BT Hub woes - really weird - thought I would share.
BT Hub woes - really weird - thought I would share.
(OP)
Broadband access at my Dad's has never been good. He's at the end of nearly 7 miles of copper. However. recently BT supplied him with a Home Hub 3 and brought fibre to within a mile or so. Speed went up initially to around 2Mb and then 3.5 and then suddenly the connection became very unreliable. Rarely lasting more than a day and demanding the hub was off overnight to re-establish a connection.
His network consists of various windows 7 laptops and notebooks connecting using wifi and 1 oldish but still serviceable XP machine that is connected via ethernet cable.
After much pondering, experimenting and BT supplying a replacement Hub I have made the following discoveries.
1. After switching off overnight then a reliable connection will be made providing the old XP machine is OFF the speed will start at 3.5Mb and fall off to 1.8Mb at some point where it remains stable.
2. If you power up the XP machine and hold it at the BIOS screen then there are no additional problems.
3. If you allow the XP machine to boot up then in the next 1 second to 1 hour the BT Hub will freeze and the connection is dropped. The Hub will not reconnect unless powered off for at least an hour, preferably overnight. If you use a different hub then you will get a connection but it will be sub 100Kb
4. The replacement Hub makes a faster and more reliable connection of around 1Mb after the XP machine has messed with it!
5. If you connect one of the Windows 7 laptops to the ethernet cable this DOES NOT cause the BT Hub to hang.
So I have I believe eliminated all but this particular machine as being the problem. I have returned the old hub to BT as the new one seems to be a little better and I have fitted the XP machine with a wifi USB dongle so that it can connect that way. So far without problems.
The XP machine is up to date and all drivers are up to date.
Has anyone experienced anything like this? Does anyone have any ideas as to what might have been going on?
His network consists of various windows 7 laptops and notebooks connecting using wifi and 1 oldish but still serviceable XP machine that is connected via ethernet cable.
After much pondering, experimenting and BT supplying a replacement Hub I have made the following discoveries.
1. After switching off overnight then a reliable connection will be made providing the old XP machine is OFF the speed will start at 3.5Mb and fall off to 1.8Mb at some point where it remains stable.
2. If you power up the XP machine and hold it at the BIOS screen then there are no additional problems.
3. If you allow the XP machine to boot up then in the next 1 second to 1 hour the BT Hub will freeze and the connection is dropped. The Hub will not reconnect unless powered off for at least an hour, preferably overnight. If you use a different hub then you will get a connection but it will be sub 100Kb
4. The replacement Hub makes a faster and more reliable connection of around 1Mb after the XP machine has messed with it!
5. If you connect one of the Windows 7 laptops to the ethernet cable this DOES NOT cause the BT Hub to hang.
So I have I believe eliminated all but this particular machine as being the problem. I have returned the old hub to BT as the new one seems to be a little better and I have fitted the XP machine with a wifi USB dongle so that it can connect that way. So far without problems.
The XP machine is up to date and all drivers are up to date.
Has anyone experienced anything like this? Does anyone have any ideas as to what might have been going on?
RE: BT Hub woes - really weird - thought I would share.
Roger - G0AOZ.
RE: BT Hub woes - really weird - thought I would share.
However - the plot thickens. After working for several hours the Hub hung using only WiFi. Again - only if the XP machine was connected (via WiFi - NOT if WiFi on and NOT connected). My next brainwave is to try it using the OpenZone connection the Hub offers. I'll report back. If that works I really will be flumoxed. Do BT Hubs not work with XP? ROFL - Of course, that way he won't see the shared printer.
RE: BT Hub woes - really weird - thought I would share.
RE: BT Hub woes - really weird - thought I would share.
I am not risking a direct connection as the Hub takes several hours to reconnect after it hangs. Connection via Openzone seems OK - but time will tell.
RE: BT Hub woes - really weird - thought I would share.
Status after BB went down.
So although the Broadband indicator was steady red it 'thought' it was connected so didn't attempt a reconnect. After pressing the restart button the Broadband indicator flashed red for a bit and then went to steady red.
So I powered it off and went to bed. The next morning it powered up normally. The broadband indicator flashing red for a bit before going blue.
I had a thought as I drifted off, why not try a bootable CD such as Ubuntu or OpenSuse and see if the Hub still crashes. (sad person aren't I?). So that is the plan for this evening. Visit here later to see the result! LOL
RE: BT Hub woes - really weird - thought I would share.
So what have I achieved - I've slowed our broadband down from 3.5Mb to 1.2Mb and learnt that this PC is off to the recycle centre.
Current stats
Unless someone has a testable idea.
RE: BT Hub woes - really weird - thought I would share.
Well, you've got some quite variable Noise Margin figures there. It's possible something else is causing this interference, but I'm still erring towards a PSU problem. Virtually all PSUs these days are of the Switching Mode variety. If not properly designed and built with good suppression components, these can be a source of wideband electrical noise (interference). This noise can be directly radiated by the PSU, sent out down the mains power lead, and transmitted along Ethernet cables. etc. So you may not fully isolate the problem even if the XP PC uses a WiFi connection. If you have a spare PSU, it might be worth bunging it into that PC before you chuck it.
It might be worth also checking all your telephone connections and filter(s). Some of the filters and LJU plugs and sockets on the phone extensions are often of poor quality. This can lead to premature oxidisation resulting in poor, electrically noisy, connections. You are not blessed with a very fast Broadband connection, so make the most of what you've got. As a test, if you have the BT NTE5 type Master socket, remove the lower front panel and plug your router directly into the test socket. The test socket is revealed only once you have removed that lower panel, and if wired correctly, will have disconnected any other phones and extensions within the property. Whilst you have the socket open, just check that BT's incoming (2) wires are making a nice tight connection. Now check to see if you have increased the Downstrean Noise Margin figure.
Good luck.
ROGER - G0AOZ.
RE: BT Hub woes - really weird - thought I would share.
The observations that have me puzzled though are.
It does not crash the broadband when connected via ethernet and held at the BIOS screen.
It does not crash the Broadband when booted up but not connected in any way.
It does not crash next doors Home Hub 2 (Dads is a home hub 3) when connected via the openzone facility. But it will crash Dads Home Hub 3 when connected via OpenZone.
All is well when using the Windows 7 laptop - so that is what we will use for now.
If you can make sense of the above I really would appreciate it as may well some other poor soul in the future.
When I find the time I will bring it home and see if it crashes my Netgear router.
RE: BT Hub woes - really weird - thought I would share.
I got a friend to run a scope over the offending PC and it was generating an awful lot of noise - +/- 1v of it on the 12 volt rail. Immediately suspected the PSU so disconnected PSU from PC and tested that just running a "cheat" so it powered up - no excessive noise.
Therefore suspected Mobo - Inspected all capacitors - but all look OK, no bulges, bumps or leaning ones.
Unless anyone has any ideas for a quick fix ( It is not worth replacing the mobo an ASUSTeK Computer INC. M2A-VM 1.XX ) It is for the dump v shortly - unless anyone wants a PC for testing purposes that can cause not only a BT Home Hub but also a Netgear DGN1000 to drop the ADSL connection if on the same mains circuit (No ethernet connection required!) The S.N ratio both in & out drops to zero and connection drops within 5 mins of powering up the PC!!!!
RE: BT Hub woes - really weird - thought I would share.
RE: BT Hub woes - really weird - thought I would share.
ROGER - G0AOZ.