BT Home Hub - How To Do Things with your Home Hub

We answer your questions on how to do various tasks on your BT Home Hub.

How to: Check your Home Hub Software Version

This section shows the current version number of BT Home Hub firmware:

Hub version 1.0 and 1.5: Software version: 6.2.6H (rolled out in May 2008).
Hub version 2: 8.1.H.G (May 2009) and 4.7.5.1.83 (May 2009)

The Home Hub's software version number can be found by logging on with a web browser and looking in the bottom left-hand corner of the page used to administer your hub. Software updates are 'pushed' to Home Hubs automatically overnight whilst they're connected to BT's system. It may take up to 2 weeks for you to get a new release. Know of a newer version? Let us know

How to: Set the time on a Home Hub

To set the time and date on the BT Home Hub, do the following:

Log on to the Home Hub via a web browser and go to Advanced.
Go to System > Time
Here, you have two options - automatic time setting (using an Internet-based clock), or a manual option to enter the time and date.

We recommend you go for 'Auto Configuration'. To use this, you need to specify an Internet time server. One that works for us is 'europe.pool.ntp.org'. There's also 'ntp.homehub.btopenworld.com' and 'time.windows.com'

We've heard from a visitor that, after changing the time and date settings on their BT Hub Phone, the time changes itself. We suspect this is because the time on the Home Hub is synchronised between Hub and Handset, and the Hub may not be on the correct time.

How to: Access your Home Hub remotely

We've been asked if the Home Hub supports remote access - so that you can connect to your Hub from outside the network - perhaps from work, over the Internet, maybe to change port forwarding.

You can connect to the Hub remotely - To do this, you'll need to sign up to DynDNS and create an account. On the Home Hub, go to Advanced, then select 'Dynamic DNS' and enter the account details for your DynDNS account. From another PC, you can enter the address provided by DynDNS to connect to the Hub remotely.

Another option is to use the excellent www.gotomypc.com service - this lets you access your home PC from any other PC in the world over the Internet, and therefore access your BT Home Hub from your home PC's browser. Nifty, and there's a free trial.

How to: Use the Home Hub with a PS3

Thanks for Adrian for asking about a Playstation 3 and the BT Home Hub, in Show 13 of our podcast. He wants to know if he can go online with the Ps3 and a Home Hub using an Ethernet cable. The Ps3 has an Ethernet port, and can be plugged into a router such as the BT Home Hub with a standard male-to-make RJ45 Ethernet cable.

The Ps3 also supports wi-fi, so can connect to the Home Hub wirelessly - for help connecting via wi-fi, see our wi-fi connection FAQ.

How to: Set up file sharing:

We've been asked if you can share files between two Windows machines connected using a BT Home Hub within the same house. Yes - it's possible - The trick is to get all of the computers to be in the same IP address range, to make sure the Hub and all PCs use the same subnet address, and to get the PCs to use the router's Gateway IP address. You also need to enable Windows XP file sharing. The Windows XP Networking tool can be very helpful with setting up file sharing and connectivity between machines.

How to: Get a fixed IP address for my Home Hub

For some online services such as games, or for remote access services, you may find that you need to have what's known as a fixed IP address. Each time your Home Hub is powered up, it connects to BT and is given a dynamic IP address, but this address changes each time you reconnect. But what happens if you need a fixed IP address?

The easy way to get a fixed IP address is to sign up to DynDNS and create an account with them. On the Home Hub, go to Advanced, then select 'Dynamic DNS' and enter the account details for your DynDNS account. You can then use the address provided by DynDNS to connect to the Hub remotely.

How to: Add extra Ethernet ports to the Home Hub

The BT Home Hub has two Ethernet ports, to allow wired connection of PCs, printers or equipment such as the BT Vision box.

What happens if you need more Ethernet ports though? Well, you could consider using wireless to connect extra equipment to the Home Hub. Otherwise, what you need is an Ethernet Switch. With an Ethernet Switch, you connect an Ethernet cable from the Home Hub to the input of the Ethernet Switch, and can then use the ports on the Ethernet Switch to connect extra equipment.

You can buy Ethernet Switches (with varying numbers of free ports) from Maplin and Dabs.com

How to: Change the IP address of the Home Hub

Can you change the primary IP address and/or subnet mask of the BT Home Hub? Yes, you can - You have to connect to your Home Hub using Telnet. There's a stack of info on how to do this at LittleHome

Need more Hub help?

We have a number of other pages offering help and advice on the Home Hub:

If you've got any questions we've not covered, or need help and advice, please ask in our Home Hub forum - When posting - please make sure you include details of your computer's operating system (XP, Vista, etc), which Service Packs have been applied, the software version your Hub's running, and how you're connecting (Ethernet, wi-fi or USB)

Go to Home Hub Forum

Other Home Hub resources:

Hub Information: BT Home Hub Basics
Common Questions: Home Hub FAQ , Home Hub Audio Guide
BT Fon Help: BT Fon Information
Internet on the move? Mobile Broadband help
Home Hub Chat: Home Hub Forum
Help with wireless? wi-fi Networking Advice

PODCAST FEATURE: The "Unofficial Guide to the Home Hub" is a free downloadable audio file, helping with many setup and config issues.
Listen to the show online, or download it to your MP3 player.
Listen to Home Hub Guide | What is FrequencyCast? | Add us to iTunes

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