Loss of Ethernet with BT Home Hub 5

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Level 1

11 points

Loss of Ethernet with BT Home Hub 5

I've just upgraded from BT Home Hub 4 to 5 ahead of having fibre optic broadband and have lost the ability to connect to the internet via my TP-Link AV500 powerline plugs. They worked fine with my Mac Mini (with El Capitan) and HH4. Now, while all the lights on the plug are green, the bottom one doesn't flash indicating that while there is a network nothing is being forwarded to the computer. On my Mac I have the message "Ethernet has a self-assigned IP address and will not be able to connect to the Internet." Meantime wireless is working though because of my circumstances it's a very poor signal and I need an Ethernet connection. Can anyone help please?

Mac Mini, Mac OS X (10.6.2)

Posted on Feb 27, 2016 5:50 AM

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Answer 1

my ginger

Level 5

4,928 points

Feb 27, 2016 9:03 AM in response to mikethebook

How are you connected between the two? Are you using ethernet or by way of wifi then ethernet to the computer? You say the wifi works ,but has a poor signal. Is there a lot of wifi in the area you live that interferes with yours? Have you set the router to display the 5GHZ and the 2.4GHZ to display separately. Normally if you use ethernet the Mac computer will assign the IP address without you doing anything. When you go to system preferences/ network. You should -under ethernet- have location as automatic.In advanced the IP address should be your computer Ip as assigned by the BT. Router should be the BT IP address under TCP/IP. If a problem Click on renew DHCP lease. DNS should be the one for the BT.

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Answer 2

mikethebook Author

Level 1

11 points

Mar 2, 2016 8:26 AM in response to my ginger

Hi,

Sorry for the delay in replying. Wifi doesn't work well because the house has thick internal stone walls and there's no easy place to plug in anything to aid the signal. And wireless has never been great on my Mac Mini since I started tinkering around inside to upgrade the hard drive and RAM.In any case I want to connect through Ethernet cables, with no Wifi involved. I have separated the two channels since I understand from elsewhere that my TP-Link powerline plugs will not handle the 802.11ac 5GHz channel from the BT5 Hub. Connecting wirelessly to 2.4 and 5GHz individually has borne that theory out but how that separation affects a wired Ethernet signal I don't know. I've just bought a 40ft Ethernet cable to test out a direct connection between the BT Hub and my computer and, as you suggest, everything sorts itself out automatically using DHCP. No problem, though the cable is not a convenient permanent solution. But as soon as I go back to using the powerline plugs, the Network preferences get messed up and my Mac ends up setting its own ip address which doesn't work obviously. Can't help wondering if the fact that the plugs won't run 5GHz 802.11ac is the problem but I'm clueless.

Mike

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Answer 3

my ginger

Level 5

4,928 points

Mar 2, 2016 10:49 AM in response to mikethebook

You are using a Mac Mini? If you are on wifi next to the modem/router, do you get a good signal? I had to do research on the powerline plug. So, you are trying to use the home wiring as a conduit for ethernet? Does this mean you have the powerline plug plus an adapter also? As to 2.4GHZ and 5 GHZ. this only works for wifi as ethernet is direct. I remember years ago that there used to be a wall plug/ antenna for TV reception. Is your setup to the powerline plug by ethernet and then the powerline adapter is to the computer by ethernet? Supposedly this can be setup to use wifi also.With the other tp link acting as an extenderhttp://images10.newegg.com/UploadFilesForNewegg/itemintelligence/TPLINK/TL_WPA42 20KIT_EU_V1_QIG_7106514014 Are you able to use the software disk that came with it to do anything? Apparently you need the software setup disk to configure. I can find nothing for setup or Mac computers. http://www.tp-link.com/resources/document/TL-WPA4220KIT(EU_V1_User_Guid.pdf

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Answer 4

mikethebook Author

Level 1

11 points

Mar 3, 2016 3:58 AM in response to my ginger

It would mean a lot of hassle to set up my Mac Mini next to the router. Please just forget wireless. It works with the 2.4GHz band but badly which is why I've used, successfully, powerline plugs with no problems until now. I want to use the mains wiring for connection rather than any kind of extender. The disk is not a setup disk as such but a user guide. For whatever reason, the powerline plugs do not recognise or do not work with the BT Home Hub 5 when they did with Home Hub 4.

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Answer 5

my ginger

Level 5

4,928 points

Mar 3, 2016 1:00 PM in response to mikethebook

Do you connect to the internet using dynamic DNS or manual? Do you know the ip address of the router? What happens if you click on Renew DHCP Lease in ethernet, advances, TCP/IP. Is the router ip showing under router in TCP/IP. Are all fields populated in TCP/IP. Here is a trouble shoot for no connection. http://www.tp-link.us/faq-392.html

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Answer 6

mikethebook Author

Level 1

11 points

Mar 5, 2016 9:38 AM in response to my ginger

After two weeks of messing around and using so much time, I can't believe how simple (and stupid on my part) the solution was. The BT instructions came with nothing about homeplugs and I plugged mine in to the red LAN socket on the back (which seemed reasonable) rather than one of the yellow sockets. It was probably about 167 on my list of things to try . . . but, at last, everything works properly. It probably didn't help having flu in the midst of it all. Thanks for your input. What a couple of weeks!!

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