BT Infinity Business router SUCK!!!

[Resolve]

I have been with BT Infinity for a week and I already want to throw the router at someone significant at the BT NOT HELPFUL Desk!

WARNING to all potential business users!  BT routers do NOT support VPN.  Don't believe anything the help desk tells you, you can not configure a HUB3 or a 2701HGV-c router to make VPN connections.  Why! God only knows.

The fact is that if you want remote access via VPN's then you will have to stump up £200 + for a decent router.

For this I award BT with the "Crap Business Service of the Year" award.

I am sure the BT Moderators will scrub this message to hide their shame! 

[DaveA]

Hi,

Cold you clarify what you're ranting about?  The Business Hubs 2 and 3 both work with VPNs, as long as they aren't IPSec ones.  The reason IPSec ones often don't work is because of BT Wifi (BT Openzone), which also uses port 500.

Also the Helpdesk doesn't support VPNs, so you shouldn't even been in touch with the main THD about it.  The IT Support Manager Helpdesk may be able to help, but I'm not 100% sure.

And anyway the Business Hub is, at best, a middle of the range router that almost certainly came free with the package.  If you want all the bells and whistles then yes you will need to buy a suitable router.

And that, frankly, is not BT's fault.

Dave

[peterkingston]

It would help if:

1. They would get the hub3 working as described. ie VPN is listed on the menu therefore it should work. If not change the router or remove the menu item from the firmware. If it does work then make a few screen shots and publish them on this forum. It is not rocket science.

2. This is a business service. We do not buy multiple static addresses from BT so that we can look at them. Tell us how to use them or recommend a couple of routers that work. We all want to do the same thing. (Set up a DMZ with more than one host or use the VPN or soething similar.  To date I have purchased three routers. All of which had issues with the BT DHCP/Static combination configuration. It will save clients a lot of frustration and money and it will save BT a lot of wasted calls that they are 'not allowed' to answer.

3. Other customers that have managed to use multiple static IPs or set VPNs would publish their findings and receommend the router that they used.

Why is this so difficult?

Peter

[adrianc]

Hi Peter,

In answer to your post...

Point 1

I have a working PPTP VPN with a Business Hub 3 so they most definitely do support VPN connections. I have also managed to set up a IPSec/L2TP VPN connection, but had to use pre-shared keys to get it to work. I believe that I could get key exchange to work as well, but Android has a bug that means I can't test it as yet.

To set up the PPTP connection you just use the pre-defined firewall rule, but you have to point it to the IP address rather than choose the device by name from the drop-down menu.

To get IPSec to work you need to turn off Openzone.

Point 2

The information is already on BT.com, along with screen shots: http://btbusiness.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/19138

Point 3

I refer you to the answer to Point 2.

Adrian