Top tips not the viz version

[tescorank]

So I had some computer guru around home and said why have you got that box plugged in, it’s a Bt hot spot so disconnected it and all of a sudden my internet more than doubled-seems a bit cheeky,

[jjones]

Looks like a modem. If you are not using that what are you using instead?

[tescorank]

Another box that was installed by Bt, why would they put in two?

[SCEtoAUX]

A few years ago a modem and seperate router would have been supplied by BT.

[LeadFarmer]

I remember having two boxes with our BT broadband.

[LooneyTunes]

Putting aside that what you’ve got there isn’t “a hot spot” it is worth being aware that BT certainly used to have their homehubs also offering a slice of airtime/bandwidth to general users as part of their public WiFi network.

You could turn it off in the settings (I think at the cost of then not being able to access the system yourself when out and about).

Looks like they still do this: https://www.btwifi.co.uk/

[Harpoon]

Original FTTC installs had one of those VDSL modems as standard and that plugged into the ISP router. Once ISPs updated their routers to include a VDSL chipset, the need for the dedicated modem was removed for most people. I've still got one behind my desk as it feeds a firewall appliance which only has Ethernet ports, so needs a VDSL modem.

AFAIK though, they (either the ECI or Huawei versions) never had any WiFi functionality so I'm not sure I'd describe the OPs visitor as a "guru". I'm also intrigued as to how removing this doubled Internet speeds.

[xeny]

LooneyTunes said:

Looks like they still do this: https://www.btwifi.co.uk/

They also offer this as a service the sell to business to provide employee access. Bandwidth is quite heavily throttled though in my experience.

[spitfire-ian]

Harpoon said:

Original FTTC installs had one of those VDSL modems as standard and that plugged into the ISP router. Once ISPs updated their routers to include a VDSL chipset, the need for the dedicated modem was removed for most people. I've still got one behind my desk as it feeds a firewall appliance which only has Ethernet ports, so needs a VDSL modem.

AFAIK though, they (either the ECI or Huawei versions) never had any WiFi functionality so I'm not sure I'd describe the OPs visitor as a "guru". I'm also intrigued as to how removing this doubled Internet speeds.

This.

If it was connected into the phone line along with the OP's other router, they essentially had two connections on one phone line which I would think may have affected the speeds somewhat.

[paulrockliffe]

Harpoon said:

Original FTTC installs had one of those VDSL modems as standard and that plugged into the ISP router. Once ISPs updated their routers to include a VDSL chipset, the need for the dedicated modem was removed for most people. I've still got one behind my desk as it feeds a firewall appliance which only has Ethernet ports, so needs a VDSL modem.

AFAIK though, they (either the ECI or Huawei versions) never had any WiFi functionality so I'm not sure I'd describe the OPs visitor as a "guru". I'm also intrigued as to how removing this doubled Internet speeds.

I bought one of those when my BT HomeHub turned out to be a pile of ste, I started using a router with no modem built in and the internet said these were the best VDSL modems still.

[anonymoususer]

The OP's guru is a moron.

That was a modem that was supplied with many installations
As a poster above has mentioned they were and are bloody good. I think they cap off at a 100mbps speed via the ethernet port (can't swear to that)

[rxe]

Is it possible to bin the router in BT installations (the black box that does WIFI) and plug the output from the white box straight into an existing gateway? At the moment. I have white box -> black box -> UniFi USG -> Switch which seems to be overkill.

[Harpoon]

rxe said:

Is it possible to bin the router in BT installations (the black box that does WIFI) and plug the output from the white box straight into an existing gateway? At the moment. I have white box -> black box -> UniFi USG -> Switch which seems to be overkill.

Yes. This is setup I have with white box (VDSL modem) feeding straight into my firewall.

You'll need to setup the WAN port on the USG as a PPPoE and put appropriate credentials in (though I have a memory BT will accept anything in there).