New from BT
 

I suppose if you have a large home and or a small factory they might be worth it...but £300... it`s a lot of cash.

http://www.shop.bt.com/learnmore/bt-...m_content=PK00

Ken.

Lot of money but could be worth it if you have issues.... Or you could get cruise control for your K-series 75 :duh:

But are B.T. saying that the system you bought off them originally is not capable of supplying a good reception to every part of your home. If that is the case they should give me this upgrade free.:D

I don`t think so, what that are saying is if you have to have your signal travel through several walls or floors.
Remember a lot of old buildings have walls several feet thick, I lived in a converted pub at one time and some walls in there were four feet wide.
BT`s current new Hub is excellent by the way.
Ken.

So, you would expect your service provider to compensate you for the shape and size of your house? :D

I have a 1200AC BT Dual Band Wifi Expander which solves all our dead-spots and drop-outs, its dual band 2.4GHz and 5GHz, solves the problem perfectly.

Currys currently have a deal, price was £59.99, now just £29.99 HERE...
Not as good as the new BT AC2500 unit, but its nowhere near the same cost.

These units are great if you want to boost your home network wifi coverage, for when sat in your car on the driveway using your android double din. :D

I live in a 1 bedroom bungalow, i am sitting in front of a brand new lap top and i am still getting problems with Google Chrome freezing and not responding. Had B.T. engineer here last week who could not find any fault with router,that is why i purchased a new Lap Top,surely it can't be the lap top or location as i am about 10ft away from the router.Not a happy Bunney at the moment. Any one with a suggestion of a remedy would be thanked.:mad:

There are so many reasons that a browser can be freezing. It could even be your ani-virus doing a scan.

If you believe it could be the router, then it could equally be the laptop. It's easier to blame the router because the service provider will send out an engineer to diagnose the problem.

This still doen't explain your original comment about expecting the SP to pay for the retail equipment.

Google Chrome is known to freeze, try another browser such as the new Win10 Edge, or use the Opera browser. Does your laptop have an Ethernet port, try connecting the laptop direct to the Router and see if the problem persists.

Have you tried logging into your Router and check all settings? You can manually select the wireless frequency channel, normally from 1 to 11, sometimes upto 14, many are set to use auto. All sorts of home appliances can effect the most common used 2.4GHz band, such as your microwave, even your boiler (but I'm sure your BT engineer would have performed some checks himself).

Your BT engineer would have most probably used a Wifi Analyser, you can download one yourself from the Google Play Store, or the Windows Store and see how your Wifi is performing.

Wifi Analyser Google Play.

Good luck.

Never use consumer grade equipment in an industrial setting... As usual BT manages to charge treble for such equipment by creating an easily understood package for the non-technical.

Isn't that exactly what business is about - recognising opportunity, innovatng and selling in order to recoup the cost of the innovation as well as making a profit?

Who sells the same functonality for £100?

I am aware of two people who have purchsed this kit and they say it has made a huge difference.

I'm no fan boy of BT, but we have fibre broadband here in Lincoln and the Wifi has been brilliant so far.

Must hold my hand up and apologise to B.T. took Dallas advice used win 10 edge,no problem all evening.:}

1 x Broadband Router with WiFi approx £70
2 x Wifi repeaters approx £15 each.

And those are retail prices...

Of course you are quite right: business exists to make money - something BT have just fallen down on Bigtime judging by tonights news

Of course you can actually get the Broadband router with WiFi for free with most contracts only leaving the repeaters to buy: you could even get a couple of reasonable quality ones for £50 each.

Many mid-end consumer/small-business routers cost around £200. There are also routers that cost £300+. I do not believe it is reasonable to compare this product with the cheapest unless it is based on a knowledge of how much it has cost to develop the product.

Totally irrelevant to the subject matter and perhaps highlights someone
with a dislike of BT. Feels a bit like MGR bashing that was so popular at one time. We know how to support our busienesses that provide jobs to tens of thousands! :duh::duh:

Mid-end and smb routers may cost that much - however the standard offering from BT doesn't. I just thought my post might show a cheaper (than the posted BT equipment) method of attaining the same goal.


I quite like BT as a service provider, they supply a valuable communications network within the UK on which many other 'providers' piggyback their services. The news of their current financial problems is topical. Although you are also correct it doesn't have direct bearing on the OP. However it is typical that for equipment to home customers they do tend to charge 2 - 3 times the market price for the level of devices they sell. They aren't bad devices by a long mark: but neither are they (usually) of a value matching the price BT would like to sell them to your for.


P.S never bashed MGR either - only MG when it used to be MG Vs Triumph back in the 70s..... and then it was only friendly rivalry and a laugh (by both sides).

For anyone that is thinking of buying the BT Whole Home WiFi System, you dont have to be a BT customer for it to work on your home network etc. The 3 dish unit is compatible with all home broadband providers, so you can be a TalkTalk, Virgin, EE customer and the system will still work.

If anyone wants to solve any Wifi dead spots in their home or business, it would be sensible to try a Wifi Expander first. These units start from just £15 and will normally solve the problem for many, save you spending £300. :eek:

In my opinion, what you say is actually not the case.

It appears reviewers also do not agree with your point of view - look at the ratings and prices!

http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/test-cent...17-uk-3217482/

http://www.alphr.com/bt/1003795/bt-s...outer-bar-none

http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/review/mo...eview-3643011/

http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/review/wi...outer-3489762/

So BT Home Hubs are good for their price (usually free or subsidised cost): fair enough, they aren't the worst (as I said). Take a look at the full range of comms equipment that BT actually sells (e.g. the aforementioned kit to make the WiFi work across a difficult building) and the consider the £55 - £75 cost for a home hub and then wonder where a figure of £300 comes from for (effectively) a hub and two repeaters.

I currently have PN version the of the Home Hub unit. It's quite basic and has very few useful features beyond the absolute basics, but does perform well enough in what it does do. However if I was spending over £70 on a Broadband router & WiFi I'd expect a lot richer feature set. (I got this one for free from PN) and am considering an upgrade to provide the features I want in a broadband router solution.

So, having stated that BT usually charges 2-3 times what a piece of equipment should cost, you now say that the Home Hub is "good for the price"

Actually, if you read the one of the reviews above, the headline is "BT Smart Hub review: The best ISP-supplied router bar none

"

It is the only router to get 5* out of all the routers costing up to £200.

These ISP routers are designed to provide the features required by 99.9% of the public and the BT one provides excellent performance, build quality etc. as well. It is the performance that is relevant to 99.9% of the consumer market, not complex WAN onfigurations etc.

If you need more features, spend circa £300 and buy yourself a Drayek Vigor or £1k and buy a CISCO.

The fact that you use a BT Hub, despite the above views, says it all really. ;)

Not exactly - I summarised the opinions from the reviews you linked to. Personally I think all this type of hardware has an overly high retail price.


Yes, and that is the opinion of the review not indisputable fact. If you believe that the price has no bearing on that star rating then (I believe that) you are mistaken: especially if that leads you to think that the BT device costing half the price is actually funtionally and perfomancewise better than the more expensive device with half a star less.

As far as "The best ISP-supplied router bar none" I doubt that they tested every ISP supplied router in the UK, Out of the what I saw in the test groups they were fairly limited - I've never had anything more than a basic router supplied by any ISP so being the 'best' doesn't exactly require greatness.
Yes these ISP routers do provide the features required by the majority of end users. And no there's no need to go as far even as £300 for the features I'm looking for. £75-£150 will do it for a home situation.

At the end of the day if you are happy to pay BT for their equipment and it satisfies your requirements then fair enough. If you'd like to get the same or better for less cost and you want something more than a basic Router with WiFi and a few ethernet ports then it can be had for less money than BT would charge. The choice is with the consumer.

The price is only partly determined by the cost of the hardware. The real cost is in the firmware development and the IPR embedded therein, which is measured in 10's of thousands of mandays.

When a router gets 5* for performance and value for money in a review (and many reviews), I think it gives a good indication of the router's performance.

But nothing that performs as well as this router.

My question would be, why knock a product that wins accolades for performance and VFM?

If it doesn't offer a featue that you need, fair enough, but it is an outstanding router for the intended market nevertheless.