My BT Homehub 5 has a USB socket that I permanently have a pen drive connected to. I use this to backup a number of my files. How safe is this? On my computer the files are protected by firewall and anti- virus. On the router I do not know what protection there is ,if any, can anyone tell me what the situation is?
It has no protection other than the AV on the PC which would check files as it writes the best option is to save files to one drive or Google drive that way you can get them anywhere in the world
I have a HomeHub 4. Did you know the USB socket can easily power an external USB HDD? I have a 2TB one permanently plugged into mine.
Another 'did you know' for you - if you replace the pen drive with another one (or an HDD) the new device will be assigned the share name USB2, and further USB devices will be USB3, USB4, etc. Now put the original pen drive back in and it shows as USB1, the hub recognises each device it has seen before and retains its share name.
The pen drive you have plugged into the USB socket appears as the share USB1 on the internal network, only accessible through the hub's internal IP address 192.168.1.254. Open your Hub Manager, log in with the admin password and look at the Home Network page. Here you will see the USB is on the list of Wired Connections along with LAN1 to LAN4, it is protected by your hub's firewall just as any other PC with a wired connection would be.
It is also accessible to anyone who can connect to your router, there's no way to set a password to connect to the share. So if you haven't yet changed your WiFi password do so now. The default WiFi password supplied with the hub is unique to each hub, but it's widely known to always be a 10 digit hex number - too easy to crack with a brute force attack.
Last edited by Bree; 30 Aug 2017 at 07:35. Reason: added wifi password info
Thank you both for your replies. You have given me a lot of useful information and I am somewhat reassured that it is reasonably safe to continue using my router attached pen drive
Well my homehub 6 is totally secure - you cannot even see the flash drive! This is a common issue with HH6, and I called BT Support via chat and got a bunch of idiots who had no idea.
If you want to laugh, these guys make even MS Support look intelligent - LOL
AIKANTIKA DASGUPTA: Hello I’m AIKANTIKA DASGUPTA, thank you for chatting with BT. I’m reading your enquiry, please give me a few moments I’ll be back soon.
AIKANTIKA DASGUPTA: Thank you so much I will quickly go and investigate your issue,please give me 2 minutes
AIKANTIKA DASGUPTA: I am sorry to tell you that we will be able to help you with your land line and broadband ,the issue which you are facing is related to your pc
Martin: What nonsense, I can access usb drives on other routers. This is clearly an issue with your homehub box!"
AIKANTIKA DASGUPTA: USB Flash drive is a software that is installed in a system, so its not related to BT home hub. You need to again install that in your system.
Martin: You obviously have no idea what I am talking about, I have connected a flash drive to the usb port of the Homehub to use as network access. The drive works fine locally on my PC.
AIKANTIKA DASGUPTA: Flash Drive : a small electronic device containing flash memory that is used for storing data or transferring it to or from a computer, digital camera, etc.
Martin: Please put me in contact with somebody who is clever enough to undertand the basics of the router!
Martin: Well ?
AIKANTIKA DASGUPTA: Okay let me transfer the chat to my escalation handler.
Martin: Thank you.
Pranoy: Hello I’m Pranoy, thank you for chatting with BT. I’m reading your enquiry, please give me a few moments I’ll be back soon.
I may need to ask you for some further details, if you would like to use this time to grab the account number, the account holders full name, address and postcode that would be really helpful.
AIKANTIKA DASGUPTA has left the chat.
Martin: I have given all that
Pranoy: Okay. What I will do that I will replace the hub for you as you are facing issue with this router that you have. Will that be fine for you?
Martin: So are you saying hub is faulty ?
Martin: Information on web suggests it is a common issue - surely you have solutions.
Martin: Obviously, I am willing to try a new hub.
Pranoy: It might be as you have stated that the flash drive was working with other hubs so i will replace the hub for you.
Martin: So basically, you have no idea?
Martin: Is it any wonder BT Support gets a bad reputation?
They are sending me a new router.
Well, there may be other issues for the Hub6, but there's one sure way to loose sight of the USB on a Hub4 - that's to turn off SMB1 on your Windows 10 PC. As SMB1 is deprecated in the upcomming Fall Creators Update interesting times are ahead....
...oh, the other possible issue - the Hub6 is the first to have a USB3 port. It could be a factor, previous hubs were USB2.
additional: @cereberus, have you seen this?
https://community.bt.com/t5/Connecte...n/td-p/1661526Whilst fiddling around with settings over the weekend, I noticed that in the USB devices page of the hub manager, there was a line (file system I think it is called?) that looked like a path (\\api\[drive full name] so I used that as the path in windows to map a new network drive and it worked immediately!
Thanks but I tried all things like \\192.168.1.254\usb (usb is drive name, and share name), and the \\api\usb etc.
Tried turning on SMB1 as well, no dice.
Many have failed with the new HH6 - common belief it is a firmware bug.
Thanks anyway.
TBH is a crap router, and I am thinking of buying a vdsl router of my own.
I am not overly bothered about usb not working, as I can do it other ways.
I was so unimpressed by BT Support. Given where the techsupport is done from, they should be renamed IT Support and I do not mean I for Information ;-) - LOL
I sometimes browse the BT forums and I get the feeling a new (that works) firmware version has been released very recently.
The HH6 has had a terrible time and even the support teams on the forums basically suggest getting something else or 'upgrading' to an HH5.
My HH3 plus Open Reach modem has been stellar in performance with no real hiccup's or glitches at all.
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