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[Geekofbroadband]

So after years of waiting we finally got FTTP installed, the installation went pretty smoothly, the engineers were friendly, they pulled the new line across the old line from the house to the telegraph pole, then took the old copper line down so it looks nice a tidy, then attached a grey box to the outside wall before it goes into the corner of the window frame.

Model Name: NOKIA-ONT
Model Number: G-010G-Q
ICS: 02 MRev: 02 Month: 06 Year: 2022




But... THEN! When the engineers finished their job, they plugged the Smart Hub 2 in and noticed it didn't power on at all, the switch was turned on at the back, we tried different power sockets, even tried using the old power adapter and no lights, nothing! So they told us they tried to get in touch with near by vans to see if anyone else had a spare hub, so about half an hour later they told us there's no point them waiting around, which is fair enough, and that they would ring my mobile when they found one. But I had a feeling we wouldn't hear or see from them again (We didn't) so yesterday we called BT to get a replacement sent which they guaranteed would be here by today, it wasn't... So for 2 days we will be without Internet and phone! (Or longer if it doesn't come tomorrow), I'm already experiencing the downside of VOIP, no Internet = no nothing! 😄

Anyway I took this opportunity to dismantle the broken Smart Hub 2 and share some pictures of the board and chips and stuff.

[Iain]

Don't you have another router you could have used in the meantime?

[Geekofbroadband]

Before we joined BT we were with Plusnet for a while and used the Smart Hub 1 with them, surprisingly is was reliable and worked quite well, but I'm unable to use that with FTTP as it has no WAN port and we would still have the issue of having no telephone port on the back of the router for the phone to work... its annoying for people who want to use their own router, wonder why they didn't decide to keep it on the ONT side 

[bogof]

Before we joined BT we were with Plusnet for a while and used the Smart Hub 1 with them, surprisingly is was reliable and worked quite well, but I'm unable to use that with FTTP as it has no WAN port and we would still have the issue of having no telephone port on the back of the router for the phone to work... its annoying for people who want to use their own router, wonder why they didn't decide to keep it on the ONT side 

Are you sure?  I've got a Hub 1 in th attic and it has a red WAN RJ45 port on it.  Unless it's been disabled and/ or depopulated for cost saving.

[Geekofbroadband]

There are multiple revisions of that hub, the FTTP specific version and the Business versions have the wan port, the default DSL version does not.

[tubaman]

Are you sure?  I've got a Hub 1 in th attic and it has a red WAN RJ45 port on it.  Unless it's been disabled and/ or depopulated for cost saving.

If the Plusnet Smarthub 1 is the same as the BT one, which I think it is bar being in a white case, then the DSL version doesn't have a WAN port unfortunately.

[Alex Atkin UK]

So after years of waiting we finally got FTTP installed, the installation went pretty smoothly, the engineers were friendly, they pulled the new line across the old line from the house to the telegraph pole, then took the old copper line down so it looks nice a tidy, then attached a grey box to the outside wall before it goes into the corner of the window frame.

I wouldn't call that smoothly personally.

1) I'm fairly sure you shouldn't be drilling through that window frame. (though if the old line came in like that I guess its too late to worry about)
2) You absolutely DO NOT put electronics in direct sunlight, that ONT is going to cook.

Why on earth didn't they bring it through the wall out of the way of sunlight and potential condensation on the window?  At least put the ONT further around the corner out of the way.

[licquorice]

I can't believe you are happy for the cable to go through the window frame!!!

[Geekofbroadband]

I can't believe you are happy for the cable to go through the window frame!!!

Yeah the old cable went through the other side of the window frame, it originally came through in a really awkward place from the outside wall on the stairs way, where there was no power and we had to have wires going across the hallway, but I personally moved the master socket and line to the room and we just drilled through the window.

As to why Openreach didn't drill through the wall I'm guessing because the wall is quite thick and on the otherside to the left of the ONT there are water pipes, and under the window is a long radiator so we would have had to put it in another place? 

[j0hn]

Are you sure?  I've got a Hub 1 in th attic and it has a red WAN RJ45 port on it.  Unless it's been disabled and/ or depopulated for cost saving.

From reading again Geekofbroadband actually said he was using a Smarthub 1 on Plusnet and presumably not the Plusnet Hub 1.
Plusnet never referred to it as a "Smart" Hub.
It's based on the BT HH5A

The BT SmartHub 1 does indeed have a few revisions, some without a WAN port. Planet don't have a version of any of them.

The Plusnet Hub 1 definitely has a WAN port.

Edit: multiple edits

[Alex Atkin UK]

Yeah the old cable went through the other side of the window frame, it originally came through in a really awkward place from the outside wall on the stairs way, where there was no power and we had to have wires going across the hallway, but I personally moved the master socket and line to the room and we just drilled through the window.

As to why Openreach didn't drill through the wall I'm guessing because the wall is quite thick and on the otherside to the left of the ONT there are water pipes, and under the window is a long radiator so we would have had to put it in another place? 

Mine used to come through the wooden window frame, when the council "upgraded" to double glazing they just wedged the cable around the outside of the frame, very shoddy.

When I had FTTP done the engineer was happy to drill through the cavity wall.

[meritez]

So why are there no lights on the Nokia ONT?

[Geekofbroadband]

I think it's just the sunlight so the lights are hard to see in that image, they are on though and the blinds are down 

The replacement Smart Hub 2 arrived about 2 hours ago, everything is working now, the firmware updated twice in a row it's now on (v0.37.00.07084-BT) which I believe is the latest, it took about an hour for the upload speed to increase from 50Mbs to 70Mbs on the 500Mbs package, apparently this is a known issue with the ONT or Smart Hubs, it takes a little while for the speed to reach maximum.

[Alex Atkin UK]

I feel much better seeing that blind down.   Although I still think they should have ran the fibre behind the pipes and put the ONT on the wall in the corner so its more protected from sunlight. 

Ultimately its their problem if it fails though.

[Geekofbroadband]

I feel much better seeing that blind down.   Although I still think they should have ran the fibre behind the pipes and put the ONT on the wall in the corner so its more protected from sunlight. 

Ultimately its their problem if it fails though.

When we next get the window frame replaced and we need the cable moving, I'll be sure the make Openreach drill a hole next to the pipes just for you 
Though I'm pretty sure it'll be fine, I used to have the OR VDSL modem in that very spot for a while.

I hope BT don't take too long to release the new Smart Hub 3, I heard some rumours from ISPreview they are going to start trialing the new hub in Feb/March. Because we have VOIP we don't have much choice of router to use and this Smart Hub 2 isn't that great. I have also noticed that even though ping times on speed test websites have decreased, they have increased on my VPN service PIA, it used to be around 14ms with the Smart Hub 1 to UK servers, now it seems to be around 28ms