Changing BT Homehub 3 to Homehub 5 with ND5XS

I have this combination, and it works perfectly.

Although mine is wired rather than wireless and seems to be very stable......

Thanks Bluetorric!

I connect wirelessly and the HH5 kept dropping both the iPad and the NDX. I got a replacement from BT and the new one did the same, so I reverted to the HH3 and everything is rock solid.

Things that were wired to the HH5 were fine (PC, NAS).

I'm a fair way from anyone whose network might be interfering so dunno what the HH5 thought it was doing.

Thanks Gary - a bit disturbing to hear.  Last time I went HHB3 to HHB4, my ND5XS couldn't connect to the system, either via Devolo or wirelessly.  I'm hoping the HHB5 to an updated ND5XS will work OK - I intend to stream music via Devolo plugs and ethernet cables.  The NAS will be connected directly to the HHB5.

I had problems with HH3 & eventually had a BT engineer visit,  the HH3 was replaced with a HH4 by the engineer who's comments on HH3 confirmed the bad stuff you read on www.  Now HH4 works perfectly.   

I also found BT hubs are not great at handling data packets when used as network distribution hub.  I installed a network switch by running a single ethernet from the BT HH to the switch & the switch connecting between NAS & NDX. The switch then handles all the data stream packet address duties

Since then I have no connection issues of any type.  

Whilst I am not a fan of wireless connections,  I would strongly suggest you do not allow the HH5 to handle data packet addressing between NAS & ND5,  its simple to install a made for the purpose network switch.   

Allowing for Mikes comments on data streaming, I've found the HH5 to be far better, especially with wifi, than the older HH3 and HH4.

+1 on adding a "proper" Ethernet switch, the cost of adding a 5 or 8 port Netgear is minute, compared to the investment in Naim kit and music most of us have.

Have had no problems with HH3, 4 or 5 (current). The HH5 is connected via homeplugs to a switch which has both NAS and Qute connected to it via wires.

I've used this combo for 10 months and it's reasonably stable. I have the ND5 XS wired cat 6 through 5 port Gigabit switch to NAS with the HH5 the other side of Devolo plugs.  This seems to be ok as all the fast transfer (eg Antonio Focione at 192K - 9.2MB/s) stay fast and local and the Devolo only needs to handle the DHCP and iRadio traffic.

The iPad / ND5 sometimes fall out and the ND5 often can't see the NAS but this is worse since the new app and to be fair I did the NAS on the cheap; WD My Cloud.

To flow against the stream - I had problems with my HH3 & 4 with my wired 'Qutes from the outset, eventually ditching the latter for the former after some frustrating "drop-out".  The problems became worse once an NDS was installed - so I moved from HH to Netgear, still with my BT internet.  The system is now stable - most of the time!

Yes, I mean't to add that my Macbook pro is wireless to the HH5 and then wired to a netgear 8 port switch then into ND5 XS.........

Hi Mike, please forgive my ignorance but "network switch" - could you explain?  Is this a product I can buy at, eg, PC World, and just plug in, or do I need to have it made?  I hope to connect the HHB5 by ethernet to the NAS, then stream via Devolo plug  to Devolo plug near the ND5XS and then connect to the Naim streamer.  The router is in a different room from the hi-fi.

Hi Chris,  yes a switch is a thing you can buy from places like PC World & the www stores.

Best in your case would be a simple "unmanaged" switch; they "learn" the MAC addresses on your network & direct (receive & send) streaming packets to only those addresses. 

They cost around £20/£25 for a 5 port,  I use Netgear ProSafe GS105, other makes like Cisco & TP-Link do the same job.

This will only work if you ethernet wire everything including to the Develo's  

- no wireless.  

In your set-up it would look like this ............. 

                BTHH5

                     |

NAS ---- SWITCH ---- Develo )))) Develo ---- ND5XS

This is my set-up,  exactly the same except I have ethernet instead of Develo plugs on the NDX leg. 

Thanks, Mike, that's very helpful.  I'm due to get the HHB5 next week; I'll try to get a switch if the new set-up doesn't work.  Thanks also to everyone else for the feedback. 

Chris,  I expect the HH5 will work,  however the test is that it still runs cool after 4 or more NAS streamed albums??  

My HH3 got very hot after about 3 albums & @ 4 it lost wireless feed to nStream & eventually stopped streaming all together,  it just couldn't handle the traffic.  It all came back again & worked OK after it cooled down,  but it was alarming to say the least.   Hence why I installed a switch & would never use an ISP hub as a switch again.  

Hi Mike - thanks again.  I take your point and it would seem sensible to get the switch regardless.  I'll let you know how this progresses during next week.

Update - BT engineer installed BT infinity and Hhub 5 this morning.  Can't get the ND5XS to find the network (via ethernet  and devolo plug, as used previously).  Checked DHCP selected in settings - OK; restored to factory settings and still the ND5XS doesn't find the connection - nor does it see the NAS drive which is attached to the Hhub 5.  I had this same difficulty several years ago when trying to upgrade from Hhub 3 to Hhub 4; couldn't find an answer then, so went back to HHub3; can't do that this time due to BT Infinity installation.  How can I get the streamer to connect to the network please?

With everything set to DHCP - including in the HH5

Reboot the ND5 & NAS

Then do a restart of the HH5 (restart button on the top)

(I assume you know how to enter "advanced settings" in BT Hub Mngr)

You may need to enable UDP port 1900 for UPnP discovery.

You may also need to fix one or more IP addresses if DHCP won't play ball (i.e. if your computer can't detect the presence of one or more devices).

Just in case you might still have some DHCP confusion with Sonos Chris,  you should try a complete shutdown & a sequenced restart so the HH5 can reassign DHCP addresses as the "new" devices appear.   

Turn everything off & wait 5 minutes

Turn on HH5 & again wait 5

NAS & make sure its completed its start sequence 

ND5

Sonos

If that works OK,  you might want to leave it at that 

But (big but) If you want to fix some IP addresses OK, but I would make sure its working on DHCP first.   

I have my static IP addresses set differently after being advised by a BT back office engineer. (I have a BT-HH4)

The NAS & NDX IP addresses are set to "static" in my HH only – it’s the HH that manages DHCP IP allocation - by leaving the NAS & NDX units on DHCP they will follow whatever static IP address the HH has allocated for their MAC addresses.

Also with BT routers,  having a static IP address in the HH only allows the device(s) to be visible on the BT Home Hub web management page, whereas fixing the IP address in the device(s) as well prevents the BT wed page from seeing the device(s) & limits its management ability.

Interesting advice Mike - clever.

Another BT tip for small home systems......

To avoid DHCP conflict issues its advised to change the static IP address numbers to be some way from the sequenced HH allocated DHCP numbers

One simple way is to add a "1" into the last number block of the allocated DHCP number

= e.g. change 192.168.1.66 to 192.168.1.166.  

Be careful here ... what you may well be doing in this case is to simply delay the time that the router issues out as DHCP the addresses that you have set as static.

The *ONLY* safe way to set static IP addresses on a network is to set them *OUTSIDE* the DHCP range of your DHCP server.

For example I generally have my router set to 192.168.0.254, its DHCP server set to allocate 192.168.0.1 to 192.168.0.63 with an 8 hour lease time and then I can *SAFELY* use 192.168.0.64 to 192.168.0.253 as static IP addresses. I tend to chop the 0-255 address range into logical 16 or 32 address "chunks" as required and allocate each address chunk to a specific purpose or room and then allocate static addresses fitting in with that designation - the lounge and "equipment room" (erm - OK - the loft) both get a 32 address chunk each whereas the bedrooms, kitchen and bathroom each get a 16 address chunk to themselves...

The rule of thumb for my network is that *EVERYTHING* that is going to stay on my network and not be taken out of the house gets a static address and only things like laptops and phones are on DHCP (and any visitors devices).

Cheers

Phil

Phil, I only have my Unitiserve on a static ip address, which seemed to be the key to solving my connectivity problem, but I just pinched the first available number in the range. So I've left my isp configured router as 192.168.1.1, my US is 1.2, and the remaining 1.3 to 1.254 are for DHCP, with around a dozen devices that connect regularly. I'm not aware that this is causing any problems, but I could easily change the US static address if you think it would help? All other devices, including Superuniti, remain on DHCP.

Is there any particular reason for an 8 hour lease time, mine is set to 24?

Cheers, Chris