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This page was originally part of the Jarviser Home Hubs Files. They are now housed here at FileSaveAs to help users of the BT Home Hub. |
Summary of versions of BT Hubs and Firmware
Last Update September 2009.
BT Home Hub versions.
Three hub shapes from the past few years up to 2010.
Version 1.x
Most V1's (pictured left) were white, some V1.5 (Centre) were black, but they were the same inside! DECT "hub-phones" were interchangeable between V1 and V1.5, though 1010 phones came out with the V1 and 1020 phones came out with the V1.5. These hubs are all designed by Thomson and made for BT in China, the V1 and V1.5 being based on the Thomson Speedtouch. They all had "wireless-g" wi-fi 54Mbps capability with one external and one internal antenna. Both V1.x hubs came with one USB port to connect PCs and two ethernet ports. Eth2 port differs from Eth1 in that Eth2 has a power save function. That feature is re-awoken only by a PC but more passive network devices may continue to sleep, including BT Vision boxes or network drives. Use ETH2 for a PC and run everything else off an ethernet switch plugged into ETH1.
Version 2.0
The Type A Version 2.0 homehubcame out in mid 2008 and was fitted
with 4 ethernet ports, no USB PC connection,and a "draft-n" wi-fi with two
MIMO internal antennae giving 130Mbps network speed. The v2.1 hub phones
will work at basic level with the V1.x hubs, and vice-versa, but advanced
features such as Hi-dS sound and the shared notebook in the V2.0 will not
work.
see also BT Infinity Hub later.
Hubs V1.x and V2 all come with another USB-A port for "future use" of which nothing has been made, except you can just about attach a FAT32 formatted drive. It should have been utilised for attaching mobile broadband dongle to make it a, ADSL/3G hub, but that is most unlikely to happen even on V2. Too clever for the current development team I expect.
The Type B version 2.0 hub which has only featured in the forums since
mid 2009 is mechanically different from the Type A, with a different
chipset and even using a different power supply voltage. Some claim that
only hubphones of type B or with type B firmware are compatible with Type B
hubs whilst others claim that Type A phones do work happily
with Type B hubs!.
Type B hubs do not click on boot-up. This suggests no
electromechanical relays are used. Further confirmed by reports that you
still have to dial "5" to get PSTN landline calls even if BBTalk is
disabled. There are firmware differences around the Telephony disable
function.
Oct 2009 I received an email from "MooJuice" which confirms this with
more detail
"The 'Type B' hub seems a fair bit 'friendlier' and faster (in terms of
accessing its management screens) than the Type A. The WiFi signal is
identified by inSSIDer as beingGigaset rather than a Thomson Speedtouch;
the firmware also uses Jungo for remote management.... It does have one
obvious bug though, allocating one of the pre-defined applications to a
device or IP address works, but un-assigning them doesn't; the firmware
will report that the NAT rule has been removed, but when you try to
re-allocate it tells you that the rule has already been applied to another
device and that you should allocate to the same device again (even though
that's what you already tried to do). Resetting to factory defaults does
clear the problem (rebooting doesn't), and the workaround I've found to
work is to create a custom rule-set that clones the pre-defined one."
According to BT..."BT has two suppliers for the Home Hub 2.0. The
Type A is supplied by Thomson and the Type B by
Sagem Communications(Sagem acquired the Gigaset broadband business
in July 09).
Both versions were built to the same specifications and although some
internal differences can be observed the Hubs are functionally the same.
The Hub Phones 2.1 are completely interoperable with both Hubs."
BT INFINITY HUB(Extract from BT web pages 2010) "The BT Infinity Hub
has been designed specially for use with the fibre network, and is the only
router that you can use. It connects your online equipment, such as
computers and games consoles, to the Openreach modem, either by wires or
Wi-Fi. You'll get your BT Infinity Hub in the post a few days before we
install BT Infinity at your home.
It's similar to the (popular?) BT Home Hub 2.0, which is used for BT
Total Broadband, and has the same functionality. There are a few minor
differences:
1. One of the Ethernet ports on the back of the BT Infinity Hub
(labelled 'Ethernet WAN') is designed exclusively to connect to the
Openreach modem.
2. This means that the BT Infinity Hub only has three Ethernet ports
available for connecting other devices.
3. The way you need to set up the BT Infinity Hub to make phone calls
is slightly different. You'll need to connect the landline phone cable from
the back of the Hub to a nearby phone extension socket (the broadband cable
can double as the landline phone cable for BT Total Broadband customers). "
Here's an image of the back of the BT Infinity Hub (courtesy BT):
There was also an earlier hub (pic left), grey in colour, labelled as "Inventel DV4212-BT" and with "BT Hub" on the front but I have no useful information about that hub, except that it was introduced to service the Fusion phones. It was designed by Thomson and made by Inventel until Thomson took them over.
The other "hub" (pic right) is the Speedtouch 7g, which is the
biological mother of the Home Hub V1. They took a modified logic board from
the 7g to make the V1 hub. That means the firmware for the 7g can be
flashed into the V1 hub, but not V1.5.
Summary of firmwares over the last couple of years
Version 1 and 1.5 hubs:6.1.1.M - V1 hubs only, some 0800 numbers
don't work, not IE7 compatible.
6.1.1.R - V1 hubs only, IE7 compatible but supports one hub phone
only.
6.2.2.6 - V1 hubs only - the last version to allow telnet access. Can
be hacked easily. Supports BT Vision and Fusion.
It is also possible to
Lock into 6.2.2.6and prevent any further
upgrades.
6.2.6.B - V1 or V1.5 hubs and needed for FON to work. First
commercial version on V1.5 hubs. Rather buggy. Auto time set but timezone
problem. "Basic config" section added. Extra uPnP and games support.
6.2.6.C - V1 or V1.5 debugged B version
6.2.6.E - V1 or V1.5 More debugging but wi-fi was inherently
unstable. FON and Broadband Anywhere. Timezone problem persists. default
admin password changed to serial number but enforced password change
introduced.
6.2.6.H - V1 or V1.5 - Most of the E bugs removed, and can be
scheduled to load in
BT's new
Upgrade ManagerIt will auto upgrade to this version if you have FON
enabled, otherwise manual request as above.
Wi-fi seems to be much better on 6.2.6.H i.e. it allows all laptops
to connect without having to fiddle with wifi channels. Timezone problem
fixed.
Version 2.0 Hub :
8.1.A.D (Type A) - V2 only - First commercial firmware on V2 July 08.
8.1.A.E/8.1.F.4 (Type A) - V2 only- First revision two minor
corrections Aug 08. (The two firmwares are identical despite different
numbers).
May thru June 2009
New firmware via automatic download only:
8.1.H.G (Type A)
4.7.5.1.83 (Type B)
November 28th 2009
Software version 8.1.H.J (Type A)
No change to Type B
This version introduces the following improvements:
Changes to automatic wireless channel selection.
Correction to a problem with Power Save activation.
Correction to problems uploading large files by wifi.
Counters fixed
Users report most bugs seem to be fixed, and also the DynDNS problem
seems to have gone away too.
Product Recall
Potentially dangerous problem with Power Plug on all Home Hub V2.0 produced before October 2008. These older units can possibly come apart when pulled from the socket, or if hit by a vacuum cleaner etc. People who bought from BT should automatically be sent a replacement, which has a Green safety sticker. If yours was an Ebayer, call BT for a replacement. See http://www.bt.com/hub2
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