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How to turn the "smart" Hub 2 into a router for multiple servers

kevcursor
Member

I've just changed my broadband from another supplier and have a question about the "smart" Hub 2 box I was sent.

 

Background: I have one server which is configured with IPs, x.x.x.1 and x.x.x.2, and a second machine configured to use x.x.x.3.  All IPs are valid and in my range, and are just x'd out for security. All IP assignments were done on the servers themselves.

 

Question:  Is there any way to disable the firewall so all of the IPs can receive unsolicited traffic, with security handled by the machines themselves?  I switched the firewall off in the hub but it seems to still block (or neglect to route) incoming traffic anyway.  For giggles I jumped through some hoops to set up port forwarding as if I had a home router and only one IP.  I told it to route ports 1-65535 to ports 1-65535 (TCP/UDP) on one of the IPs.  That works fine to bypass the firewall, but then I don't get to set up for the others as I've used all of the ports.  Ugh.  What if I have port 80/443/whatever open on more than one IP?

 

I disconnected the second server to concentrate on the one that has two IPs so I could get my head around this, as the whole "IP reservation" system is a whole other can of worms to work out.  I'm starting to think I got sent a Home Hub designed for a single IP address instead of a business one designed with multiple IPs in mind.  I'm sure it's great for that.

 

If anyone can point me to the super-secret "just route all traffic from and to the connected IPs" option, it would be greatly appreciated.  The "smart" stuff is just getting in the way so I'd like to disable it all.  I could stick it in bridge mode and use a normal router but I'd most likely lose the main BT selling point (4G failover) by doing so.

 

Thanks for your time.  I did look on Google (for ages), but questions that seemed to be on the right track ended with messages like "you need to be on that BT Smart Hub forum instead of this one," or whatever, and then the trail went cold with no answer or follow-on link to follow.  I hope I found the right place to ask about this device.

11 REPLIES 11

David_at_TMTI
Member

Thanks, I have just posed almost the same question. I will be removing the Fisher Price "smart" hub and replacing it with a Vigor 2860 that I have lying around

kevcursor
Member

That's pretty much what a BT Engineer suggested to me, yes.  Unfortunately the solution to replace the hub with a router won't hold up when it comes time to switch to cloud voice as that appears to only work with the BT hub.  You'll also lose the 4G failover if you paid the extra for that package.  I'll ping you if I hear anything new on this.