BT Infinity Problems Establishing Connection

Question

Hello
I am a new customer with BT Infinity. I'm using the Home Hub with the Openreach modem (sorry, nothing on the device to say which model that I can see). I run Windows 7.
Initially the equipment was installed with the ethernet cable connecting to my PC, with wi-fi also active. I have no desire or need for wi-fi and have disabled it but the problem I'm experiencing applied to both set-ups.
The problem is that on booting up my PC the connection fails to establish, most of the time. The icon in the system tray displays the yellow ! triangle. I can't even explain with any logical sense how I manage to establish a connection.....I open  the Network & Sharing Center and click on the active network and see that it is set to Public, even tho I persistantly try to set it as Home. It reverts all the time. Sometimes, after a few minutes of clicking Home again the yellow ! goes away and it says "internet acceSs", exept there isn't net access, it simply fails to connect to any webpages. At this point, sometimes if I restart the machine the connection is active and will work. If I simply try waiting and doing nothing, in the hope that the connection finds itself, nothing happens at all.
I leave the Home Hub and Openreach modem permanently switched on at the power sockets as the engineer told me to switch them off could cause speed or connection problems. I do have to turn off my PC and this failure to reconnect problem is not consistant. Basically, sometimes when I boot up again it finds the line happily, other times (more often than not) I get this yellow ! triangle and several minutes of random poking in the Network Center and a reboot is what it takes to get an active line. Once the line is active it is smooth and stable, I don't have problems with the line speed or connection dropping out, it seems to only be the initial failure to establish.
I apologise for my very clumsy way in explaining this, as I lack the technical language to do so more clearly. If anyone has any idea what I'm trying to describe, or if I can look up any settings or info that would help, please ask. I really need to get this resolved as 10 minutes of mucking about and rebooting to get an active line is not acceptable, but ofc we're stuck in the contract so we have to make it work

Answer 1

Thanks Nige. My Network Centre calls the active network "Network 3 Home Network". In its settings, the Treat All... box has never been checked. Despite calling itself a "home network" the network location setting defaults to Public, no matter how often I click to try to make it Home.  Would it being Public or Home actually be a factor in the failure of the line to make the initial connection?
I'm not even sure Network is the correct designation for my set-up as it's basically the BT equipment and my PC, I have no other devices or computers linked to it.
I have no technical knowledge when it comes to setting up the net. But I do know my father also has BT Infinity, which he does use networked via wi-fi to his Mac and W7 laptop and he has never had this yellow ! warning on the system tray icon when booting up his laptop and aquiring the line.
When you say different port, excuse my ignorance but do you mean the end of ethernet cable that's in the HH? Or the cable from the wall socket to the HH? I'll look at the HH and see what can be switched when I'm done online tonight. Thank you for the suggestions.