Digital Voice with different Router

[licquorice]

If your laptop was previously connected to the Netgear it will have an IP address in that sub network instead of the 192.168.1.XXX subnet.

Give your ethernet adaptor in the laptop an address of 192.168.1.10, mask 255.255.255.0 and you should be able to connect to the hub.

[colbartram]

@choppyc @licquorice @jamestrever 

Hi gents

I eventually followed the suggestion provided by choppyc and now have the SH2  looking after the WiFi Advanced Digital Voice phone and passing all other traffic to my Netgear Nighthawk which continues to service the Wifi and Wifi extender. After messing up a couple of times and relying on the factory settings reset buttons on both the SH2 and Netgear to get me out of trouble, and learning my way around the SH2 admin system, the process finally took less than 10 minutes to execute and was operational as soon as restarting the Nighthawk. The only addition to choppyc's instructions was that I had to provide a subnet mask when defining the fixed IP, DNS servers etc in the Nighthawk's main WAN settings. I guessed at 255.255.255.0  Also noted that the settings in the Nighthawk did not become available until unchecking 'ISP requires a logon' (which of course is now handled by the SH2). 

To return to the discussion as  to whether BT have any obligation or interest  in providing guidance to facilitate  this combination of SH2, Digital Voice phone and existing router, I support choppyc's statement that the configuration _should_ work for any generic router that can be set up with a fixed IP. Although it needs a small amount of internet etc familiarity to execute, it's not that difficult. In my view, BT could take  this on board.

Thanks for input from various folks.

[licquorice]

That's a bit like expecting your electricity supplier to help you set up your home cinema system.

[Dsotm]

It is a good point.

However given that the BT hub does not have a modem mode, and many people (like me) already have an excellent home network set up that they would be loath to change (I need more Gigabit ports that the Hub has), it would be nice if they were cognisant of that, did a bit of homework, and offered a streamlined procedure to add the hub to a 3rd party network.

[mabuk]

It seems more like your electricity supplier selecting your home cinema system.

[colbartram]

For many of us the reality is that BT is the only option if we want a fibre connection. For whatever reasons, no other ISPs are willing or able to partner with BT to offer their services over BT's fibre where I live.

So all of us who want to continue with our old landline number are faced with having to junk our existing infrastructure because of  the lack of information on how to integrate.

I'm no genius and managed to get it sorted following another user's guidance in this Community. What would have been great  for me is if the SH2 admin had asked me if I already had a router installed and did I want to continue using it? If I said yes, then the SH2 would automatically adopt the necessary settings and tell me what was required of the third party router. I can see they'd be leery of getting more support calls but it could be made quite clear that  they couldn't advise on  the third party kit beyond specifying the settings that were needed - that's perfectly reasonable.  This could easily be backed up with a Tech Note somewhere online.

I doubt I'm going to persuade anyone, but that's how I feel.

[colbartram]

@Dsotm   

" it would be nice if they were cognisant of that, did a bit of homework, and offered a streamlined procedure to add the hub to a 3rd party network."

Precisely Dsotm, perfectly stated.

[Dsotm]

Having said that, I used to work for BT, so I am not holding my breath for common sense to break out any time soon.

Currently I can get an Ultra 900 link but they are insisting I also get a new phone line (I am on Virgin). The whole point of the new link was to lose the landline and move to DV.

"Yes sir we can sell you an anti-gravity land speeder, but we have to fit wheels to it"

[Gary_C]

Thats a bit unfair as fitting wheels would be a retrograde step and (in theory at least) digital voice is the future (especially as PSTN only has 4 years left to live at the moment)

That said, it would be nice if BT would do a DV dongle rather than it being a part of the SmartHub only

[imjolly]

not all exchanges have been upgraded for DV.  Here are the latest to be upgraded

https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2021/01/openreach-name-51-uk-areas-for-copper-phone-to-fibre-s...