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BT says its Home Hub 3 has 'smart' wireless
SMART WIRELESS is the big thing for British Telecom (BT) in its Home Hub 3 product that is the router for its broadband package deal and BT Vision video on demand service.
Available from 28 February, the smart wireless technology automatically connects to devices using the wireless channel with least interference.
For BT the home is an environment with a myriad RF signals that can undermine data transfer at any moment thanks to the interference. According to the telecoms giant, many household devices can disrupt WiFi signals, but then it only gives two examples, video senders for TVs and wireless cameras. We don't know anyone with either.
But to solve this apparent intractable problem BT's Home Hub will detect the interference and automatically select the "strongest channel to minimise overlap with other WiFi networks and non-WiFi devices". Other WiFi networks could be handy, as most people's neighbours have multiple detectable WiFi networks within range.
The Home Hub 3 uses 802.11n standard wireless technology and operates in the 2.4GHz band with a 144Mbps data rate that can be increased to 300Mbps if the optional 40MHz mode is chosen. It also has WPA 2 protection and its own firewall.
Lastly there is the green sales pitch. BT tells us that its latest Home Hub 3 uses a third less power and 25 per cent less plastic. When there is no activity on the Ethernet and USB ports or WiFi connection it automatically reduces power. The plastic claim is probably true for a simpler reason, namely because the Hub is 25 per cent smaller than its predecessor.
The BT Home Hub 3 Hub is free for all new customers taking BT Total Broadband or BT Infinity either as a standalone product or as part of a bundle. Existing customers can also get the Home Hub 3 without a contract for £46 if they call BT. µ
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Lets hope these ones actually work at all.
I've got a home hub 2 which is already a replacement for the first one I had in November, got this one swapped in January and it won't hold up a wireless connection for more than 20 minutes
I've discounted interference and other hardware related potential problems, they definitely have a bad batch of hardware at BT
I'm amazed that 5GHz isn't being pushed harder. There are 18 of 20MHz wide channels in Europe (unlike 2.4GHz, where there are only 3 non-overlapping 20MHz channels that you can use) and devices are required to be both channel and power agile (they find a free channel and dial down the power when signal strength is high).
Not a great idea. I guess I'll put back the three 6dB antennas on my router to make sure no one else dares to use the channel I'm on for 200yds around.
As for BT, they upgraded my exchange in April. Now enjoying 18.5Mbps all through the day. Pulling down over 2MBps from a good source.
While the clever people at BT are fiddling around with these esoteric (and unnecessary) devices, the UK is steadily sliding down towards the bottom end of the world broadband league. Lots of people - even companies - cannot get even 2 Mbps ADSL. Two years ago I was thrilled to hear that BT was going to "roll out" FTTC in Basingstoke, where I live. One year ago I discovered what this really meant: about a third of Basingstoke got the new faster service, while the majority (including many "not spots" and slow areas) was ignored. "Commercial reasons" apparently, which BT - despite being a national monopoly in sole charge of our telephone system - is allowed to keep secret.
As for wireless routers, many British houses are unsuitable for wireless because their walls are simply too thick. Mains broadband is a far more practical solution.
All of my neighbours seem to have their own wi-fi (although you are supposed not to use a name that identifies yourself and/or your address, I'm not sure why, maybe so robbers can't tell that you've got potentially very valuable computer equipment at home, that is, laptop computers - anyway mine resembles adidas145459) - my point is, I tried to choose a network channel for my own use minimally conflicting with the others according to the diagram at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEEE_802.11 but they kept showing up on different ones. So I assume they're all shifting automatically. My own connection is a Huawei E585 cell network / wi-fi plastic-blob-o'-magic.