Wireless Thing

BT Home Hub Wireless ADSL Router

The BTHomeHub is largely pre-configured by BT to work for the mass market and the web interface is not as open with the settings, etc that most ADSL routers are.

However with a bit of digging around it turns out to relatively OK.

Firstly the Advanced Configuration Help page gives a fairly comprehensive picture of all the details/settings.

Secondly when the Backup option is used a user.ini file can be saved to the hard disk. This contains all the configuration of the router and can of course be restored.

What this means is that it is possible to determine more detail of how the router is set up and (with great care) of course the user.ini can be modified then restored.

In general the hub as supplied has WEP security but only 64 bit and other settings such as SSID broadcast and open access for MAC addresses are a bit loose for good security.

When trying to tighten up some of the settings I got mixed results some of which I will try to explain as I find them.

On the whole however the router appears to be quite good (it apparently is based on a Thomson SpeedTouch unit) and so far all my clients work with it. One thing I am not entirely comfortable with is the fact that the firmware is automatically updated by BT with no option to accept or be able to go back. If this happens it can take up to 10 minutes and the five lights on the hub will be flashing so power must remain on during the process - it can happen at any time so I hope it doesn't occur while I am doing online banking or a convoluted tax form. My hub arrived with 6.1.1.M installed and about 2 days later it went to 6.1.1.R  so the moral is always backup a copy of the current configuration in case BT surprises you.

Issues

Problem: The mac access control using the web doesn't work correctly. (applies to 6.1.1.R firmware)

Answer: Basically some parts of the config file (user.ini) are not written correctly by the web interface so using the registration or not allowed options will result in the access control not working.

Within user.ini file -
[ wireless.ini ]

Standard setup access control applied (Allow new stations set to not allowed via web)
macacl config control=lock
macacl add hwaddr=00:0e:35:bd:43:bf permission=allow name=Unknown-00-0e-35-bd-

note: above line was the only data output in the user.ini and it happens that the line is 80 chrs (the magic number!). What seems to occur is the web interface truncates the first entry in the access list (as shown in the above line) and although the other wireless devices are set for allow they are not written into the config file.
It is worth noting that with the above example because the first device mac was known by the hub already access was allowed however after a modified user.ini was restored any lines longer than 80 chrs were truncated and not accepted.

Sample of failed restore of user.ini (modified)
Lines restored -
macacl config control=lock
macacl add hwaddr=00:0e:35:bd:43:bf permission=allow name=Unknown-00-0e-35-bd-
macacl add hwaddr=00:0d:93:94:6b:8b permission=allow name=g4-00-0d-93-94-6b-8b
macacl add hwaddr=00:0c:41:72:f4:80 permission=allow name=p3-00-0c-41-72-f4-80
When the hub reset the first device was not allowed access but the next 2 were OK because the name data was intact.

The following lines were written in the config when backed up.
Lines backed up -
macacl config control=lock
macacl add hwaddr=00:0d:93:94:6b:8b permission=allow name=g4-00-0d-93-94-6b-8b
macacl add hwaddr=00:0c:41:72:f4:80 permission=allow name=p3-00-0c-41-72-f4-80


Modified setup

As it happens the user.ini config file can be edited and then restored to allow the full access list however the length of each add line must not exceed 80 chrs.
I set my hub up with the modified user.ini file (this will reset the time up stats, etc) however if the name for the device had been altered via the web to give a result no longer than 80 chrs in the config file then it should work OK using the web (this would leave the stats intact also).

macacl config control=lock
macacl add hwaddr=00:0e:35:bd:43:bf permission=allow name=tp-00-0e-35-bd-43-bf
macacl add hwaddr=00:0d:93:94:6b:8b permission=allow name=g4-00-0d-93-94-6b-8b
macacl add hwaddr=00:0c:41:72:f4:80 permission=allow name=p3-00-0c-41-72-f4-80

Note: As of firmware version 6.2.2.6 saving/restoring of the config is no longer possible - let's hope the web interface works better!

So far the BTHH has been good but a shame that some of the functionality is being screwed down in later versions. I was hoping to try a USB memory stick in the USB port as a poorman's version of a NAS server. It would also be nice if the web server code inside could accommodate WebDav features as it would be good to have a network available calendar since the hub is always on - could be a challenge for security though!

:::::::::::::::::::  Update   :::::::::::::::::

With a view to using the HomeHub as a poorman's version of NAS I tried an old 64Mb flash drive in the USB A port and it worked just fine without the hub even needing a reset.
It appears that the hub acts as a Samba server and the drive is mounted as a Samba share.
Details:
Workgroup - BT
Machine/Device - Thomson
SMB/CIFS Shared Volume - BT_7G


From OSX client: Share was visible straight away (OSX likes Samba)

From XP client PC: Initially not seeing the share in Network Neighbourhood. Fix: Wireless NIC required NetBIOS over TCPIP enabled. Showed as BT_7G on Samba Server (Thomson).

Method for accessing configuration (on 6.2.2.6):

Log in to advanced options and select Remote Assistance under System. On this page you can enable the Remote Access for 20mins.

Next you use a browser to go to the URL given (eg: https://82.139.53.76:51003 ) and click through all the certificates. The User is always tech but the password will change. Once through the login add /cgi/b/bandr/ to the URL and this will be the old save/restore page.


:::::::::::::::::::  Update   :::::::::::::::::

As of 6.2.6C the Remote Assistance has been disabled on the BT HomeHub.

As is the way with the Big Man in control the update was less than flawless.
Basically the Thinkpad would no longer connect with WPA2 and for that matter it wouldn't even connect with no security.
After the big call to a BT 0845 number (customer is charged) there was no conclusion other than to factory reset the hub. This was done and all the devices could again connect to the hub.
Until the 6.2.6C update reliability of the hub had been excellent - just a shame the user can't backup and restore the config and also that I can't charge BT for the inconvenience caused.

Interesting that during the talk with BT they suggested that the BTHH was a consumer service (not business) and why did I not have DHCP enabled and was using static IP's.

Just as a matter of record the BTHH works fine for me with -

Channel 4 specified (apparently CH 1 is preferred if problems occur)
DHCP disabled (static IP's used)
SSID Broadcast disabled (I know for a true hacker this is pointless)
WPA2-PSK used (encryption type is AES-CCMP inherently from the HH)
MAC blocking not used since moving to WPA2
USB Flash Drive
PC XP clients OK on WPA2
OSX clients OK on WPA2 (require full 64bit hex key to connect)

Again the only problems seem to occur when BT do an upgrade in which I would say it's worth just doing a factory reset if there is an issue and save a phone bill!

Just a shame there isn't a configuration dump/print feature to make things a bit quicker.

:::::::::::::::::::  Update   :::::::::::::::::

Well, spent a bit of time with the HH using 6.2.6E firmware which generally ran OK but the Thinkpad again wouldn't connect to the hub. When on 6.2.6C the Thinkpad also broke and I needed to Factory Reset the HH and then get the Thinkpad to connect however when updated to 6.2.6E it broke again and I couldn't be bothered doing the big Kahuna again. Recently the 6.2.6H load of firmware has been installed which amazingly has fixed the Thinkpad connection problem. Initially using the Intel Troubleshooting tools which allow a directed test of all the steps in connecting I was getting an Authentication failure (formerly the tests would fail on the previous Association step) and the utility said the security key appeared incorrect. Sure enough when the correct key was inserted it worked fine.
The 6.2.6H release was mainly to fix FON issues (which is why non-FON subscribers are slow getting the update) but also upon reading the release notes on the BT site there were also fixes for issues concerning Intel Wireless/Pro 2200BG adapters which is exactly the type the Thinkpad uses. Going by the Intel troubleshooter there must have been an issue affecting the Association process even though the Authentication key was always correct.
The 2200BG driver used in my Thinkpad R51 is version 9.0.4.36 I noticed a few days before the firmware change that the hub Connection time was actually counting down for some reason - I put this down to the fact that the broadband always seems to have periods when 'soft' resets seem to occur and these randomly affect the IP or Volume stats. I suspect that if a customer has a problem then the DSLAM's no doubt get a bump as part of the troubleshooting and this will probably affect other HH's that are accommodated on the unit.
:::::::::::::::::::  Update   :::::::::::::::::

Firmware version 6.2.6H did indeed solve the Thinkpad issue with the 2200BG fixes. Usefully a track of usage volumes and other stats can be done using a widget (YWE in my case).
Latterly the hub has been replaced with an 802.11N model 2.0 and it appears to work fine. Backup/Restore of the configuration is possible (uses encrypted .bin files) but no WDS is possible. The web management layout is different but seems to have most stuff and I had no problems connecting up the mixed network of clients (so far - sound of wood being hammered in the background!). The only real hassle I have had is that I can't get my statistics widget to grab the data since the required login is a bit more intensive ( it does MD5 summing of the inputs and uses cookies).
Firmware version of the version 2.0 hub is 8.1.F.4

Belkin G+ MIMO Wireless ADSL Router

The Netgear DG834G seemingly went flakey so another router was the quick fix.

The depressing thing with wireless networks is that components don't die in the conventional sense in that a plume of black smoke indicates a terminal expiry or all the appropriate lights fail to shine. In the absence of such wonderful visual indicators of a problem software is the next step and sadly there is very little on the market that truly indicates the source of problems with the wireless connections. Most give cute little generic pictures of components and say there is a problem - wow as if I didn't know. Strange how it is possible to detect as many as 8 networks and not be able to connect to the local AP. The maximum range of operation is c. 10 to 20 metres.

Until the Netgear failed the network consisted of 2 PC's (XP SP1 & 2), 1 ThinkPad (XP SP2) & 1 Powerbook (OSX 10.4) using WEP 128 bit TCP/IP.

Using the Belkin G+ MIMO with WEP 128 bit -

The ThinkPad worked OK (Intel Pro/Wireless 2200BG)
The P3 PC worked OK (Linksys WMP54G)
The P4 PC failed (Belkin F5D7000)
The Powerbook failed (Airport Express)

The F5D7000 card failure was difficult to troubleshoot since when the new WEP settings were applied the PC just froze requiring a reboot. I put this down to the fact that even though it was a Belkin card working with a Belkin router the card was sourced in NZ so maybe a regional difference in software had an effect (notably - other cards from Intel and Linksys were fine).
The card in the P4 PC was replaced with an F5D9050 USB MIMO wireless card and worked well out of the box.

So only the Powerbook remained.
If the WEP was disabled and the network left open the Powerbook could connect OK but not with WEP.

The solution was to try WPA-PSK using TKIP on all machines and initially they all worked fine.

As outlined further up the page it became apparent that the G4 Powerbook would not connect via wireless until the Thinkpad was connected. This appeared to be yet another problem with "wireless" and unfortunately no firmware updates have been issued for the G+ MIMO router.

As above the USB G+ MIMO unit in the P4 whilst connecting OK was very marginal in performance so in went the 100% reliable copper.

Netgear DG834G Wireless ADSL/Router/Gateway

F/W 2.10.22

 Required standard UK setting of -

RFC2364 PPPoA, VPI=0, VCI=38 & VC multiplexing for the DSL interface.

Typical uptime figures for DG834G -
WAN PPPoA 464:01:52
LAN 100M 464:03:28
WLAN 54M 464:03:19
 

WAN PPPoA 67:04:23    note: ISP had an outage on the ADSL connection
LAN 100M 625:07:56
WLAN 54M 625:07:47

WAN PPPoA 313:58:40   
LAN 100M 872:02:13
WLAN 54M 872:02:04

WAN PPPoA 615:10:17   
LAN 100M 1173:13:50
WLAN 54M 1173:13:41

WAN PPPoA 349:11:47   note: ISP had an outage on the ADSL connection
LAN 100M 2047:57:34
WLAN 54M 2047:57:25

 

It seems that many routers do not appear to be stable on the wireless LAN side.

My experience of the WAG54G confirmed this - I kept getting unavailability on the wireless connection intermittently. The DG834G appears to fairly stable in this regard bearing in mind that it has the latest firmware available. The earlier loads of firmware did not appear so stable on the wireless LAN. The WAG54G has also been upgraded with the latest firmware load but I'm not sure that the wireless problem is fixed.

Interestingly Linksys do have some higher strength aerials available but I couldn't try these since the WAG doesn't have a replaceable aerial but they do apparently fit on the Netgear !!!!!

My experience so far of wireless - it is great for mobility but if I could be bothered I would have the desktop hardwired via 100Base-T ethernet and get full speed. The wireless side of the routers is very variable depending on the type of unit, software, etc.
 

Configuration can be done via web interface (default http:// is 192.168.1.2).

Using iBook - Firefox for Mac OK

Using PC both IE & Mozilla/Firefox are fine (see below: use IE for firmware upgrading)

Troubleshooting the wireless network can be a bit of a hassle but a couple of tools that help are -

Air Snare: Detects MAC addresses on the network

NetStumbler: Detects signal strength /details of wireless nodes in range

The following captures from NetStumbler (using Intel PRO/Wireless 2200BG) give an indication of the quality of signal from various routers -

Linksys WAG54G (ch 6)

Netgear DG834G (ch 3)

Belkin (ch 11)

BT Voyager (Askey Computer MAC code) (ch 11)

The results using NetStumbler so far indicate -

• DG834G Good, reasonably solid signal with a bit of fuzz
• WAG54G Average, signal very spikey a lots of dropouts

The last two devices happen to be in the house next door which accounts for the lower signal level.

• Belkin OK, reasonably solid signal and not too spikey
• BT Voyager Excellent, solid signal with no spiking at all

Clients

XP client using Belkin F5D7000:

Had problems with wireless link dropping out. Got to a stage that the wireless link would not connect at all and it was the same with two different hard disks running XP SP1 in the same P4.

Resolution: Quite a bit of horsing about on this which is par for the course with CrapOS, etc but relocated the WAG54G to a position c. 8cm from the client aerial and still no connection (I had doubts about the integrity of the Linksys signal). I think the problem stems back to the fact that the Belkin F5D7000 card was sourced in NZ (designated F5D7000au) and the original setup CD is an Oz/NZ distro. I had applied later UK upgrade updates on top of this driver since the UK driver updates require the base CD to be installed whereas the updates for Aus/NZ are standalone and don't necessarily require the original CD. So lesson learn't that I will continue using the Oz/NZ driver updates for my card and all seems solid enough at the moment. I managed to install the driver without the full wireless monitor utility which may also make a difference as the utilities appear to affect the card operations very intermittently ( this may however only be the case when the drivers are horribly mixed as they were before re-installation correctly).

During all the hassle of course I found that there are updates to XP for wireless -

KB815485 - Overview of the WPA Wireless Security Update in Windows XP

WindowsXP-KB826942-x86-ENU.exe

Linksys WGA54G-UK

Setup:

Use PC connected via ethernet & run Setup CD

Select "Connect to Internet" (Infrastructure) Note: Head to Head is Adhoc setting

Set gateway to 192.168.1.1 (WAG54G router G/W)

Initially the Xbox needs the dashboard to be updated by running the Xbox Live CD.

Re-power the Xbox without the CD and Dashboard should give the Xbox Live option.

If DHCP is used on the G/W router then the Xbox will find the Xbox Live server and download the updates.

If DHCP is not used then the IP address,mask,G/W, DNS details will have to be specified in the Xbox.

Using DHCP Rainbow Six(3) loses connection.

When Xbox started after WGA54 was on got "No Connection".

Needed to go to Dashboard, select Settings & Troubleshooting. The Xbox then did scan and picked up the IP, DNS etc.

Preferable to run Xbox on static settings?

Port Fwding recommendations

      88 UDP

      3074 UDP

      3074 TCP

Linksys WAG54G Wireless ADSL/Router/Gateway

F/W 1.01.7

 Required standard UK setting of -

RFC2364 PPPoA, VPI=0, VCI=38 & VC multiplexing for the DSL interface.

Configuration can be done via web interface (default http:// is 192.168.1.1).

Using iBook - MS Explorer 5.1 for Mac NBG (No Bloody Good)
                 - Netscape 7 for Mac OK

Using PC both IE & Mozilla are fine (see below: use IE for firmware upgrading)

Issue: "wireless clients connected" button in STATUS>WIRELESS screen fails to show the networked clients unless they are using DHCP addresses. Using the Refresh button is NBG. It only appears to work if clients are DHCP.

 Issue: ADSL link appears to go west occasionally but status indicates that DSL is OK.  I found that unchecking the "Connect on Demand" and checking the "Keep Alive: Redial Period = 30 sec" seemed to do the trick.

Issue: Upgrading the firmware from 1.00.7 to 1.01.7 using Mozilla Firefox failed. I ran the upgrade process via the web interface and all was well with the progress bars appearing however when the progress bar was "complete" nothing happened for c. 15 seconds and then it started again, & again, etc. This happened about 10 x so I closed the browser after the completion of a progress bar and luckily the old firmware load was still OK (I didn't have a cabbage!). I then tried it again with IE6 and everything was OK - I got a completion acknowledgement page and when I next logged onto the router the firmware had indeed been updated. (incidentally I used a hard ethernet connection rather than wireless to do the upgrade.)

54G wireless LAN

In case it is of interest this is my experience of setting up a wireless LAN using the following components -

Linksys WAG54G wireless ADSL/router/gateway

Linksys WGA54G-UK wireless game adaptor (Xbox)

Linksys WMP54G PCI nic

Belkin F5D7000 PCI nic

Apple Airport Extreme nic 

I got all the Linksys stuff from www.broadbandbuyer.co.uk which provided good service and delivery. All the devices conform to the Broadcom 54G chipset so I didn't have any real issues regarding compatibility.

Overall setup:         

 Basic setup is WAG54G on the ADSL connection using BT Openworld. The only problem with BT Openworld as I can see is that the IP allocation is dynamic (that is usual and no problem) but the DNS allocation and Gateway IP also changes dynamically which I think may be upsetting the Xbox when I try to fix the DNS in the Xbox settings (still working on this).

The wireless LAN has two XP clients (one has the WMP54 PCI card and the other a Belkin F5D7000 PCI card), a MacOS X client (Airport Extreme card) and an Xbox using the WGA54G-UK unit

Each client is running a static IP and the DNS server specified are BT's ( I cheat and use the BTI (Nband) ones - 194.73.73.94 & 95)

128 bit WEP is implemented

At this stage I need to keep the DHCP running on the gateway for the Xbox. This allows the DNS for the XboxLive to still work. The Xbox and the WGA54G unit both have a static IP allocated which is also in the DHCP range. The static IP will allow ports to be forwarded to the Xbox without using a DMZ or compromising the other clients. 

UPDATE:

Quite a few changes on the network ....

A Netgear DG834G ADSL wireless router has replaced the WAG unit.

Latterly the XBox games adaptor doesn't get used so it is no longer a client.

A Thinkpad client running XP with SP2 has been added using an Intel PRO wireless 2200BG card. The ISP has also changed to V21 running 512K ADSL.

The Netgear router is a lot more stable on the wireless side of things and static IP allocation works just fine with the clients. Regarding security the 128 bit WEP is sufficient for a residential situation along with the use of MAC access tables (anyone sitting outside in a car with a laptop soon gets noticed!).

DNS is taken from the ISP with no real problems.

The only real hassle with V21 as an ISP was an issue, that took a week or two to resolve, that blocked access to a major UK bank - it is not clear but BT had their fingers in the pot somewhere!!!!  Other than that the service outages have been un-noticeable.

UPDATE II:

The Netgear appeared to go flakey on the wireless LAN so a quick and dirty fix was to go out and get a Belkin G+ MIMO unit.

Tried using the WEP on the Belkin but the G4 Powerbook didn't like the 128 bit WEP (unsecure no WEP was OK) so set the LAN up for WPA with TKIP and worked OK. The Linksys WMP54G card in the P3 worked fine.  The old Belkin F5D7000 wireless PCI card in the P4 wouldn't work (when connecting the PC would freeze) so I replaced it with a Belkin USB unit which installed OK but had marginal performance (this is 6 metres from the router via 2 walls and a staircase).

Enough I said and proceeded to spend the afternoon running in an ethernet cat 5e cable - needless to say the P4 now runs at a full 100MHz reliably, nothing like good ol' copper!

However it soon became apparent that the G4 Powerbook would not connect via wireless until the Thinkpad was connected and turned on so this was a problem.

No firmware updates were currently available for the Belkin so up a gum tree.

Shame about the Netgear but I need things to work and there is no way of testing these units satisfactorily to see if they are genuinely faulty.

It always seems to be the wireless portion of the routers which give doubt as the ethernet ports work fine all the time. In my mind wireless does a lot of sucking!

Sometimes I wonder if problems with the ADSL line connectivity actually impact on the wireless LAN although with good design it shouldn't.

UPDATE III:

The biggest hassle just occurred recently. Disconnection of my internet service occurred 15th November as a result of a financial disagreement between V21 (my ISP) and its sub-provider Netservices. The upshot of it all was that Netservices arranged for the ADSL service cease order to be placed as at 24th November and

disconnection occurred on 1st December. So I am now with BT Broadband and have a shiny new (free) BT HomeHub to replace the dodgy Belkin G+ MIMO.

So far so good - on ADSL MAX (8 Meg) the BT HomeHub ( a Thomson unit) appears solid but a bit difficult to manage since it is set up for the mass market and pre-configured (getting about 5.6 Meg over 2.3 miles so far).

All the clients work OK on WEP128 (tried WPA but no go).

More on the BT HomeHub experience further up the page.