Comments on: BT Home Hub - There was an error joining the Airport network

By: Terry Hamill

Terry Hamill — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 16:16:15 +0000

I cant thank you enough for your simple help, you dserve everything you get in life thank you thank you thank you xxx

By: yasser

yasser — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 22:43:51 +0000

I have got a problem, and I will be grateful if you can help me sorting it out
5 am a macbook user for more than 18 months
Ever since i am using the bt homehub without experiencing any problems to access the net wirelessly
it is fast and reliable specially that we are using another windows based laptop at home
the problem started 3-4 weeks ago when i kept losing the connection on the macbook book every now and then and i have to click on the airport icon and select my router name every few minutes
I am sure that it is something related to bt software update
the apple guys assured that it is not a macbook problem
I ve contacted the bt tech guys several times but no help till now
it is very frustrating
Can someone out there help please
Thank you

By: Nice Paul

Nice Paul — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 11:46:03 +0000

@Terry - Glad this helped out and solved your problem!

@yasser - I had a similar problem a while back, but it seems to have fixed itself. I’m not particularly techie minded, but there are loads of helpful Apple geeks over in the Apple support forums - if you post your question there I’m sure you’ll find an answer.

By: Nige

Nige — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 20:05:12 +0000

Yasser,

Try going into your homehub wireless configuration and changing the channel number.

I experienced similar problems with my homehub and MacBook Pro - I’d get a connection sometimes, but it was weak, and kept dropping. My Vaio wireless connection was fine. In the end I used iStumbler to find out how many other wireless networks were around (2 or 3), at least one nearby also operating on Ch.1. I changed channel to 5, and the performance was transformed - solid connections, strong signal, no dropping. It might work for you too.

By: Joe

Joe — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 16:47:34 +0000

@Yasser

My friend has the exact same problem with his MacBook and BT Home Hub. I took my MacBook over and it’s doing the same thing, whereas both MacBooks are fine at my house.

I reckon it’s a problem with the Home Hub rather than all MacBooks, but as they’ve had it for over a year BT are saying they won’t replace it and they have to buy a new one!

I gave them a wireless router I had spare, though the Hub Phone won’t work now.

I suppose the way to try it would be to have a long conversation on the Hub Phone, keeping an eye on the Airport status. If it disconnects the phone at the same time, then you’ll know it’s the hub.

Good luck!

By: kadeeae

kadeeae — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 17:46:30 +0000

Thanks SO much for posting this!

Extreme newbie to Macs and couldn’t connect to the BT hub at all. Tried your trick and worked first time. Thanks again!

By: Laura

Laura — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 11:57:34 +0000

Gah! We have now ceremoniously binned our BT Home Hub - Alex couldn’t get a connection at all, and we checked channels etc. That was with a PC, my PC is fine. I think its just rather shonky all round.

By: Scotty

Scotty — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 18:53:41 +0000

@ Yasser

I have exactly the same problem and have had for around 1 month now.

I’ve been connecting wirelessly to the BT Home Hub on my MacBook since last January with no problems however BT updated the firmware recently and now my connections keeps dropping and I have to recheck my network from the airport drop down. Its very, very frustrating. There is no problem with the MacBook as I’ve just been connected for 8 hours solid at work on another network.

I’ve been searching for a fix for a while now to no avail.

Good luck

By: Alex

Alex — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 21:59:16 +0000

This trick is amazing. You saved me hours of work. THANK YOU!!!!

By: yasser

yasser — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 18:14:04 +0000

I must admit, I have been using BT Broadband wireless connection without any problems for a long period of time.
I am not quite sure what is going on with them nowadays.
There must be something that is seriously wrong.
I hope that they will rectify themselves soon, otherwise ………mmm
well I am not quite sure what i am going to do.
any Ideas out there, other than to bang my head in the wall (Coz it hurts)

Yasser

By: Ian

Ian — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 13:02:23 +0000

Fantastic,
I’ve spent a frustrating Christmas day and Boxing day trawling the BT site for clues as to why my son’s Mac wouldn’t connect wirelessly. Thanks for the $ tip.

By: William

William — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 06:39:16 +0000

thanks so much the dollar sign works! My Internet connection just dropped out but my iPhone still connected to home hub weird? But your trick worked a treat genius!

By: benbrook

benbrook — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 18:01:46 +0000

Hi everyone…i know this sucks but in a way its comforting to know im not the only one with problems. I rang up BT they changed the channel of my internet to 9 from 11
it worked….for 5 hours
same problems started occuring again…..rang them next day they changed channel to 7….works fine wait 15 hours later wireless wont even find mac….im actually on hooold as im typing this to right now. sanita waaas a great help though i must say

By: Nicholas

Nicholas — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 20:28:39 +0000

Worked a trick for me as well. iPhone was having no issue at all. Many thanks Paul for posting this.

By: benbrook

benbrook — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 13:55:58 +0000

I posted a few days ago. They have fixed the problem it seems to be working for well over a day now…ring them up….if your’re using a mca ask for the mca department…then tell them you want to restore hub to factory defaults….then they mess about and then it works fine.

By: Lynne

Lynne — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 22:52:47 +0000

Thank you - I spent 3 frustrating hours trying to connect, but adding the $ prefix solved the problem straight away.

By: andy pandy

andy pandy — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 15:11:29 +0000

YYYYYEEEESSSSSSS!!

Thank you. I was sitting on the phone to the BT helpline for about half an hour before i thought to search the web for a fix. So simple, BT are as useful as a chocolate teapot.

Thank you again.

By: Andy

Andy — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 10:04:03 +0000

Dude,

You are the man !!! Who would ever have guessed ?
Thanks for sharing this.

By: Peter Chilvers

Peter Chilvers — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 20:59:12 +0000

I can’t believe that adding a dollar sign worked. Thank you for posting that, that’s so incredibly helpful!

Cheers,

Peter

By: Katie

Katie — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 22:48:16 +0000

Genius!!!

I have full-fat wireless signal.

By: Jonathan

Jonathan — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 00:47:27 +0000

thanks so much…very very very helpful!

By: Katie

Katie — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 06:18:08 +0000

The BT website has now got this information in its support pages. Finally.

By: Stuart Kidd

Stuart Kidd — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 10:45:10 +0000

So far so good - finally I can watch BBC’s iPlayer properly on my Mac!

By: Layla

Layla — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 14:32:10 +0000

Oh my goodness. I have been slaving over this problem for the past few hours and unbelievably, your solution worked. I am so relieved. Thank-you for your ingenious advice. How you happened upon this nugget of gold I have no clue. Well done.

By: Nick

Nick — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 00:26:54 +0000

Wonderful! Works a treat for O2 broadband in the UK as well. Great job fella - the rest of the interweb drew a blank.
Cheers friend. N

By: K Jalali

K Jalali — Mon, 05 May 2008 12:42:32 +0000

Brilliant. Saved me loads of time.

By: Andi

Andi — Thu, 08 May 2008 11:00:34 +0000

wow, that is so brilliant, it works! But why?

By: Andi

Andi — Thu, 08 May 2008 11:01:22 +0000

p.s iphone worked for me too!!

By: lukey and jessie

lukey and jessie — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 21:30:31 +0000

aaaaaaaaaaaaaamazing. thank you thank you

By: Charly

Charly — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 21:30:37 +0000

I’m using a MacBook pro which connects fine using the BT Homehub (as does my iPhone) but my MacBook won’t connect. I’ve tried the dollar trick but when I put a dollar I cannot then type in some of the keys on my password (eg it won’t accept the ‘r’ or ‘u’ but does accept the ‘c)’. Can anyone help please? I don’t have the patience to make another call to BT. Thanks