We’re hearing reports that BT is phasing in a release of a new version of BT Home Hub firmware, version 6.2.6.E. This updated version of firmware includes the following improvements:
- Change default Hub Manager access password from ‘admin’ to your unique Hub serial number
- Force admin password change when first accessing the Hub Manager (if still at default value)
- Remove Remote Assistance feature from Hub Manager
- Move all sensitive Hub Manager information under admin password protection
- Add protection against web scripting hacks
- Some improvement to reliability when using WPA wireless encryption
- Various minor Hub Manager interface changes including rebranding of ‘BT Total Broadband Wi-Fi Community’ to ‘BT FON’
- Fix problem that after hiding SSID and re-enabling it, some computers might no longer see the Hub
- Fix problem that setting Wireless MAC address filtering (ie ‘New stations are allowed via registration’) causes the Hub to reboot
If you’re a Home Hub user, check out our Audio Guide to the Hub
December 26th, 2007 at 10:12 pm
When I performed the initial password change through IE7, it appeared to work, but subsequent attempts to login failed. Resetting the hub and performing the initial change through Firefox also appeared to work, but this time I could login and access the administrator screens. This may be similar to the 6.1.1M/6.1.1R issue reported on the admistrator access FAQ
January 1st, 2008 at 2:59 pm
I found by trial and error that the admin userid reverted to admin once the password had been reset. This seems pointless to me.
January 3rd, 2008 at 8:12 am
I share with another part of my house via a powerline ethernet connection to another wifi access point (different SSID) and have had no end of problems since enabling FON access… grrr still trying to find out if it’s hardware or software…
January 21st, 2008 at 6:16 am
I signed up for BT unlimited in January 2008 and the software version on the home hub is 6.2.6.B. Surely one would expect to receive 6.2.6.E (rolled out Dec 27) with my new hardware.
I went with “option 3″ (unimited) because I had intended to get BT Vision within this package but now I’m being told that my line is not fast enough to support it (2.5meg) so it looks like I’ve spent MUCH more money than I actually needed to. Thanks BT!
January 26th, 2008 at 1:37 am
i was ok with the homehub pre 6.2.6.E, i could telnet in and set it up as i wanted it. i’m a network engineer by trade and know my job very well, and the way bt does the setup leaves much to be desired. and i hate the idea of some idiot with a script sheet being able to access my network and devices. since the update i not only have some idiot running my network boundary, i no longer have full access to my router, my VPN is not functioning properly and my non-bt wireless voip phone is an expensive paperweight. perhaps by november Be will have made it to aberdeenshire and i can loose this white elephant and even get some proper speed.
January 29th, 2008 at 12:35 pm
I totaly agree with you I run all my machines on linux, I used to get the server to telnet into the BTHH pre 6.2.6.E and disconect an IP from the internet at a certain time of the night. Also I now can’t get BTFON to say I’ve opted in even though I have. I am now considering getting out my spare BTHH out and using that, but then BT will only change it so I cant have total control over MY network.
I think this is time for a serious complaint to oftel and possibly trading standards, and BT.
January 29th, 2008 at 4:40 pm
My router was updated to 6.2.6.E over the weekend/
I use WDS (wireless distribution) to relay to a second router (Billion) upstairs because the signal received on the wireless cards was weak and unpredictable.
After firmware 6.2.6.E had been loaded, all my WDS settings and network key had been wiped from the Home Hub and they had to be re-entered on the Home Hub.
Also, I find if I leave the Home Hub wireless channel to “automatic” this seems to change spontaneously and unpredictably - which causes WDS to fail. So I set the wireless channel manually on both WDS routers.
Also , the “Advanced > Home network” option in the Home Hub router admin menu no longer shows the WDS attached devices - which seems a pointless omission to me and makes problem diagnosis of WDS that little bit harder.
Overall? A rather poor upgrade, poorly implemented.
February 2nd, 2008 at 8:51 am
Just got this update the other day and now i cant connect my bloody laptop my desktop works as does every other dt and lt in the house but not mine which is dammed annoying since ive been unable to find the fault after driver updates etc for my hardware im still unable to connect.
Any Ideas ?
February 3rd, 2008 at 5:09 pm
Wow what a stupid update, not only does it have all the problems people have already mentioned but its still easy to crack the WEP, use the BTHomeHub Recovery Tool to get the serial number and set your own password. Then to top it off you can turn off the lights that blink when data is being sent to and from the BTHomeHub http://192.168.1.254/cgi/b/connchk/?ce=1&be=0&l0=4&l1=-1
February 6th, 2008 at 10:20 pm
I’m generally disappointed with the update, but I can now use the V1.5 Hub with Plus.Net so thats an improvement.
But need access like other to setup my Sip phone, not sure if this helps but if you try to access the RAS menu directly you are prompted for a userid and password and the admin one does not work. If someone can crack this password then there maybe an option.
http://192.168.1.254/cgi/b/ras/
February 9th, 2008 at 2:06 am
I’m having trouble with the bt home hub as well. When we first got it we were all able to connect to it and access the internet without any trouble at all. It started to try and do some updates and think it still hasnt got to the latest version yet. After a couple of weeks on a weekend it started playing up effecting everyone’s pc’s, we thought it was just another nearby network on the same channel so we went around the whole house to find all the networks we couls pick up and found a free channel in the end, everyone in the house with pc’s, game consoles etc.. could all connect after this bit of trouble but my laptop now refuses to even talk to it. I tried updating the driver for my internal card but didn’t work so i tried another card in it but that didnt work either. I went to a friends and connected to there network without any trouble and they are using the same security level as our one. We have checked the settings in the bt home hub and all seem ok!! I have had to use a pcmcia card instead which connects straight away but is very annoying my internal card wont.
If anyone has had a problem like this and knows how to fix it then please post on here as it would be much appreciated:)
February 12th, 2008 at 3:35 am
Sorry for the spelling I am dislex….
Scince the update of farmware to 6.2.6.E my hub freezes esp the WIFI side at randome times. This would be anoying anyway but as I like/often access my Computers from abroard this is a big problem. So far BT have sed it was becous I set channel 6 on the wireless and to change it to 9 or 11. Well this seem a strange thing to me and did not make any difence at all even on auto it dose it.
Steve
February 17th, 2008 at 8:03 pm
Since the upgrade to 6.2.6E I can’t get admin login at all. I have tried every number shown on the rear sticker of the unit as the password and nothing.
I am now stuck with a unit I can’t access.
February 17th, 2008 at 11:24 pm
Has any one seen my telnet at 192.168.1.254 . Where can i find it please . As it’s greatly missed at home (does someone else have it hidden away somewhere ? )
February 19th, 2008 at 2:33 pm
Hi All
Can’t help with all problems here, but as far as not being able to login to ‘admin’ controls.
Just spoken to BT, told me to ‘hard reset’ router by pressing the grey wireless association button on the back. You then need to enter the S/N of your router and -
Username: admin
Password: welcome1
After this you can change your password.
Hope this works for others!
Cheers.
February 21st, 2008 at 4:58 am
After not being able to login as admin I tried a hard reset, this resulted in lots of dropped wifi connections so I can only assume a bad firmware flash. I ended up doing a complete firmware restore. I have also noticed that since the firmware update I lose wifi signal frequently and the only way around this has been to manually set the channel to 11.
All in all a pretty poor firmware upgrade on BT’s part.
February 21st, 2008 at 8:18 pm
sinc ethe update, wmy wirless channel 11 has gone mad, my 360 (cod 4) keeps saying connection interpupted ecery 5 secs on this channel now. but my ps3 and pc are ok…. if i change the channel to anything else the 360 works fine, but i need 11 as its a good frequency for all my wireless needs.
I only had this prob since receivng a new style bt home hub hub, had not probs with the old style bt home hub
February 22nd, 2008 at 6:39 pm
What have they done. I’m assisting somebody using VNC thru a port forward. Or rather, I was. Now the port forward has dissapeared and there is an admin password. Is there anyway to turn this auto annoy feature off?
February 22nd, 2008 at 10:54 pm
Has anyone noticed some Ethernet connection problems since the update to 6.2.6.E? I’ve always had the BTHH connected to my desktop on Ethernet 1 using DHCP. Ever since the upgrade the connection just stops responding. No internet, etc. Can’t even ping the BTHH on 192.168.1.254 It just goes into ‘I’m not listening mode!’. Quick solution is to right-click on my network connection, disable it and then enable it. Everything then works fine (till the next time!.
Any suggestions?
February 24th, 2008 at 10:03 pm
my software is 6.2.6.c and it wont upgrade to 6.2.6.e how do i upgrade it to that and also my broadband is really slow. it is slower than a laptop without broadband at the moment what can i do please reply asap
February 25th, 2008 at 4:59 am
Adam, you can force an update by downloading the firmware from BT, connect your computer direct using the ethernet cable. Put the router into upgrade mode by pressing and holding the grey button on the back for 30sec, still holding the button remove the power supply and plug it back in, keep holding the grey button for a further 5 secs or so. You can then use the upgrade utility to install the new firmware. Be warned that you will lose all of your previous settings.
This may not improve speed though, you may need to talk to an engineer to get the line checked. Before you do though, if you have extensions in the house remove the faceplate on your main BT socket and plug the router into the test socket inside, if your speed improves you have a problem with your extension wiring.
February 27th, 2008 at 10:09 am
I teleneted into my hub last year to avoid anymore crap updates,i am still at 6r as the update after that made hosting online games a hit and miss afair that i got no help from BT, luckily i have two BTHH so i have one with the previous update and one still as i said at 6.1.1.r, i just cant use my hubphone with the “useful” hub as its not supported until the later awfull update that stopped me hosting,anyhow at least btvision works on the older firmware sigh
February 29th, 2008 at 7:00 pm
This BT Home Hub is total crap - how many complaints. how many times does my WIFI drop!!!
Its nonsense!!
March 6th, 2008 at 1:36 pm
Since last Thursday my hub appears to be resetting itself constantly. I hear a click from the hub, lights will flash on and off then a balloon will appear on screen saying a network cable is unplugged. I lose internet conenction on my dell pc connected through ethernet and my dell wi-fi connection is unaccessible as well due to this. Can connect again very briefly sometimes before the whole scenario begins again. Have talked to helpline, tried everything they told me but still not working. Anyone had similar problem, found solution?
March 7th, 2008 at 7:26 pm
I’ve had problems too. My connection was fine yesterday afternoon and was downloading over a wireless access point. Come evening, my laptop wouldn’t connect and when it did, the sped of the network jumped from 54mbps to 48,33,12,11 and even 1 and which point my laptop said “I’ve had enough” and cut out completely from the network.
I checked the homehub and found that the software had been updated that evening….coincidence? I think not.
Any way..I heard that it automatically assigns the channel to 1 after upgrade which is supposedly a problem with bad connection ,so have changed it to 11. Will have to wait a few days and see what happens but I am not holding my breath.
My can’t BT give you the option to upgrade software. If it works for you, why change it. I have no intention of getting btvision as the with the quality of line the movie would continuously cut out and a 2 hour movie would take 10 to watch!!!
March 7th, 2008 at 8:11 pm
I totally agree with all the comment about the 6.2.6 E upgrade out wifi constantly drops out and now i have lost my advanced menu as well. what the F*** have they done i can’t even get to the advanced menu to change the wifi channel: a total balls up by bt i would say!!
March 8th, 2008 at 8:14 am
further to my above comment,btvision is now causing a problem on 6.1.1.r and 6.2.2.6, the prob is with wireless ,it basically stops you seeing the homehub or if you can see it connecting to it,the only work around is to boot up the hub without btvision plugged in and then connect wirelessly then plug btvision back in again.
how very odd
March 10th, 2008 at 1:50 pm
Solution for me (to above prob March 6th) was to ask, well demand, a new hub, which has duely been delivered. Service back to normal. Fingers crossed.
March 19th, 2008 at 6:00 pm
I use the BT home hub with my mac and have had little trouble until I needed to change settings in the advanced settings in the advance area. I can log into the hub manager with no problem I can select Advanced options, enter user name and password, this enters ok, click continue to advance settings of which it is then supposed to give me extra options in the left-hand column. but in my case no extra options just the same as before.
Went through this with 4 people at BT who were next to useless and still no access to the advance settings. There answer because they could not update the software on the hub is to replace my 2 year old hub with the latest one. Heres hoping that works.
March 20th, 2008 at 11:03 am
yep firmware update done now can’t connect to any of the other pc’s on my network, all shared printers are now inaccesible…well done BT well done.. another heap of crap foisted on your users
March 20th, 2008 at 6:44 pm
Chris, I suspect you are using Safari to login to the homehub. I have exactly the same problem but it works fine with Firefox. I am not sure if the problem is with the homehub not using compliant HTML or if it is down to Safari not being compliant.
March 24th, 2008 at 2:32 pm
version: 6.2.6.E
BT Home Hub has to be the the most frustrating thing to use. Ever.
I have been unable to access the admin rights for weeks now. It wasn’t a problem till for some random reason the hub decided to stop my xbox 360 connecting 3 days ago.
Nothing I do has been able to fix the problem, I have changed the password, done hard resets, hell, even yanked the power in frustration. Nothing.
March 24th, 2008 at 3:30 pm
After months of trouble with home hub wifi connection to a laptop and ethernet to a PC, BT sent the 1.5 version.
Seemed better. My Ethernet connected PC no longer fails to get an IP address from the Hub (now almost always works first time), but the laptop still fails to get IP on most attempts. Right click the green mushroom and reconnect works for a minute or so. Sometimes for longer.
Connect the laptop by ethernet and it works every time.
I complained again this morning, and was sent three “useful” web site addresses that tell me how to set it all up.
Thing is, the good old Voyager 2100 router never let us down. Think I will revert.
Phil
March 25th, 2008 at 7:12 am
Wifi connections in the 6.2.2.6 firmware is definitely a problem. The only way I could keep a constant connection was to manually set the channel. On automatic it seemed to cycle through channels more quickly than my laptop could keep up with, this happened with a MacBook Pro and Acer running Vista. Once set to manual there were no problems.
I had problems accessing the admin section after the automatic update. I ended up doing a manual firmware install. After doing the manual upgrade I gave had no problems other than the admin controls can’t be accessed using Safari although it works fine in IE or Firefox.
March 27th, 2008 at 6:39 pm
When I call any number on my hub phone I get the number unavailable tone. Entering Hub manager (had to enter serial number to change password) which I don’t recall having used before, I am then asked for a username / password when I click the Telephones option. I have tried admin / welcome1 as posted earlier on this thread which doesn’t work.
Any clues on my next move ? tia
March 29th, 2008 at 12:33 am
Jonny,
BT BroadbandTalk had been having problems around the time you posted iirc. Most, maybe all?, of the users could not make outgoing calls except to BT quick dial service numbers. This puzzled the hell out of me as I tried top check the service for the first time. Another 2 hours or so lost messing around until I discovered the Status page on the BT web site.
Do you still have a problem?
March 29th, 2008 at 11:23 pm
Sorted now. I found http://www.bt.com/bbt as well as the hub phone password in an email so reset router. Cheers
April 4th, 2008 at 6:53 pm
I’m also having problems with my BT Home Hub. It keeps dropping the connecting and the only way to get connected again is to make a call from my landline to my mobile? Only found this out by accident after waiting 2 hours and re-booting on numerous occasions! Also my Wii cannot connect?
April 8th, 2008 at 8:59 am
Steve sound like you might have a bad line and the phone call is clearing the static. I had been suffering similar problem ever since moving to the Max broadband however just managed to prove to BT that was the case, this was helped graetly using a bit of free software to monitor the router. The BT line engineer swapped my line for a new pair and I’ve not had a drop out since.
Have a look a this website below.
RouterStats -Lite was written using Borland Delphi 7 Enterprise.
It is © copyright 2007 John Owen - http://www.vwlowen.co.uk
best of luck
April 20th, 2008 at 4:42 pm
I set up my bt homehub on my laptop using ethernet, i now use it wirelessly but i have a problem…. I pay my electricity bill by cards, this means as the card runs out my electric goes out, which i then will top up and the electric comes back on, but my laptop then wont connect wirelessly with my hub…. which is annoying as my husbands works straight away =[
I then have to plug my laptop in using the “Ethernet” cable and log on, i usually mess around for a couple of minutes changing stuff and then changing it back, so nothing is really changed, but it seems to do the trick… suddenly I’m back on line…. but how can i avoid all this, as it takes ages, i just want to be online…HELP!
Anyone?
April 27th, 2008 at 8:14 am
For Steve and Joe.
Reading your complaint and solution my hub has been dropping out for the last 12 months but been working through it. Demanded two new hubs and got them, amazing from their brief they try to blame computers of which we have three, can’t all be US.
Everytime I telephone BT INDIA it comes back on and I am now aware that to bring it back online all I have to do is press the green button on my handset, get a dialing tone and I am back on, no need to make a call. Just done it again as I went off line whilst writing this memo.
BT engineer coming AM tomorrow 270408.
Stephen