This topic

BT hotspot paid £39.00

Cooky — Sat, 12 Sep 2020 18:16:57 GMT

Hi I have paid £39for a month to use a hotspot where I am staying and it keeps on disconnecting after 10 mins. Canni stop this from happening

Re: BT hotspot paid £39.00

imjolly — Sat, 12 Sep 2020 18:27:42 GMT

Are you connecting to. BTWIFI network as that is coming from a customer's hub and there is nothing you or BT can do as customer has priority

Re: BT hotspot paid £39.00

MENGKESHI — Fri, 18 Sep 2020 12:51:46 GMT

I had/have the same problem. My thread is somewhere here on the forum. In case it helps I feel I had some success on my laptop by forcing my dual band adapter to use just one frequency band only (ie only 5GHz) but to be honest it still happens sometimes and is not as stable as it used to be.

Re: BT hotspot paid £39.00

NigelB72 — Fri, 18 Sep 2020 13:51:15 GMT

As @imjolly says, the BT customers own traffic will take priority over any external WiFi connections so you will get automatically kicked off if they don't have enough spare bandwidth to share with external WiFi connections

Re: BT hotspot paid £39.00

MENGKESHI — Fri, 18 Sep 2020 20:22:55 GMT

@NigelB72Thanks for the comment. It makes sense that maybe this is the reason due to more people staying in and using internet during the last few months. However, it has literally been fine for years - I can't believe that it never would have happened and now happen all the time. Also on my desktop PC with wifi card it never seems to happen - only really on my laptop, it just feels like available bandwidth is not the reason to me. But perhaps you are right, either way the service now is far worse than it used to be.

Re: BT hotspot paid £39.00

NigelB72 — Fri, 18 Sep 2020 20:37:48 GMT

@MENGKESHI a lot of BT customers are opting out of BT WiFi. This means that they can't access hotspots when they're out and about and other people can't use they're hub as a hot spot. I'd imagine this is due to the increased usage of streaming services and also the misunderstanding that people using their hub as a hotspot are eating their bandwidth when that's not the case

Re: BT hotspot paid £39.00

gg30340 — Sat, 19 Sep 2020 12:12:12 GMT

Have you considered getting a 3g/4g modem. You can get unlimited broadband for about £20 per month. As well as not being dependent on anybody else to broadcast a signal it has the added advantage that you can take the modem with you and use it anywhere you can get a signal. If you don't want a 12 month contract some providers do a 30 day contract with limited data.

Re: BT hotspot paid £39.00

Anonymous — Sat, 19 Sep 2020 13:33:00 GMT

@NigelB72wrote:
...and also the misunderstanding that people using their hub as a hotspot are eating their bandwidth when that's not the case

I'm always keen to learn, so please explain what bandwidth someone connecting to my hub via BT Wi-Fi is using if my broadband is with BT and connected at a speed of 30 Mbps?

If they are not using some of the 30 Mbps bandwidth I'm paying for to get internet access, what are they using?

Re: BT hotspot paid £39.00

gg30340 — Sat, 19 Sep 2020 14:05:38 GMT

Obviously anybody connecting to a BTWifi hotspot broadcast by your BT hub are using part of your bandwidth. It is impossible to say how much they are using because that depends on what they are doing while connected. ie if they are streaming it will use more than reading an email.

Regardless of what they are doing, if you require all your bandwidth and there is no surplus then the BTWifi network will not be supplied any bandwidth. Your network always has priority.

The BTWif connection is limited to a maximum speed of 10Mbps if the connection can support that speed ad there is also a "Fair usage" policy of 10,000 minute in a month which if exceeded the user will need to re-log on every 30 minutes.

https://www.btwifi.co.uk/help/faqs/

Re: BT hotspot paid £39.00

Anonymous — Sat, 19 Sep 2020 14:34:24 GMT

@gg30340wrote:
Obviously anybody connecting to a BTWifi hotspot broadcast by your BT hub are using part of your bandwidth. It is impossible to say how much they are using because that depends on what they are doing while connected. ie if they are streaming it will use more than reading an email.
Regardless of what they are doing, if you require all your bandwidth and there is no surplus then the BTWifi network will not be supplied any bandwidth. Your network always has priority.
The BTWif connection is limited to a maximum speed of 10Mbps if the connection can support that speed ad there is also a "Fair usage" policy of 10,000 minute in a month which if exceeded the user will need to re-log on every 30 minutes.
https://www.btwifi.co.uk/help/faqs/

Very helpful, thank you.

So there is no misunderstanding, the hotspot (that can be accessed either for free by BT customers who have opted in or with a payment by literally anyone), does use the same bandwidth that I am already paying for, assuming any is available and within certain QoS parameters. Simples.

I am amazed that some customers are happy with this (I assume most are blissfully unaware), but each to their own.

Re: BT hotspot paid £39.00

gg30340 — Sat, 19 Sep 2020 14:45:21 GMT

If you are not using the bandwidth what is the problem with sharing it. If you are out and about you can use any BTWifi hotspot if you choose to do so.

If you don't want to share, then just opt out.

EDIT: Link about BTWifi and being opted in.

https://www.bt.com/help/broadband/how-do-i-check-that-i-ve-joined-the-bt-wi-fi-community-

Link how to Opt out.

https://www.bt.com/help/broadband/how-do-i-opt-out-of-bt-wi-fi-

Re: BT hotspot paid £39.00

Anonymous — Sat, 19 Sep 2020 14:54:51 GMT

@gg30340wrote:
If you are not using the bandwidth what is the problem with sharing it.

Next time you pop out can I use your oven to cook some dinner? 😁

@gg30340wrote:
If you don't want to share, then just opt out.

Sadly I have tried but have been unsuccessful, so it is with the forum Mods to look at. In usual BT style:

The guide you have posted does not match the new layout for MyBT
Luckily I knew where to go, but the only option I have is to opt in, not out
A quick check of my Smart Hub 2 confirms my BT Wi-fi Status remains "Activated", aka opted in already, the default position

Re: BT hotspot paid £39.00

gg30340 — Sat, 19 Sep 2020 15:09:13 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:

@gg30340wrote:

If you are not using the bandwidth what is the problem with sharing it.

Next time you pop out can I use your oven to cook some dinner? 😁

If you can access my oven from outside my house via radio waves you are more than welcome if I am not using it.

Re: BT hotspot paid £39.00

NigelB72 — Sat, 19 Sep 2020 15:03:27 GMT

Personally I have no issues with another BT customer using a small portion of my 160mbps if I'm not using it... D'ya know why? Because when I visit my friends that are on BT, I don't have to ask for their WiFi code and can simply log in via my BTid. This also applies in the millions of places that also have BT WiFi 🤣

Re: BT hotspot paid £39.00

imjolly — Sat, 19 Sep 2020 15:04:36 GMT

maybe as only option was to opt in then your previous attempt to opt out was successful but is can take up to 28 days (unlikely but odd times it can) for the hub to show BTWIFI opt out

Re: BT hotspot paid £39.00

gg30340 — Sat, 19 Sep 2020 15:06:04 GMT

Sadly I have tried but have been unsuccessful, so it is with the forum Mods to look at. In usual BT style:

The guide you have posted does not match the new layout for MyBT

Luckily I knew where to go, but the only option I have is to opt in, not out

A quick check of my Smart Hub 2 confirms my BT Wi-fi Status remains "Activated", aka opted in already, the default position

The link is slightly out of date but the option to opt out is in your MyBT.

For those that for what ever reason can not work out how to get to the correct section you log onto your MyBT then go to Your Products then BTWifi (learn more) then Opt out of BTWifi

Re: BT hotspot paid £39.00

Anonymous — Mon, 21 Sep 2020 11:58:13 GMT

Does anyone know just how much BT Wi-Fi impacts on broadband performance? is the impact proportional to actual traffic (users) at any instant or reserved bandwidth?

Re: BT hotspot paid £39.00

NigelB72 — Mon, 21 Sep 2020 12:19:15 GMT

@Anonymous it doesn't. It will only share a portion of your unused bandwidth. So if you're maxing out your connection, nothing will get shared. Local traffic will always take priority over external traffic

Re: BT hotspot paid £39.00

MENGKESHI — Wed, 23 Sep 2020 22:41:30 GMT

I feel strongly that this disconnection issue is a technical issue and not related to bandwidth. As far as I can remember, this only happens on one of my devices (Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 8265). Of course this could be coincidence but the more it happens, the more that explanation is seeming highly unlikely. Thanks anyway for the help!

Re: BT hotspot paid £39.00

Anonymous — Thu, 24 Sep 2020 06:29:56 GMT

Then download and install the Intel Driver Support tool. It will scan your system and make recommendations for updates automatically.

I have it on my home PC and it works brilliantly.