Reuse a spare BT Home Hub as a Wireless Access Point

This article was rewritten and updated on 9th April 2017.

BT is a popular Internet service provider in the UK.  BT subscribers receive a free router called the “BT Home Hub“.  A new model of Home Hub is launched every few years, and as BT never takes the old ones back, many people have an old Hub tucked away somewhere, gathering dust.

This post explains how to convert an old BT Home Hub 5.0 or Home Hub 4.0 into a second wireless access point (“AP”) on your network, strengthening and extending the wireless signal around your home or office.  Although the details are for those routers, the basic procedure works for other BT and perhaps non-BT routers.  In particular, notes have been included for the BT Home Hub 3.0 and the now ancient Home Hub 1.0 – these are indented and written in italics.  Many users have also had success in reusing Home Hub models 2.0 and 6.0 (BT’s latest router, also known as the Smart Hub).

Summary

In summary, this procedure comprises resetting the old Home Hub to factory defaults, then logging into the Hub using the default IP address and password, disabling DHCP, and giving the Hub a suitable new IP address.  And finally, running an ethernet cable between the old Home Hub and your managing router.

Note: During test, my local network was managed by a Netgear router. But the managing router is not part of this procedure. You are not required to access or modify it in any way, except when running a cable at the end of the process. Only the Hub being re-purposed is changed.

Procedure

Start with the Home Hub not connected to anything except its power supply.

Hit the Reset Button

Power on the Home Hub 5.0 (or 4.0). Locate the recessed “Reset” button on the rear, towards the right hand side.  Using a paper clip or similar, hold down the Reset button 20 seconds or so.

The light on the front of the hub will go green. After about 20 seconds it will begin to blink, then turn solid blue for 15 seconds, then flashing amber for 15 seconds, before settling to solid amber. A few seconds later, the “b” will start to blink red. The Hub will remain in this condition. Proceed as follows.

Home Hub 3.0 users:
The Hub will reset (the power light will glow dimly amber, then flash, then the “Wireless” LED will light up blue, then both LEDS will settle to blue).

Home Hub 1.0 users: Press the “Wireless” button on the back of the Home Hub 1 and hold it down for 15 seconds. You will then hear a click and the Hub’s green LEDs will all illuminate. Wait a couple of minutes for the Hub to reset and reboot.

Resetting the Home Hub to factory defaults will clear out old settings that might otherwise prevent this procedure from working. For example, it will deactivate the “BT Fon” feature, also known as “BT Wi-Fi”.  If left active, BT Fon would prevent DHCP from being disabled. Also, if you have forgotten the admin password for the old Home Hub, the reset will get around that.

Instructions for resetting other BT routers can be found here.

Connect your PC Directly to the Hub

De-activate wireless on your PC. If it is connected to your home/office network with a physical network cable, disconnect it now. The PC needs to be completely isolated from your network.

Connect a spare Ethernet cable from your PC directly to the Home Hub. Use any of the Hub’s Ethernet ports (they are coloured yellow).

Your PC should then receive an IP address from the Home Hub, via DHCP.  (If you are curious to know, this address will probably be 192.168.1.64).

Reset the Admin Password

Start a browser on your PC and surf to the Hub default IP http://192.168.1.254.

You should see the Hub’s main home page. Click on “Advanced Settings”. The Settings page appears, with a message beginning “To prevent unauthorised access to your Hub’s settings, BT Hub Manager is password protected…“. Enter the default Admin password as directed. It can be found on the Hub’s white (detachable) panel, labelled “Admin Password for Hub Manager”. Note that the it is case sensitive. Click the OK button.

Home Hub 3.0 users:
You should see the Hub’s “Please Reset your Password” page. Enter the admin password located on the pull-out tab of the Home Hub 3.0, as directed. It is not case sensitive.  Also enter a new admin password where indicated, and enter it again to confirm.  You can also enter a hint, but it is not required. Finally, click the “Change Password and open Hub Manager” button. You will be presented with the Hub’s home page.

Home Hub 1 users: Instead of the admin password, you must enter the serial number found on the back of the Hub, as directed by the web page.  Also enter a new password, and again to confirm. Then click the “Change Password and open Hub Manager” button.  The home page opens.  Now proceed to the next Home Hub 1 section below.

Note: Some Firefox users have reported seeing JavaScript errors at this point – switching to the Chrome browser fixed it for Ed Iglehart, see his coment below.

Note: A couple of people have complained of not being able to surf to the hub at all. If this happens to you, try what Josh suggested in his comment below. That is, “go to File Explorer, then on the left it will say network, open that. If the hub is connected by Ethernet then it will show up with something like “BT Hub”. Click on that.”

Reconfigure Wireless Settings

Now Click “A-Z” at the very top right. Then click W -> Wireless Security – 2.4 Ghz.

Under “2.4 GHz Wireless Configuration”, make sure that Security is set to “WPA2 Only (Recommended)”. By default, it should be already. Under “Wireless key (WPA2)”, delete the default key and enter one of your own, and remember it. This is the password that clients will use to connect to the wireless network. Leave all other options as the default.

Click the Apply button at the bottom of the page. The page will reload and you should see a “Changes applied” message at the very bottom, confirming the new settings.

Note that by default, the key you have just set also applies for the Hub’s 5 Ghz wireless network.

Home Hub 3.0 users:
Under Wireless Configuration, make sure “WPA & WPA2 (Recommended)” is selected. By default, it should be already. Enter a Wireless key. This is the password that will be required for clients to connect. Click the Apply button at the bottom of the page. The page will reload and you should see a “Changes applied” message at the very bottom, confirming the new settings

HH1 users: On the Hub home page, select from the menu on the left: Advanced -> Continue to Advanced -> (enter “admin” and the password just created) -> Wireless -> Security.  Select the “Use WPA PSK Encryption” radio button.  Enter a wireless password (called a “key”) just below that.  And change the “WPA-PSK Version” drop-down to “WPA+WPA2“. Then click “Apply”.  Then jump straight to the next Home Hub 1 section below, where DHCP is deactivated and a new IP address allocated.

Allocate New Hub IP Address

The Hub IP address needs to be changed now. By default it is set to 192.168.1.254, and this would almost certainly clash with your managing router. What’s needed is a new IP address compatible with your home network, and which is not already in use by something else.

Click “A-Z” at the very top right. Then click D -> DHCP Settings. Under “Hub IP Gateway Address”, enter a new IP address for the hub. It should be in the same network, but outside the DHCP ranges of the router managing your network. For example, if your network is controlled by another BT Home Hub (eg. model 1,2,3,4 or 5), those routers by default allocate DHCP addresses in the range 192.168.1.64 to 192.168.1.253. You would therefore choose a new IP address outside of that range. I would recommend 192.168.1.63, but you could also use 192.168.1.62, (or 61, or 60, …).

After you have entered the new IP address for the Hub, click the “Apply” button and answer “Yes” to the “Are you sure?” question.  You will then see an error message about the page failing to load, or it will not load properly.  Don’t worry, this is expected because you just changed the Hub’s IP address.

In your PC’s browser, surf to the new IP address of the Hub, ie. the address you have just chosen.  For example, http://192.168.1.63. The Hub’s home page should load again, proving that the new IP address works.

Deactivate DHCP

Now click “A-Z” at the very top right. Then select D -> DHCP Settings. again.  Enter the admin password if asked.  Under “DHCP Server“, set the “Enable:” radio button to “No“.

Click “Apply” and then answer “Yes” on the “Are you sure?” page.  After a few moments, the page reloads. You should see a message at the very bottom: “Changes applied”. Proceed to the next section for connecting your Hub to the wired network.

Home Hub 1 users: From the left hand menu, select “IP Addresses“.  On the page that appears, uncheck the “Use DHCP Server” tick box.  Below that, under “IP addresses“, you should see these addresses:

10.0.0.138/24
172.16.1.254/24
192.168.1.254/24

Click “Edit” next to the address that matches the rest of your network. For example if your other network devices are addressed like 192.168.1.something, choose 192.168.1.254.  Enter a new IP address for the Hub.  Following the same background notes as for the Hume Hub 3 above, your new address should most likely be 192.168.1.63.  Therefore, change “192.168.1.254” to “192.168.1.63” and then click the “Apply” buttonThe page will then fail to load properly.  Don’t worry, this is expected because you just changed the Hub’s IP address.  In your PC’s browser, surf to the new IP address of the Hub, ie. the address you have just chosen.  For example, http://192.168.1.63. The Hub’s home page should load again, proving that the new IP address works.

Connect the Hub to your Wired Network

Now remove the spare Ethernet cable from your PC and the Hub.

Connect the Home Hub to your local network You can do this by using a long Ethernet cable. Plug one end into any of the Hub’s yellow Ethernet ports. Plug the other end into a vacant port on your managing router. Now the Hub 5.0 is part of your home network. And client devices connecting wirelessly to it will be able to access the rest of your network and to the Internet, using your general Internet connection.

Alternatively, if your Hub 3 is a long way from your managing router, and you don’t want to trail a cable, you could use a pair of power line connectors – one connected to the Home Hub, the other to your managing router. Once the connectors are paired up, the effect will be the same as if you had used an Ethernet cable.

Test your New Wireless Access Point

Activate wireless on your PC and check the list of available Wi-Fi access points. You should see the new Home Hub AP, which will be recognizable from its SSID.

Connect to the new AP. You will be prompted for the wireless key chosen above. Enter the key and your PC will connect wirelessly to the Home Hub. Try to connect from other devices too, perhaps a smartphone or tablet. In each case, you will need to enter the wireless password.

Flashing Lights on the Hub

At the end of this procedure, users of Hub models 4.0 and 5.0 will notice that the Hub light is now permanently amber and the broadband LED, shaped like a “b”, blinks red. Unfortunately there is no way to stop this, except to acquire some black insulation tape and use it to block the lights.

NB There is an option to dim the hub lights, which helps somewhat. Log in to your re-purposed Hub and go to A-ZH – “Hub Lights, change brighness“. Enter the admin password if asked. Then select “Brightness: Low” and click Apply. The message “Changes applied” appears and the hub lights immediately dim.

Conclusion

If all has gone to plan, you now have your second AP up and running. Wireless users in your home/office can connect to whichever AP has the strongest signal in their location.

Set a Different 5GHz SSID (Optional)

The BT home Hub (models 4.0, 5.0 and 6.0) is dual band, meaning it comes with an extra wireless channel on 5 Ghz. Modern wireless clients (circa 2015 onwards) can connect at the higher frequency and obtain a clearer, faster, less congested signal. Meanwhile, older devices will continue to connect using the slower channel

By default, the 2.4 Ghz and 5 Ghz channels use the same SSID (same name). I like to give them different names, so that they stand out in the list of APs when your client device (phone, tablet) does a wireless scan. If you want to give your 5GHz channel a special name, proceed as follows.

Surf to the IP address of your re-purposed Hub and login. At the top right, click A-Z and then W and Wireless Security – 5 Ghz.

The Wireless SSID will be set to something like “BTHub5-XYZ3”. Edit the field and add “-5Ghz”, for example “BTHub5-XYZ3-5Ghz”. Click the Apply button. The page will reload and you should see the familiar “Changes applied” message at the very bottom.

Your 5GHz network is now renamed and you should see “BTHub5-XYZ3-5Ghz” among the list of devices found when your phone/tablet/laptop does a wireless scan (but only on devices which are 5 Ghz enabled, likely to be those purchased from 2016 onwards).

A Note on SSIDs

Some readers have asked if it is worth setting the SSID of the new wireless access point to be the same as another existing SSID, for example the one on your main wireless AP, provided by your main wireless router. It is allowable to have both the same, but I would not personally recommend it. If the names are the same, it is difficult to know which AP your device is connecting to.

On the other hand, with different SSID names, you can see both in the list of APs on your client device (eg tablet), making it easy to choose whichever you prefer. Also, most devices will connect to the strongest signal by default. If you roam out of range of one, your smartphone, say, should pick up on the other automatically, if it is stronger/closer.
Or you can force it by disconnecting, then letting your phone/tablet reconnect to whichever is the nearer and stronger AP.

Some Background on DHCP

If you have followed the above procedure, wireless clients will be able to connect to your new AP. They are allocated an IP address by the DHCP server running on your main/managing router. There is no DHCP server on the re-purporsed Hub. It was deactivated as part of the procedure).

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Neil Pellinacci for the basic process. I just added the factory reset bits after encountering an inability to disable DHCP due to BT Fon settings.

434 thoughts on “Reuse a spare BT Home Hub as a Wireless Access Point

  1. Hi
    Thanks for writing this very understandable step by step process for using a surplus BTHub4.
    I was going to purchase a new router to act as an secondary access point in my conservatory, (which has a very poor wifi signal). Your guide worked first time. Thanks again. John

  2. Help here for Virgin Media user struggling to change HH5 IP address to anything in the 192.168.0.* range.
    Virgin Media Hub 3 has a fixed IP of 192.168.0.1 and assigns IP address (DHCP) in range 192.168.0.* (you can choose range and number in Hub 3 settings.
    However, you CAN’T change the Hub 3’s own IP address.
    I have been unable to change the HomeHub5’s IP address to anything in the 192.168.0.* range successfully (when I do try, e.g. 192.168.0.8, I cannot connect to it using an ethernet cable and typing its new address into a browser) and so I assume if I change it to something in the 192.168.1.* range then it won’t be able to communicate with the Virgin Media network.
    Is there a way to change the Home Hub IP to something in the the same subnet (is this right?) as the Virgin router (i.e. in the 192.168.0.8 range)
    Thanks in advance.
    Conor

    • Hi Conor. Your network is managed by a Virgin Media hub, and you are trying to re-purpose a BT Home Hub as a second wireless access point. Is that correct ? I am a bit confused – you mention a BT Home Hub 5 first, then you are talking about a Home Hub 3, then a Home Hub 5 again. Can you clarify?

      It should be straightforward to change the IP address of a HH3 or HH5, following the instructions under the section entitled “Allocate a New Hub IP Address”.

      Cheers, Jim.

      • Hello, I have just successfully followed these great instructions to use a HH5. When I assigned a new IP address I too couldn’t then access it. I tried several times from the start.

        I’m using a Mac and could see via the Network part of System Preferences that the HH5 was indeed re-addressed to the new IP. So in ‘desperation’ I cycled power to the HH5 and let it restart and lo and behold I could then access it and complete the setup.

        So this might help and thanks again Jim.

        • Hi TimP and thanks a lot for the Mac/HH5 information. I am not sure why an extra power cycle was needed in this case, hopefully it will be of help to Mac users.

          Cheers, Jim.

  3. Thank you for the original article which is an example of unambiguous clarity. Also for your patient non-condescending replies to never ending questions.

    I have two BT home hub 5s and a Plusnet router, which appears to have only superficial differences from the BT device. I have after considerable perseverance, succeeded in getting one BT and one Plusnet device working with my VirginMedia Hub3.
    The VM Hub3 can be used in modem mode, which turns off DHCP and Firewall and would allow connection of a BT hub via the red WAN socket. This would require only SSID and password changes to the BT Hub. If I chose to use the VM Hub3 in this way, I would also lose the use of the Ethernet sockets which I want to continue with. I still have a spare BT Hub5 if I change my mind.

    I note several people have asked about using a BT hub with the Virgin Media Hub 3. In particular using I/p addresses in the range 192.168.0.xx which is how the VirginMedia hub is configured.
    The VM Hub3 gateway address is 192.168.0.1 and DCHP allocates addresses upwards from 192.168.10. So I can use any thing between 192.168.0.2 and 192.168.0.9 for my two hubs (I used 8 and 9).

    I did not find the setup easy. I tried various changes and resets, I switched DHCP to manual and set new start and end addresses 192.168.0.10 to 254, before turning DHCP off and changing the gateway address to 192.168.0.9
    At this point I lost access to the BT hub. When I tried the new address I found I could connect using WiFi with the new SSID and password, but my browser (Chrome) just stated that “The address 192.168.0.9 is not accessible.”

    After many attempts and resets over several days I had a breakthrough. I tried so many different things though it is difficult to be certain what process and order actually worked.
    I had progressed to the point where the browser reported unable to access 192.168.0.9.
    Switched the BT router off and on again and waited until the steady orange light and flashing red b.
    Connected my laptop Ethernet cable to the BT hub and opened the browser with 192.168.0.9 the browser timed out and said the address was not accessible.
    I tried to connect using WiFi with the same result.
    I unintentionally left the browser tab open.
    I connected a BT hub Ethernet port to a VirginMedia Ethernet port and my laptop to another BT hub port, and succeeded in accessing the VirginMedia GUI on a different browser tab.
    I then opened a windows command prompt window and pinged the various devices addresses. ( Press the Windows and R key at the same time on your keyboard and type cmd.exe and then click on OK, type ping 192.168.xx.xx and return) I spent some time fiddling with this, I reached the VirginMedia hub but failed to contact the BT hub.

    Quite some time later I noticed the original browser tab was showing the BT hub GUI. Success, and deep joy!

    So I am not certain whether it was changing the connections around or pinging things or accessing via WiFi that fixed it. After going through a similar rigmarole with the Plusnet router I strongly suspect it was simply the restart followed by considerable delay.
    So follow the excellent article change the BT gateway and restart. Wait for the red flashing b, open a browser tab with the new address, if you get an address unreachable or similar, leave the tab open, make a cup of tea, help the wife watch neighbours, be patient. You may have to WiFi connect to the main router with the two hubs Ethernet connected, or maybe not. I suspect after a long wait (10-20 minutes) that BT hub5 access page will come up.

    I now have both old hubs repurposed and successfully connected. After two days I can still connect to all three SSIDs and surf the internet. One of the hubs is a bit low in speed(Maxes out at around 70 Mbps the other gets up to the 200Mbps that my VirginMedia allows) This is probably due to using an old bit of Cat5 cable. The postman has just delivered a new reel of shiny Cat6 Ethernet cable, so my next job is to relocate the two repurposed hubs in suitable places to spread the 5Ghz signals around our house and avoid the internal brick walls.

    So once again thanks everyone. I think already had the knowledge, but you gave me confidence to persevere and overcome the difficulties. I might have given up and spent a fortune on mesh equipment otherwise. Reading some of the reviews it might have been just as time consuming!

    • Hi David, sorry for the lateness in replying, which has been due to personal illness. Your comment is the longest and most detailed on on this whole blog! Thanks for coming back with all of this detailed information, and presenting it in such careful and well written detail. It will helpful to anyone trying to integrate Virgin/Plusnet/BT stuff. Good news that your multi-point network is working so well.

      About the 70 Megabits/sec limitation of one WAP, the cabling is perhaps unlikely to be a limiting factor. Even Cat5 is good for 1000 Mbps. Still, let us know if you manage to get an improvement there.

      Cheers, Jim.

    • Hi Richard, did you try the procedure? Unfortunately, I don’t have a HH6, so I can’t test it out. Some of the commenters here have reported success in getting HH6 to work as a second access point (just search these comments, all pages of them, for “hh6”), but some questions appear to remain about turning DHCP off. I am half tempted to get a HH6 off ebay just to verify the procedure.

      The above article does not require DHCP requests to be forwarded (which would indeed require a DHCP relay). It explains how to turn the DHCP server off in the hub being re-purposed. Client devices (eg mobile phones) then broadcast their DHCP requests on the local network, of which hub being re-purposed and the router controlling the network are both part, by virtue of the IP address that was configured on the secondary hub. The IP address for the mobile phone, together with default gateway and other information (eg. netmask), are dispatched and managed by the central router.

      Cheers,
      Jim

  4. Pingback: Réutiliser un BT Home Hub de rechange en tant que point d'accès sans fil | Répéteur et accélérateur WIFI

  5. hey, i have tried following these steps multiple times and it doesnt seem to be working and didnt know if there was any other adviceor something.

  6. Hi there. Thanks for this. I’ve followed it and got it working for some part but I’ve a very odd issue.

    I have Sky broadband and am using (i think) a HH5 over a couple of powerline adaptors.

    It seems that only some DHCP requests are being serviced by my internet router. I’ve no idea why… i work in IT myself so have a pretty good networking knowledge but i don’t see any logical reason why this wouldn’t work as everything is on the same broadcast domain. Devices authenticate with the SSID with no problem but then report no internet connection.

    Once i do get an IP though, the connection is rock solid. Setting IP settings manually seems to allow a perfect connection also.

    Have you experienced anything like this before?

    • Hi Lee,
      To answer your question, no, I have not experienced intermittent DHCP issues of that kind. Also, I do not have a Sky router so cannot test it directly. As you say though, it should work, and other commenters appear to have Sky routers working fine.

      You say that devices authenticate properly but then report “no Internet connection”. Do they really have no Internet access? I see messages from DHCP clients (eg. my smartphone) saying “connected, but no Internet”, or similar, quite often, in various scenarios, eg. when connecting to a WiFi network in a coffee shop or in a friend’s house. But when I check, the device does have Internet access.

      Have you tried rebooting your Sky hub? Sometimes a printer here cannot get a DHCP address from my Netgear router. A reboot (of the router) fixes it, but I have never discovered quite why.

      Cheers,
      Jim

      • Hey Jim,

        My iPhone certainly did not have internet. Typically when you dont have an internet connection on the ssid youre connected to it defaults back to cellular data. That’s what was happening for me.

        I also had my laptop connected which initially wouldn’t connect to the internet but after taking the router into my living room to try, started working. I then put the router back in the original location and it worked fine.

        I’m using it to get wifi in my garage so am running homeplugs to get a wired connection into the garage and then using that connection to run the access point. I’m wondering if there’s something to do with that thats causing broadcast dropouts.

        That said, my security camera is now using that wifi and the connection has been rock solid. Much better response times than what i had when using the signal from my house router.

        Its all a bit odd!

  7. Successfully reused a couple of HH4s a while back using this note. One just developed a fault so I came back with a fresh HH4…went fine again til I gave it a static IP, I then could not reconnect to it no matter what I tried. In the end I reversed the last two steps i.e. switched off DHCP, saved that setting and then changed IP. Still couldn’t reconnect to the router, but when I connected it to the network there it was, everything working fine. So with the new HH4 on the network, I then added an ethernet connecting the HH4 to my laptop and bang, up comes the HH4 home screen, from which I could navigate and check all my changes.
    Why I had the issue this time only when all the HH4s are the same I’ve no idea, but thanks again to Jim for the advice and helping save the planet!

    • Hi Peter,

      Glad you were able to work through that successfully. Good perseverance. Not sure what the root cause might have been. As you say, who knows. I see your original comment was in August 2017. Thanks for coming back!

      Jim.

  8. Just want to say a huge thank you for these very clear instructions. Worked perfectly for me, and I would not have had a clue what to do without them. Thanks again.

  9. B
    Hey Jim thank you for your amazing guide! I have managed to follow the instructions and set up my BT home hub as ethernet only access point so I have disabled the wifi connection not to interfeere with my Linksys Velop router.
    One weird thing though: each time I connect to my Linksys Velop wifi I get a BThome.home/… saying no internet connection, but then it connects anyway.
    How can it be?
    Thanks

    • Hi vincenzo. Cheers. I don’t quite know what you mean by “an Ethernet only access point”. Also, disabling wi-fi is not part of the above procedure.

      Routers do sometimes give the message “no Internet access”, even when there really is access.

      Cheers, Jim.

  10. Hi there thanks for an excellent post I have used my old BT hub 6 as an access point I just followed the guide and and I am all set thanks

    • Hi Manu, thanks. It is good to know that the process works with the Hub 6 (I don’t have a hub 6 for testing). Cheers, Jim.

  11. This was awesome and perfectly explained. I did get impatient after resetting the IP as it took a good 5 minutes to be detectable on the new address but after that it all worked a charm. Credit to OP and all the others who have helped add to this … it has saved me a packet. Glad I held onto the HH5 after all these years!

    • Thanks Bingo. Glad it worked on your old HH5.

      Traffic to this page has doubled since the Virus lockdown started. Must be all those people working from home!

  12. Amazing article, which I plan to make use of now in 2020! I will be using an “ancient” HH1 that I kept hold of all these years to extend my WiFi coverage. Can anybody tell me if the homehub phone (DECT) will also be able to work? I tested the HH on its own by connecting to my phone line in place of my usual (non-BT) router, and whilst the internet did not work (predictable), the phone got a dial tone immediately, and can make calls!

    However, if the HH is only connected via ethernet to the main router, will the phone work? Do I need to also run a phone line between the two routers? But I assume the “phone” port on the HH is “outgoing” to be able to connect additional base units? Does the process in the article above somehow deactivate the DECT functionality?

    Any advice or experience trying this would be greatly appreciated!

    • Hi GamezGuru,
      Thank you. This above article is the most popular one on this whole site. especially since the commencement of “lockdown”.

      About the HH1, it works fine as a wireless access point. I don’t have the phone attachment and haven’t tested it. At a guess, I would say the chances of it working are small. But you never know. Please come back and tell us if you get it working!

      Jim

  13. Hi Jim, I just tried setting up the AP, and something is not right. Is it absolutely necessary to configure the hub whilst connected by ethernet? I only have a Surface Pro tablet so tried doing it via WiFi… the only difference was that I got kicked off when I reset the WiFi access protocol, but I simply reconnected with new credenzials. The rest seemed to go fine, until I connected it to my main router. I can connect via WiFi still, but typing in the IP address of the hub doesn’t bring up the settings anymore.

    • Sorry to answer my own question, but I reset the router and started over, this time succeeding – happy days! One tiny amendment to your HH1 guide, would be to click the dedicated apply button after disabling DHCP. On my first attempt I didn’t do this, which means I changed the IP address BEFORE disabling DHCP – I believe this is where I went wrong. Also for info, I was not prompted for the password on the back of the hub, or to change it – I only had to use the default (admin/admin).

      Now to play around with the Hub phone, but I’m not optimistic..
      Thanks again!

      • Hi GamezGuru,
        Well done for getting the HH1 working as an AP point. I’m surprised that worked from a tablet. The HH1 is a well made, nice looking unit I think, especially in white. Being class b/g only, the wireless won’t reach quite as far as later models with class “n” or “ac”.

        You weren’t prompted for a password ? Interesting. Perhaps because it was never changed from the default. I think the instruction to click “apply” is already there, but not sure what it looks like on a tablet.

        I would change the HH1 password from the default “admin” to something more secure, if you have not already.

        Cheers,
        Jim

        • good advice, thanks Jim.
          Update: hub phone actually works with my landline! simply plugged it into the phone socket (with a filter) like a telephone, using the broadband port on the back of the hub. I don’t know if the filter is necessary, because i only have one phone socket so everything is running off that for now, which means I”l need to run both an ethernet and phone cable to the other side of the house 🙁 I’ll also mention that I’m doing this in Italy, with an italian ISP – a testament to how versatile these homehubs are!

          Regards,

          • Hi Gamezguru. I’m not exactly sure how you have everything connected, but well done on the working phone, especially in Italy. Now you have to play “hide the cable(s)”. Cheers, Jim

  14. Just tried this on an old BT router sitting in a drawer for years and it worked a charm! Instructions all worked perfectly and now I’ve got a whole new wifi network that reaches down into the garden! Thanks so much.

  15. Excellent article – really detailed and helpful.
    I would add just one thing. Beware of the subnet mask setting when changing the BTHomeHub IP address. My Virgin Router was 192.168.0.xxx – so when I reset the router to an IP in this range, I needed to change the mask to 255.255.0.0
    Not sure if anyone else has got caught out by this, or perhaps just me!
    I now have the BT working to extend a Virgin Hub network.
    Thanks again.

    • Hi Neil, thanks for that. What kind of Virgin router is it? From what I’ve read, Virgin routers have a default subnet mask of 255.255.255.0, just like BT Hubs. So it isn’t clear why the change was needed. (I don’t have a virgin router to test, unfortunately).

      Jim.

  16. Set up a HH5 as a wired access point. I’m taking both wired and wireless data from it.
    Its just slower than previously when I had my pc wired directly to the router.
    Any settings I can adjust?
    Cheers

    • Hi Steve. You say you are linking to the re-purposed hub over both wireless and wired. Obviously, the wireless will be slower than a wired link to the main router. But a wired link to the re-purposed hub should run at the same speed as a wire direct to the main router.

      (Unless you are comparing a gigabit port to a 100 MB/s port).

      Jim

  17. Hi Have a bt Fibre connect smart hub 2 and want to add as remote access point a redundant bt hub 6 mainly to provide another for wireless access point and to run
    a bt smart home cam 1000 which does not connect to new smart hub but did work with hub 6 .how do I do this?

    • Hi Stuart. Some users have had success with the HH6 (search comments above). Personally I don’t own a HH6 so haven not tried it. Hope you get it working. Jim.

  18. I’ve follwed the instructions and can access the bthub5 via wireless.
    BUT
    I can’t access the internet. from laptop.

    I’ve got the cable from the primary router in socket1 of the slave bthub5
    sockets 2&3 are connected to tv & digital recorder.
    TV & recorder connect to internet OK
    Help please.

    • Hi Michael

      As I understand it you have completed the above procedure. In addition, your TV and DVR are wired to the “slave” hub and they can access the Internet. This proves that the slave hub has Internet access. However your laptop, which I am guessing you have wirelessly connected to the slave hub, has no Internet.

      It appears to be an issue with the wireless link between the HH5 and your laptop. I cannot say for sure what the problem might be. Make sure your laptop is connected to the slave HH5 and not to another wireless access point. As a test, try it with another device, eg. try connecting a smart phone or tablet to the HH5 access point.

      Jim

  19. HI

    First let me say thank you for a great article.

    I have recently had FTTP installed at home and am now running a BT Smart Hub2 as the managing router, this leaves my old BT Home Hub 4 as a
    suitable device to set up as a wireless access point and to provide additional ethernet connections to an outbuilding THE 2 ROUTERS WILL BE CONNECTED WITH A CAT 8 ETHERNET CABLE.

    When following your guidelines the first thing I did was to set the BTHH 4 to factory defaults.

    I am using a network isolated laptop (turned WIFI off) running WIN10 pro and Microsoft Edge as my browser to configure the BTHH 4.

    I connect BTHH 4 to laptop with ethernet cable (cat5E) and enter the Hub Manager with 192.168.1.254.

    When I select W > Wireless Security – 2.4 Ghz I noticed that my HH4 ‘Recommended’ setting is WPA & WPA2, not WPA2 (only).
    So I changed that to WPA2 ONLY which leaves the Wireless Key entry blank. I enter the Key that came shipped with the HH4 and is The same as the setting
    found for ‘WPA & WPA2’ (Iam quite happy using this as the Key). I verify the entry and all is OK so far.

    QUESTION : a) SHOULD I HAVE LEFT THE SETTING AS WPA & WPA2 (RECOMMENDED) & b) WAS IT OK TO STILL USE THE ORIGINAL WIRELESS KEY ??

    I then attempt to modify the IP Adress for the HH4 to (say) 192.168.1.60 when I then verfiy this change, I wait a while and then the Edge browser seems to try to connect repeatedly to 192.168.1.254 so I open another tab in the browser and enter the URL http://192.168.1.60 and it reponds by stating it cannot find that location.

    I have also cancelled the EDGE browser and re -lauched it but still gain access to the HH4.

    CAN ANYBODY HELP PLEASE !!

    • Hi Brian, I am not sure you WPA default settings were different to those described in the article. But I suggest you try both settings (doing the procedure twice, once for “WPA only” and then again for “WPA & WPA2”) and see if either one works.

      You say that your browser “cannot find that location” after changing HH4 IP address to 192.168.1.60 and trying to surf to that address. This shouldn’t happen, unless perhaps the HH4 address was not really changed. When changing the address, did you click the “Apply” button and answer “Yes” to the “Are you sure?” question, as explained in the article?

      I would recommend trying the procedure again from the start.

      Cheers,
      Jim.

  20. I have problem with BTHub5 TypeA. It periodically try to reconnect and WiFi disappear so Clent devices are disconnected. this happens at least once every half an hour. Any solution? thanks

    • Hi Nasco. That sounds bad. It sounds like your BTHub5 has some kind of problem. I can’t offer much help unfortunately, except to suggest perhaps getting another hub.

      Cheers,
      Jim

  21. Hi I’ve followed all the steps as above for my Bt Home Hub 5 to my virgin internet and the new access point works. However after 5 mins or so the Bt HH5 try’s to reset itself again blinks green, orange etc then sits with b flashing for 5 mins or so and repeats. When this happens the internet drops. How can I stop it from trying to reset itself continually? Thanks.

    • Hi Carl. I am not sure what is causing the HH5 to continually reset, but one or two other commenters have reported the same thing, eg
      David Baynes and Michael Swain. It seems to be an issue that some HH5s suffer from (my own HH5 is fine). All I can suggest is try to obtain another Home Hub 4 or 5. Sorry not to be more helpful.

      Cheers,
      Jim.

  22. Thanks for a great guide. I’ve used this to set up two slave routers by the letter of your instructions, both off (different) power lines. It works pretty well most of the time, but the connections to the slaves are sometimes quite unstable. I get a solid and unwavering 70 mbps from my master, but my slave routers often don’t show up in my WiFi options (waiting on the WiFi list for a few seconds tends to find them for some reason), and when they do show up they have an ‘!’ (no Internet) next to them. This tends to go once I then switch to the slave connection and it does have Internet, even if my phone or laptop says it doesn’t. However, the speed is never close to what I get from my master, and is very variable during a speed test, starting low around 2 or 3 mbps and never going up above 20 mbs, and never stable during the 20s or so of the test. Any ideas why this is? Are the slaves always likely to be more unstable and slower than the master when using power lines?

    • Cheers Rhod. Off the top of my head I don’t know why your 2 slaves offer slower wireless connection than the master. It should be about the same, assuming your power line link is strong. It might be due to physical positioning – wireless reception is always variable and can be influenced by, for example, mettalic objects near to the WAP.

      The exclamation mark and “no Internet” messages are quite familiar, and are, as you have found, often a “false alarm”.

      Cheers,
      Jim

  23. Thanks for posting these instructions. They’re really clear and worked perfectly.

    We now have three BT Home Hubs giving very good wifi coverage throughout the house.

  24. First off – thanks for the great article – I’ve been using it as a reference for years with successful repurposing hh3, hh4, hh5 & hh6 🙂
    It been a life saver..

    I was wondering if any other readers who have followed this with a hh6 have come across the WiFi dropping out (very briefly) at a regular interval – I’m not sure if it’s daily or every few days (as I keep forgetting to look out for it) but it seems to be at a relatively consistent time of day (~8pm) when its noticed.
    Wondering if it’s a feature of the hubs getting “smarter” as I was running 3’s and 4’s for years without noticing any drops.

    • Cheers Simon. Unfortunately I don’t have a HH6 to run tests on. As you say, timed drop-outs don’t seem to happen with with HH1, HH3, HH5. Perhaps a HH6 owner will be along to comment. Jim

  25. Hi Jim,

    Thanks for creating this great guide, I have successfully used it to reconfigure an old HH3 for use as a WAP in my shed/man-cave.

    However i have noticed when connecting to this network on my iPhone it comes up with “weak security” against the network.

    When I click on the info it says “WPA/WPA2 (TKIP) is not considered secure” & “if this is your Wi-Fi network, configure the router to use WPA2 (AES) or WPA3 security type”
    Should I be worried by this and if so can it be changed on a HH3? or would I need a newer model i.e. HH5 to change to these type of settings? as I’ve looked in my HH3 settings and cant find any mention anywhere of WPA2 (AES) or WPA3 types.

    TIA
    Steve

    • Hi Stephen. Glad the procedure was useful. I Googled that message apparently many users have seen it since upgrading to iOS 14.

      Apparently there is nothing to be too alarmed about. The message means the HH3 is not using the latest security protocol. This is hardly surprising, as the HH3 is quite old now (launched 2011).

      I looked briefly at wireless security on the HH3, HH5 and other models, but it isn’t quite clear, from brief research which one of these, if any, would stop the iOS message. I also checked my HH5 and it supports “WPA2”, but there is no mention of WPA2 AES or WPA3.

      There is plenty of further information online. I guess if you are using a secure passphrase and following other basic security measures, it should be okay.

      Jim

  26. BTHub4 and change of use to a Wireless Access Point
    Followed your write up but slight problem when change if router IP address from
    192.168.01.254 to 192.168.01.63 and Apply button pressed
    Arrows as circle at page base indicates data is being changed. But after short time say 60secs screen blanks out to plain web page with message on screen stating taking too long.
    router IP address 192.168.01.254 remains on browser.
    At this point Using Run and CMD & IP Config, no router appears connected. Only if router is Factory reset IP config available.
    This problem only occurs when Router IP address is manually changed and Apply pressed. Any other config changes made new data changes are accepted.
    Can you help me please.

    • Hi John, as stated under the section entitled “Allocate New Hub IP Address”, an error message is expected at this point. Try the procedure again, and do not include any leading zeros in IP addresses. That is, use 192.168.1.63, not 192.168.01.63.
      Cheers, Jim.

  27. Just an update to this.

    The process still works.

    I just enabled a Home Hub 5 Version A to act as a secondary wireless access point on the first floor of my house to strengthen the signal from the ground floor wireless. (We also run a time capsule on the first floor but it’s hidden so the signal may be a bit dampened.)

    The key is following the instructions sequentially and not cutting any steps out or doing steps simultaneously.

    Incidentally, I gave all my wireless access points the same SSID so my computers can just pick the strongest connection wherever we are in the home.

    Thanks for an elegant solution.

    • Hi Alex. Thanks for that, glad it still works for your HH5(A). I tend to leave the SSDs different, but making them the same is probably more convenient. Cheers again.

      Jim

  28. Best article I have read on the internet concerning using Hub 5 as a slave Hub.
    Works perfectly and it was explained very well where others failed.

  29. Great write up, a question, I’ve got an outbuilding I’ve run fibre to due to distance, smart hub – to- media converter – fibre link -to- media converter to Disc, I’m using a BT Smart hub2 and BT Black Disc, which I’ve found out doesn’t work as it’s a repeater (out of Wi-Fi range) if I installed a HH5 make it into an AP, (swapping out the Disc) for a HH5 will it pick up an IP ok and work?

    • Hi Philip. Sorry for the late reply which was due to missing notifications in WordPress.

      Wow, that’s some hardware you’ve got there. Unfortunately I don’t have a Smart Hub for testing, or the other equipment you mention, so providing a definite answer is rather tricky.

      If the Smart Hub 2 is controlling your network, providing DHCP IP addresses and so on, then any (wireless) devices connecting through the HH5 access point should receive IP addresses from the Smart Hub 2. However, I think the above procedure might not work with Smart Hubs, due to some limitation or feature thereof. It would be good to know if you (or anyone else) has got it working with a Smart Hub.

      Cheers,
      Jim

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