BT Broadband Extender Flex 500 Kit

Question

I have purchased the Flex 500 kit and the Hotspot 500, I don't currently have the WiFi hotspot in use, bu I do have 3 Extenders plugged in. Extender 1 is next to my BT Hub 4 and the BT Fibre to the home modem box, its connected by LAN cable to the H4. Extender 2 is in the same room plugged in to a wall socket but does not have a LAN cable connecting it to the anything yet. Extender 3 is upstairs and is the one I am trying to use. The LAN connection from Extender 3 connects to a laptop (different laptops same issue) and Win7 connects to the H4 but does not connect to the internet, the Win7 Network and Sharing display shows the BT H4 as connected and has an X on the outgoing link to the Internet. If I switch on the laptop WiFi the Win7 network and Sharing display shows everything is fine. So having the luxury of two laptops I am able to prove that at the same time the BT H4 has a working Internet connection if connected by WiFi and does not have a working Internet connection if using the BT Extender LAN connection. All the lights on the Extender plugs are correctly illuminated green. I also have a Laptop connected directly by LAN cable to the H4 and that works fine. By resetiing both Extender plugs, rebooting the Laptop, using Win7 network troubleshooter its sometimes possible to resolve the problem but it always returns it can be hours later, 10 minutes later or when I next power up or unhibernate the laptop. What is also very odd is that I cannot even get to the BT H4 using the URL via the LAN cable when it shows as connected to the H4 and not connected to the internet. Win7 troubleshooter when it doesn't fix the problem (most of the time) replies that it is a DNS resolution issue. Anyone else had this problem.? By reset the BT Extender 'plugs

Answer 1

I am having problems with my Wi-Fi Home Hotspot 500 kit and have to write this on a laptop connected by Wi-Fi to the Home Hub 3 – This is where I am at:
I plugged in both units, and both showed green lights throughout – however, firstly although 2 Android devices and an iPod, which have worked perfectly wirelessly via the Home Hub 3, immediately picked up the BTHomeSpot-6FP none of them would connect despite the Wireless light clearly showing green, nor could I gain internet access on the cabled PC, despite the data light on both units showing green.
A check on BT Hub Manager via this laptop showed on “Home Network – Devices” the two Android devices, the iPod, and the PC all “connected on the “Physical connections” path, but none had Internet connectivity.
I spoke to the Product Support staff on 0808 100 6116  about my problem, and all they did was to put me through to India, where of course they couldn’t assist as my Broadband/Infinity was working perfectly, apart from via my Hot Spot kit!! All they could then offer was the number of the “Wi-Fi Hot Spot Call Centre” but of course this is for commercial BT Wi-Fi Hot Spots and not my kit – the staff member was very helpful as he has the Home Hotspot 500 kit himself, and we ran through some diagnostics, but with no success!
I then looked on the BT Community Forum and noticed this piece about potential problems with 2 wiring loops - https://community.bt.com/t5/Other-Broadband-Querie​s/BT-Broadband-Extender-Flex-500-Kit/m-p/1225997/h​... where it states “you have 2 wiring loops in your home (i.e. two fuse boxes)? If so the adaptors will have problems as they run best on a single loop.”   I do have an extension on my property, with a second fuse box, but I never had a problem with my BT Infinity service and connection from this room until now, going right back to the old "dial up" days, and obviously I cannot rewire my property to a single wiring loop!!
I contacted the BT Connected Home Helpdesk, and they offered:
“Please try resetting the Hot Spot 500 Kit as follows. Press and hold the Link button on the Extender Flex for 15 seconds (until all the lights go out momentarily). Push a pin in the reset hole on the Hotspot for 1 second (the Wireless light will go red).Once the Data light on both units has come back on check the connection to your devices again.”
However, although I followed the instructions (again) as I had already tried that I am still having connectivity problems, despite all of the green lights showing on both the extender and the hotspot!
On Thursday the kit worked for about 4 hours from switch on, and then ceased - despite all the green lights being on - so I followed the advice again, and gained access again for several hours. Then it cut off again, and despite green lights, resets and reboots absolutely nothing at all.
When it does work, it appears either as "Network 4" or "Unidentified Network" in the "Network and Sharing Center" on the Ethernet connected PC - can I do anything about this at all, and is a reset the official answer even if it fails with all green lights showing?
Also, a check on Hub Manager, via this laptop, shows both the PC and the hotspot as connected, in "physical connections" when plainly no data passes through!
On Friday I was connected to the internet for about fifteen minutes in the morning, then nothing all day, and it finally came back about 20.00 and was on until I switched off the PC about 22.30, and the Wi-Fi from the hotspot also allowed an iPod to connect – today (Saturday) absolutely no connection at all, despite green lights for everything showing on both units.
The  Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit “Network and Sharing Center” page either shows the Hotspot Ethernet cabling as “Network 4” the old name for my network, or “Unidentified Network”, and can show the network as connected to the internet and at the same time not allow any website to open – or when the intermittent signal causes them to stop working the only way back is to restart – which is frustrating as well as time consuming – so if they drop out how can I reconnect service without a restart?!
I e-mailed the BT Connected Home Helpdesk again because of the continued problem, sending them screen prints showing:
All lights on both units are showing green, as they have all day - and the Home Hub clearly shows the hot spot and the Ethernet cabled PC as connected - but the screen print from the Ethernet cabled pc shows No internet Access.
For the Hub Manager to read the pc as "connected" it must be working through my house wiring to obtain this data, and presumably the same applies for it to read the hot spot kit, so data is obviously passing on the reverse path back to the hub for Hub Manager to read it.
But this doesn't explain why I still have no web connectivity - this also still applies to trying to connect Android and Apple products via the hot spot kit, even though the initial data giving BTHomeSpot-6FP appears on their relevant set-up screens
Another problem that I get occasionally is the data light on the Extender Flex being off, despite it being connected straight from the Home Hub, and I would have expected at least that piece working (it is using the new Ethernet cable supplied with the kit).
So far they haven’t replied!!
Sorry about the length of this, but I am totally fed up with the lack of connectivity.
many thanks in anticipation
Allan