Also adding my appreciation for this. Faced with no connectivity in my garden office (or big box without wifi)I really needed to know if the BT discs could be hard wired before signing a contract with BT. I asked four separate BT staff this today, only one agreed it was possible, so I had significant doubts. I even had a BT engineer say it wasn't possible until I pointed him to a statement on the BT help site saying it was. His response? " Well I learned something new". With all that in mind it's reassuring to see you explain this clearly in your video. Thanks for taking the time.
Thank you, I had tired several solutions with no result. I am in the same situation as you are so this helped me a lot to decide. I could have saved myself lots of trouble seeing this first. Cheers .
Massive thanks. I've been having huge problems since I foolishly moved to Sky Q (in a word... don't) because the Sky WiFi (communicate with upstairs mini box) swamped my weak(ish) BT WiFi. I've been using mobile data as a result. On installing the disc, it linked to the Sky Q WiFi initially as this was the stronger signal. So I set up the disc next to the BT router upstairs (patience needed here) and then disconnected it before quickly reconnecting it to my downstairs ethernet hub and leaving the ethernet cable connected. Now I have good strength BT WiFi throughout the house. 👍
Just got mine today will set up tomorrow. My old one was getting worse and worse. So now hope this disk one works upstairs better I too live in an old house did say can take few days to level out to full speed
This is a great video! Thanks! Been searching so long for this exact answer and nearly spent a few hundred on a new router and nodes to extend my WiFi out to our garage. BT really don't like telling their customers that they can use ethernet backhaul for some reason...
Absolutely agree with with gent in video, I just switched to smart hub 2 and 1 disk as my smart TV was dropping connection due poor WiFi. When I connected hub with disk via WiFi I had speed of 20-30 download in my living room. Moment I connected ethernet to bt disk speed jumped to 250mb.
Thanks for this. I just an Open Reach engineer link me up to FTP (after a 6m wait...) but he wouldn't set things up for me. I'm 71 and have no idea how all this stuff works and I think for the outrageous monthly fee I'm now going to pay I should have had a BT engineer do that as part of the service. I need, and am being sent, a third disc so I can get signal in a room at the end of the house furthest away from the room where the fibre comes in to the house. But how do I set that up so it daisy chains without a hard wired connection?
Marmaduke Winterbotham hello. You can’t daisy chain these discs as each disc gets is singable from the main Smarthub. If you have any way of connecting the new Disc to the main Smarthub via Ethernet (as the video) that will be the best way to get perfect connectivity to furthest part of your house. Try one of your discs there to see if it does pick up the signal from the main Smarthub without cables.
@@russelladventures4636 Thanks. The Open Reach chap did in fact talk about daisy chaining before he rushed off. I should have asked him to explain it and I should have taken notes. He set up the disk in the room where my PC is and he couldn't get it to show a solid blue light, so he put it a room nearer to when the hub is, but further from the room where I need it with my PC, hence I have a poorer signal than I had with copper connection. This happened because the hub itself is one room further away from where I used to have it when I had copper connection, i.e. it's now in the room where the cable comes through the wall from the external fibre box. Unless the extra disk (just received) can solve the problem then I'm better off cancelling FTP altogether and going back to copper connection! In our house I can't run ethernet cables; they would be horribly visible.
Camy252 Camy sadly not. Each disc will only connect back to the main hub not each other. If you use an Ethernet cable you can run that as far as you like then you get the full WiFi signal at that location.
@@russelladventures4636 managed to get it daisy chained no problem. Didn't have to do anything fancy, just paired it with the first disc. Maybe there's newer firmware or something.
Hi Russell - what you say here is exactly what i am hoping to do in the next week or so - my home office in the garden is mid construction and i have a spare disc and am planning on connecting the disc to the main router via a 25m Ethernet cable - from what i see in your video this should work? Although do i need to configure the disc before doing this? Also how have you got about getting tour Ethernet cable into the outside office / have you used another Ethernet socket o bridge it from outside to inside? Many thanks Rich
No configurations needed. Just plug in and away you go. Get up next to the main hub as in the video. Simple route is to drill a small hole in the wall or house and office and feed the cable direct from hub to disc.
@@russelladventures4636 cool - understood on the drilled hole (although wondering if some sort of socket will look neater?) but to your point about getting up next to the main hub - is that presumably before taking it out into the garden room - so its ‘linked’? I didn’t quite follow that part on your video sorry mate - thanks!
@@richardscicluna4978 correct on setting up near the main hub. I chose holes purely to reduce points of failure and it’s just a small hole next to the main BT phone line so still quite neat.
Would this not work without the Ethernet cable in the outside office? I thought they could extend the signal quite far down the end of a garden? Did you not get a signal when in your office without the cable? I have the same issue and hoping to avoid running a 25 metre cable to our garden room.
No. That’s the whole point. The WiFi signal won’t go anywhere near the outside office plus the further you go away the weaker the signal. This was the office gets 70mbps the same as the house. 👍🏼
You can connect the PS to the Ethernet port but then you are still relying on the WiFi signal from the main hub to the WiFi disc which will be next to the ps. So no real point in doing that. The idea of the disc is to boost the signal to the PS so place it half way between the main hub and the ps. The best option is to link the main hub and disc with the Ethernet cable and have the disc next to your ps. This way you get perfect connection at the disc and the ps will be so close to the disc on WiFi. That will be perfect. Downside is you need to run an Ethernet cable from the main hub to the disc.
If you plug your pc via Ethernet in to the back of your disc you’ll be relying on the WiFi signal from your main hub through to the disc so you’re not really benefiting from doing that. If you have an Ethernet lead that runs from your main disc to the PC then that will give you perfect connectivity (the same as at the main hub). the disc need to be half way between the pc and the main hub for maximum benefit of boosting the signal.
Yes but it’s a bit pointless as you are relying on WiFi from the hub to the disc. If the disc is near your ps there’s no point. The disc really needs to be half way between the main hub and you ps. Run Ethernet from there to the ps if you can.
OneManTagTeam yes but the disc will connected to the main smart hub via WIFI so your signal strength will depend on how far your summer house is from your main Smarthub.
I’m not sure about that. Ideally use a purpose built Ethernet cable to avoid issue. Not sure on the construction of the coax and how you would introduce the RJ45 Ethernet connectors.
@@russelladventures4636 I heard about these MOCA adapters that you plug into both ends of the coax, and it gives you RJ45 slots, and it carries the Ethernet signal like normal, I was wondering if I could just do that instead of running additional wiring.
we have an annexe 38m from the house and want to use a disc to create the wifi and was wondering if you can plug the smart hub 2 in the house into a wireless extender, and plug the other extender into the annexe and connect it to a disc with a LAN cable and it will act as a wifi repeater ??
Hi. You can try. If you have a wireless extender that works and gives you WiFi in your annexe why do you need to change this? In my opinion these never work as well as expected so the only real way to get full speed internet would be to run the Ethernet cable from your hub2 through to the annexe and plug the disc in. Best and fastest option I think. Good luck
hi m8. I have 2 BT wifi extenders, of which the smart hub will plug into one at the socket, the other extender is plugged into the annexe in which a wifi disc will be plugged. The way I had it previously was to configure a spare BT Home Hub 6 as a wireless extender connected the same way and it was fine for a while but we get numerous power cuts and it buggered up the setup, so I am going to try this, and on paper it should be no different to running a LAN cable down there (which we have but the phone socket is downstairs and the LAN cable upstairs, and besides it would lose signal strength over 38m anyway), so I will give it a try as I am not convinced the wifi mesh will work as BT have said it will over the 38m distance, with 2 discs in the house facing the annexe, and a single disc in the annexe
Hi there, don't know if you can help me I have one of these hubs and cant get my outside camera to work with it on wi fi, camera will only worked when ethernet plugged in...SRI camera I believe it is...camera used to work with the last bt hub, the smaller one...Fred in Essex.
Fred Shead hi Fred. The only thing I can think of is that your WiFi camera is still holding on to the old WiFi hub settings. I only say this because when we changed to the new hub our WiFi printer wouldn’t connect. It took me ages to remove the old WiFi setting with the printer to allow it to find and work on the new WiFi. Maybe worth look at that. Good luck
@@russelladventures4636 Ok Russell, yes I have been on BT site and asked them, maye the camera is faulty or not compatible with new router...right pain cheers F
It’s either too close to main smart hub or too far away. Use the BT app to fine best location. This will help fine the correct location if on Wi-Fi. In using Ethernet it’s should connect quickly if you’ve followed my instructions. 👍🏼
This was a very helpful video but no matter how long I leave the ethernet cable plugged into the router as soon as I take it out instead of eventually connecting and stating solid blue I get a constant flashing blue and it never connects
Geo_D17 does it work if you connect via Ethernet at a closer distance. I connected mine with Ethernet right next to the main hub to ensure it worked correctly. I know it should make any difference but it takes out any doubt about the cable quality or distance.
I connected it directly into the hub fron a 1m cable and it just flashes blue . I rang ht they gave me a new disc and it does the exact same thing as before . I'm so confused
Geo_D17 flashing blue means you are connecting via WPS. If you just use the Ethernet cable between to the Smarthub and disc the the setting will handover automatically without using the WPS
This video is very helpful thank you but however my disc is white and is different to yours and when I put the disc in another location it turns orange all the time. Any advice?
A.H 2003 hi. Orange suggests the disc is too far away from the main hub. Move it closer and try there to ensure it turns blue. Then slowly try different locations until it stays blue but is as far away as possible.
Russell Adventures I’ve tried that aswell, I’ve also plugged it into my router but whenever I take the Ethernet out it also becomes orange even tho it’s right next to the router. Any suggestions?
A.H 2003 that’s strange. Sounds like it hadn’t configure correctly. When connected by the Ethernet cable and it’s blue make sure you leave it quite along time as it does turn blue but then may re cycle through the red and orange while it configures. Get it to blue on Ethernet and leave it a good 15 mins. Other than that I’m not sure. Sorry.
Russell, Im struggling to understand what you're doing here.. Is the disc not just a wifi booster? it is connected to your hub wirelessly and boosting the wifi signal in your office, therefore, eliminating the need for a long ethernet cable surely ? You should get the same speed with the ethernet cable disconnected.
Mike Graham absolutely not. If the WiFi signal is weak in my garden office so my laptop etc have a poor signal due to the distance what use would it be plugging the disc in at the office as this would also only pick up the poor WiFi signal too. Connecting the disc with a 50 metre Ethernet cable means there is perfect internet at the disc in the office so my office has the same speeds as the house 150 ft away.
Hi mate, just got a disk ordered today for my house. Plan on putting it in the lower end of the house as it has weak connection. If I put it in my room and plug the PS4 directly into the disk for Ethernet connection can I then connect other devices to it and get a wireless connection at the same time as my PS4 getting Ethernet? Or does the disk only support one form of connection at a time
Jonathan Stewart yes if you place the disc in the lower end of the house you can use the Ethernet to connect your PS4 and the WiFi will still work. However, if the signal is weak in that location the disc will only be picking up that signal from the main hub. The idea of the disc is to place half way so it boosts the signal to the end of your house. By doing it this way you’ll get a better connection on you PS4 anyway. The BT will help you find the best position for the new disc. Plugging your PS4 into the disc via Ethernet will only deliver the signal strength you are receiving with WIFI from the main hub to the disc so a bit pointless.
@@russelladventures4636 Ah okay I get you, the room my PS4 is in is in the middle so that's where it would be placed to send signal to the lower end of the house. However as you say if the disc will give the same speed with wireless and wired I may as well connect the PS4 to it using wireless. Will play about with it when I get it to get the best setup. Thanks for the video and answering my main concern on if the disk could take two different connections at the same time though.
@@Conceptplays_ Hi, how did you get on with this , as im wanting to try this out for a chromecast ultra to see if it helps stadia, as bt have just offered me complete wifi and halo for an extra £5, cheers.
Justin Addison Hi, yeah I’ve got on really well this would definitely recommend it. I got the disc and used to set up to find a location for it and now have really good speeds in all the rooms in the house. No longer have any dead zones! Would definitely recommend it!
Place a disc 30 metres away from the hub. The only option is to connect the two together with the Ethernet cable. This way you get full connection speeds at the disc 30metres away. The WiFi from the hum would never travel that far. BT said their discs couldn’t be set up like this but clearly they can with great results. My garden office now has 70mbps, the same as the hub in the house. 👍🏼
How do I know that I am getting the benefits of the disc? As I can’t really tell plus my xbox says that the speeds are the exact same as they were before which is only around 50mbps on download and 9mbps on upload
Cameron Wye take your mobile phone to the main Smart hub. Stand near it and run a speed test through google. Note the speeds you get at that location Then do the same at the Xbox. This will show if you’re getting the best speeds. Make sure the light is blue on the disc.
Russell Adventures I believe it was 44mbps download and 9mbps upload which I’m fairly sure is slower than bt advertised to us I believe the upload speed is meant to be 11-18 mbps and the download is meant to be upwards of 49 mbps
Cameron Wye BT always quote the maximum so if you’re getting 44 down and 9 up you should get about the same at the disc near the Xbox. That’ll be the best you’ll get at your location. Tbf 44mbps is more than enough for streaming and gaming. BT said we’d get 75 down and in reality only get 55 to 60. Daytime is better when less users in your street are online. Busiest in the evenings so expect less speeds.
So you have these discs to improve wifi signals but it seems all your discs are already connected with an ethernet cable.I thought you could do it wirelessly without ethernet cables?
Hiya. Not if you trying to connect 100meters away. The idea of the Ethernet is to carry the full signal to a new location and then be able to use WiFi there.
Does it matter which disc you run the ethernet cable two as we have two discs now woke up today found the internet rather a bit slow again ran a test all the discs cannot be found now on any platform from ps5 tv or app lol
No. Either disc is fine. Don’t know what you mean when you say discontent be found. It they are concert with Ethernet and lights are on they can’t Not be found. As long as you main hub is working the discs will reflect the same speed
@@russelladventures4636 what was ment is when let's say I want to connect ps5 to wireless just as an example, in wireless search options the disc wireless options as disappeared, I have a selection of connections on the connection list main WiFi hub and such but I was sent an extra disc for out games room they said I need two disc's in the one room , so today you would think that both discs are switched off and not present they were working fine but today they have disappeared totally from every connection so everything switched back over to the hub instead of being connected to the discs , I have tried rebooting the whole system, reset everything but still they have no presence completely vashined from the home network, sorry to babble on its hard to explain if we not in the same room strange thing is I am pretty good at all these little things but this one has me baffled lol.
@@user-mk7yf4mt7i have you got the disc in the games room connected to the main hub with an Ethernet cable? If so the games room WiFi will run from that disc at the same strength as if you were near the main hub. You don’t need two discs in the same room. This will confuse the system as it’s a hub not a Switch.
@@russelladventures4636 that's BT technical team for you lol but yes just ran same setup as yourself it's back up running now , they initially said it was my gigibite switch and cat 6e 7e 8e were no good for running hardwired but there we go if it wasn't for people like yourself taking time out too help others then I just would of stripped it all back down and started from scratch, ta and forget the WiFi connection promise EE around here is the worse although BT owns that now yes and years back when I had a BT mobile that was fantastic connection and one of EE central communication centres is based here lol.
Probably never. You’ll need fibre to your house for that. BT only have fibre to the green box down the road. If you’re a bit away from that green box you only ever get these speeds. Find a fibre provider like Virgin.
Bit of a late reply but I've had fiber to the house 1000 down 100 up from BT for well over a year now, they offered an upgrade to me (sw London) for £15 extra a month in the first lockdown and ran the cable a year later.
shane I believe it works if you connect other routers to the main Smart Hub via Ethernet but there will be some IT configurations to do with IP addresses and access. You’d need an IT person to configure. There are some online videos to help with this tho. Good luck.
Did you pair the disc and hub next to each other before moving to new location? Once connections is established you can move to a more distant location. Ethernet cables carry full signal so there should be no issue. The other possibility is you have different BT disc.
Its a waste of a disk to plug one in next to your router. So I have used a powerline adapter in another room and plugged a mesh into that and set up the other disks. I manually changed my router to the same name and password as the disks so now I have a router and 3 mesh disks working seamlessly. I only found out by accident because I hadn't read the instructions. And couldn't work out why I couldn't connect to the Internet.
Absolutely. 100% no point putting it anywhere near the router. The BT won’t actually let you place it too close for that reason. Good to use the powerline adapters 👍🏼. I used Ethernet for best possible connection. 👌🏽
Soap Bby just set it up as in the first part of the video and then move it to the new location (half way between the Hun and the room you want WiFi in) and plug in to the mains. Just don’t use the Ethernet as show in the video. This was you will boost your WiFi signal further through your house but make sure the booster is half way between.
@@russelladventures4636 I thought those discs were £10 a month or £100 outright? I've just ordered Fibre 100 (145mbs) and the disk was an option for a monthly fee.
Grumpy Dad so did I to be fair as that’s what they are advertised for. When I rang and placed the order for the new BB and Smart hub they said up to 3 are free. 👍🏼. Maybe the deals have changed now.
@@russelladventures4636 Hi, thanks for reply. Do you have more than one wired? If so how do you know for sure one isn't relieing on the other disc using wifi rather than ethernet? I got one working, but building to big for next to connect as mesh as signal goes dead so plan to get switch and ethernet sockets. Wgen pair they pair as wifi, so in wired mode they need to be access points. Not sure more than one would work as they rely on each other one to another then to another wifi, but plugging in multi wired makes each seperate but needs to be same network.
@@RUclipsr-zc5js I just keeper it really simple no mesh or boosters just plugged 2 Ethernet cables in to the main hub. One runs 100yards out the back or the house to an out building (disc plugged in there to create a WiFi zone) and the other runs the opposite way to the front. That also has a disc and creates a WiFi zone there. Nothing fancy just the best way of getting good signal far out of the Wi-fi capabilities of the hub
@@russelladventures4636 Hi, these wifi zones are they the same ssid and devices like printers will be seen on same network or are they seperate wifi networks from each disc. Ty
The discs will be flashing red if they are too far away from the smart hub using wi-fi. Connecting as I’ve shown eliminates the distance and won’t need WiFi to connect. So yes. Place when you want and connect the disc to the smart hub via the Ethernet cable. Job done!
@@russelladventures4636 because i was experiencing lag while playing on my ps5 and i have a ethernet so i decided to restart it and then it started flashing
It defeats the object if you use the disc wired, they are meant to be used wirelessly. If you have a Cat cable running to your office you might as well go the whole hog a set up a switch and have everything wired up, no need for the disc then.
@@russelladventures4636 Don’t the discs cost so much per month? You can’t buy them outright like the first versions. Over time it will cost more as you are in effect hiring them.
@@russelladventures4636 They are not free, there is an extra charge for ‘total wi-fi’ as BT call it. I know because they keep trying to persuade me to pay the extra.
@@pedrosa144100% they were free. I signed up and asked for 3. They sent 2 initially and I called again for the 3rd. No extra charge or even delivery. All in with the £25 65MB broadband. Maybe the deal has changed now.
I'm a bit puzzled, if your ethernet cable can reach your outside office, why not just plug that into your laptop/PC then you don't need the wifi out there
Multiple users and TV etc all runs off if the WIFI it’s not just one laptop. 👍🏼. Plus the WiFi is now extended to the end of the garden so visitors can also get online.
Have you had any issues running two discs to an outside area or will it just cause confusion and not actually boost the signal. been having some real issues with these but im wondering if having two in the same area wont solve the problem just make it worse?
Interesting point. Having two discs in the same area won’t boost you signal any more. One disc will deliver the WiFi to a decent radius so you don’t really want more than one in that space. Just one connected via Ethernet would be sufficient.
Also adding my appreciation for this. Faced with no connectivity in my garden office (or big box without wifi)I really needed to know if the BT discs could be hard wired before signing a contract with BT.
I asked four separate BT staff this today, only one agreed it was possible, so I had significant doubts. I even had a BT engineer say it wasn't possible until I pointed him to a statement on the BT help site saying it was. His response? " Well I learned something new". With all that in mind it's reassuring to see you explain this clearly in your video. Thanks for taking the time.
Massive thanks for this - really helpful to be able to hardwire the disc to the router.
Thank you, I had tired several solutions with no result. I am in the same situation as you are so this helped me a lot to decide. I could have saved myself lots of trouble seeing this first. Cheers .
Very helpful thankyou. Was struggling to find this information on bt forums and manuals. Will try this out myself soon
Massive thanks. I've been having huge problems since I foolishly moved to Sky Q (in a word... don't) because the Sky WiFi (communicate with upstairs mini box) swamped my weak(ish) BT WiFi. I've been using mobile data as a result. On installing the disc, it linked to the Sky Q WiFi initially as this was the stronger signal. So I set up the disc next to the BT router upstairs (patience needed here) and then disconnected it before quickly reconnecting it to my downstairs ethernet hub and leaving the ethernet cable connected. Now I have good strength BT WiFi throughout the house. 👍
I agree with Mike Forster your video has been really helpful and just what I needed.
Thanks
Just got mine today will set up tomorrow. My old one was getting worse and worse. So now hope this disk one works upstairs better I too live in an old house did say can take few days to level out to full speed
sweet - great advice. No nonsense. Thanks!!
This is a great video! Thanks! Been searching so long for this exact answer and nearly spent a few hundred on a new router and nodes to extend my WiFi out to our garage.
BT really don't like telling their customers that they can use ethernet backhaul for some reason...
Thank you for this information, very helpful 👍👍
Absolutely agree with with gent in video, I just switched to smart hub 2 and 1 disk as my smart TV was dropping connection due poor WiFi. When I connected hub with disk via WiFi I had speed of 20-30 download in my living room. Moment I connected ethernet to bt disk speed jumped to 250mb.
Thanks mate really helped me out
Really helpful content and I have said to my 21 year old to save this a stop asking me to do his reset ;)
Thank u that was a Big help for me 👍😊
This works but so does also hitting the wps button on the back of the hub and the bt hub extender at the same time ;)
massive help!
Thank you very useful
Brilliant thank you
Thanks for this. I just an Open Reach engineer link me up to FTP (after a 6m wait...) but he wouldn't set things up for me. I'm 71 and have no idea how all this stuff works and I think for the outrageous monthly fee I'm now going to pay I should have had a BT engineer do that as part of the service. I need, and am being sent, a third disc so I can get signal in a room at the end of the house furthest away from the room where the fibre comes in to the house. But how do I set that up so it daisy chains without a hard wired connection?
Marmaduke Winterbotham hello. You can’t daisy chain these discs as each disc gets is singable from the main Smarthub. If you have any way of connecting the new Disc to the main Smarthub via Ethernet (as the video) that will be the best way to get perfect connectivity to furthest part of your house. Try one of your discs there to see if it does pick up the signal from the main Smarthub without cables.
@@russelladventures4636 Thanks. The Open Reach chap did in fact talk about daisy chaining before he rushed off. I should have asked him to explain it and I should have taken notes. He set up the disk in the room where my PC is and he couldn't get it to show a solid blue light, so he put it a room nearer to when the hub is, but further from the room where I need it with my PC, hence I have a poorer signal than I had with copper connection. This happened because the hub itself is one room further away from where I used to have it when I had copper connection, i.e. it's now in the room where the cable comes through the wall from the external fibre box. Unless the extra disk (just received) can solve the problem then I'm better off cancelling FTP altogether and going back to copper connection! In our house I can't run ethernet cables; they would be horribly visible.
@@russelladventures4636 I was under the impression these could be daisy chained? Got a few responses from forums saying they can.
Camy252 Camy sadly not. Each disc will only connect back to the main hub not each other. If you use an Ethernet cable you can run that as far as you like then you get the full WiFi signal at that location.
@@russelladventures4636 managed to get it daisy chained no problem. Didn't have to do anything fancy, just paired it with the first disc. Maybe there's newer firmware or something.
Hi Russell - what you say here is exactly what i am hoping to do in the next week or so - my home office in the garden is mid construction and i have a spare disc and am planning on connecting the disc to the main router via a 25m Ethernet cable - from what i see in your video this should work? Although do i need to configure the disc before doing this? Also how have you got about getting tour Ethernet cable into the outside office / have you used another Ethernet socket o bridge it from outside to inside? Many thanks Rich
No configurations needed. Just plug in and away you go. Get up next to the main hub as in the video.
Simple route is to drill a small hole in the wall or house and office and feed the cable direct from hub to disc.
@@russelladventures4636 cool - understood on the drilled hole (although wondering if some sort of socket will look neater?) but to your point about getting up next to the main hub - is that presumably before taking it out into the garden room - so its ‘linked’? I didn’t quite follow that part on your video sorry mate - thanks!
@@richardscicluna4978 correct on setting up near the main hub. I chose holes purely to reduce points of failure and it’s just a small hole next to the main BT phone line so still quite neat.
Would this not work without the Ethernet cable in the outside office? I thought they could extend the signal quite far down the end of a garden? Did you not get a signal when in your office without the cable? I have the same issue and hoping to avoid running a 25 metre cable to our garden room.
No. That’s the whole point. The WiFi signal won’t go anywhere near the outside office plus the further you go away the weaker the signal. This was the office gets 70mbps the same as the house. 👍🏼
I got new bt router for my plusnet broadband will work with plusnet is bt thank you paul
Hi. Not sure. I only set up on BT. Worth a go tho if you have disc ready to go
Can i use the Ethernet cable connected to ps4 and to disc permanently for my a better connection for online gaming??
You can connect the PS to the Ethernet port but then you are still relying on the WiFi signal from the main hub to the WiFi disc which will be next to the ps. So no real point in doing that. The idea of the disc is to boost the signal to the PS so place it half way between the main hub and the ps. The best option is to link the main hub and disc with the Ethernet cable and have the disc next to your ps. This way you get perfect connection at the disc and the ps will be so close to the disc on WiFi. That will be perfect. Downside is you need to run an Ethernet cable from the main hub to the disc.
Can I plug the disc in to the back of my pc and is it better than if I had an Ethernet cable pulleged in already or is it with a disc
If you plug your pc via Ethernet in to the back of your disc you’ll be relying on the WiFi signal from your main hub through to the disc so you’re not really benefiting from doing that. If you have an Ethernet lead that runs from your main disc to the PC then that will give you perfect connectivity (the same as at the main hub). the disc need to be half way between the pc and the main hub for maximum benefit of boosting the signal.
Could I put an ethernet cable to run from my playstation to the disk (where the disk connects to the hub through wifi)?
Yes but it’s a bit pointless as you are relying on WiFi from the hub to the disc. If the disc is near your ps there’s no point. The disc really needs to be half way between the main hub and you ps. Run Ethernet from there to the ps if you can.
Does the disc have it's own WiFi name or is it the same network wi-fi name as the hub?
Mattf14 same network name but you can name the location on the BT app.
Can I plug the disc into my Xbox One’s ethernet port in our summer house and use it like a home plug?
OneManTagTeam yes but the disc will connected to the main smart hub via WIFI so your signal strength will depend on how far your summer house is from your main Smarthub.
Can I run the Ethernet cable through existing coax lines heading upstairs (with adapters on both ends) and then plug the disc in on the other end?
I’m not sure about that. Ideally use a purpose built Ethernet cable to avoid issue. Not sure on the construction of the coax and how you would introduce the RJ45 Ethernet connectors.
@@russelladventures4636 I heard about these MOCA adapters that you plug into both ends of the coax, and it gives you RJ45 slots, and it carries the Ethernet signal like normal, I was wondering if I could just do that instead of running additional wiring.
Could I have 3 discs cabled from a switch Box to enable stronger reliable WiFi all around my home?
Can’t see why not. Your BT smart hub has several Ethernet ports so I can see no reason you couldn’t use them all with a disc on each.
we have an annexe 38m from the house and want to use a disc to create the wifi and was wondering if you can plug the smart hub 2 in the house into a wireless extender, and plug the other extender into the annexe and connect it to a disc with a LAN cable and it will act as a wifi repeater ??
Hi. You can try. If you have a wireless extender that works and gives you WiFi in your annexe why do you need to change this? In my opinion these never work as well as expected so the only real way to get full speed internet would be to run the Ethernet cable from your hub2 through to the annexe and plug the disc in. Best and fastest option I think. Good luck
hi m8. I have 2 BT wifi extenders, of which the smart hub will plug into one at the socket, the other extender is plugged into the annexe in which a wifi disc will be plugged. The way I had it previously was to configure a spare BT Home Hub 6 as a wireless extender connected the same way and it was fine for a while but we get numerous power cuts and it buggered up the setup, so I am going to try this, and on paper it should be no different to running a LAN cable down there (which we have but the phone socket is downstairs and the LAN cable upstairs, and besides it would lose signal strength over 38m anyway), so I will give it a try as I am not convinced the wifi mesh will work as BT have said it will over the 38m distance, with 2 discs in the house facing the annexe, and a single disc in the annexe
Hi there, don't know if you can help me I have one of these hubs and cant get my outside camera to work with it on wi fi, camera will only worked when ethernet plugged in...SRI camera I believe it is...camera used to work with the last bt hub, the smaller one...Fred in Essex.
Fred Shead hi Fred. The only thing I can think of is that your WiFi camera is still holding on to the old WiFi hub settings. I only say this because when we changed to the new hub our WiFi printer wouldn’t connect. It took me ages to remove the old WiFi setting with the printer to allow it to find and work on the new WiFi. Maybe worth look at that. Good luck
@@russelladventures4636 Ok Russell, yes I have been on BT site and asked them, maye the camera is faulty or not compatible with new router...right pain cheers F
Where did you buy the long Ethernet cable? And how long is it?
It’s about 20meters I think. Can’t remember but maybe just Amazon or online. Try Amazon first.
Just the info I was looking for, its bizarre this isn't a major selling point.
whats the gaming performance like with bt?
Depends on the speed you get. BT Will generally be the best unless you have virgin. Ours is fine for gaming at 65mbps
Mine says it’s not connected when it’s on and working fine it won’t say if it’s a good location
It’s either too close to main smart hub or too far away. Use the BT app to fine best location. This will help fine the correct location if on Wi-Fi. In using Ethernet it’s should connect quickly if you’ve followed my instructions. 👍🏼
This was a very helpful video but no matter how long I leave the ethernet cable plugged into the router as soon as I take it out instead of eventually connecting and stating solid blue I get a constant flashing blue and it never connects
Geo_D17 does it work if you connect via Ethernet at a closer distance. I connected mine with Ethernet right next to the main hub to ensure it worked correctly. I know it should make any difference but it takes out any doubt about the cable quality or distance.
I connected it directly into the hub fron a 1m cable and it just flashes blue . I rang ht they gave me a new disc and it does the exact same thing as before . I'm so confused
Geo_D17 flashing blue means you are connecting via WPS. If you just use the Ethernet cable between to the Smarthub and disc the the setting will handover automatically without using the WPS
did you run it through the garden?
Jim .t yes
This video is very helpful thank you but however my disc is white and is different to yours and when I put the disc in another location it turns orange all the time. Any advice?
A.H 2003 hi. Orange suggests the disc is too far away from the main hub. Move it closer and try there to ensure it turns blue. Then slowly try different locations until it stays blue but is as far away as possible.
Russell Adventures I’ve tried that aswell, I’ve also plugged it into my router but whenever I take the Ethernet out it also becomes orange even tho it’s right next to the router. Any suggestions?
A.H 2003 that’s strange. Sounds like it hadn’t configure correctly. When connected by the Ethernet cable and it’s blue make sure you leave it quite along time as it does turn blue but then may re cycle through the red and orange while it configures. Get it to blue on Ethernet and leave it a good 15 mins. Other than that I’m not sure. Sorry.
Russell Adventures I’ve also tried that but still doesn’t work so I’m not too sure but thank you for the support
The white discs are called ‘Whole Home’ and are totally different to the black discs.
i use this port to connect to my Desktop as it does not have WIFI and it works fine. i just have WIFI from the router to the disc.
Hello do you have to turn off Wi-Fi on the smart hub 2 if I run Ethernet cables to 2 discs ? Thanks.
Hi. No just leave the wi-fi turned on.
Thank you I’m trying to do the same set up as you. Cheers.
Russell, Im struggling to understand what you're doing here.. Is the disc not just a wifi booster? it is connected to your hub wirelessly and boosting the wifi signal in your office, therefore, eliminating the need for a long ethernet cable surely ? You should get the same speed with the ethernet cable disconnected.
Mike Graham absolutely not. If the WiFi signal is weak in my garden office so my laptop etc have a poor signal due to the distance what use would it be plugging the disc in at the office as this would also only pick up the poor WiFi signal too. Connecting the disc with a 50 metre Ethernet cable means there is perfect internet at the disc in the office so my office has the same speeds as the house 150 ft away.
@@russelladventures4636 No need for the disc if you have run a cable, just set up a switch and hard wire everything.
Hello, is the blue Ethernet same as the yellow one ?
Yes
@@russelladventures4636 thank you for the quick response
Hi there. my wifi speed is 300mb and when i wire my laptop to the BT hub 2 i get 700mb. if i wire my laptop to my wifi disk will i get 700mb
I wander if this would work connected to a gigabyte switch which I have running on a 30m cable 😂
Mr.Togan you never know. It’s only data. Just depends on what the disc can handle I guess. mines in a 30m cable. 😂
@@russelladventures4636 I ended up getting a ethernet cable as my room is a dead zone 😂
Hi mate, just got a disk ordered today for my house. Plan on putting it in the lower end of the house as it has weak connection. If I put it in my room and plug the PS4 directly into the disk for Ethernet connection can I then connect other devices to it and get a wireless connection at the same time as my PS4 getting Ethernet? Or does the disk only support one form of connection at a time
Jonathan Stewart yes if you place the disc in the lower end of the house you can use the Ethernet to connect your PS4 and the WiFi will still work. However, if the signal is weak in that location the disc will only be picking up that signal from the main hub. The idea of the disc is to place half way so it boosts the signal to the end of your house. By doing it this way you’ll get a better connection on you PS4 anyway. The BT will help you find the best position for the new disc.
Plugging your PS4 into the disc via Ethernet will only deliver the signal strength you are receiving with WIFI from the main hub to the disc so a bit pointless.
@@russelladventures4636 Ah okay I get you, the room my PS4 is in is in the middle so that's where it would be placed to send signal to the lower end of the house. However as you say if the disc will give the same speed with wireless and wired I may as well connect the PS4 to it using wireless. Will play about with it when I get it to get the best setup. Thanks for the video and answering my main concern on if the disk could take two different connections at the same time though.
@@Conceptplays_ Hi, how did you get on with this , as im wanting to try this out for a chromecast ultra to see if it helps stadia, as bt have just offered me complete wifi and halo for an extra £5, cheers.
Justin Addison Hi, yeah I’ve got on really well this would definitely recommend it. I got the disc and used to set up to find a location for it and now have really good speeds in all the rooms in the house. No longer have any dead zones! Would definitely recommend it!
@@Conceptplays_ Cheers, and is the ps4 better with it plugged into the discs ethernet port, rather than wifi, thanks.
Do you get the disc included or do you have to buy 1 separately?
I got 2 included free but you will need to discuss with BT directly.
@@russelladventures4636 I’ve gone with fibre 900 but I don’t think a disc comes with it unless you add it on
Can I plug two discs into my Smart Hub 2 via ethernet, or will only one disc work via ethernet and the others would have to be via WiFi?
Yes sure. As long as you have enough ports on the hub. 👍🏼
@@russelladventures4636 interesting. Why don't bt say this is possible? Literally makes them so much more useful
@@deaosatori216 no idea. Maybe their tech team haven’t been taught this and to just sell as WiFi boosters.
Is this still working in 2023?
And, do you need a switch at the office end?
Ya still working. Haven’t touched it since the video was made. 👍🏼. No switch just plugged straight in.
@@russelladventures4636 Awesome stuff mate! Can't tell you how glad I am I found this video. 👍
What were they saying you coudln't do exactly?!
Place a disc 30 metres away from the hub. The only option is to connect the two together with the Ethernet cable. This way you get full connection speeds at the disc 30metres away. The WiFi from the hum would never travel that far. BT said their discs couldn’t be set up like this but clearly they can with great results. My garden office now has 70mbps, the same as the hub in the house. 👍🏼
How do I know that I am getting the benefits of the disc? As I can’t really tell plus my xbox says that the speeds are the exact same as they were before which is only around 50mbps on download and 9mbps on upload
Cameron Wye take your mobile phone to the main Smart hub. Stand near it and run a speed test through google. Note the speeds you get at that location Then do the same at the Xbox. This will show if you’re getting the best speeds. Make sure the light is blue on the disc.
Russell Adventures the speeds are below what they should be throughout the whole house is there any advice you could give me?
Cameron Wye what speed does the speed test show at the main hub?
Russell Adventures I believe it was 44mbps download and 9mbps upload which I’m fairly sure is slower than bt advertised to us I believe the upload speed is meant to be 11-18 mbps and the download is meant to be upwards of 49 mbps
Cameron Wye BT always quote the maximum so if you’re getting 44 down and 9 up you should get about the same at the disc near the Xbox. That’ll be the best you’ll get at your location. Tbf 44mbps is more than enough for streaming and gaming. BT said we’d get 75 down and in reality only get 55 to 60. Daytime is better when less users in your street are online. Busiest in the evenings so expect less speeds.
Thanks
So you have these discs to improve wifi signals but it seems all your discs are already connected with an ethernet cable.I thought you could do it wirelessly without ethernet cables?
Hiya. Not if you trying to connect 100meters away. The idea of the Ethernet is to carry the full signal to a new location and then be able to use WiFi there.
Does it matter which disc you run the ethernet cable two as we have two discs now woke up today found the internet rather a bit slow again ran a test all the discs cannot be found now on any platform from ps5 tv or app lol
No. Either disc is fine. Don’t know what you mean when you say discontent be found. It they are concert with Ethernet and lights are on they can’t Not be found. As long as you main hub is working the discs will reflect the same speed
@@russelladventures4636 what was ment is when let's say I want to connect ps5 to wireless just as an example, in wireless search options the disc wireless options as disappeared, I have a selection of connections on the connection list main WiFi hub and such but I was sent an extra disc for out games room they said I need two disc's in the one room , so today you would think that both discs are switched off and not present they were working fine but today they have disappeared totally from every connection so everything switched back over to the hub instead of being connected to the discs , I have tried rebooting the whole system, reset everything but still they have no presence completely vashined from the home network, sorry to babble on its hard to explain if we not in the same room strange thing is I am pretty good at all these little things but this one has me baffled lol.
@@user-mk7yf4mt7i have you got the disc in the games room connected to the main hub with an Ethernet cable? If so the games room WiFi will run from that disc at the same strength as if you were near the main hub. You don’t need two discs in the same room. This will confuse the system as it’s a hub not a Switch.
@@russelladventures4636 that's BT technical team for you lol but yes just ran same setup as yourself it's back up running now , they initially said it was my gigibite switch and cat 6e 7e 8e were no good for running hardwired but there we go if it wasn't for people like yourself taking time out too help others then I just would of stripped it all back down and started from scratch, ta and forget the WiFi connection promise EE around here is the worse although BT owns that now yes and years back when I had a BT mobile that was fantastic connection and one of EE central communication centres is based here lol.
I wonder when we can get 100mb speeds from BT..
Probably never. You’ll need fibre to your house for that. BT only have fibre to the green box down the road. If you’re a bit away from that green box you only ever get these speeds. Find a fibre provider like Virgin.
Bit of a late reply but I've had fiber to the house 1000 down 100 up from BT for well over a year now, they offered an upgrade to me (sw London) for £15 extra a month in the first lockdown and ran the cable a year later.
Do you have two discs?
I have 3 discs and the main Smart hub. 1 disc is Ethernet cable connected to the smart hub. The other 2 run on WiFi.
Will this work with another router not a bt one?
shane I believe it works if you connect other routers to the main Smart Hub via Ethernet but there will be some IT configurations to do with IP addresses and access. You’d need an IT person to configure. There are some online videos to help with this tho. Good luck.
@@russelladventures4636 thank you mate
Oddly mine doesn't work when attempting to do this via an ethernet cable
Did you pair the disc and hub next to each other before moving to new location? Once connections is established you can move to a more distant location. Ethernet cables carry full signal so there should be no issue. The other possibility is you have different BT disc.
@@russelladventures4636 I've done this some time ago when using it as a WiFi extender. I'll try again by plugging it in now and trying again.
Its a waste of a disk to plug one in next to your router. So I have used a powerline adapter in another room and plugged a mesh into that and set up the other disks. I manually changed my router to the same name and password as the disks so now I have a router and 3 mesh disks working seamlessly. I only found out by accident because I hadn't read the instructions. And couldn't work out why I couldn't connect to the Internet.
Absolutely. 100% no point putting it anywhere near the router. The BT won’t actually let you place it too close for that reason. Good to use the powerline adapters 👍🏼. I used Ethernet for best possible connection. 👌🏽
How do I use its internet wirelessly?
Soap Bby just set it up as in the first part of the video and then move it to the new location (half way between the Hun and the room you want WiFi in) and plug in to the mains. Just don’t use the Ethernet as show in the video. This was you will boost your WiFi signal further through your house but make sure the booster is half way between.
Russell Adventures ok thank you👌
The disc you are trying to configure is different than the disc confugured is in your office why is that?
No. It’s the same disc just moved to the office
You are aware you can use 2 routers on one by line and you will have not only Wi-fi but Ethernet as well. No need for mega expensive Wi-fi disks
jakubgawronski good call but discs are free. You get one included and 2 extra at no cost. 👍🏼
@@russelladventures4636 I thought those discs were £10 a month or £100 outright? I've just ordered Fibre 100 (145mbs) and the disk was an option for a monthly fee.
Grumpy Dad so did I to be fair as that’s what they are advertised for. When I rang and placed the order for the new BB and Smart hub they said up to 3 are free. 👍🏼. Maybe the deals have changed now.
Will it work more than one disc hardwired?
Yes. Use multiples as long as you have the spare ports on the back of you main hub
@@russelladventures4636 Hi, thanks for reply. Do you have more than one wired? If so how do you know for sure one isn't relieing on the other disc using wifi rather than ethernet? I got one working, but building to big for next to connect as mesh as signal goes dead so plan to get switch and ethernet sockets. Wgen pair they pair as wifi, so in wired mode they need to be access points. Not sure more than one would work as they rely on each other one to another then to another wifi, but plugging in multi wired makes each seperate but needs to be same network.
@@RUclipsr-zc5js I just keeper it really simple no mesh or boosters just plugged 2 Ethernet cables in to the main hub. One runs 100yards out the back or the house to an out building (disc plugged in there to create a WiFi zone) and the other runs the opposite way to the front. That also has a disc and creates a WiFi zone there. Nothing fancy just the best way of getting good signal far out of the Wi-fi capabilities of the hub
@@russelladventures4636 Hi, these wifi zones are they the same ssid and devices like printers will be seen on same network or are they seperate wifi networks from each disc. Ty
@@RUclipsr-zc5js all the same
Will this work if my disc is flashing red
The discs will be flashing red if they are too far away from the smart hub using wi-fi. Connecting as I’ve shown eliminates the distance and won’t need WiFi to connect. So yes. Place when you want and connect the disc to the smart hub via the Ethernet cable. Job done!
@@russelladventures4636 because i was experiencing lag while playing on my ps5 and i have a ethernet so i decided to restart it and then it started flashing
It defeats the object if you use the disc wired, they are meant to be used wirelessly. If you have a Cat cable running to your office you might as well go the whole hog a set up a switch and have everything wired up, no need for the disc then.
Why. Just more cost. The discs work perfectly on 30m of cable to a garden office. Hence why it’s not done on Wi-Fi
@@russelladventures4636 Don’t the discs cost so much per month? You can’t buy them outright like the first versions. Over time it will cost more as you are in effect hiring them.
@@pedrosa144 no mate. 3 disc are free of charge so no cost just the length of cable you need. 👍🏼
@@russelladventures4636 They are not free, there is an extra charge for ‘total wi-fi’ as BT call it. I know because they keep trying to persuade me to pay the extra.
@@pedrosa144100% they were free. I signed up and asked for 3. They sent 2 initially and I called again for the 3rd. No extra charge or even delivery. All in with the £25 65MB broadband. Maybe the deal has changed now.
I'm a bit puzzled, if your ethernet cable can reach your outside office, why not just plug that into your laptop/PC then you don't need the wifi out there
Multiple users and TV etc all runs off if the WIFI it’s not just one laptop. 👍🏼. Plus the WiFi is now extended to the end of the garden so visitors can also get online.
@@russelladventures4636 Visitors ? You got a bar out there ? What's your address ? :)
What about not wanting to use the cables does it still work as good?
Yes if you are within range. The BT app will guide you as the the best location.
So why are BT telling us that we can't do this?
Have you had any issues running two discs to an outside area or will it just cause confusion and not actually boost the signal. been having some real issues with these but im wondering if having two in the same area wont solve the problem just make it worse?
Interesting point. Having two discs in the same area won’t boost you signal any more. One disc will deliver the WiFi to a decent radius so you don’t really want more than one in that space. Just one connected via Ethernet would be sufficient.
@@russelladventures4636 thank you
Blurb re these discs seems to indicate that these are WiFi boosters and yet you're connection via ethernet with presumably no loss in speed. Hmmm
Exactly. The speed remains the same with no loss over distance.
Cost?
Charles Darwin BT supplied them free.
So you need to leave it a good 5 minutes? 😆
That is correct. I did try to make that clear in the video as it’s quite important. Watch it again if you struggled to understand.
You are too quiet. Good job the wording is displayed.
Thank for you positive words of support. 🙈
Bad video didn’t make sense
It made sense to 27k others. Must just be you.
@@russelladventures4636 exactly 😂
At least show us from from scratch 😑🙄😩
I show you from opening the box to completion. You watching the same video as everyone else?!? Doh! 🙈
if you live in a big house it would be pointless to run Ethernet cables all through the house ie thats why its wifi
The whole point is that WiFi won’t reach that far!! That’s the whole point of running Ethernet as the distance is unlimited. 🤷🏽♂️