BT Whole Home dropouts and firmware upgrade

[Hippogriff]

Hello,

I have had a 6 disc BT Whole Home setup, all connected by ethernet, for several years. At least 5 years. In the last couple of months I have been experiencing dropouts of the network.

Yet, when this dropout happens (the network disappears), accessing my router's admin. page shows the ISP connection is still up and running... and the reduced number of devices connected to the primary disc can still connect and get data properly... I tested this as my TV claimed the network wasn't even there, whereas my PC (wirelessly connected to the primary disc) was happily streaming YouTube.

Rather odd. All discs have their blue light.

I have been on firmware v1.02.11 build02 for years. It has seemed stable for a long time.

The admin. console of the BT Whole Home system says the latest version is v1.02.13 build07. From a quick nose in this forum I'm not convinced that is actually the latest version, but maybe it's the latest my discs could go to in a single update?

I am thinking a firmware upgrade might be appropriate. I see some people complaining about new releases of the firmware. I also see reports of BT support mentioning turning off Legacy Steering (which I have checked is, indeed, enabled - but it always has been).

All discs currently claim they have an uptime of  - 4 days, 21 hours, 40 mins, XX seconds - which sounds about right. But I didn't recycle them 4 days ago... they did that themselves, for some reason that I cannot fathom.

I'd love some comments / advice before I take the plunge and upgrade my discs, when that may not be the issue.

Thanks.

[MurrayB]

Hi @Hippogriff 

The latest firmware version for your WHW discs is v1.02.13build14 which you should be able to install either by using the BT WHW app or by using the web GUI for the WHW discs.

If you have any problems please let me know, I will also DM you some further details should you require them.

[Hippogriff]

Yes, I thought the same, but the web UI is clearly showing a lesser version. Maybe it would need to go there as a stepping-stone or something?

I actually don't have the app. installed, so I haven't checked if this gives a different answer.

I also haven't taken any action as of yet, partially due to no replies here, but there was a drop-out yesterday morning, yet the UI shows the discs have an uptime, now, of - 6 days, 16 hours, 44 mins, XX secs - my experience of it tells me this is not really the case. Something is not quite right here, but I can't figure out what it is just yet.

[MurrayB]

Yes you are correct, as your discs are currently on v1.02.11 build02 you will need to upgrade them to v1.02.13 build07 in order to then upgrade them to build 14, the current version.

[Hippogriff]

Yes, but apart from them then being on the latest-and-greatest firmware, I have no idea if that would address the problem of the network the system broadcasts disappearing, seemingly randomly, on a regular basis... all devices, except the ones connected to the main disc, lose connection for what seems to be about 10 to 15 minutes.

I've read a thread on something like this here before, I don't think the outcome was very good. IIRC he ended up getting a refund - but that was because he experienced this behaviour shortly after purchase. I would stress that I have had a trouble-free experience with BT's Whole Home for quite a number of years. Trying to pin-down what may have changed a few months ago is going to be a challenge. When the drop-outs were first noticed could be unrelated to when they actually started happening.

I think I will have to try the firmware upgrade route as this experience is noticeable and commented-on by 'users' - YouTube (and other streaming) on the TV being the most problematic.

[Hippogriff]

So, this happened again and I managed to notice it and do some investigation.

At 07:58 I was sat downstairs streaming a YouTube video on my phone. All of a sudden I saw the spinning circle and my phone's network status showed it was still connected to the SSID provided by the BT Whole Home, but that network had "no internet access".

I went upstairs and logged into the router - a TP-LINK Archer VR2100 - and it said Internet Status: Connected.

I then logged the phone into the SSID of the router itself - not usually used - and regained internet connectivity immediately.

Five minutes later I reconnected to the SSID for the BT Whole Home and connectivity was restored there also.

I then logged into the BT Whole Home web UI, but the System Log doesn't show anything - at all - since 31.01.2026. I find that quite odd. In fact, searching for anything in February across all 6 discs (I did an export of them all) - with search string 02.2026 - returns no hits at all. So no disc has had reason to log anything at all for what looks to be almost a week.

I find it almost incredible that the BT Whole Home system has decided to log nothing about the loss of connectivity.

I did another search for firmware upgrades - obviously it returned v1.02.13 build07 - and then exported the logs again, still nothing in there from today. I do find that odd. It mentioned checking for, and finding, new firmware before... - 31.01.2026 11:03:54 [2 4 1] HTTP-Find new Firmware v1.02.13 build07 from BT auto upgrade server. - and I assume that line was created through my action.

[MurrayB]

v1.02.13 build07 is the build that is currently available to you from the build that you are on.  If you update to that version you will then be able to update to build 14 from build 07, but you are unable to upgrade directly from your current version to build 14, as you suspected previously.

I had messaged you directly with a little more information regarding the issue that you were originally seeing.

[Hippogriff]

My apologies, as I simply had not seen the private message icon lit red for me. I have now read what you'd written and I am happy to answer further details about my configuration...

Yes, to presence of a switch - a NetGear unmanaged switch that has also been in-play for several years. The disc I call Main Router is the only one directly plugged into the TP LINK router itself. The others are connected into ethernet ports in various rooms, all eventually going back to the switch. As I say, this configuration has been static for years.

I have noticed that the web UI seems to think the primary (or main, or first) is a disc called 1BG Middle rather than Main Router... so it must have become confused at some point. However, all six of the discs are reported as having Good Connection. I took particular note of your comment - "If all the discs are connected via Ethernet the system can get confused as to which is the Primary disc, which can cause configuration and stability issues." - which is my situation - but, again, has been for years prior.

Prior to changing my router to the TP LINK Archer VR2100 I had been using an Asus DSL-AC68U - so I've never had BT kit from the very first day (apart from BT Whole Home, of course).

[Hippogriff]

Further, possibly useful, stuff:

The TP-LINK firmware page says Your firmware is up to date after checking.

The router has an IP Address Pool ranging from 192.168.1.16 to 192.168.1.254 and the six BT discs have static IPs of 192.168.1.10... through to 192.168.1.15.

The VR2100 is acting as the connection to the outside world, so its Operation Mode is DSL Modem Router Mode.

I did not have this issue when using the ASUS DSL-AC68U but it is hard to tell if is starting occurring as I changed, it has certainly only been happening after I made that router change, but I couldn't reliably say the TP-LINK is the reason as I have only noticed it enough to do something about it, but it has been quite a long time, granted.

Sadly I cannot bring the ASUS DSL-AC86U back into service, just as it once was, as the VDSL / modem port burned out after a decade or so.

I note the comment about the VR2100 may suffer from intermittent connectivity issues generally but I would remind myself that it was still connected to the outside world this morning, as it has a Connected status, whereas the SSID provided by BT WH did not.

Smart Connect is already disabled, but the TP-LINK is still set to broadcast its own SSID (different to the BT WH SSID, but unused).

I am building myself up to upgrading the firmware of the BT WH discs but my expectations of it resolving anything are lowered appropriately.

[Hippogriff]

As the TP LINK router was still set to broadcast its own SSID, unnecessary obviously, I have today disabled that... and will see if things change in any way. The only way to tell is time. Fingers-crossed.