Home Hub 3 to Smart Hub Upgrade

[Michael71]

I've just received my new Smart Hub to replace my current Home Hub 3. Currently, the dsl cable runs from the telephone socket to the white modem but there is no connection port available for this on the new Smart Hub. 

Do I need to replace the master socket or get a RJ11 to RJ45 converter?

[licquorice]

You don't need the modem with the smart hub. Just connect the rj11 from the phone socket to the dsl socket on the smart hub. You might want to hang on to your old hub and modem, the smart hub is not necessarily an upgrade.

[Michael71]

Ok thanks for that.

i will hold on to the HH3 and modem.

[ukhardy07]

The smart hub is actually a HUGE upgrade and I am disappointed you have been told otherwise.

The wireless on the home hub 3 is single band 2.4Ghz with a connection rate of 144Mbps out of the box.

The smart hub is dual band, so it broadcasts on 2.4 and 5Ghz. Devices such as your new iPhone, many smart TVs, many new laptops support 5ghz which is often.

The smart hub can support 5ghz speeds of 1300Mbps, that is compared to 144Mbps on the home hub 3 (both on default settings).

All you need to do is bin / recycle the home hub 3 and modem, connect the smart hub straight into the filter directly, the modem is not needed anymore.

FYI I'm new here but I've been posting on thinkbroadband for 10+ years 🙂

[Keith_Beddoe]

@ukhardy07

There are plenty of people on this forum that would disagree with that.

Wireless connection speed is no help if the effective range is poor.

[ukhardy07]

I don't find the range any worse than a home hub 4 and 5. In fact it is a marked improvement... I do not have a homehub 3 for comparison.

It also is better than a virgin super hub 2AC, Talktalk super router, sky hub and netgear nighthawk router that I have.

That being said if the range is significantly worse a long term solution is to install a second AP. It is not good advice in my view to encourage users to continue using the homehub 3, which is a 6 year old device now, single band and will likely need to replaced soon with age.

Ultimately the time will come when they have to upgrade, perhaps they move ISP or perhaps they get the smarthub, but long term if the range is worse they will need to do something about it as nobody else (Sky, talktalk, virgin) offer anything better range wise than the smarthub, and if they stick it out with BT they'll be stuck with the smarthub.

In the short term it might work to keep the homehub 3, but longer term this range issue you describe will need to be addressed.

I personally have my doubts that the range on 2.4Ghz is significantly worse on a smarthub but I do admit it's not the first time someone's said that.

[licquorice]

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@ukhardy07 wrote:


FYI I'm new here but I've been posting on thinkbroadband for 10+ years 🙂

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Perhaps you should do a bit of reading before posting.

[smf22]

@ukhardy07

I have two Hub 6 here (I refuse to call the brand name) and neither are connected.

During the three months I was using them the problems were: DHCP inconsistent; DNS server stopped; web server stopped; WiFi constantly dropping; USB drive became inaccesable; periodic reboots. It got to the point the factory reset wouldn't even work.

To be fair I found the modem in the Hub 6 to be reasonable, and it gave IPv6.

At the beginning of Nov-16 I changed to an OR modem and third party router. Modem up for 55 days and counting. No periodic reboots etc.

I would now not touch Hub 6 with someone else's barge pole.

Regards

[ukhardy07]

The periodic reboots I can attest to, it stinks that they've made them reboot every 14 days.

DHCP server inconsistent was true on my hub which eventually refused to boot with a green light, the replacement has thankfully been fine.

Touch wood my replacement has been flawless but I did have a hub which exhibited those characteristics mentioned, I am tipping a faulty batch exists.

[cooljay]

I have found keeping the open reach modem is giving better connections on both HH6 AND HH5.