BT Infinity on Linux

I recently upgraded to BT infinity and being a Linux user didn't know whether the new BT Home Hub 3 router would offer the same flexibility as my previous router, a Linksys Wireless-G ADSL Home Gateway.

Fortunately the functionality I required under Linux from the Linksys router is largely replicated on the BT Home Hub 3. You don't need a Windows or Mac disk to install anything, everything can be configured under a Linux-enabled browser such as Opera.

Dynamic DNS is supported, currently the router offers DynDNS, NoIP and DtDNS.

The Infinity router also allows port forwarding, although the way it is implemented is a bit awkward. You can't assign the same port to more than one device. Say, for instance, you exchange files with a smartphone using FTP on port 21, you can't assign 21 to another device (e.g. the PC from which you access the router). If you try, the Home Hub 3 will throw up an error. Fortunately there is a workaround. The router has a number of pre-configured port settings for games and applications including FTP and SSH. Under the "supported applications" tab within "port forwarding" (all under "advanced settings") you can Add a new game or application, so for the smartphone example you could add an entry for "FTP smartphone" and assign a port such as 2121 to the device. This can create additional work on Linux because you may have to change configuration files in order to associate a port number with a service, for instance you have to change /etc/ssh/sshd_config on SUSE for  SSH. A custom rule may also be required for the firewall. This is irksome but manageable, and once the port settings are configured the router seems to forward the relevant ports OK.

On balance the Home Hub seems a decent upgrade in terms of speed, about 22 MB/sec download where I am and around 4 MB/sec upload, an enormous improvement on copper-based ADSL where I could only scrape 2MB/sec download. From a Linux perspective, I haven't found any major issues with it although it's always worth bearing in mind that BT expect customers using Linux to set up their own Internet connections (as BT's own Web site makes clear). Some Linux users seem to have difficulty, particularly with certain distributions. I have always found knetworkmanager a user-friendly way of managing wireless connections under Linux.