Version 5 of the Home Hub, released in August 2013, includes a VDSL2 modem for fibre-optic connections.

Prior to release of the Home Hub (2004–2005), BT offered a product based on the 2Wire 1800HG, and manufactured by 2Wire.

The BCM6361 has a 400 MHz dual MIPS32 core processor as well as an integrated DSL Analog Front End (AFE) and line driver, gigabit Ethernet switch controller and 802.11 Wi-Fi transceiver.

[10] WPS has since been (temporarily) disabled by firmware updates[11] due to security issues with the standard.

The BT Ultra Smart Hub appeared visually similar to the Smart Hub, but featured a G.fast capable modem and included a BS6312 socket which subscribers to BT Digital Voice can use to attach an analogue telephone.

It calls using the BT Broadband Talk service, and may sit in a dock in the front of the Home Hub or be used on its own stand.

[15] As of May 2019[update] the following versions of the BT Home/Smart Hub had been released: There were two different versions of the BT Home Hub 2.0: v2.0A (2.0 Type A), manufactured by Thomson, and v2.0B (2.0 Type B), manufactured by Gigaset Communications (now Sagem Communications, Sagem having acquired Gigaset's broadband business in July 2009).

Whilst the looks and functionality appear to be identical, the Home Hub 2.0A has been plagued with problems relating to poorly tested firmware upgrades which, amongst other problems, cause the Home Hub 2.0A to restart when uploading files using the wireless connection.

It has been built with a smart dual band technology, making it unique amongst other UK-based ISP provided routers.

It has intelligent power management technology which monitors the hub functions and puts them individually into power-save mode when not in use.

[19] In April 2018, scripts for modifying the stock firmware of a BT Hub 5 Type A to enable SSH access, were published on the GitHub repository;[20] this enables access to the native OpenRG command-line interface.

The security of older BT Home Hub has been questioned[27][28][29] In May 2017, it was reported that many BT Smart Hub customers were suffering problems with the router constantly rebooting and being unable to maintain a reliable internet connection.