This confused me somewhat (BT)

mrbios · 27 May 2011 at 09:11

I was looking at my dads internet connection yesterday and i'm a bit confused by the way BT have set it up, just wanted to see if this sounded like a strange setup or if it's just the way they do things:

He's subscribed to BT Broadband and BT Vision, so has a homehub which is plugged in upstairs in his house, if i ring the house phone to the number i know both phones will ring, but when i checked on his homehub it's setup with a different phone number and ringing this number will make only the phone on the homehub ring (as he has another phone downstairs connected to he same phone line)

What i don't understand is how he has 2 phone numbers on the same phone line where by ringing one number rings both phones and ringing the other rings only one phone, what sort of loopy setup is this? Is this normal?

Apparently ringing out from the home hub phone gives him free calls but the other one doesn't..which just confuses me even more!

Pulse · 27 May 2011 at 09:14

Yeah that's normal as the Homehub is taking the call from the phoneline itself, but the Homehub works as a VOIP phone and actually uses the internet to make calls like skype but has a dedicated phone number.

Or at least that was my understanding when we had BT, feel free to correct me.

mrbios · 27 May 2011 at 09:27

So if i disconnected his homehub and setup a netgear box in its place (they don't like the homehub phone anyway) would i set that up for the phone number that is setup on the homehub or the normal phone number of their phoneline?

ubersonic · 27 May 2011 at 09:30

As above, its a VOIP line. If you swap the homehub for a Netgear router you will lose the VOIP phone line.

3dcandy · 27 May 2011 at 09:48

+1 you will lose the homehub phone completely if you change the router. Why do you want to disconnect the HH? People have this perception that it's a rubbish router, it's just as rubbish as most of the *free* routers given out by ISP's, tweak it and it will be fine for most purposes which is exactly what it is designed to do...

mrbios · 27 May 2011 at 09:55

3dcandy said:
+1 you will lose the homehub phone completely if you change the router. Why do you want to disconnect the HH? People have this perception that it's a rubbish router, it's just as rubbish as most of the *free* routers given out by ISP's, tweak it and it will be fine for most purposes which is exactly what it is designed to do...

Well they don't use and most likely never will use VOIP, they hate the phone where it is (it's the only place for it) so won't be bothered by losing it, so all the benefits of having the homehub over a better router are negligable, yes?

And i looked at the web frontend for it yesterday and when you say tweak it...tweak what? there's nothing i can change on the damn thing

(do i need to telnet to it for admin settings?)

I already have a decent netgear box setup that i know works really well, hence wanting to replace it.

ubersonic · 27 May 2011 at 10:13

mrbios said:
Well they don't use and most likely never will use VOIP, they hate the phone where it is (it's the only place for it) so won't be bothered by losing it, so all the benefits of having the homehub over a better router are negligable, yes?

The VoIP phone is cordless so they can pick it up then move away, it costs less to use than the normal phone (some calls are even free). Negligible depends on the costs/saving involved.

mrbios said:
And i looked at the web frontend for it yesterday and when you say tweak it...tweak what? there's nothing i can change on the damn thing (do i need to telnet to it for admin settings?)

I already have a decent netgear box setup that i know works really well, hence wanting to replace it.

You have to put /mmc/ or something at the end of the web address to get to the advanced admin mode, Google it, you can also get custom firmware for them. In my experience homehubs (made by 2wire) are just as good as any other A list brand.

3dcandy · 27 May 2011 at 10:20

Is it a HH2 or a HH3? The advanced settings are hidden by default to stop people breaking them by changing things they shouldn't - perhaps not applicable in your case but they have to try and keep the muppets from breaking them...in my experience you will not gain anything from going to a netgear from a HH at all, in fact you may actually lose some speed...

Ciff1 · 28 May 2011 at 10:59

Just to let you know bt are dropping the hub phone service some time soon as i've just renewed my contract. The hub phone can operate away from the hub on the hh2 as it has a seperate charging base and power supply if you wish. So far my homehub 2 type a has been totally reliable have setup port forwarding for many games no problem. Currently on my 10 day training period and on my adsl2 line i have a ping of 15 , download of 15mbps and upload of 1 mbps. Homehub just as good as any, although i'm looking into a tp link w8960 as it uses a chipset which lets you change the snr ratio settings to tweek your conection same setup as the billion modem router. Hh does'nt do this. Hh3 already dropped internet phone feature they told me not enough people used it.