FileSaveAs Site
Welcome, Guest. Please Login or Register

 
FileSaveAs Main Site News RSS Feed Email Newsletter Follow us on Twitter FrequencyCast Podcast FrequencyCast on iTunes
  HomeHelpSearchLoginRegister  
 
Page Index Toggle Pages: 1
BT Home Hub stopped working (Read 22932 times)
stevie8
Newbie
*
Offline


Watch this space

Posts: 4
BT Home Hub stopped working
Nov 15th, 2006 at 2:42pm
 
I've currently received my second BT Hub and on receiving it I loaded up my setting that I had stored from my previous one before it failed.
One I had loaded up the setting the Hub stoppped responding over the eithernet. So I gave it a couple of minutes and it stiil didn't work.

So I did a reset to factory defaults using the wireless button on the back. After the lights had stopped flashing I got limited connectivity and was assigned IP 169.254.247.227 with no default gateway, so I thinks its not responding correctly. NB. only the eithernet and wireless light light up on the front.

Does anyone know how to correct this problem? just keep wanting me to reinstall the SW.

Cheers,

Steve
Back to top
 
 
IP Logged
 
hal8000
Junior Member
**
Offline


Watch this space

Posts: 40
UK
Re: BT Home Hub stopped working
Reply #1 - Nov 15th, 2006 at 10:19pm
 
That doesn't sound good. With power applied to the hub press and hold the reset button for 15 secs until leds stop flashing. Still holding the reset power remove power and keep button pressed for further 15 secs. That completes factory reset.
Plug in power and your broadband line. Wait at least 2 minutes you should see a flashing data and internet led, the internet led should remain stable once the hub has synced to your exchange.
You should be able to connect to the internet right away with the default username and password, BT internet authenticates your details using your line number.
You can check status with your browser, login to 192.168.1.254, look for tools page, then line status. You should see a connection speed. It may be a possible linefault not a hub fault.
Back to top
 
 
IP Logged
 
stevie8
Newbie
*
Offline


Watch this space

Posts: 4
Re: BT Home Hub stopped working
Reply #2 - Nov 16th, 2006 at 9:19pm
 
I tried keeping the button in 15 seconds after power off, it made no difference. Cry

It looks like the DCHP pool is corrupt and the hub is not reponding to 192.168.1.254 at all. (using the ping command in cmd, all data is lost)

I'm not happy with the hub if loading up a backup configuration can kill it. Do you think BT were updating the firmware when it happened?

Thanks for try help Smiley

Steve
Back to top
 
 
IP Logged
 
Anti
Newbie
*
Offline


Watch this space

Posts: 1
Re: BT Home Hub stopped working
Reply #3 - Nov 17th, 2006 at 2:00pm
 
Hi I have just taken delivery of my third hub from BT, the first one lasted about an hour then only wireless and data lights on. The second one did exactly as you have described after seven days of the ten day line test.

I think I will have to leave all settings as default Angry

Get onto the help desk and they will send you another Hub within three working days.

As soon as the line test is complete using this hub I will be switching back to my old router and wireless AP.


Since BT did not want the old hubs returned I now have enough of the new adsl filters to replace the old ones throughout the whole house.

I'm thinking of putting the old hubs in the front garden and writing RIP on them as they look like nice headstones (c:

Back to top
 
 
IP Logged
 
johnny20whales
Newbie
*
Offline


Watch this space

Posts: 6
Re: BT Home Hub stopped working
Reply #4 - Nov 21st, 2006 at 7:40pm
 
My experience is that you should not attempt to apply backups back up to a hub as the really flakey bit is the DHCP tables which get corrupted and appear to be able to survive any kind of reset! The only way I have been able to get around this issue is to overwrite by declaring a new DHCP addressing pool which includes the corrupt or problem addresses - effectively forcing a new IP address onto a known MAC address. Interestingly I have a personal friend who claims to have been involved with specing the HomeHubs with BT and their Chinese suppliers and he won't have one in his house! Caveat emptor etc...
Back to top
 
 
IP Logged
 
stevie8
Newbie
*
Offline


Watch this space

Posts: 4
Re: BT Home Hub stopped working
Reply #5 - Nov 22nd, 2006 at 9:56am
 
johnny20whales,

What did you do (in a bit more detail for a novice)?

I tried forcing my IP and defining my gateway as what I though the routers address was with no success.
BT are sending me another but it would be great to know how to fix it because I think the new one will fail in the same way at some point.

Cheers,
Steve
Back to top
 
 
IP Logged
 
mcpeteg
Newbie
*
Offline


Watch this space

Posts: 1
London
Gender: male
Re: BT Home Hub stopped working
Reply #6 - Nov 27th, 2006 at 9:06am
 
I've had two BT Home Hubs now and I've just managed to recover them both with the pointers given by a geek on the BT Home Hub technical support line.  Top marks to whomever that was but it was EXTREMELY difficult to talk to somebody that knew what they were talking about.  My home hub(s) were white bricks after BT attempted to update them remotely (6.1.1M -> 6.1.1R) but these steps recovered the Home Hub and they both now work. 

These steps reset the home hub and reinstall the firmware that's on the CD back onto the Home Hub.  i.e. this is Home Hub brain surgery.  Use at your own risk.


This is the recipe to recover the home hub but I'm not guaranteeing anything:

High Level
------------
a) Reset Home Hub into 'Kernel Recovery' mode
b) Connect your Home Hub and PC with an ethernet cable
c) Reflash firmware from utilities supplied by BT
d) Reconnect your Home Hub to BT ADSL
e) Wait for BT to update your firmware
f) Reconfigure your router

Do NOT skip any steps in section (a).  Not even one step.  Read the whole detailed recipe first and get help if you don't understand a step or don't have the CD.  After section (d), your Home Hub should be back and working with the factory default settings and connected to ADSL again.


Detailed
----------
a) Reset Home Hub into 'Kernel Recovery' mode
  a.1) Turn on your BT Home Hub
  a.2) Wait for the lights to settle down.  OK, give it 5 minutes to settle down.
  a.3) Press the 'Wireless Association' button on the back of the Home Hub for 15seconds
  a.4) WHILE YOU HAVE THE BUTTON PRESSED, PULL OUT THE POWER LEAD
  a.5) Wait for 30s.  You can stop pressing the button while the power is off
  a.6) Hold down the 'Wireless Association' button and plug the power lead back into the Home Hub
  a.7) Wait for the lights to settle down (15s).
  a.8) Release the Wireless Association button
  a.9) Unplug the Home Hub from the ADSL connection (i.e. take out the 'Broadband In' cable but NOT any ethernet cables)



b) Connect your Home Hub and PC with an ethernet cable
  b.1) If they're not connected then connect your Home Hub and PC DIRECTLY with an Ethernet cable.  It's possible to do this recovery over USB (it worked for me) but see below for the USB connection steps
  b.2) The data light on the Home Hub should light up but don't worry if it doesn't
  b.3) Assign the fixed IP address of 192.168.1.100, netmask 255.255.255.0, g/w 192.168.1.254, primary DNS of 192.168.1.254 (ALL must be configured) to the Ethernet interface that's connected to the Home Hub.  If that interface is a dynamic USB interface then assign these addresses to the USB interface.



c) Reflash firmware from utilities supplied by BT
  c.1) Insert your BT Home Hub CD into the computer's CDROM drive
  c.2) Navigate to the directory called 'Utils\UpgradeWizard\UpgradeBT\'.
  c.3) Run 'upgradeBThub.exe'
  c.4) Click 'Next'
  c.5) If your Home Hub is not discovered then turn it off and wait for 2 minutes then go back to step a.1     It took me five (5) attempts to get the Hub discovered.  Don't try to cut down on the timings.
  c.6) Keep clicking 'Next' until the firmware is downloaded (takes < 10 minutes)
  c.7) Your Home Hub now has the factory default settings with the firmware version that came with your Home Hub



d) Reconnect your Home Hub to BT ADSL
  d.1) Plug the ADSL connection back into 'Broadband In'
  d.2) Reset your Ethernet interface to use a dynamic IP address not the fixed 192.168.1.100 address



e) Wait for BT to update your firmware
  e.1) Don't reconfigure your Home Hub.  It was my reconfiguration that caused the Home Hub update (6.1.1M -> 6.1.1R) from installing successfully
  e.2) You might want to turn off the Wireless connectivity because anything could currently connect to it.  You can access the Home Hub at http://192.168.1.254
  e.3) Leave the Home Hub turned on and connected to ADSL overnight.  BT will update your Home Hub remotely.  Mine was done the night after I recovered it but maybe wait two nights



f) Reconfigure your router
  f.1) Perform any reconfiguration, probably at your own risk.  The remote download doesn't seem to like my reconfiguration steps :-D




Additional USB steps
------------------------
BEWARE: This section is from guesswork, not assistance from BT

i) Navigate to the directory 'Utils\USB Drivers' on the CD
ii) Run 'BTHomeHub_USB.exe'
iii) Reboot your PC
iv) Connect your PC and Home Hub with a USB cable

If you are recovering your Home Hub then stop here and go back to step b.2 above

v) If you're lucky then the PC will recognise the Home Hub as a Thompson ST USB device connected via RNDIS (yeuch !!)
vi) You'll get a new network connection that connects you to the Home Hub and the Hub will assign an IP address to the connection
Back to top
 
 
IP Logged
 
stevie8
Newbie
*
Offline


Watch this space

Posts: 4
Re: BT Home Hub stopped working
Reply #7 - Nov 27th, 2006 at 7:38pm
 
Thanks for the info I now have 2 working hubs and another on the way from BT. It also also sounds like I'll get a second hub phone too.
Grin Smiley Grin

Why can't they just supply the info with the hub because I suspect this problem is costing them thousands.


Thanks,
Steve
Back to top
 
 
IP Logged
 
jamesb
Newbie
*
Offline


Watch this space

Posts: 1
Re: BT Home Hub stopped working
Reply #8 - Dec 6th, 2006 at 1:27pm
 

Add me to the list of casualties.
My BT Home Hub stopped working after only a week.

The lights didn't come on and when I rebooted they stayed on, not flickering, which aparently they should.
After complaining to technical help which is based in India, all I seemed to get was a scripted response whereby they just take you through ipconfig tests on your pc and tell you the line is fine and it must be your ethernet card.

Well,, having carried out 4 hours of this I called BT HQ in London for an un-scripted response and now have the BT Chairman's office on the case. I must say they were very helpful and now will be sending a new Hub.
However I'm not too optimistic about this having read the responses here.
So for now, I have reverted back to my old non-BT router and I'm convinced the web pages are loading faster.
I wander what the point of the BT Home Hub is after all for it's cost me an entire morning.

Back to top
 
 
IP Logged
 
Page Index Toggle Pages: 1