BT Business Broadband Router

Just upgraded to the BT Hub 6, with wild and extravagant claims on the BT website. Its just the same old piece of junk as any other provider and same as 5 years ago.

Claims vary from 500m range to 350m, to 300m to 80m depending on who you speak to at BT. Truth is the engineer thinks its going to struggle with 40m and I know for a fact that it will not even reach 30m and that is through one wall and down the driveway!

Don't be taken in by their wi-fi guarantee, its nonsense and the staff just tell you that wi-fi can never be guaranteed so don't be taken in by them.

Trouble is that any alternative in our area is via EE, PlusNet, John Lewis, Now all of which are either owned by or operated by BT!

Bring on 5g mobile, at least we can then forget fixed line broadband!

This is the hub, made by 2Wire, that BT issued with their business broadband service until about 2012. It has since been replaved by the Business Hub 3, but there are lots of BT2700's available for under a tenner (even unused) on ebay. Seems that many businesses already had satisfactory equipment so they sold the issued BT2700.

It is good in that it combines the wireless/router/hub functions in one device, so minimising the rats nest of cables and only needs one mains socket. Only criticism here is that it has a separate power supply (a wall brick) rather than being in the unit. It has four ethernet sockets (I'd prefer more), one USB, and of course the phone line socket.

The range is better than most "home" kit, but the power is only 25mW (later models had 75mW). It is quite reliable except for that wall brick - seems they only last about 2 years but you can get generic replacements from electronics shops.

It is set up for BT Business Broadband, but I have not tried that. But importantly you can hack it for other BT phoneline based ISP's (as I did) at least for ones that are not so dumbed down that they refuse to give you their technical details. My "Ease of set-up" rating below is for hacking it. It has a web interface reached by 192.168.1.254 (if that fazes you, best not try). Google for detailed instructions.