After waiting an eternity for the BT Broadband Technical Helpdesk, I though this might be useful.

One of the problems with the BT HomeHub is that the only apparent way to reset back to factory settings is via the browser interface (192.168.1.254) or the HubManager app. Here one logs in via the admin user (password <admin>, no I couldn't find this in the documentation either) and simply uses the soft Factory Reset button. However this dosn't do a proper reset - it seems to leave some tables unchanged. In my case I kept coming against static addressing that I wanted to switch off which were unaffected by a software reset.

The Man From BT advises that a full and proper hardware reset can be done by:

1 Push and hold the Wireless Association button (on the back panel) for 15 seconds
2 Wait until all the flashing stops and switch off (pull the power lead) for a further 15 seconds
3 Plug back in and wait for it to load

There is a downside of this of course in that it looks as though the SSID and the Wireless Key will have to be re-entered via the admin user. These are printed on the back so should not present a problem.

Should stress that I have yet to test all this but the Hub is largely unusable until I do. Will report on sucess if anyone is interested.

Well, an update on the BT Homehub reset:

The reset does put the hub nearer to factory defaults including a new WEP and SSID. It also requires a re-registration of the VoIP phone number and password, no particular problem.

However I was still left with what appears to be corrupt tables relating the static IP adresses of 192.168.1.2 and 4. This meant no joy with accessing the internet for just one laptop. Eventually I managed a work around by defining an extra DHCP pool that covered these static addresses. Another (simple this time) reload and the Home Hub removed the static addresses, allocated new DHCP addresses and internet access was restoreed for the laptop.

The rule here seems to be to avoid static addresses and ensure continuity of addressing by enabling the DHCP server to just keep allocating the same addresses to the same devices (as identified by the MAC number). This is the default so no need to edit.

This may be an unwanted interaction between a legacy managed switch (D-Link with DHCP switched off) and the Home Hub but my suspicion remains with BTs laudable but doomed efforts to make the Home Hub a "one size fits all" device. For the record I am running 6 PCs, 2 music/ video servers, a managed 4 port switch, an unmanaged 8 port switch, a VoIP phone and an extra Wireless hub through the Home Hub and it is mainly coping