BT Homehub 3: phone dead, Infinity not working.

Quartz · 15 Dec 2018 at 15:35

I've got an interesting little problem and I hope I can get some help from here before I call BT.

My network runs off a Draytek 2860 VDSL router. I've had a couple of dropouts recently, just for a few seconds or so each time but sufficiently annoying for me to notice. I dug out my old BT Homehub 3 and fired it up. Wifi works perfectly and I changed the IP address range to 172.16/16 to not conflict with my Draytek. But it won't connect to BT Infinity and thus the internet. I happened to lift the telephone handset and it was dead. As soon as I pulled the VDSL cable from the Homehub I got a dial tone. I still got dial tone when I plugged the VDSL cable back into my Draytek. I tried changing the microfilter with no change and the microfilter is plugged into the master socket. I've tried a factory reset on the Homehub.

What have I missed?

Ricimer · 16 Dec 2018 at 21:51

It looks like the HomeHub 3 only has an ADSL modem, it only supports infinity via PPPoE to an external modem (like the older ECI/Huawei). I suspect that the infinity cabinet doesn't like the ADSL attempts.

Quartz · 16 Dec 2018 at 21:59

Ricimer said:
It looks like the HomeHub 3 only has an ADSL modem, it only supports infinity via PPPoE to an external modem (like the older ECI/Huawei). I suspect that the infinity cabinet doesn't like the ADSL attempts.

Interesting. It has a BT Infinity / VDSL socket.

Ricimer · 16 Dec 2018 at 22:02

That will be for plugging into the modem: http://bt.custhelp.com/app/answers/...i-use-any-hub-or-router-with-superfast-fibre?

Caged · 16 Dec 2018 at 22:04

Yeah you've shoved the phone lead into a network socket which probably explains why your phone line doesn't like it

Quartz · 16 Dec 2018 at 23:39

Caged said:
Yeah you've shoved the phone lead into a network socket which probably explains why your phone line doesn't like it

No, the phone lead is plugged into the microfilter.

Ricimer said:
That will be for plugging into the modem: http://bt.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/13744/~/can-i-use-any-hub-or-router-with-superfast-fibre?

And this appears to be the answer.

BT said:
The Hub 3 and Hub 4 also need to have an Openreach modem that was fitted by an engineer.

Thanks.

bremen1874 · 16 Dec 2018 at 23:56

Quartz said:
No, the phone lead is plugged into the microfilter.

Caged will of been referring to the router end of the cable.

The HH3 has a 'BT Infinity' socket that's a network port where you connect the modem. From your description, that's the port you were using to connect it to the master socket and would explain why it was killing the phone line. If you were using the ADSL port the phone line should have been okay (although you obviously still wouldn't have been able to connect the broadband).