The BT Smart Hub (formerly BT Home Hub) is a family of

wireless Wireless communication (or just wireless, when the context allows) is the transfer of information between two or more points without the use of an electrical conductor, optical fiber or other continuous guided medium for the transfer. The most ...

modem A modulator-demodulator or modem is a computer hardware device that converts data from a digital format into a format suitable for an analog transmission medium such as telephone or radio. A modem transmits data by Modulation#Digital modulati ...

s distributed by BT for use with their own products and services and those of wholesale resellers (i.e. LLUs) but not with other Internet services. Since v 5 Home/Smart Hubs support the faster

Wi-Fi Wi-Fi () is a family of wireless network protocols, based on the IEEE 802.11 family of standards, which are commonly used for local area networking of devices and Internet access, allowing nearby digital devices to exchange data by radio wave ...

802.11ac standard, in addition to the 802.11b/g/n standards. All models of the Home Hub prior to Home Hub 3 support

VoIP Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), also called IP telephony, is a method and group of technologies for the delivery of voice communications and multimedia sessions over Internet Protocol (IP) networks, such as the Internet. The terms Internet t ...

Internet telephony via BT's Broadband Talk service, and are compatible with

DECT Digital enhanced cordless telecommunications (Digital European cordless telecommunications), usually known by the acronym DECT, is a standard primarily used for creating cordless telephone systems. It originated in Europe, where it is the common ...

telephone handsets. Since the Home Hub 4, all models have been dual band (i.e. both 2.4GHz and 5GHz). The BT Home Hub works with the now defunct

BT Fusion BT Fusion was a telecommunications product available from BT Group in the United Kingdom

service and with the

BT Vision BT TV is a subscription IPTV service offered by BT; a division of United Kingdom telecommunications company BT Group, and was originally launched as BT Vision in December 2006. As of the end of June 2019, BT TV had 1.9 million customers. ...

video on demand Video on demand (VOD) is a media distribution system that allows users to access videos without a traditional video playback device and the constraints of a typical static broadcasting schedule. In the 20th century, broadcasting in the form of o ...

service. The BT Home Hub 1.0, 1.5 and 2.0 devices connect to the Internet using a standard

ADSL Asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL) is a type of digital subscriber line (DSL) technology, a data communications technology that enables faster data transmission over copper telephone lines than a conventional voiceband modem can provide. ...

connection. The BT Home Hub 3 and 4 models support

PPPoA In computer networking, the Point-to-Point Protocol over ATM (PPPoA) is a layer 2 data-link protocol typically used to connect domestic broadband modems to ISPs via phone lines. It is used mainly with DOCSIS and DSL carriers, by encapsulating PP ...

for

and

PPPoE The Point-to-Point Protocol over Ethernet (PPPoE) is a network protocol for encapsulating Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP) frames inside Ethernet frames. It appeared in 1999, in the context of the boom of DSL as the solution for tunneling packet ...

for

VDSL2 Very high-speed digital subscriber line (VDSL) and very high-speed digital subscriber line 2 (VDSL2) are digital subscriber line (DSL) technologies providing data transmission faster than the earlier standards of asymmetric digital subscriber lin ...

, in conjunction with an Openreach-provided VDSL2 modem to support BT's

FTTC Fiber to the ''x'' (FTTX; also spelled "fibre") or fiber in the loop is a generic term for any broadband network architecture using optical fiber to provide all or part of the local loop used for last mile telecommunications. As fiber optic ...

network (

BT Infinity BT Superfast Fibre (formerly BT Infinity) is a broadband service in the United Kingdom provided by BT Consumer, the consumer sales arm of the BT Group. The underlying network is fibre-to-the-cabinet (FTTC), which uses optical fibre for all exce ...

). Version 5 of the Home Hub, released in August 2013, includes a VDSL2 modem for fibre-optic connections. New firmware is pushed out to Home Hubs connected to the Internet automatically by BT. The Home Hub 5 was followed on 20 June 2016 by the Smart Hub, a further development of the Home Hub, internally referred to as "Home Hub 6". It has more WiFi antennas than its predecessor. It supports Wave 2 802.11ac WiFi, found on review to be 50% faster than non-Wave 2. The Smart Hub was subsequently replaced with the Smart Hub 2 (Home Hub 6DX).

History

Prior to release of the Home Hub (2004–2005), BT offered a product based on the 2Wire 1800HG, and manufactured by 2Wire. This was described as the "BT Wireless Hub 1800HG", or in some documentation as the "BT Wireless Home Hub 1800". This provided one USB connection, four ethernet ports and Wi-Fi 802.11b or 802.11g wireless connection. A total of ten devices in any combination of these was supported. The Home Hub 3B was manufactured by

Huawei Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. ( ; ) is a Chinese multinational technology corporation headquartered in Shenzhen, Guangdong, China. It designs, develops, produces and sells telecommunications equipment, consumer electronics and various smar ...

and also supports ADSL2+. The Home Hub 3B is powered by a highly integrated

Broadcom Broadcom Inc. is an American designer, developer, manufacturer and global supplier of a wide range of semiconductor and infrastructure software products. Broadcom's product offerings serve the data center, networking, software, broadband, wirel ...

BCM6361

System-on-a-chip A system on a chip or system-on-chip (SoC ; pl. ''SoCs'' ) is an integrated circuit that integrates most or all components of a computer or other electronic system. These components almost always include a central processing unit (CPU), memory ...

(SoC). The BCM6361 has a 400 MHz dual

MIPS32 MIPS (Microprocessor without Interlocked Pipelined Stages) is a family of reduced instruction set computer (RISC) instruction set architectures (ISA)Price, Charles (September 1995). ''MIPS IV Instruction Set'' (Revision 3.2), MIPS Technologies, ...

core processor as well as an integrated DSL Analog Front End (AFE) and line driver, gigabit Ethernet switch controller and

802.11 IEEE 802.11 is part of the IEEE 802 set of local area network (LAN) technical standards, and specifies the set of media access control (MAC) and physical layer (PHY) protocols for implementing wireless local area network (WLAN) computer com ...

Wi-Fi transceiver.

Features

The BT Home Hub 2.0 was a combined wireless router and phone. It supports the 802.11b/g/n wireless networking standards, and the WEP and

WPA WPA may refer to: Computing *Wi-Fi Protected Access, a wireless encryption standard *Windows Product Activation, in Microsoft software licensing * Wireless Public Alerting (Alert Ready), emergency alerts over LTE in Canada * Windows Performance An ...

security protocols. It supports many of BT's services such as

BT Fusion BT Fusion was a telecommunications product available from BT Group in the United Kingdom

and BT Broadband Anywhere. It can also be used as a

VOIP Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), also called IP telephony, is a method and group of technologies for the delivery of voice communications and multimedia sessions over Internet Protocol (IP) networks, such as the Internet. The terms Internet t ...

phone through BT Broadband Talk. The BT Home Hub 3 incorporated WPS functionality, seen on other routers, which enables the user to connect to their encrypted network by the use of a "one touch" button, and also includes "smart wireless technology", which automatically chooses the wireless channel to give the strongest possible wireless signal. WPS has since been (temporarily) disabled by firmware updates due to security issues with the standard. The BT Home Hub supports port forwarding. The BT Home Hub versions 3, 4 and 5 may be used for access to files stored on an attached USB stick - USB 2.0 is supported. The server by default has the address File://192.168.1.254 and is available to the entire network. The BT Smart Hub (initially branded Home Hub 6) upgraded the wifi provision to Wave 2 of the 802.11ac specification, and increased the number of antennae for improved MIMO. The BT Ultra Smart Hub appeared visually similar to the Smart Hub, but featured a

G.fast G.fast is a digital subscriber line (DSL) protocol standard for local loops shorter than 500 meters, with performance targets between 100 Mbit/s and 1 Gbit/s, depending on loop length. High speeds are only achieved over very short ...

capable modem and included a BS6312 socket which subscribers to BT Digital Voice can use to attach an analogue telephone. Digital Voice launched in January 2020 as the replacement for analogue voice service, which planned to be turned off by 2025. The BT Smart Hub 2 provided the same technical features as the Ultra Smart Hub in a redesigned body, as well as supporting BT's "Complete Wifi" mesh product.

Hub Phone

The BT Hub Phone is an optional

handset A handset is a component of a telephone that a user holds to the ear and mouth to receive audio through the receiver and speak to the remote party using the built-in transmitter. In earlier telephones, the transmitter was mounted directly on ...

that can be bought to work in conjunction with the BT Home Hub 1, 1.5, and 2.0. It calls using the BT Broadband Talk service, and may sit in a

dock A dock (from Dutch language, Dutch ''dok'') is the area of water between or next to one or a group of human-made structures that are involved in the handling of boats or ships (usually on or near a shore) or such structures themselves. The ex ...

in the front of the Home Hub or be used on its own stand. It uses Hi-def sound technology when calls between Hub Phones are made. A DECT telephone may be used instead. With each BT Home Hub released up to 2.0, a new phone model was made to accompany it: * BT Home Hub 1.0: was supplied with the BT Hub Phone 1010 * BT Home Hub 1.5: was supplied with the BT Hub Phone 1020 (The only difference between the 1010 and the 1020 was the lack of the colour screen and supporting features on the 1020.) * BT Home Hub 2.0: was supplied with the BT Hub Phone 2.1 * The BT Home Hub 3 and 4 do not work with the BT Broadband Talk service or DECT telephones. After 29 January 2011, BT Broadband Talk was no longer provided as part of BT's broadband packages. The phones are only partially compatible with newer or older versions of the hub, able to make and receive calls, but with the loss of features including call waiting, call transfer, internal calls, phonebook, call lists and Hi-def sound.

Design

the following versions of the BT Home/Smart Hub had been released: * Version 0.5: grey (no Hub Phone was available, not technically a Home Hub but rather BT Fusion Hub) * Version 1.0: white (matching Hub Phone was available) * Version 1.5: white or black (matching Hub Phone was available) * Version 2.0: black (matching black Hub Phone was available) * Version 3.0: black (Hub Phones and DECT phones are not compatible) released on 29 January 2011. * Version 4.0: black (Hub Phones and DECT phones are not compatible) released on 10 May 2013. * Version 5.0 (HH5A/5B): black, released in mid-October 2013 * Smart Hub (Home Hub 6A /6B), mid-2016 * Smart Hub 2 (Home Hub 6DX), early 2019 There were two different versions of the BT Home Hub 2.0: v2.0A (2.0 Type A), manufactured by Thomson, and v2.0B (2.0 Type B), manufactured by

Gigaset Communications Gigaset AG, formerly known as Siemens Home and Office Communication Devices, is a German multinational corporation based in Bocholt, Germany. The company is most active in the area of communications technology. Gigaset manufactures DECT telep ...

(now Sagem Communications, Sagem having acquired Gigaset's broadband business in July 2009). Whilst the looks and functionality appear to be identical, the Home Hub 2.0A has been plagued with problems relating to poorly tested firmware upgrades which, amongst other problems, cause the Home Hub 2.0A to restart when uploading files using the wireless connection. There are also two versions of the BT Home Hub 3: v3A (by Gigaset, now Sagem) and v3B, (

). The BT Home Hub can only be used with the BT Total Broadband package without modification; the 1.0, 1.5, 2A, 2B and 3A versions can be unlocked. The BT Home Hub configuration software is compatible with both

Macintosh The Mac (known as Macintosh until 1999) is a family of personal computers designed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple Inc. Macs are known for their ease of use and minimalist designs, and are popular among students, creative professionals, and ...

and

Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...

operating systems, although use of this is optional and computers without the BT software will still be able to connect to the Hub and browse the Internet normally. The 4th generation of the BT Home Hub was released on 10 May 2013. It has been built with a smart dual band technology, making it unique amongst other UK-based ISP provided routers. The Home Hub 4 was supplied free of charge to new customers, with a £35 charge to existing customers. It has intelligent power management technology which monitors the hub functions and puts them individually into power-save mode when not in use. There two variants of the Hub 4, Type A and B. The 5th generation Home Hub was released in mid-October 2013 and is an upgrade to the Home Hub 4, with Gigabit Ethernet connections, 802.11ac Wi-Fi (Wave 1) and an integrated VDSL modem. Customers upgrading from ADSL Broadband pay only a delivery charge; existing Broadband customers pay a £45 upgrade charge. There are two variants of the Hub 5, Type A with Lantiq chipset (ECI), and Type B with Broadcom. It is possible to replace the firmware of the Hub 5 Type A (and the identical 'Plusnet Hub One' and 'BT Business Hub 5' Type A) with

OpenWrt OpenWrt (from ''open wireless router'') is an open-source project for embedded operating systems based on Linux, primarily used on embedded devices to route network traffic. The main components are Linux, util-linux, musl, and BusyBox. All com ...

, unlocking it from BT and providing the features of OpenWrt. In April 2018, scripts for modifying the stock

firmware In computing, firmware is a specific class of computer software that provides the low-level control for a device's specific hardware. Firmware, such as the BIOS of a personal computer, may contain basic functions of a device, and may provide h ...

of a BT Hub 5 Type A to enable

SSH The Secure Shell Protocol (SSH) is a cryptographic network protocol for operating network services securely over an unsecured network. Its most notable applications are remote login and command-line execution. SSH applications are based on ...

access, were published on the

GitHub GitHub, Inc. () is an Internet hosting service for software development and version control using Git. It provides the distributed version control of Git plus access control, bug tracking, software feature requests, task management, continuous ...

repository; this enables access to the native OpenRG

command-line interface A command-line interpreter or command-line processor uses a command-line interface (CLI) to receive commands from a user in the form of lines of text. This provides a means of setting parameters for the environment, invoking executables and pro ...

Models and technical specifications

The BT Home Hub package includes: * Broadband cable (

RJ11 A registered jack (RJ) is a standardized telecommunication network interface for connecting voice and data equipment to a service provided by a local exchange carrier or long distance carrier. Registration interfaces were first defined in the ...

to RJ11) *

Ethernet Ethernet () is a family of wired computer networking technologies commonly used in local area networks (LAN), metropolitan area networks (MAN) and wide area networks (WAN). It was commercially introduced in 1980 and first standardized in 198 ...

cable ( RJ45 to RJ45) ( Cat5e) *

Power adapter An AC adapter or AC/DC adapter is a type of external power supply, often enclosed in a case similar to an AC plug. Other common names include wall wart, power brick, wall charger, and power adapter. Adapters for battery-powered equipment may ...

* 2×

microfilters * Phone to RJ11 converter * User guide and CD A USB lead was provided with the Home Hub 1 only.

Reported issues

The security of older BT Home Hub has been questioned In May 2017, it was reported that many BT Smart Hub customers were suffering problems with the router constantly rebooting and being unable to maintain a reliable internet connection. In May 2021, it was reported that the "BT Smart Hub 2 router as'disrupting' home networks

References

External links

Official BT Home Hub Page
{{Linux devices BT Group Linux-based devices Broadband Digital subscriber line Wireless networking hardware Hardware routers