BT home hub with a different ISP?

jlp123_2

I would like to go wireless and a friend of mine has given me a brand new bt home hub which they do not want. Can I use this even though I'm not with BT? Or would I be better of buying myself a new modem router? I'm hoping to be able to access the internet with 2 other PCs in the house.

Sorry if this is a stupid question but to be honest I haven't got a clue when it comes to things like this?

flashy

yep you sure can, but i would recommend buying a decent one, the BT Home-hubs are fussy and temperamental.

You need to go into its admin interface and re-configure the username and password for your new ISP.

weegie.geek

I'd phone your ISP and see what they can do. Find out who'll give you a free router for signing up to them, phone your ISP and say you want to go wireless and ask if they'll give you one.

Hint that if they won't, you'll maybe jump ship. Most ISPs these days will give you a wireless router so if yours didn't, I'm guessing you've been with them for a while so you can play the loyal customer card. Can't hurt!

totalsolutions

Home hubs are locked to BT I think. I re flashed one for a friend though.

jlp123_2

Thanks for the advice - I did try to get a freebie out of the ISP (Virgin media) as I have just transfer my calls back to them but they sadi no - £40 plus £20 each for a usb adapter.

I think I'll perhaps just buy a decent one - I don't really want the hassle and I'm not a computer genius!

Thanks Alot

Jlp123

Dan_Thunder

Home Hub are locked to BT. You can hack them to make them work with other ISPs but unless you're technically minded I wouldn't bother even attempting it.

I'd just invest in a decent one that'll work whenever you switch service providers. The Home Hub is just a cheapo repackaged Thomson router.

Lil306

Dan_Thunder wrote: »

Home Hub are locked to BT. You can hack them to make them work with other ISPs but unless you're technically minded I wouldn't bother even attempting it.

I'd just invest in a decent one that'll work whenever you switch service providers. The Home Hub is just a cheapo repackaged Thomson router.

Which one's are looked to BT btw, the new version 3 ones (curved)?

I've got one and to my knowledge it isn't locked down, you just go into advanced settings and under the DSL info you can manually type it in

Dan_Thunder

To the best of my knowledge they all are. I seem to recall mine had space to input the service provider but onlya BTaccount would work.

I guess that's why they're free with BT, they know that you can't just cancel your contract after a year and continue using the hub easily.

We got a BT vision box for free when we were with them but I had to give it away in the end as it needs to use BT Broadband to work!

Mr_Oink

jlp123 wrote: »

Thanks for the advice - I did try to get a freebie out of the ISP (Virgin media)...

So are you going to cable broadband from BT phone line ADSL? In which case the HomeHub (even if unlocked) would be of limited use and probably more hassle than it is worth.

Assuming CABLE broadband from Virgin, I'd look at something from this range (they start at about £18)

http://www.ebuyer.com/search?store=8&cat=39&subcat=1160

Lil306

Dan_Thunder wrote: »

To the best of my knowledge they all are. I seem to recall mine had space to input the service provider but onlya BTaccount would work.

I guess that's why they're free with BT, they know that you can't just cancel your contract after a year and continue using the hub easily.

We got a BT vision box for free when we were with them but I had to give it away in the end as it needs to use BT Broadband to work!

Ewww, mines a version 3 (the small curved ones)
I thought it was open, but it's not

I'm guessing the hack is to do with telnetting into them or flashing the firmware to a writeable one

Mr_Oink

Think you can flash the F/W (overwrite) but there is mixed (i.e. virtually none) success with the hub phone being usable with any other ITSP.