signal dropping out constantly we have set up the new one and a few months later still the same old problems.
Problem is I don't know where to start I would ideally like to do away with the hub and get a router with a modem built in if that works?

Could you advise when you got the HH5 as that is really old now (2015 ish). Its been replaced by Smart Hub (HH6) then Smart Hub 2. The latter of which is one of the best ISP provided routers and gives great coverage.
Also your last sentence above suggests you are still using the separate modem I`m pretty sure the HH5 and onwards have the modem built in. So you really need to check and advise what you are using as BT issue the Smart Hub 2 now as a replacement