How to recover the Bell 2Wire modems serial number

(New 27 Jan 12)
Graham D. needed to recover the serial number for a 2700HGV running BT v6.1.x firmware. The label on the hub had been removed so both the serial number and default WEP key were missing.
He discovered the procedure described here for recovering the admin password for BT Home Hub v1/1.5 also worked on his 2700HGV. The early Thomson made BT Home Hubs used the serial number for their default admin password. The serial number for 2wire hubs running BT v6.x firmwares is also the factory default admin password. I can confirm too it works on a 2701HGV-C with BT v6.3.x firmware.

Basically, using any web browser (works with IE, FireFox and Opera), and ensuring your computer is using the hub's DNS server, point the web browser to this URL:

https://apps.home

Then view the security certificate of the above page. You should find the serial number buried in the 'Issuer' field.

This is clearly an oversight by 2wire when they introduced using the serial number on BT v6 firmwares for the default password and went to the trouble of removing the serial number from the System Details menu.


Security Advice: Always change the factory default password on the hub.