Alternative to BT Home Hub

Tractor Boy

Tractor Boy

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Nick
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Hi Folks,

Had a lightning strike very close to the house on Sunday evening which has thrown the home hub into a paddy that it doesn't want to come out of (as well as buggering up the tv aeiral:bang:).

Anyway was wondering what you knowledgable people out there would sugest as a replacement for the HH. Needs to have a decent wireless setup as we live in a house with solid brick walls, although the HH works well, and needs to have at least 2 wired ports.

I have been looking at the Netgear ones in PC World but would value any opinions on what would be a good router.

Thanks :thumbs:

Nick
 
Nothing wrong with Netgear. I personaly don't like Belkin but others do
 
:agree:

Use the N+ netgear @ work and works reliably.
 
Looks to have draft n - fastest/biggest range commercial wifi at the mo.

Looks good to me :thumbs:

Netgear CP is very good too.
 
neil_g said:
why not phone BT up and ask them to send a replacement?
Click to expand...

BT will charge if it is to lightning. I also have a BT home hub, in fact i have 4 (3 faulty) and I am thinking of replacing it just because they are so unreliable and have poor range.

Paul
 
I don't find the home hub too bad. If you're not thinking of leaving BT though it's still worth a call to them. Tell them you'll stay with them for another 12 months if they throw in a brand new home hub. it worked for me.

cheers
 
PPalmer said:
BT will charge if it is to lightning. I also have a BT home hub, in fact i have 4 (3 faulty) and I am thinking of replacing it just because they are so unreliable and have poor range.

Paul
Click to expand...

really? ive come across a few and for a free ISP supplied box they seem to be one of the better ones. and i thought the range was pretty good in the gf's old lead walled (lol) house..

presumably the OP has spoken to the ISP, it might not be a router issue it may be the lightning has affected the telephone line.
 
Shame you don't like Belkin, I have a brand new enhanced wireless starter kit N150 with wireless dongle sitting here in box that I bought when my internet went wrong.
All it needs is the wire from PC to router and you could have it for free, no good to me as I have a working router and a new BT one as well
 
neil_g said:
really? ive come across a few and for a free ISP supplied box they seem to be one of the better ones. and i thought the range was pretty good in the gf's old lead walled (lol) house..

presumably the OP has spoken to the ISP, it might not be a router issue it may be the lightning has affected the telephone line.
Click to expand...

They might provide them for free but they do cost more than the same service from other providers.

As for the range it might just be my house. My landlord has bodged so much god knows whats in the walls.

Paul
 
Hi folks,

Thanks for the replies.

The telephone line is still working and I can get internet for short spaces of time so my money was on the router as they are quite sensitive to electrical activity like this. It has also played silly buggers with the ipods touch and coneccting to it wirelesly. It has taken out the masthead amp on the TV aerial so it must have had a fair shock - as I did standing in the garden :eek:.

BT are their usual helpless self and will supply a new router but at £89 and I was just thinking that this might be the oportunity to look around for something better as they don't have any stock showing at the moment :shrug: I am waiting for the BT forum moderators to get back to me as they are all engineers and give proper help and advice but I will try replacing the ADSL/phone splitters tonight as well.

Thanks very much for all your invaluble help :thumbs:

Nick
 
:agree: Grandparents have a home hub. They get relatively regular lightning strikes and the homehub at that point becomes temperamental. BT replaced twice for free then got bored....

You could always not mention the lightning and say it simply stopped working?
 
i think the home hub is decent for a free one, tbh its about as good as a netgear, none are great unless you plump for cisco....

if you want a decent one you could go for a fritzbox which are german linux based devices and quite well regarded,

or get a compatable device and stick open wrt onto it for some nerd appeal ;)
 
Overpriced but very reliable (IMO) is the apple airport extreme....
 
We have had a Belkin router for years, when it went faulty we got a brand new latest spec free as a replacement as they have or had a lifetime warranty. We were sent a Home Hub but my employer at the time would not sanction it for use for work. If I had a problem with anything IT related they liked to be in control of ALL the hardware.

We probably should upgrade to a N router but if it's not broke.....
 
Well after all that the nice people at the BT forum moderation team have just sorted out a free replacement :thumbs:

It must be said that if you are with BT then the BT forum moderators are a darn sight better than calling the indain helpline. They all seem to work directly for BT and some are engineers - as such they actually get to the route of the problem and get it solved.

Thanks for all the advice :thumbs:

Nick
 
Tractor Boy said:
Well after all that the nice people at the BT forum moderation team have just sorted out a free replacement :thumbs:

It must be said that if you are with BT then the BT forum moderators are a darn sight better than calling the indain helpline. They all seem to work directly for BT and some are engineers - as such they actually get to the route of the problem and get it solved.

Thanks for all the advice :thumbs:

Nick
Click to expand...

BT twitter are also very good http://BANNED/BTcare is there link, sorted out me a new homehub and phone.
 
Result! Nice one Nick.

The power of forums eh! :thumbs:

Now get that conductor up to make sure it doesn't happen again!
 
PPalmer said:
BT will charge if it is to lightning.
Click to expand...

BT will not charge if its due to lightning - they are responsible for lightning protection of the line - not you. So get the free hub - nothing wrong with it.

Source: 15 years as a (now ex) BT engineeer
 
PPalmer said:
BT will charge if it is to lightning. I also have a BT home hub, in fact i have 4 (3 faulty) and I am thinking of replacing it just because they are so unreliable and have poor range.

Paul
Click to expand...

As said before BT Twitter are really good, mine dident even need replacing i had the old white version and wanted the wireless n on the black so told BT twitter this and they said thats fine and sent me one out.
 
A conductor will do you no good if lightning grounds nearby which is what happened in this case. When it grounds it sets up a ~90v static charge in cables which is enough to burn out low voltage items like tv amplifiers, phones etc that are connected.

The only sure fire way to protect your equipment in such a storm is to disconnect it.
 
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