Re: Changing my mind with BT Broadband

[Sysadmin]

Back to EE and BT router going back, they are sending a prepaid addressed bag. I was able to set up the Sonos speakers with the new EE Smart Hub, something I couldn't do with the BT Smart Hub 2.

[Brian Gaff (Sofa]

I think its all down to the over the top but security in the router, one has to turn it off. Brian Brian Gaff -

[John Rumm]

ISTR there is a known problem with some BT hubs with dual band wifi, where they have isolated the two wifi networks such that clients on

2.4GHz can't talk to clients on the 5GHz one.

[John Walliker]

It isn't just BT. One of the WiFi routers supplied by Hyperoptic isolates the WiFi connected devices from those that are connected to the copper ethernet ports.

John

[Steve Walker]

Is it a real hardware/firmware problem or just a configuration problem?

My own router can be configured so that devices on a guest wi-fi can or can't see other devices, even on that same guest login. Any range of IP addresses can also be allocated to different vlans, which can be linked or kept separate as required.

[John Walliker]

Its not my system, so I can't play with it very much. I did see an option that I thought would help, but it had no effect. I suspect a firmware bug in the user interface.

I certainly didn't see any vlan settings.

John

[Adrian Caspersz]

It is a configuration problem that becomes a firmware problem as the end user has no provided way to change the configuration.

All this is usually exposed in a router interface as Wireless Isolation, Client or AP isolation options. If ye are lucky.

I know in BT's case, they implemented that isolation as "BT Wifi with Fon", so ya net wireless bandwidth sometimes got promiscuously used by the man in the street, for some dubious bartered benefit of you doing the same thing elsewhere. And folks got upset about that.

Any range of IP

FWIW My ISP supplied router is the same, and I'm happy with it to have bought 50 pence spares from the car boot sale.

Its interfaces (wired or radio) have assigned VLANs on the internal switch, each VLAN supporting multiple subnets. Custom firewalling is possible between Interfaces, Subnets and VLANs. I can even assign multiple wireless SSIDs each assigned to a VLAN - which is useful in my home lab environment, and to keep Amazon and "smart" devices off my personal LAN traffic.

I don't think new router devices are as configurable as it, though I should do the OpenWRT thing one day ...

[Tim Lamb]

In message [e-mail]>, Adrian Caspersz [e-mail] writes

I knew I was right in not pursuing Latin/Greek at secondary:-)

>

[Martin Brown]

They can switch off one of the two Wifi networks whilst they pair a controller with a recalcitrant device to force them both onto the same IP range. Then it is only a problem if one unit cannot do 2.4GHz.

The only amateurish thing I see about the BT web management page on the router is that it does not have a correct .png file and so the URL for opening it saved to favourites bar ends up with browser default icon.

It also seems to have been designed by a Cadbury chocolate eating Picasso fab on one of his off days to fit a 640x480 screen.

That is still there although the name has changed - it now advertises itself as "BT Wifi". Signal level marginally lower than the parent network which just penetrates my Faraday shielded house whereas most of the time the "Public" network doesn't. My old router allowed two distinct networks under my control each with their own SSID's and disjoint subnets.

EE's router was able to do this and it did set the right .png so that "EE" logo appeared by default on any saver favourites.

The quest for ever more wizards to set things up painlessly for the average Joe means that many features are disappearing or being hidden very deeply under a maze of twisted little menus all alike (and in the case of BT a hideous shade of purple).

So far their router has given me no bother at all - it worked out of the box and the shift in its IP address reset various accumulated faults in recalcitrant IoT devices that had given up working with the old one.

Alexa didn't even blink - just needed the power cycled to get a new valid IP address. I was slightly surprised. OTOH I did setup mine to replicate the SSID and login password of the existing network.