Internet Connection Advice, Please

[Robusto]

I recently got a black BT Home Hub wireless Internet hub because on the phone they told me it would work better than my white BT Home Hub.


Most of the time it's all good, until someone nearby connects to BT Openzone. The power of THAT thing comes into my house and knocks my service for six. I am shipwrecked - and furious, usually.



My hub is in my office on the first floor. I can't move the hub downstairs because it is cable linked to a PC in my office.


When my connection is knocked out downstairs, I have to come upstairs to the hub and stand like a goon reconnecting and restarting everything again.



I'm thinking about going along the street and knocking at all the doors and telling whoever fesses up to turn their power down somehow.


Anyone got a possible solution?...

[daverave999]

Were you having problems with the white one? Did they say why it would be better?

Looking at the BT shop website and here, it looks like the main advantage is that it offers the newer version of wireless connection (802.11n). I don't know if you know anyone who has a wireless-N card/USB adaptor you could borrow to try? You might get better connection quality with that.

I wouldn't go out and buy one just to try though. Only thing I can think of to suggest, off the top of my head. I'll continue pondering though...

[EDIT] Does it affect the wired connection when someone connects to Openzone, or is it just the wireless that drops out?

[TJ:01]

I recently bought a netgear Wireless-N standard router, along with a wireless adapter from dabs. Its been fantastic in increasing the speed of my connection etc - if you're thinking of changing I'd definitely recommend it!

[Alex]

I can recommend the apple airport extreme, its not cheap but you can get some bargains on ebay and it offers all types of wireless, including 802.11n as mentioned above.

[Robusto]

Were you having problems with the white one? Did they say why it would be better?

Looking at the BT shop website and here, it looks like the main advantage is that it offers the newer version of wireless connection (802.11n). I don't know if you know anyone who has a wireless-N card/USB adaptor you could borrow to try? You might get better connection quality with that.

I wouldn't go out and buy one just to try though. Only thing I can think of to suggest, off the top of my head. I'll continue pondering though...

[EDIT] Does it affect the wired connection when someone connects to Openzone, or is it just the wireless that drops out?

Hi Dave.

I didn't have a problem with the white one. The black one was "spoken up" as a "better" hub, and I didn't ask why. I didn't have to pay anything for it, btw. I actually thought it would reach down to my smoke cabin, but it doesn't. I still can't connect down there.

My laptop is one year old. It is an Acer Aspire 5720. I presume it's reasonably up-to-date. I don't want to have to buy a wireless adaptor for it.

The Openzone thing does not affect the wired-in PC. It's just the laptop that plays up.

This evening, my laptop was totally normal and problem-free once the bloody Openzone thing was disconnected by someone somewhere.

[Robusto]

I recently bought a netgear Wireless-N standard router, along with a wireless adapter from dabs. Its been fantastic in increasing the speed of my connection etc - if you're thinking of changing I'd definitely recommend it!

TJ - I don't want to buy an alternative router. If anything, I'll put the white hub back into my set-up and forget this better black hub.

[Alex]

Is your connection protected as it could be someone else also using your connection disrupting it.

[Robusto]

I can recommend the apple airport extreme, its not cheap but you can get some bargains on ebay and it offers all types of wireless, including 802.11n as mentioned above.

Cheers, Alex, but I'm trying to manage without splashing out any more kit. My son at Uni is chewing my arm to fork out for a good Mac for him. I might have to cave in, so will have to cope with my kit.

MANY THANKS FOR YOUR SUGGESTIONS SO FAR, CHAPS.
IT'S A NIGHTMARE WHEN YOU CAN'T GET ONLINE WHEN YOU WANT TO.

[Robusto]

Is your connection protected as it could be someone else also using your connection disrupting it.

Hi again, Alex.

Yup. My connection is protected.

I think anyone watching would be confused at the amount of time this line is used to twitter about stogies!

[daverave999]

If your office is at the back of the house, is it possible to move the router onto the windowsill? Less in the way of the signal, etc.

Another free option you could try is changing the channel the router uses, because it may be the same one that the Openzone signal is using. I'm just speculating there, but I've improved wireless connections in the past by doing that. Other than that, I'm out of suggestions I'm afraid!

[EDIT] Re-read what you've written, and realised you're trying to stop disconnections, not just get it working in the cabin. So the first point is probably not much help...

[Robusto]

If your office is at the back of the house, is it possible to move the router onto the windowsill? Less in the way of the signal, etc.

Another free option you could try is changing the channel the router uses, because it may be the same one that the Openzone signal is using. I'm just speculating there, but I've improved wireless connections in the past by doing that. Other than that, I'm out of suggestions I'm afraid!

[EDIT] Re-read what you've written, and realised you're trying to stop disconnections, not just get it working in the cabin. So the first point is probably not much help...

Dave - How do I change the channel on this thing?

[daverave999]

Dave - How do I change the channel on this thing?

This is what I'm expecting, but I have no experience with this particular router:
You should be able to access the router control panel from any computer on your internal network-I'd recommend doing it from the one connected with the cable.

"How to change the channel on your HomeHub

Took me a bloody long time to work it out! Good old BT, making everything complicated as usual!

1) go to bthomehub.home [I assume that means http://bthomehub.home if not try http://192.168.1.1 ]

2) login as admin by clicking Advanced>continue to Advanced>switch to another user. The login is admin, and the password also is admin [You might have changed this, or it might be written on the box it came in or something]

3) Click on Home Network

4) Click on interfaces

5) Click on WLAN

6) Click Configure from overhead menu

7) Change channel selection from automatic to manual. Wait a mo for the screen to change, and then select your channel!

Don't be surprised if having changed your channel the network disappears totally for a while- and be prepared to do this via ethernet cable if all else fails."

[Shamelessly nicked from here.]
Those using the wireless connection should reconnect within a couple of minutes automatically, without needing to change the channel on the machine. This is why it might work.

I think that's everything you need...

[Robusto]

You are a star, Dave, Thank you.

After work, I had the same nonsense with BT Openzone smashing from my laptop, and no chance of me doing misguided things like arsing around on here.


I just had the most helpful, charming guy talking me through the problem, taking control of my screen, changing channels - Yes! That was the problem! You techhies knew that!


I'm going to be frank.


My heart dropped because I was greeted slowly in halting English by a guy whose mother tongue was not mine. I'm a language teacher and am sticky with linguistic tolerance and sympathy and a love of all of life in general, but I feared incomprehensible delivery as I've had over the phone for all sorts of irritating nonsense in the past.


The guy was A1 and has sorted the lot.



We jabbered, and I ended up showing him me on the EK1 hello page on our website because I am a sad case. He actually had cursor control, and I told him where to put it.


He loved me. Now I have a feedback form to do.


May I just say - and there is no payola here - that I think BT provides a top Internet service.



I have a spare black shiny hub if anyone wants to fork out. I believe it was tooled in the USA.


The price of a for sale second hand sofa for my shack will be enough.



Or maybe two Siglo VIs.

[cohibaIV]

Im With Talk Talk, and I must say...Top sevice and half the price of BT with free anytime call...

[daverave999]

For what it's worth, I've been with both BT and TalkTalk and will never use a company that provides anything other than 'just internet' again. I'm with ADSL24 now and they've been bang on. Each to their own though.