Review: Bell Home Hub 4000
As part of my upgrade to Bell Fibe 1.5 Gbps Internet, I got the Bell Home Hub 4000 (HH4000) modem/router which I have at times referred to as the “Whole Home 4000” for reasons that I will get to in a bit. This is a modem that is designed to fully leverage the speed that Bell offers with their Fibre To The Home (FTTH) product. Now I’ll say right up front that you don’t have to run this as a modem/router as it has the ability to do PPPoE bypass if you want to use your own router. Instructions on how to do that can be found here. But most people who get this will run it as a modem/router. Let’s walk through the Home Hub 4000:
Here’s the Home Hub 4000 from the front. I will comment that this is not small but it looks good. It will fit into any decor. The black strip at the bottom has a panel that shows you all sorts of information. Such as the status of your Bell services. You can use the arrow keys to scroll through everything. You can even do a speed test via this panel. One bonus is that you can change the brightness level so that if you have this in your bedroom or something, the brightness doesn’t keep you awake at night.
There’s a USB-C and USB-A port on the left side. It supports the use of storage devices but not printers from what I can see. I stand to be corrected on that. Thus if anybody has this working with printers, please leave a comment below and let me know.
The back is where most of the magic is. The two green ports are for Bell’s phone service which in my case I am using. The four yellow ports are gigabit Ethernet for wired networking. And the silver port is a 10Gbps Ethernet port which I am using to connect to my ASUS ZenWiFi AX XT8. The thing that caused a bit of a stir in places like DSLReports.com was the what the fiber cable (the white cable with the green end) connects to. There’s an SFP port there and it is built into the modem. Bell’s previous modems had a removable SFP module which allowed you to pull it out of their hardware and plug it straight into your gear as long as you have gear that locks to 2.5 Gbps on the SFP port. Meaning that you didn’t have to use Bell hardware at all. But I am guessing Bell made that change in the HH4000 because they really want to force you to use their gear and try to lock you into using their services.
There’s a reset button on the right side.
From a WiFi perspective, it does WiFi 6 on the 5Ghz band and on the 2.4 Ghz band it does 802.11 b/g/n. You can serve everything up on one SSID or WiFi name so that you can let the router decide which band to connect to. Or you can split it into separate bands (which is what I typically suggest to clients). The range that I get is decent. From my testing in my 800+ square foot condo, it covers about 2/3 of the distance of my ASUS ZenWiFi AX XT8 covers which is okay. But if you need more coverage, Bell can rent you Whole Home WiFi Pods to extend your range. It’s also why I mistakenly referred to the HH4000 and the “Whole Home 4000” in the past. One thing that I should note is is that when you use their pods, the speeds are capped relative to the speed of the HH4000.
Let me point out one other thing, there’s a hidden third WiFi 6 band that Bell uses for their Fibe TV hardware that you cannot disable as there are no options to do so. Also, if you turn off all the WiFi on the HH4000, they will turn back on if you reboot the HH4000. That’s a total #fail as this can potentially cause issues in terms of the quality of your WiFi as it could cause interference. Bell really needs to give you to option to turn these off and leave them off.
Setup is easy as you can log into the HH4000 directly or use the Bell WiFi App which is available for iOS and Android. While the configuration options are limited, they are easy to find and set. And Bell does a good job of documenting what all the options do. In fact, they do a lot better job of documenting this stuff than companies like Netgear and ASUS.
One final thing that I should note. Bell has another version of this modem/router that has the word “Gigabit” on the front of it that they are rolling out quietly. This modem is for the 8Gbps FTTH service that Bell has announced recently and the only difference that I am aware of is that it supports WiFi 6E. Why is that important. The theoretical maximum speed of WiFi 6 is 10Gbps. But I would seriously doubt that you would ever see those speeds in the real world. The “Gigabit” version of this modem which supports WiFi 6E uses the 6Ghz band, which means that you will be more likely to see those speeds as there should be less traffic for the router and your devices to deal with. The catch is that your devices have to support WiFi 6E for this to matter to you. And there aren’t a whole lot of devices that support WiFi 6E at present. So this appears to be more future proofing on the part of Bell as the version of modem/router can support that 8Gbps service just fine.
Here’s my bottom line. If you are someone who uses the gear supplied by your ISP, the Home Hub 4400 is a pretty good piece of kit. Most of my complaints are edge cases that are only relevant to nerds like me and don’t affect the average person. There’s a ton of headroom here for what you need today and tomorrow as Bell rolls out faster and faster services, or what your household needs evolves over time. I walk away from this review impressed with what I see here for the most part.
August 15, 2022 at 3:27 pm
[…] let’s look at Bell. Starting with the view from the Bell HH4000 modem which you get if you sign up with Bell […]
September 7, 2022 at 9:09 am
I have had an issue with the Bell 4000 not answering telephone calls from older copper customers. This seems to becomming more common and has been going on since June 2022, and Bell keeps delaying a resolution until now October 2022.. have you heard of this issue.
September 7, 2022 at 9:39 am
I personally have not heard this and I have not experienced this either. But I did hunt through my records and the only thing that comes anywhere near what you are describing is a customer who had this issue after an install from copper to fibre. But that was 2 years ago and I am certain that the issues that this client had were in relation to the install.
September 10, 2022 at 12:29 am
I am the average guy but appreciate the time and information that you shared with us keep up the good work
September 10, 2022 at 8:50 am
Thank you. I appreciate it.
October 5, 2022 at 5:35 pm
Moving into a new build house at the end of the month where I’m getting Bells 1.5g fiber service installed.
I have 2 sets of the Asus XT8 routers ready to go. Funny seeing them mentioned in your review. What I’m trying to figure out now is how to setup my gear optimally where I take advantage of all the speed I have available.
My house will have CAT6 wiring to two of the floors and those cables will be connected to a set of the Asus routers. Then I will have the additional two routers using the Wireless Backhaul option. I don’t want the Bell router to be transmitting wifi or doing DHCP routing but I also want the 10G port to be utilized on it for my servers. I’ll probably pick up a switch that has 2.5g ports on it and connect everything up to it so I at least get that speed on local wired connections.
Nice review.
October 5, 2022 at 8:56 pm
Thank you for the kudos.
Using a wired backhaul will get you very good performance. It also gives you the option of either going all ASUS with a NAT setup or PPPoE setup (I’d go for the former) or simply using the access points for WiFi and turning off the routing function inside the XT8. Your limiting factor is that you only have 1 x 2.5 Gbps port and a bunch of Gigabit Ethernet ports. Thus each node will be limited to 1 Gbps max. Though I would be really surprised if your WiFi speeds get near that. So it might be okay. I cannot see how a switch would help you in that situation as one of those XT8 nodes would have to do the routing for the other three. Thus I am assuming that if you were to go the switch route, you’re having the Bell hardware do the routing. Is that what you were thinking?
October 13, 2022 at 10:46 am
[…] of the things that came with my recent Bell Install is was the Home Hub 4000 (AKA: HH4000) hardware, which I have effectively bypassed by using first this method and then this method to do it. But […]
October 25, 2022 at 10:30 pm
Anyone know where I can find the user manual for this unit? (the remote control has extra functions like double-clicking)
January 11, 2023 at 10:01 am
Did anyone ever figure this out? I cannot for the life of me find a manual on the Bell site or online?
November 14, 2022 at 1:47 pm
USB-C and USB-3.0 port on the left side. how using this for usb disk drive , for network disk , in local network witlh not user name, not password ?
thanks, sorry for my bad english
November 14, 2022 at 1:52 pm
This link on the Bell website can help you with that: https://support.bell.ca/internet/connection-help/how_to_connect_a_usb_device_to_my_modem
November 14, 2022 at 2:44 pm
I don’t mind but I had already seen this article, but unlike the usb 3.0 port on an asus, they are very stingy on the configurations! Is the decision on sharing without password only from my PC just like my PC internal disks, or inside HH4000, and Bell don’t talk if their USB C / USB 3.0 port more than NTFS if it also accepts IOS HFS+?
November 18, 2022 at 2:02 pm
Hi my name is Rob and how do I dim the brightness of the lights. I have been trying with no luck? Thanks
November 18, 2022 at 2:06 pm
1. Log into the HH4000
2. Click Modem Preferences
3. Under LED Brightness click Low. (which may not be low enough for your use case…. but that is the only option that is available)
November 21, 2022 at 10:11 pm
Can you separate 5Ghz vs. 2.4Ghz so you can set up smart devices that requires 2.4Ghz only? How?
November 21, 2022 at 10:17 pm
You can.
1. Log into the HH4000 and go to the WiFi section.
2. Click on advanced settings
3. Uncheck “Keep a common network name (SSID) and password for both 2.4 and 5 GHz bands (recommended).”
4. Click save.
December 1, 2022 at 10:10 pm
I can’t find the SSID option to uncheck it.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
November 22, 2022 at 11:52 am
Thank you for the review. Just got it installed last week and I’m quite disappointed by the USB sharing options.
I’m able to browse the content via Kodi but impossible to map it as a network drive in windows or write on it
There is zero setting in the webinterface for USb sharing, no SMB, nothing.
I followed the steps on bell support page but it fail with unexpected error
November 26, 2022 at 12:50 pm
I have the HH4000 in a 3 storey + basement Victorian home and the signal strength is pretty disappointing where I am getting sub-40Mbps in some areas of my home off of a 1.5Gbps service. I am going to pick up a pair of the Asus XT8s and try your solution that bypasses the modem and see how that goes. Thanks for posting this as it is exactly what I needed!
December 13, 2022 at 2:49 pm
About Bell internet services, it is worth mentioning that unless you’re someone that knows exactly what you’re doing, you’re not even close from getting the speed you’re paying for.
For example, in order to get the 1.5Gbps speed, you MUST use a wired network and you MUST use the 10G port on the back of the modem – as shown in the review above.
I think about all the average Joes being sold those 1Gbps+ services and only using a fraction of that speed over WiFi connections…. makes me sad.
Even the techs don’t know about this… when I got my my HH4K installed, tech said “remove all those wires this is a super fast router you won’t require wires”…. ahem…. “ahh, yes, I do need the wire to get to 1.5Gbps”… tech responds, “never heard of that before, but anyways, make sure you plug your wire in the yellow LAN1 port”…. ahem…. “well, no, I’ll use the 10G port, thank you”… LOL…
January 6, 2023 at 4:43 pm
Any commercial products that are reasonable cost to provide backup power? No power… no internet, no phone. The HH3000 had a battery compartment and 4 hours run time. HH4000 did away with the battery compartment. A typical 120V UPS will run only minutes, since they come with trivial batteries. There are 12V Lithium batteries available that can support the 5A Sagemcom device… most only do 2A, so most don’t suffice. Just saying, I can hack together a long run time with a UPS and external oversize battery, but for most people, they want plug n’ play. A 12V at 5A capability on the power plug. 3 cells Lithium NMC charge at 12.8V, and will discharge down through 10.0V. No detailed specifications on Sagemcom F@st 5689 listed anywhere! Needs testing if OK. LiFE batteries can be 14.8V float. Can the F@st 5689 work at any input voltage between 10 and 15V? Then we can have off-the-shelf solutions.
January 7, 2023 at 1:31 pm
Thanks for asking this question. Expect an article to be up tomorrow at 9AM EST speaking to this.
January 8, 2023 at 12:00 pm
The post is live: https://itnerd.blog/2023/01/08/questions-and-answers-about-using-advanced-dmz-vs-pppoe-passthrough-using-bells-hardware-as-well-as-using-a-ups-with-your-bell-hardware/
January 11, 2023 at 10:05 am
Hey – awesome posts on this. I am not all that tech capable but your directions solved a significant issue for me. I am still not satisfied with the speeds I am getting on wireless so i want to poke around with various options – but I cannot find a manual. you mentioned above that bell has pretty good documentation – could you point me to it. I have searched high and low and cannot find it. Thanks!
January 11, 2023 at 10:22 am
I was referring to this link: https://support.bell.ca/Internet/Products/Home-Hub-4000-modem.Tutorials
Question. What speeds are you getting via WiFi? And how are you testing your speeds? I ask because wireless speed testing is a bit of a “black art” that is highly dependent on hardware, environment, and even OS in a few cases (Apple for example went through a phase where their WiFi drivers were s**t and caused performance issues).
February 10, 2023 at 1:18 pm
hello. i am also not satisfied with the speed i am getting. We subscribed with Bell 3gbps up and down speed but when i tested it, with wifi i could not get pass the 500mark on cellphones. on laptop only 400 tops. if i wired my laptop,amazon firestick desktop, i could not get pass the 600 mark. can you teach me what to do about it or it is time to call and just downgrade. by the way i tried it on a cat6 and cat8 cable. i have no other router or switch other than the hh4000. techguy who installed said it might depend on the equipments. thanks in advance!
January 14, 2023 at 10:17 am
Thanks for posting this. I am scheduled to get my 1.5 Gig fiber installed in two weeks and really looking forward to it.
February 10, 2023 at 1:19 pm
hello. i am also not satisfied with the speed i am getting. We subscribed with Bell 3gbps up and down speed but when i tested it, with wifi i could not get pass the 500mark on cellphones. on laptop only 400 tops. if i wired my laptop,amazon firestick desktop, i could not get pass the 600 mark. can you teach me what to do about it or it is time to call and just downgrade. by the way i tried it on a cat6 and cat8 cable. i have no other router or switch other than the hh4000. techguy who installed said it might depend on the equipments. thanks in advance!
February 10, 2023 at 2:04 pm
The tech who installed this perhaps should have said a bit more. But he’s basically correct. That’s the short answer. Here’s the longer answer.
In terms of WiFi this is more complex than I’m going to make it out to be. But in short, it depends on not only the device, but also the environment that it is in. For example I live in a condo with maybe 30 other WiFi networks that I can see. That’s going to make it a challenging environment to get the best speed. But having said that, my speeds are fine with speeds of 500 Mbps plus on my 1.5 Gigabit connection via a device that is connected using WiFi 6 (802.11ax). Note that I am not using the Bell hardware as I go through my own router. If you’re on a device that is using WiFi 5 or lower, you might get slower speeds. Also, while I haven’t experimented with this on the HH4000, it would not surprise me if the HH4000 itself limits the speed that you’re getting via some sort of quality of service implementation that you can’t access (I just checked my HH4000 to make sure I don’t see a quality of service setting and I don’t). This is done to make sure all devices have a shot at getting reasonable amounts of bandwidth. Consumer routers such as my ASUS ZenWiFi AX XT8 have a setting like this turned on that limited my WiFi and wired speed until I turned this off. It COULD be that this is what you are seeing.
Random thought: Are you sure it’s an HH4000 and not a Gigahub (it says Gigahub on the front if it’s the latter) as the latter is what Bell is deploying at present? I ask because if you have a Gigahub and WiFi 6E devices, you can something around 1Gbps over WiFi.
When it comes to wired connections, the HH4000 has four gigabit ethernet ports at the back and one 10GB ethernet port. Meaning that anything plugged into to one of the four gigabit ethernet ports will get a MAXIMUM of 1Gbps. This is of course assuming that the device that you plugged in has a gigabit ethernet card. But the point that I am trying to make is that you will never, ever see 3Gbps on any of those four ports as they cannot support that speed. The only port that is likely to see anywhere 3Gbps is the 10Gbps port which would require you to plug in a device that has a 10Gbps card in it. Devices with 10Gbps cards are few and far between.
As to whether you should call Bell to downgrade, I have some random thoughts on that here:
https://itnerd.blog/2022/08/13/do-you-need-8gbps-fiber-internet-no-you-dont-and-heres-why/
Random question. When you run the speed test from the Bell router, are you getting 3Gbps up and down? Because all Bell is concerned about is if the HH4000 is hitting that speed. Everything from beyond the HH4000 is not their problem.
February 10, 2023 at 2:19 pm
[…] the video from your Mac Studio with a 10 Gbps Ethernet port connected to a Bell Fibe modem like the HH4000 which has a 10 Gbps Ethernet port, and the modem has Bell’s 8 Gbps service switched on, and […]
April 3, 2023 at 10:29 pm
is it possible to use 2 the same gigahub modem/router at the same time? Here’s the scenario below:
1st Gigahub has a different bell userid and password connected to fiber optic cable
2nd Gigahub has a different bell userid and password (i want to use this an an extender)
If it’s possible, Can somebody show me?
Please and thanks.
April 4, 2023 at 8:25 am
That’s not how your extend Internet access on a property unless your property is so big that you need a second Internet connection to cover it (two physically separate buildings for example). While you haven’t completely described the full use case, it sounds like Bell’s extenders or a mesh router connected via PPPoE bypass or Advanced DMZ would be a much better option as either would cover several thousand square feet when set up correctly.
April 10, 2023 at 12:31 am
I showed up just to figure out what the speed of all the ports were on the back of the router. ended up reading the entire review. Well put together, great information. Thank you!
April 29, 2023 at 8:48 pm
Just had Bell install U4000 for phone, internet, wi-fi. this modem now has a habit of rebooting itself 4 or 5 times this pat few days. Having being in this computer science buss for 50 years, I believe the modem is defective. Will replace it MondayCan I plug my Dell PC with gig ethernet port into the 1.5 port on the modem & have it functiona or near a gig?
April 29, 2023 at 9:07 pm
If your Dell PC has a gigabit Ethernet card, then yes.
May 12, 2023 at 9:54 am
U4000 Giga Modem – I had the U4000 installed on April 13, 2023. That modem was replaced on May 5 but I did not install until May 9. The orig was replaced because it would reboot many times each day. From May 9 until end of day May 11, the modem has rebooted itself about 18 times!!! Each reboot takes 2 minutes! I intend to call Bell tech and suggest that I get a different model modem (not likely) or have a technician attend my residence & attempt to resolve this problem. I know from reading on this site that others are having this problem. Is there a BUG in the O/S? HELP
May 12, 2023 at 9:56 am
Honestly, you need to get a tech on site. I believe that there’s something else other than the modem that’s causing this. Also, Bell will give you a Gigahub if they do swap the modem. They won’t give you anything else.
May 25, 2023 at 3:37 pm
How to disable the hidden third WiFi 6 band that Bell uses for their Fibe TV hardware??? I’m sensitive to wifi on 5ghz or higher. Is there any way to disable it all? Thanks
May 25, 2023 at 3:41 pm
There’s no “official” way to turn this off. There’s a person on DSL reports in the Bell forum who has a script that you can use to turn it off. But I haven’t tried it so I have no way of knowing if it works or not.
May 26, 2023 at 12:54 pm
Do you know if they can send a tech to disable it if I call them? Thanks.
May 26, 2023 at 2:07 pm
I have never heard of Bell sending out a tech to do this.