Static Routes on BT Business Smart Hub 2

[dial1899]

Hi,

A charity I help has just been given a BT Business Smart Hub 2 with hybrid 4G connect box, designed to help keep broadband service reliable despite the trees that keep disconnecting the telephone line.

Unfortunately I don't seem able to configure it to match the existing wired router.  In particular I'm trying to configure static routes so packets destined for the VPN get sent to the local VPN router which knows what to do with them.

The Smart Hub 2 router is handing out IP addresses in the range 192.168.4.1 and 192.168.4.253 .

The VPN router has IP address of 192.168.4.10 from that router.

The static route I'm trying to set up is

subnet IP: 192.168.1.0  subnet mask: 255.255.255.0 gateway IP 192.168.4.10

The error message I'm getting is

'Invalid gateway IP: 192.168.4.10.  Only allow value between 192.168.1.1 and 192.168.1.253.'

As the 'allow value' IP addresses aren't routeable in the 192.168.4.0/24 network, it implies that static routes are not possible.  But there is a web interface dedicated to giving them.

Have I missed something?  How do I set these routes up?  We have a range of routers doing exactly that on other sites so I'm just trying to get it to do what the existing router is doing.  I can't just stick the hybrid connect box on the existing router because it needs to pair with the smart hub to work. 

Thanks to anyone who can shed light on this.

[Keith_Beddoe]

@dial1899 

Are you a BT Business Customer, as this is the Residential Customer forum?

The business forum is here https://business.forums.bt.com/

[dial1899]

I'm not a customer, but the charity probably counts as a business.  Thanks for the suggestion, I'll try over there....

[dial1899]

Dunno how this question got marked solved.  Telling someone to go away somewhere else isn't what is normally considered a solution, helpful though it might have been in this case.  Oh, I forgot, its telecoms....

[JohnC2]

Hi @dial1899, I marked the post as the solution. This is for any user that searches for this topic in the future will see that the best place for help with this is the Business forum.

Cheers

John

[dial1899]

Thanks for the explanation. Well it might be the best place for help if there was actually a solution over there, which there isn't (yet!). I'll cross post the solution URL to be really helpful if we get a solution and then mark it solved. The solution over there might also help residential customers over here with BT routers who would like to access the office via routed VPN hardware (for example).
I might also post a range of routers both here and there from other suppliers that can do the job if it turns out the BT one cannot. Unfortunately none of those will be able to pair with the hybrid connect box, which is a pity. The best solution may, in that case, turn out to be a chain saw to remove the offending tree.

[licquorice]

I think what you are missing is that the business hub is an entirely different device to the residential hub. There will be extremely few residential customers using the business hub and there is no expertise with the business hub on this forum.

[dial1899]

Thanks for the thought.  As far as I can tell, its a 'BT Smart Hub 2'.  BT Business and BT Residential are different lines of business.  So if you have a BT business contract it comes in a brown box called a 'BT Business Smart Hub 2'

Look at these two links if you don't believe me.  The box I have looks similar to both of these.  Different pricing (VAT), different routes to market, & probably different firmware (I checked my logs as the router doesn't actually tell you what firmware it has - and looked at this forum) but whether that includes the static routing parts of the firmware or not I would doubt.

https://shop.bt.com/products/bt-smart-hub-2-097683-DYNK.html

https://www.businessdirect.bt.com/products/bt-smart-hub-2-097683-DYNK.html

To reiterate, I would ask on this forum that anyone with the residential BT Smart Hub 2 would post and answer if they could.  All netgear routers I've used, all TP-link routers, deary me I've even got a thomson TG 585 from 2009 that can do this if you use the CLI.  The BT Smart Hub 2, apparently and as far as I can see, cannot, because of a bug in a gateway IP check where the error message is written in chinglish.  The price of progress I guess.

[licquorice]

Its not a thought. its a fact. I can assure you the business hub is entirely different firmware and functionality to the residential hub. The residential hub is completely locked down and has very little options in the way of configuration. It certainly doesn't have the option to create static routes.

[dial1899 · Accepted solution]

Ah, OK, thanks for that confirmation.  You have to be so careful, same physical outline, same 'mfr number', but entirely different functions whether you buy it from BT Business or the BT consumer shop

So in summary

- you can't set up static routes on residential BT Smart Hub 2 because its locked down

- you can't set up static routes on business BT Smart Hub 2 because although its not locked down at the UI the firmware versions v0.13.06.07281-BT (Wed Jul 28 12:06:04 2021) or v0.12.03.01286-BT (Thu Jan 28 17:41:51 2021) have bugs which render this function inoperable in many situations

Reviewing the options then, my current but not preferred solution (applies to both Hubs I think although I've only got the business one...)

- if you can manage without the 4G hybrid connection box, just buy a router from one of the main manufacturers and use that (I've had success with e.g. Netgear, Asus, TP-link, Linksys/Cisco, Thomson)

- if you need the 4G hybrid connection box as we do, turn off WiFi, put the hub in bridge mode and put a router behind the BT hub.  That way the routing is done by the 'router' and the 'hub' is the 'modem'.

- p