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Using my ASUS RT-AC86U router with BT on a home connection

ByteSlinger — Fri, 21 Apr 2023 12:34:03 GMT

I recently switched from Virgin media, I've been with them for about 10 years and never had a problem but switched to BT as they were offering more for less.

For the past 5 years I've had my Virgin box in router only mode, and then had my Asus RT-AC86U (I did have an older Asus router up until a couple of years ago and swapped it for this one ) hooked into that serving my whole house. It's worked flawlessly from day 1.

Before ordering I was speaking to a representative to check I was ok to keep using my own Asus router as that's pretty important for me and they said that wouldn't be an issue.

The engineer hooked up the Open Reach modem box to the wall a couple of days ago (this is the first time I've had a hookup on the wall which is also the modem, rather than it just being a cable jack and the ISP supplying an all in 1 modem/router), and the router arrived yesterday.

I've hooked it all up, but now can't find any way of getting it to work, either with my router connected directly to the wall-mounted modem, or to the BT hub.

Can anyone suggest a solution? I just spent an hour on the tech chat with BT, and after an hour, we had got to the point that they agreed my name was correct (despite me including it in my very first message to them), so I wasn't getting anywhere with them.

Re: Using my ASUS RT-AC86U router with BT on a home connection

imjolly — Fri, 21 Apr 2023 12:38:17 GMT

try using the hub first

the ethernet cable from modem needs to be connected to port 4 on the SH2 and that should connect without anything else - hub light should eventually go blue

Re: Using my ASUS RT-AC86U router with BT on a home connection

ByteSlinger — Fri, 21 Apr 2023 13:05:47 GMT

Managed to solve it. Just found this video which fixed my problem in less than a minute:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DueAvG-dCHU

Posting here in case others stumble across this thread with the same issues.

In short, this is my setup:

BT connection is wired into an OpenReach modem fitted to the wall
My ASUS router is plugged directly into that OpenReach modem via ethernet (the BT Hub isn't needed at all)
In the Asus control panel, go to the WAN tab, then change the following:
- Basic Config | WAN Connection Type: PPPoE
- Account Settings | Username: bthomehub@btbroadband.com
- Account Settings | Password: This can be whatever you want, but most people just enter "BT"

That's it. Just save and give it a min, and should be up and running.

Re: Using my ASUS RT-AC86U router with BT on a home connection

TimCurtis — Fri, 21 Apr 2023 14:38:39 GMT

@ByteSlinger

The only issue is if you have BT's Digital Voice in which case you must use the SH2.