Resetting Your BT Hub/Modem/Broadband
The internet is pretty much a standard home utility nowadays. It is used for work and play and by people of all ages, even those that are not particularly computer literate. Some of the biggest communications companies around provide internet services, with different packages to suit different needs and budgets. This includes British Telecom, perhaps the largest UK communications provider of all.
When you buy an internet package from British Telecom, you will receive what is known as a BT hub. It is basically a kind of router. This means that the hub is connected directly to your internet source and acts as a hub that distributes the internet to devices in your home. This is usually done through wi-fi, although LAN ports are available also if needed.
Frustrating Problems
As with any router or other internet equipment, however, things can go wrong at times. Not only that, but it can sometimes be seemingly impossible to fix them. How the internet works exactly, especially wi-fi, is usually quite a mystery to the layman. This can lead to frustrating times when there is no internet available, no matter how much you might need it. Many of us don’t have the time or the patience to wait for a technician to come to our homes and fix it for us.
Much of the time, such problems are self-inflicted in that they are caused when you go making changes to your BT hub. If this is the case, or if the settings of the hub are not right for some other reason, it can be easier to fix the problem than you might think. It could be that all you need to do is to reset the hub to factory setting and here we will explain how to do just that.
Undoing Your Changes
When you reset your BT Hub, you will be resetting it to the same settings it came with when it was first installed for you. This means that all of your changes will be done away with, most importantly those that are causing problems. This is a more dramatic solution than simply restarting the hub. It is recommended to try a simple restart first if you haven’t done so already.
Resetting Your Hub
The process of resetting your hub is actually quite straightforward. Regardless of which model hub you have, the reset button will be found on the back of the unit. It will be clearly labelled “Factory reset”, or just “reset”.
The actual button is found in a recess, meaning that you will need to use a pin, a paperclip or similar to press it down with. With the hub still turned on, press the button down and keep it pressed down for 20 seconds. After 20 seconds, the lights of your hub will go out and it will then restart. You will need to wait a few moments but eventually, the central power light of the hub will turn blue. This indicates that your hub is ready to use again.
Once the hub is ready to use again, your devices will then take you through the setup. Once that is complete, you should hopefully have full access to the internet again.
If this still does not work then it could be that you have experienced a technical problem involving your internet connection, or hardware such as the hub. You can consider calling BT for assistance or, alternatively, an IT support company that provides services to households.
