Hub 3 and BT Whole Home Wifi Premium - 2 questions

[MECoker]

Hi,

I have the issue with drop-out using the BT Premium Whole Home Wifi discs (PWHW). I have been through the forums and made the changes I could find but still have the same issues. I wonder if you could advise me?

I have firmware version 9.1.1912.302 on my Hub 3 and version SGAB205018 on my PWHW with "Early adopter" enabled. I have three PWHW discs. Disc one is connected to Port 1 of my Hub 3. Then a cable out of port 2 of Disc 1 and into a switch which feeds:
a) port 1 of disc 2 &
b) another switch to port 1 of disc 3.
This first 8 port switch also has other devices connected to it by ethernet e.g. HP printer and my Microsoft Surface Pro via a Surface Pro docking hub.

The connection is OK some of the time but it randomly drops out. Sometimes several times an hour and it won't connect again for half an hour. I have tried rebooting each device in order (Hub 3, disc 1, disc 2, Disc 3) with enough time in-between for each to properly boot up. I have also tried resetting each device.

I had a Virgin engineer here on Tuesday who swapped my Hub 3 for a new one and checked all my cabling to the Hub 3 so I am assuming that's all OK.

Q1 - One thing I have noticed is that I can only ever get two discs to connect via ethernet despite all three having ethernet cables connected. Is this how it should be?

Q2 - Is it OK to connect through a switch with other devices connected to it or should I have a dedicated switch just for the PWHW devices and feed off port 2 of the last disc in the chain to a switch for everything else? Or, do I need to cable directly into port 1 and out of port 2 of each PWHW disc instead of going through switches?

Also to mention, I have turned off wifi on my Hub 3 but I have not put it into Modem mode as I need to connect my WD MyCloud directly to one of the ports on the Hub 3 (not through a switch) and Modem mode only allows the use of Port 1.

Like many others, I have spent an inordinate amount of time on the phone to Virgin and be passed around and cut off after waiting an hour each time (4 hours in total) for someone to pick up my calls. I have been through the "Gadget Rescue" phone line who wanted to charge me for third party device support even though I told them I just needed the firmware update for the Hub 3. They tried to transfer me to 2nd tier specialist support but I got cut off (again!!!). So, I have now come here for help.

Thanks,
Michael

[jbrennand]

Put the Hub3 into modem mode and try that. Setting up as below. I am assuming that the BT disc has two ports. So connect an unmanaged GB switch to that with cat6 cab]le and run all your ethernet connections from that.
__________________

Disconnect all cables from your new router (or Mesh first unit) and unplug it. Put the VM Hub into modem mode (see VM website for “how to” details) and wait for the base light to turn magenta/purple (on a Hub3 - but not on a Hub4!). Once it’s in modem mode, the VM hub must then be powered off. Then, set up your own router/Mesh with the WAN port set to be in DHCP mode, it may be pre-set that way anyway. Make sure it’s fully initialised (leave 5 min) and then put in the WAN cable to the VM hub. Now power up the VM hub and you should get a connection. Use the recommended App to connect other Mesh units to the first one. This order only needs to be done the first time you connect the router to the VM hub.

[MECoker]

Thanks John,

Are you sure this will work for me as I need to have my WD MyCloud hard drive unit connected directly to the Hub 3 and modem mode only allows the use of port 1 on the Hub 3 which I will need for the first mesh disc?

Also, as I understand it, the BT Premium Whole Home Wifi system doesn't have a DHCP server but I'm not sure if that matters?

Michael

[gary_dexter]

They won’t work on modem mode as they do not possess routing capabilities.

They’re merely mesh repeaters/extenders. 

[jbrennand]

Not 100% sure as I have never used BT discs. Others may comment.

I am assuming that the first BT disc also has router functions? I believe their mini discs dont - but would be surprised if the premium product doesn't at that price 🙂

EDIT: Gary has commented that they dont - if that's correct I cant see why anyone would buy something at that price with that limitation when there are (probably better) Mesh sytems that do at a far cheaper price

Many other Mesh system users are doing as I suggest and using an unmanaged GB switch to provide the ethernet ports that are now disabled on the VM Hubs - and all devices connect normally at full speeds

In any case - just try it and see, you can always revert back if it doesnt

[gary_dexter]

None of the BT Whole Home discs have routing functions at all 

[sophist]

Are your switches managed or dumb? Sounds like it could be spanning tree issues tbh.

managed switches are likely to participate in spanning tree, unmanaged aren’t.. 

[jbrennand]

---

@gary_dexter wrote:

None of the BT Whole Home discs have routing functions at all 

---

Cheers Gary - I guess that makes  some  marketing sense to someone - as the BT Hub cant do modem mode either AIUI.

[MECoker]

They're unmanaged - TP-Link TL-SG1008D and TP-Link LS108G.

Another odd behaviour I have found is that when I connect disc 3 close to disc 1 or 2 via ethernet, it shows as "Excellent connection" and "connected by ethernet" but when I connect it in my "Mancave" where I actually need it, it connects by wifi and shows "poor connection" even though it has a perfectly good ethernet connection up its backside (port 1). I understand that these BT premium discs regularly review the topology and adjust to the best connection but this seems to do the opposite.

I'm at a loss!

[jbrennand]

If you still can... send them back and swap them for a good Mesh system with routing capabilities.

I had a quick look after Gary's reply and there are a lot of unhappy users of BT discs for several reasons.