Struggling connecting BT pro box to EE Mini Hub

[JamoBailey]

Hi folks, I’m usually pretty tech savvy but pulling my hair out here

I’ve got a BT pro box working fine at home, wired and also wirelessly to my BT home hub.

I want to be able to use the box for a few weeks at another address which currently doesn’t have a phone line.

BT have sent out a free EE mini hub. Works great for our phones and Samsung TV

At first the BT box wasn’t finding the mini hub at all but soon thought to change the mini hub to 5ghz

Bt box then found it and connected.  “Your box is connected to your hub And the internet”

It shows the IP address etc on screen.

However whenever I select a channel it says unavailable with error code IPC6002

Any ideas?

Many thanks 

[JamoBailey]

Further info:

I’ve gone into BBC iplayer app and that works fine?

So does that mean that BT TV only works with the BT router that’s assigned to the account the box is bought with?

[c64z86]

When you were setting up your box, did you set it up in internet or aerial mode?

If you set it up in internet mode, it might need to be connected to your BT internet at home to receive the channels. Though as you found out Iplayer/Itvx/My4 and 5 on demand can be used anywhere.

But if you set it up in aerial mode, then you should still be able to get channels from any aerial, but your sky channels will still need to be streamed from your BT internet account at home.

[JamoBailey]

Okay thanks so yeah is it a case that you can’t just take your box to a friends house to watch even normal live TV streamed?

[c64z86 · Accepted solution]

Nope sadly, not if you have it set up in internet mode. The BT/EE TV Freeview streams are encrypted.

If it is set up in aerial mode, it still should be able to receive the Freeview channels that way through any TV aerial though. But your sky channels will not be able to be streamed at your friend's house in either mode.

[JamoBailey]

That makes sense thank you 

There is no TV Ariel there either.

It’s a house we are moving into gradually and BT open reach can only install the broadband on the 25th so thought I’d take the box I have down there until then to tide us over. 

[c64z86]

I think you can watch Netflix and the Now TV app on any device though, it doesn't have to be at your current home either!

All you have to do is to log into the app or browser, with your BT account details, on any device and click "start watching".

So you can watch your sky channels that way until everything is setup for your Box.

It's very confusing I know, but that's the way it all is 😛

[JamoBailey]

Good advice, thank you!

At the back of my mind I kinda thought it could be restricted when not on my own broadband.

How does it know!?

[c64z86]

No idea! I think there is something in the BT/EE internet connection that tells your box that it can receive the internet Freeview streams, so that's why it only works at your address... but if your friend's house already has a BT/EE internet connection it might work? 

I really don't know, but it would make an interesting experiment for someone willing to find out!

[JamoBailey]

I’ll report back with that.

We are waiting for the BT broadband to get installed before adding BT TV to the package (I think it’s cheaper to do it that way) and will then receive a new box for that property.

So in reality, when folk have broadband issues and then get a 4g router from BT to tide them over, their box won’t function anywhere near as good as they are used to