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How to exit or disable bridge mode (Business Smart Hub)

kelper
Guru

How to disable bridge mode

 

After experimenting with bridge mode I wanted to enable the router again.

But there is no obvious way to do this unless you have a router connected to the hub.

The hub’s DHCP server is disabled, so when you connect a laptop by ethernet to one of the hub’s LAN ports, it does not pick up an IP. So you can’t access 192.168.1.254 in the usual way.

The way round is to go into the ethernet adapter settings and allocate a static IP of 192.168.1.1.

Then connect to one of the hub’s LAN ports. Now you can access the hub’s web page and revert the bridge setting.

 

In Windows you go to the ethernet adapter properties and select ‘Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4)’ then properties and then under ‘use the following IP address’ - enter 192.168.1.1 and then enter 255.255.255.0 in the ‘subnet mask’.  Click OK.

If you find you can’t connect over wifi, just turn the hub off for ten seconds and restart it (don’t reset it!).

13 REPLIES 13

kelper
Guru

But I said that hours ago!  Is it possible you misread my last two posts?  Anyway, I hope it's sorted now.

kelper
Guru

You did misunderstand what I was trying to convey. 🙂  I said it passed DNS, DHCP meaning it disabled them and passed those tasks on to your router, I'm sorry if that was unclear.  I see now that I wrote, "will pass all DHCP, DNS and routing over to your hub."  I will correct "your hub" to "your router".  My mistake.

GlynH
Member

Thanks for correcting & clarifying that kelper. I was beginning to think I was reading a parallel thread in a parallel universe! 🙂

 

Just to follow up on my own experience with this I decided to put the router into Bridge Mode and plug the WAN2 port of my DrayTek 2860 Vn+ into a port on the rear of the SH2.

 

I used both a generic username of green-light@service.btclick.com with password of BT and it connected after rebooting the DrayTek and worked as expected so all good there. I also ended up changing the credentials to my BT supplied username of Mxxxxxx@xxx.btclick.com and my assigned password and that also connected as expected.

 

I was hoping to be able to still utilise some of the SH2 as a hub using one or more of the ports on the back but they had all but been disabled by switching it into Bridge Mode. It seems as if setting it for Bridge Mode does really shut everything down as the SH2 doesn't even see the Hybrid Connect device any more either and I'm guessing that the VoIP handset (which I'm still waiting for BT to supply) probably won't work if it was plugged into the SH2 either which is a real pity.

 

So that got me thinking...if that is the case why even bother having two dumb boxes hanging off the ONT if they are doing nothing so I disconnected the BT supplied kit and plugged in the ethernet cable from the DrayTek directly into the ONT and Bingo! it connected and seemed to work as normal although its early days yet and my network is anything but a 'normal' home network.

 

The fact that I was able to retain the DrayTek and it just kept working has saved me a huge network reconfiguration exercise so I am grateful for that.

 

I don't seem too have any BT DNS issues threatening to upset my Pi-hole installation either although its still early days so we shall see how things settle down.

 

Something that did surprise me though; My router is old now having been superceded by three newer models and I was worried about throughput as the firewall is rated at 300Mbps which is only a third of my connection speed not allowing for overhead. This caused me to order a 2866Vac ready to replace the 2860Vn+ but a cabled connection to any of the three switches connected by fibre to my main switch and then onto the existing router shows a download speed of 918Mbps with 111Mbps upload so I am left wondering whether I really need the newer 2866 especially as I don't use my router as a WAP already having three of those.

 

I did order an AP960C as my WAP's are also getting long in the tooth and work up to a maximum of 802.11ac so a newer ax/Wi-Fi 6 WAP should make a difference.

 

I was seeing @130Mbps on my iPhone connected to one of the AP910C WAP's but connecting it to the 960C saw it tap out at 450Mbps which although three times faster was still half of the 900Mbps I was expecting to see.

 

Status of the 960 indicate it is connected at 1080-1.2Gbps and my iPhone is Wi-Fi 6 capable so I would have expected to see something closer to the maximum speed even allowing for overhead but I will take this up with DrayTek to see what if anything can be done.

 

All in all then not a bad result apart from losing my CVE which I fought so hard for in retaining my telephone number of 50+ years. <sigh>

 

Bringing this back full circle I guess I should get into the unused SH2 and disable Bridge Mode to make things easy if I ever have the need to reconnect it again in the future.

 

Hope that helps somebody if they might stumble across this thread looking for info in the future.

 

Regards,

-=Glyn=-

kelper
Guru

Does your Smart Hub have a red WAN port and three, yellow LAN ports?  The WAN port can be configured as a LAN.  See this https://community.bt.com/t5/BT-Devices/Smart-hub-2-wan-port/td-p/2197385

Or search this forum for Smart Hub 2 WAN.