UK only: Observation with BT Smarthub and EPSON printer

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I know that this forum has British readers, so here’s an observation about the BT Smart Hub, the very common router British Telecom supplies with their broadband packages.

Brand-new M1 iMac running Ventura.
Installing an EPSON ET2850 ran into a deadlock, the printer was recognised over WiFi, but installation ended with an error message. Switching off IPP (or rather IPPS) over https:// on the printer made the reactions much faster, but still ended in an error.
Printing from iOS worked already.

We switched the BT Smart Hub to a lower spec WiFi mode.

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In Mode 2 it works on the Mac but not with iOS.
In Mode 3 it works with iOS, but not the Mac.

We ended with connecting the Mac on an Ethernet cable, instead of WiFi.

During the installation we saw a message that “An update for AirPrint is required. Yes/No.” I’m not sure if this comes from macOS or some EPSON function and I couldn’t find out what it is. We did this, but it didn’t improve the situation.

Never a dull moment with BT’s hardware, heavily advertised as latest and greatest, but in reality not anyway near that.

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There really isn’t. They do some really, really strange things that break otherwise perfectly functioning setups. We always rip them out first thing. I always recommend others use the combination of a Draytek v130 (or its newest equivalent) and your own choice of standard Ethernet router configured for PPPoE on its WAN port. That will give you real choice and flexibility. And, of course, escape DSL/VDSL when you get the chance!

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Does it still have smart setup switch for wireless? Turning that off used to help.