BT Whole home Discs and Router Questions

[meridius]

Hi all,

Just some questions about the BT Whole home Discs (White).

Q1, do you need a router or can these replace a router as  i have a Openreach modem and hub 4, can you just plug the modem into these or do you need the router as well?

Q2, I noticed in setup videos it seems to create a new network, does it not use the same Wi-Fi network as your router or do you disable it once you start using the bt Whole home discs and never use the wifi of the router again.

Q3, do you need to keep one disc next to your router?

Q4, can you separate frequencies? as i have aa lot of 2.4ghz devices only and if not, how do you get them to connect as i have read some devices are hard to connect on a joint freq network.

Q5, I have alot of devices cabled and wifi how do you setup static ip for devices on the Whole home BT and port forwarding. or does every device show up in the bt hub as a seprate device going through the Whole home discs or is htere just a single Whole home disc in the router.

Q6, is the a web based access to settings like the bt hub or does the Whole home discs show up in the router as one disc device.

Thanks for any help

[Darren_B]

Hi meridius,

Let me answer these question for you:

Q1, do you need a router or can these replace a router as  i have a Openreach modem and hub 4, can you just plug the modem into these or do you need the router as well?

A router is still required, you will need to connect the Primary/First WHW disc into your Hub 4 using the Ethernet cable provided.

Q2, I noticed in setup videos it seems to create a new network, does it not use the same Wi-Fi network as your router or do you disable it once you start using the bt Whole home discs and never use the wifi of the router again.

The WHW will create its own Wi-Fi Network.  We recommend disabling the  Wi-Fi on your router to avoid any unnecessary interference.  Tip - you can rename the WHW network and password to the same as the Hub 4 - this will save you needing to reconnect all your existing devices to a new network (only do this though if you've disabled the Hub 4 Wi-Fi).

Q3, do you need to keep one disc next to your router?

Yes, it must be connected by Ethernet cable.  There is nothing to stop you using a longer Ethernet cable if the location of the router is not ideal.

Q4, can you separate frequencies? as i have aa lot of 2.4ghz devices only and if not, how do you get them to connect as i have read some devices are hard to connect on a joint freq network.

No - there is no way to separate the frequencies (it's not necessary).  Any device that is only 2.4GHz will connect/communicate on the 2.4GHz radio.  

Q5, I have alot of devices cabled and wifi how do you setup static ip for devices on the Whole home BT and port forwarding. or does every device show up in the bt hub as a seprate device going through the Whole home discs or is htere just a single Whole home disc in the router.

Devices can still be managed through the Router/Hub's web GUI - the WHW just acts as a bridge.

Q6, is the a web based access to settings like the bt hub or does the Whole home discs show up in the router as one disc device.

Yes - you can use http://btwhole.home or http://mybtdevice.home to access the Web Interface.

Many Thanks

Darren_B

[meridius]

Hi Darren,

Thanks for the help, I heard the BT white discs do not work with the smart hub 2 but only the smart hub 1 is this true?

It's good to know you can go into the BT hub and access the bt discs and access the setting to set up ips and port forwarding as i am not keen on using the apple app to access and sort things out as i like to use a pc for that.

also herd the smart hub 1 is just the same as the smart hub 2 in hardware apart from the smart hub 2  been able to use DECT and the black disc versions is that true.

The problem is i have all three hubs and want to upgrade my hub 4 as the hub 4 is now struggling with all my devices, 11 wifi and 10 hardware wired as the hub 4 crashes somtimes and takes ages to latch back on, also its slow and does not dligate devices very well.

thanks 

[licquorice]

The white discs will work with any router not just any version of home hub.

The black discs will only work with the SH2

[Darren_B]

Hi meridius,

The white BT discs (Original, Mini & Premium) will work with ANY router/hub (including all other ISPs).

The black BT discs (Complete Wi-Fi) will only work with the Smart Hub 2 - this is because the Hub itself is the first/primary disc (so no need to connect a disc by Ethernet to the SH2).  Complete Wi-Fi is only available to BT Broadband customers - and is part of their package.

Yes the main difference in Hardware for SH1 & SH2 is that SH2 supports DECT and Complete Wi-Fi.

[meridius]

Thanks both,

does that mean if i use the smart hub 2 and the white disc versions the Hub itself is the first/primary disc (so no need to connect a disc by Ethernet to the SH2).  or is that just for the black versions as i am looking at the BT Whole Home Wi-Fi, (AC2600) as you can use ethernet to extend them instead of the Wi-Fi as the black versions you cannot do this.

Also, because this setup works differently than other mesh systems because your still using your main hub as a router and the discs as Wi-Fi extenders it will not give you a double Nat, as other mesh systems require you to disable the router altogether.

so which router would you use the smart hub 1 or 2 or does it not matter? and is it better at handling wifi and network devices and deligation than the bt hub 4/ openreach modem

thanks

[licquorice]

It doesn't matter which version of hub you use with the white discs, the first disc needs to be connected by Ethernet, the hub (or third party router) doesn't form part of the mesh and is independent hence its wifi is usually turned off. With proper mesh systems that have routing capability you wouldn't use a hub at all, you would use a modem.

With the black discs and the SH2, the discs don't need to be connected via Ethernet and the hub forms part of the mesh.

[Darren_B]

Hi,

I'll just echo licquorice's response - as that is correct.

• The White BT WHW MUST have at least 1 disc connected to the Hub/Router by Ethernet
• The Black BT Complete Wi-Fi DOES NOT require any disc connected to the Smart Hub 2 by Ethernet

The WHW discs run in bridge mode - so you still require the functionality of a  router.

If you're looking at the White BT WHW discs, then it doesn't matter whether you use a SH1 or SH2.  I'm not currently sure which Smart Hub BT are sending out to customers - but if a customer's package includes Complete Wi-Fi they will be sent a SH2.

Hope that helps

Darren_B