Can't log in to my Home Hub 5!

Undervalued

arciere wrote: »

Ok, in that case what I would do, I would:
a) run an IP scan using the program I mentioned earlier to try and locate the BT Hub;
b) if that fails, change your IP address (your laptop) to something like 192.168.1.99 subnet 255.255.255.0 and see if you can access the Hub from there. Note that you will not be able to see any other device or internet connection

No luck with a) I'm afraid.

I downloaded the program (+ the required Java) but it only sees the exact same list of devices as are listed in the Virgin Router setup page and as are found by Who is on my WiFi etc.

b) I'm afraid I don't fully understand. Is the IP address not assigned by the router? Can you explain exactly how to do this (Windows 7 Pro).

Thanks.

debitcardmayhem

arciere wrote: »

What's a WLAN socket?

Undervalued wrote: »

Yes, they don't have WLAN sockets.

Typo from me sorry, should have said WAN:o

Undervalued

Tarambor wrote: »

For those reading this a much simpler solution is to use powerline ethernet adapters. TPLink do some where the slaves can also be used as wifi hotspots so you plug the master in near the router, run a network cable to the router, plug slaves in various wall sockets around the house as needed and configure their wifi as required and connect to those.

Well maybe but this all works perfectly at a cost of a fiver plus a bit of cable!

The only problem now (two years on) is that I want to get back into the BT HH5 setup in order to enable the USB port in an attempt to use a hard disk on the network.

Nobody so far (and I have asked around a fair bit before posting here) seems to know how or why the address I carefully wrote down won't work and why nothing seems to be able to see the HH5 itself, despite it serving WiFi perfectly!!

Undervalued

debitcardmayhem wrote: »

Typo from me sorry, should have said WAN:o

OK, the Virgin box doesn't have an WAN socket, the HH5 does (coloured red) but I am not using it.

arciere

Undervalued wrote: »

No luck with a) I'm afraid.

I downloaded the program (+ the required Java) but it only sees the exact same list of devices as are listed in the Virgin Router setup page and as are found by Who is on my WiFi etc.

b) I'm afraid I don't fully understand. Is the IP address not assigned by the router? Can you explain exactly how to do this (Windows 7 Pro).

Thanks.

It is, but if you want to check whether the BT Hub is on the 192.168.1.1 address, you need to make your laptop listen to that subnet.
Windows 7:
- click on the Start menu and then Run (or press Win key + R). Type ncpa.cpl
- Right click on the WiFi card (if you are using WiFi), select properties
- Double click on the Internet Protocol IPv4
- Change the IP address from dynamic (obtain automatically) to manual. Assign 192.168.1.99 as IP address, 255.255.255.0 as subnet mask. Remember to do the opposite thing (obtain IP automatically) to be able to use the computer on your home network after testing)
- Gateway can be ignored

Undervalued

arciere wrote: »

It is, but if you want to check whether the BT Hub is on the 192.168.1.1 address, you need to make your laptop listen to that subnet.
Windows 7:
- click on the Start menu and then Run (or press Win key + R). Type ncpa.cpl
- Right click on the WiFi card (if you are using WiFi), select properties
- Double click on the Internet Protocol IPv4
- Change the IP address from dynamic (obtain automatically) to manual. Assign 192.168.1.99 as IP address, 255.255.255.0 as subnet mask. Remember to do the opposite thing (obtain IP automatically) to be able to use the computer on your home network after testing)
- Gateway can be ignored

Thanks again

Will try very shortly and report back!

Undervalued

arciere wrote: »

It is, but if you want to check whether the BT Hub is on the 192.168.1.1 address, you need to make your laptop listen to that subnet.
Windows 7:
- click on the Start menu and then Run (or press Win key + R). Type ncpa.cpl
- Right click on the WiFi card (if you are using WiFi), select properties
- Double click on the Internet Protocol IPv4
- Change the IP address from dynamic (obtain automatically) to manual. Assign 192.168.1.99 as IP address, 255.255.255.0 as subnet mask. Remember to do the opposite thing (obtain IP automatically) to be able to use the computer on your home network after testing)
- Gateway can be ignored

You Sir are a genius!

Once I did that then typed 192.168.1.254 into the web browser it goes straight to the BT HH5 login page and I was able to login using the details I had recorded.

So, where do I go from here?

I am reluctant to mess with a nicely working setup. All I want to do is to plug in a USB hard drive and be able to access that from various computers in the house.

Many thanks once again.

arciere

Well, if you don't need to work on the BT Hub often, I would say that you could safely ignore the fact that it's got a different address. I would personally have it on the same network, even if only for aesthetic reasons
I would still try and edit the address of the BT Hub to something like 192.168.0.254 (or anything outside the main DHCP scope) subnet 255.255.255.0.
What's happening now is that you have two separate networks, all your devices on the 192.168.0.X and the BT Hub on the 192.168.1.X
The WiFi works because all devices have been told that the gateway is the Virgin router and they know nothing about the BT Hub.
If you don't want to be bothered with changing addresses, you can leave it as it is, you now know what its address is and how to access it, should you need to make additional changes.

Also, in regards to the USB drive, you will need to connect it to the Virgin router, not the BT one, otherwise you won't be able to access it.

Undervalued

arciere wrote: »

Well, if you don't need to work on the BT Hub often, I would say that you could safely ignore the fact that it's got a different address. I would personally have it on the same network, even if only for aesthetic reasons
I would still try and edit the address of the BT Hub to something like 192.168.0.254 (or anything outside the main DHCP scope) subnet 255.255.255.0.
What's happening now is that you have two separate networks, all your devices on the 192.168.0.X and the BT Hub on the 192.168.1.X
The WiFi works because all devices have been told that the gateway is the Virgin router and they know nothing about the BT Hub.
If you don't want to be bothered with changing addresses, you can leave it as it is, you now know what its address is and how to access it, should you need to make additional changes.

That is what I thought I had done a couple of years ago when I set it up. Those are exactly the details I dutifully recorded along with the password! So I obviously did something wrong.

Do you know what I have to do in order to plug in a USB drive and access it from my computers? Or is this IP mess up what is causing that not to work easily?

Thanks.

arciere

I'm afraid I won't be able to help much with that, as it depends on the router you are using. Normally, when you connect a drive or a printer to the USB port of a router, you will see that drive as a shared unit in the network discovery in Windows. If you log on to the Virgin router, it will probably give you more details and options (that port could be disabled by default, so you may need to enable it first).

Since the IP address on the BT Hub was still the old one, I would double check that the DHCP is actually disabled. If you have two DHCP providers on the same network, you won't easily notice it because you normally get the IP address from the server that replies first to the device's request.