What Router are you using?

Hi Debs,  I do not have need to reset my HH3, but I did on the previous HH2.

That ran OK for a number of months, then needed numbers of resets per day

Eventually an engineer called (under threat of charging £130 if it was my problem)

1st thing he did along with testing the line was to change the HH2 to HH3 (muttering words related to cow pooh)  The line did have a fault at the exchange j-box, so I was fixed, but the HH3 was a breath of fresh air compared to HH2 - for just wireless I hasten to add. 

Have a search on www about BT HH3,  seems you may not be alone.

Then call the sales office & tell them you are fed up with the need to keep reseting & will not be renewing the contract unless it gets fixed.  

I've had unreliable wifi in my listening room which I had to sort in able to use the music library on the MacMini via Airplay with my Zeppelin and also use the screen sharing facility to control the MM with the MBP. I managed to solve the problem with a BT WiFi Home Hotspot 500 kit. It's basically a Powerline with wifi. The good thing is I can connect it up to my MacMini with an ethernet cable so I don't have to worry about wifi signal dropouts. In the instructions it states the Hotspot plug mustn't be used with an extension lead. This was a problem for me but when I went on the BT forum to check it appears that it's only use with extension leads having surge protectors that are a problem. So alls well. The new HH5 arrives Wednesday.

I just ended up with a free HH5 for extending my broadband subscription for another 12 months whilst cancelling my BT Sport HD subscription as I didn't watch it enough to justify the £3 charge after the free 12 month period. It's gone in the cupboard unopened, to join the HH3 and HH4, as I'm sticking with the Airport Extreme.

@Debs - the best way to get a replacement HH is to ring tech support and report an intermittent fault - you'll get a HH4 within 2 days at no cost. You will have quite a long call while they test your lines but worth it - don't ask for a hub, wait until they suggest it. I know this because I really did have intermittent faults on 2 occasions, certainly having to reset more than once a month counts as a fault as far as I'm concerned!

BT can monitor a line & will tell you more about your line & hub status than you can know about.

I had drop outs numbers of times per day that needed me to reset.  I once told them 5 times in 12 hours, BT told me it happened 19 times.   

The need for constant resetting is a fault,  just make the call on that. 

Pev,

i have to phone BT tech support about 4 times a year...

The problem is 99.9% in the local exchange for my area.

I don't know what BT teck support do all the way from India, but i imagine they kick the local exchange up the backside to wake them up, my Broadband link becomes far better and my pooter goes a lot faster, for a while... for a few weeks before it slowwwws doownn agaiiiin ... ..

I have also come across "Do not use with an extension lead" announcement and when I first saw it wondered what was in an extension lead.  The answer "Nothing" unless of course, as you say it contains a surge protection or a HF filter in it.  Why can't they say that in their blurb?

Exactly Bill. It works really well on the extension lead. 

Hi,

I'm a BT customer and have been using a Netgear N300 modem,wireless router to stream HD TV (via a wireless range extender) and CD quality FLAC and AIFF with absolutely no problems whatsoever - no drop-outs, no dropped connections.  I highly recommeNd this solution and it's not expensive.

I'm a bit reluctant to change the set-up as it works so well but now want to start to streaming 24-bit audio more regularly. 

I could just move up to the next Netgear model or, as we're a totally Apple-based household could move to Airport Extreme etc.  Any thoughts on what would be better?

Also, would it be better to buy a DSL modem and separate wireless router?

Thanks,

Philip

Phil

Like you we are a totally Apple household. I use a Draytek Vigor 120 into an Airport Extreme with the 'music section' run through a Netgear GS105 switch (thanks to Mike B for the recommendation). Works great and the general broadband/wifi experience is much better than the HH4 I previously used which tended to reboot about 5 or 6 times every night causing the exchange to assume a problem and cap the line. No problems whatsoever with the current set up and strongly recommended.

Hi Camlan,

that's very encouraging.  Can I ask whether you are streaming hi-res audio with this set-up?  I also had problems with earlier bt-supplied equipment which is why I declined their kind offer of a home hub and bought the Netgear.

Thanks, Philip

Yes I am to an NDS from Unitiserve and with no problems whatsoever.

You will need an ethernet connection to stream 24/192 as I found that WiFi can't cope with it and buffering caused dropouts, I understand that Naim supports this view and it is not Router or signal strength specific. 

Ok, great! Thanks for the advice Philip

Update -  finally

BT  !!!   a shambles  !!!!

5/7/14  - Tried to report fault

Help desk – no one answered

On-line chat - no response for 30 mins.

E-mail - no reply.

7/7/14 - help desk, used the call me back feature - no call in 4 hours.  

Called Sales Office (UK) who answered!!!!– whoopee-doo

– they advised I must talk to someone technical & put me thru to tech dept. (India)  Eventually I was put thru to the “high level” dept who promised to call me in 24 hrs

8/7/14 - no call back

- I called them, still no action, still looking at it – will call back in 24hrs

I resolved not to call them …….. lets see how this goes (???)    

11/7/14 - no call back after 3 days !!!,

I called BT (India) – lots of apologies & they will send replacement hub 

15/7/14 – new HH4 arrives – installed OK

Tested an upload with 2 large WAV files that took ~1 hour. Connection was via a temporary laptop to hub Ethernet patch cable.  

The hub gets hot, nothing like as hot as HH3,  but the main thing is it did not stop working.   

It’s not great & TBH I have given up on using it as an down/up-load link,  I will now connect laptop Ethernet to the switch for big down/up-loads.  Meanwhile it ain't broke so I’m leaving well alone

– Could Do Better methinks. 

The 'Joy of BT' is a very small, thin book......

Any second thoughts? 

Dave

Not really,  I have so much going on that involves a lot of overseas contacts plus some legal stuff both associated wth my BT e-mail address. This tips the balance towards too much trouble & with some risk involved in changing it.

In the cold light of dawn,  the HH3 did work OK as a wireless modem/router,  ditto the new HH4 (even better with 2.4 & 5GHz bands)   They don't work as required as a network switch, but that is not a show stopper as I now have a better way to do it - I've moved the network switch to a more accessible place & hooking up a temporary down/up-load patch cable is now not so difficult - even for my knees.   

I'm with Mike on the one HH3 runs hot, BT knows this is an issue - after advise installed a switch in between the NAS & NDX - helped ideally would love to run a cable from NAS to NDX but just not possible

They are not  really network switches, hence BT now selling their own.

I take one lead from HH4 (now a 5) and feed an 8 way Netgear and it seems to work fine.

Although strangely the HH5 seems slower than my HH4.

The only way H  !!!

Not sure I would buy a BT switch tho',  considering the prices of Netgear & Cisco etal.

I am happy with HH4 speed 

What are you getting with HH5?   - you can see in Hub Mngr - advanced settings - home network - devices & double kick on the device thats your PC

On wireless 2.4Ghz band  I get up to 72Mbs connection speed to laptop, & on the 5Ghz band its 300Mbs.  Its slightly slower opening www & page changes on 2.4Ghz,  but thats being a bit picky. 

When I tried down/up-loading with a patch cable connected to the hub I only got 100Mbs as the the only available port was one of the 100Mbs ethernets. 

But when plugged into the Netgear switch, because it was linked to the GigE port, I got 1000Mbs - so thats the way I'm down/up-loading from now.

Mike link speed has nothing to do with throughput speed. I am linked via gigabit however throughput speed will be massively slower.

If you see 100MB/s throughput on your gigabit connection then you have an excellent home network. 

Yes garyi,  I'm fully aware of that. My problem is with uploading WAV files from PC via a patch cable into the hub to NAS - the hub overheated.  Its limitations (whatever they are) really slowed the process down & the time added to the heating process. 

A higher potential link speed will - & does - significantly reduce the time compared to previously.

And as I am now connecting the laptop via a patch to the switch, thereby avoiding the hub connection.  The gigabit switch to the 1000Mbs NAS port line speed is shown as 1000Mbs,  

I'm not sure what the actual transfer speed is,  but its impressively faster.  

You really need to bin the hub mate. Just go to currys today and get a netgear or something, it dosn't need to be difficult

Although connecting to the switch is the perfect solution a better router will be a better router, negotiating connections etc will all be much faster and more stable.

Simon seems to like BT routers, but I have a sneeky suspicion he has something to do with them, the rest of the world does not haha.

You're probably right garyi,  but for now I am happy to leave the new HH4 in place, it works OK as a wireless source around the house & apart from iRadio it has very little to do with the hifi system now I've made the switch easily accessible as a patch cable connection point.    

I have 3x 24/96 & 192 WAV albums waiting to be downloaded & I will try that over wireless to see how it goes with both time & HH4 case temperature rise. Then compare time to upload straight to the NAS via the switch & patch cable. 

Actually I think it makes sense to use the router supplied by your ISP, BT in this case.  For one thing 'support' and for another 'compatibility'.

Trying ringing BT with a problem and tell them you are using a Netgear hub.....

The other thing and it was the reason I started this thread, is how do you know your Netgear router from Curry's (didn't they go bust?) is a better router than your BT supplied one?