This topic

BT Whole Home ethernet backhaul - not working

dinsdalePiranha — Mon, 08 Mar 2021 13:05:55 GMT

I have 3 x Whole Home Wifi discs. Having recently built an outbuilding, I wanted to extend the Wifii coverage to the building due to the distance involved the standard wifi backhaul signal was poor (orange LED, 2.4GHz connection). Having read that the Whole Home Wifi discs support an Ethernet backhaul, I've installed a CAT6 Ethernet cable between the outbuilding and the main house. This plugs directly into the internet router, as does one of the WH Wifi discs (Kitchen). This cable works just fine, as tested by plugging a laptop in and validating connectivity. I've then moved one of the other discs to the outbuilding, and expected it to use the Ethernet backhaul - but it's not working.

I've tried resetting the disc to factory defaults, but still no luck. Here's the current status - office is the relocated disc.

How do I force this disc to use the Ethernet backhaul?

Kitchen (Primary)
Uptime:	3 days, 12 hours, 55 mins, 59 secs
IP Address:	192.168.0.104
Connection Status:	Excellent
Ethernet Status:	Connected - Uplink
Connection Type:	Ethernet

Loft
Uptime:	3 days, 12 hours, 55 mins, 54 secs
IP Address:	192.168.0.106
Connection Status:	Poor
Ethernet Status:	Disconnected
Connection Type:	Wi-Fi (2.4GHz)
Signal Strength:	-77dBm
Channel:	6

office
Uptime:	34 mins, 51 secs
IP Address:	192.168.0.107
Connection Status:	Poor
Ethernet Status:	Disconnected
Connection Type:	Wi-Fi (2.4GHz)
Signal Strength:	-80dBm
Channel:	6

Re: BT Whole Home ethernet backhaul - not working

Gary_C — Mon, 08 Mar 2021 14:51:21 GMT

It should work . They should just get an IP address from the router and then work.

Do the disks work ok as a mesh over wifi ?

Are they appearing in the DHCP list in the router ?

Re: BT Whole Home ethernet backhaul - not working

Sircoynie — Tue, 09 Mar 2021 16:59:54 GMT

Just to confirm, you are 100% sure this is the standard BT Whole Home Disk set? Ironically and inexcusably the premium whole home kit still doesn't fully support an ethernet backhaul and BT are being pathetic at updating it (even though it was advertised as having this feature!!!).

Re: BT Whole Home ethernet backhaul - not working

dinsdalePiranha — Tue, 09 Mar 2021 18:30:40 GMT

Hi Gary_C,

Thanks for responding. Yes, they all worked fine as a mesh within the house. Even though I'd tested the 50m CAT6 cable with a laptop, in desperation also I tried connecting the disc locally to the router using a different (1m) cable - it worked. You live and learn. Now to figure out what's wrong with this damn cable!

Thanks...

Re: BT Whole Home ethernet backhaul - not working

Gary_C — Tue, 09 Mar 2021 18:55:36 GMT

It shouldn't be the length but what speed did the laptop connect at ? Was it a pre-made cable ? is it copper or aluminium ?

Solid copper cat6 should be fine for 1g connection