Smart Home & Third Party Modem/Router

[oooodz]

Hello,

My smart home devices (2 amazon plugs and 1 google nest mini) have failed to connect to my BT Smart Hub 2.

When I first had BT put in I'd started to use a new Netgear Nighthawk AC1900 that I bought in the anticipation of the limit of devices the BT Hubs lets connect wirelessly. The smart home devices connected to that fine but the general connection went from good to dropping out every 5 hours or so of every day.

I've now reverted back to the smart hub which has brought stability to most but not all devices. This has brought the issues with the smart home devices along with the hub crashing whenever a TV tries to connect.

I've failed to enable the Nighthawk as a wireless access point it doesn't seem to get any connection when wired up to BT hub. 

 - I believe that the smart home issues are down to the BT Hub having both 2.4ghz and 5ghz on one SSiD? Is there a way of separating on the hub settings? I have so far failed to split them

-Are there any other modem/router combinations that can successfully work with BT? Ideally I would want my Nighthawk AC1900 but it seems very unlikely at the moment.  

I tried contacting BT via twitter to sort but they directed me here. 

Thanks so much in advance for any help. Its greatly appreciated to help me sort this frustration

[Keith_Beddoe]

@oooodz 

Welcome to this user forum. You cannot split the bands on the Smart Hub 2.

This one is very popular, and works with all BT services.

https://www.tp-link.com/uk/home-networking/dsl-modem-router/archer-vr400/v2/

If you only want 2.4GHz then there is a cheaper option.

https://www.tp-link.com/uk/home-networking/dsl-modem-router/td-w9970/

[licquorice]

There's no reason why the Netgear shouldn't work as a wap. Give it an IP address outside of the DHCP range of the hub, set gateway to 192.168.1.254,disable DHCP and connect to the hub LAN port to LAN port.

[oooodz]

I couldn't even get logged into the settings to get that far. I assumed it was down to the lack of internet the router was getting. When looking into the ethernet connections in the BT hub settings it did not make much sense. A mobile phone was down as connected in one of the Ethernet ports. 

[licquorice]

You don't need internet connection to access the Netgear. Connect your PC/laptop directly to it with no other connections to make the configuration changes

[oooodz]

Thanks im in the settings now. Not sure what was stopping me.

The DHCP stuff is a bit beyond my technical knowledge. I've got to the point of turning the AP mode on