14-06-2022 03:10 PM
The EE Smart Hub 2-Hourly Reboot Problem & Solution
The Problem
The BLACK EE Smart Hub (also called a “router”) loses Internet connectivity for a few minutes several times a day.
What’s actually happening is a software update on 24th May 2022 caused an issue that triggers this particular model of router to reboot every 2 hours. The result is Internet connectivity is lost for roughly 2 minutes while the router reboots.
You can verify if this is the cause of your current problem by logging into your router’s admin interface. Using a web browser on a device on the same network (LAN) as your router, go to http://192.168.1.254 or whatever IP address you may have changed it to. Log in using the password printed on the back of the router. Look for the “Admin password for Hub Manager”. This is not the same as your Wi-Fi password.
Go to Advanced Settings, then Technical Log. Click on the Event Log tab. You will see lots of entries listed. Filter it by clicking on Categories, scroll down the list and select BOOT. If you see dozens of entries starting with “Booting firmware…” and the time between each entry is exactly 2 hours (plus an extra 80 or so seconds) then your router is affected by this very issue. Your log may not go back as far as 24th May which is the fateful date EE customers in this forum agree the issue started.
How To Fix it
A fix can only come from EE, but at the time of writing (3 weeks into the problem) there’s no sign of any fix on the horizon. But don’t despair because using a completely different model of router is the quickest solution, but it could take a few days. If you’re lucky, the EE agent you speak to will recognise your issue and be willing to send you the latest WHITE EE Smart Router for free immediately. However, at the time of writing this is not the case and you will first need to go through several tedious hoops. The experience from most customers in this forum is as follows:
It’s important that you call EE’s broadband support to report the fault. Tell them the router reboots every 2 hours and you’ve read about it in the Community Forum. The agent you speak to should be aware of the problem as it’s been estimated that 20,000 customers have this issue.
EE’s standard process for dealing with issues is to send out one of their support guys who will have a poke around with your router and phone socket. When they realise they can’t fix it he might offer to give you a new router or get one posted out to you (they may not carry spare stock). If he does that then tell him you’ll only accept the latest WHITE EE Smart Router. Unless he can guarantee you a white one, you should refuse to save you the trouble of posting a black router back to them because it will have exactly the same issue.
The support guy will advise he needs to arrange for an Openreach engineer to visit you. (I advise you to call EE back to arrange your first Openreach visit in case the support guy doesn’t make this arrangement for you.) The Openreach engineer will check your master socket and replace it if it’s old or not looking good. He’ll check your extension wires too if you have any. He might change your port and/or line from the local street cabinet. This might appear at first to fix the problem, but about 6 hours later your router will start rebooting again.
Call EE back and they’ll send out another Openreach engineer who will either check everything all over again or roll his eyes and say a few choice words about EE knowing exactly what the problem is and wasting everybody’s time by sending engineers out for no good reason.
Once you’ve gone through these hoops, call EE and update them. At the time of writing this is the only point where an EE agent will be open to suggestions from you. (Try making the following suggestion the very first time you call EE as they may have updated their policy in light of this epic issue going on for so long.)
The Solution
Depending on your own preference, ask the EE agent to either…
If you want to buy your own router then choose one that you know will work easily with EE broadband. It must support VDSL. Two models that customers in this forum have bought and confirmed to work perfectly are:
Before you unplug your black EE router for the last time, be sure to write down your broadband username. Go to Advanced Settings > Broadband. Look for your “Broadband Username” and password. You’ll need this and your password for setting up your new router.
It won’t let you see your password, but you can work it out from the Broadband Username. If your username looks like PRODUCTIONHQNUN123456@fs, your password will look like HQNPASS123456. Simply replace the numbers in the password, with the ones found in your username. For very old legacy users whose username doesn't look like this & you've forgotten what you choose way back, give EE a call and ask them nicely for it.
Lastly, when your new white EE router or 3rd party router arrives and you’ve set it up, you may notice it’s not giving you your full expected Internet speed. This is because your maximum speed was lowered by the Dynamic Line Management (DLM) at your local cabinet when it detected your previous EE router was frequently dropping the line.
Check your current speed by Googling “speed test” and then click on Run Speed Test. If it’s notably slower than what you used to get you’ll need to call EE and ask if they can get Openreach to do a DLM reset. The engineer will visit you but if you ask him at the door for a DLM reset they probably won’t even bother coming in and will get the job done for you within the hour.
I hope this guide has been useful.
29-05-2022 03:55 PM
Since last Tuesday I find my smarthub rebooting several times a day. Contacting EE help, it seems this is a known problem affecting a large number of peoiple but so far without solution. Anyone heard about and know about a fix ?
29-05-2022 04:15 PM
Welcome to EE's Home Broadband Forum.
Is it the BB as a whole dropping or just the WiFi connections? Do Ethernet connected devices stay working? What colours are the light sequence when it happens?
If you would like help with your BB speed or connection issues, please would you carry out the following steps for starters, which will enable us to diagnose the problem and advise you further. Do not restart your router to do these tests:
1. Post your full router stats:
Full router stats are key to any speed & connection issues.
2. What does BT Wholesale Broadband Availability Checker estimate for your phone number? Post just the whole table and the line above it, blanking out your phone number. If it doesn't recognise your phone number or you don't have one, use the Address Checker, not the Postcode Checker.
29-05-2022 04:20 PM
tech info as requested
Information
Event log
This is a list of your EE Smart Hub settings and current statistics.
Serial number:+EEH001
Firmware version:v0.05.02.04290-EE Firmware updated:Your Firmware has not been updated.
Board version:01
DSL uptime:0 Days, 0 Hours, 48 Mins, 49 Secs
Data rate:19.00 Mbps / 60.00 Mbps
Maximum data rate:25.59 Mbps / 81.13 Mbps
Noise margin (up/down):10.0 / 11.9
Line attenuation (up/down):13.3 / 12.6
Signal attenuation (up/down):13.4 / 12.6
Data sent / received:34.9 MB / 733.8 MB
Broadband username:
2.4 GHz wireless network name:
2.4 GHz wireless channel:Smart (Channel 11)
5 GHz wireless network name:
Wireless security:WPA2
Wireless mode:Mode 1
Firewall:Default
MAC address:
Software variant:-
29-05-2022 04:34 PM
and its the whole smarthub rebooting; not a simple wifi disconnect etc.
30-05-2022 11:44 AM
anyone else having the same issue ?
30-05-2022 12:12 PM
@PetrusMaximus I have not seen any other posts with people reporting router problems.
Are you going to provide the rest of the information @XRaySpeX asked for?
Also, do you have a phone line, if so is it quiet - dial 17070 option 2?
Do you have another router that you could try? Is EE sending a new one?
30-05-2022 12:32 PM
line is checked and is quiet. also tested by EE as no faults on line
a new router has been obtained and is giving the same issue.
what other tech info do you need ?
30-05-2022 12:36 PM
router is rebooting from this command
12:20:01, 30 May. Booting firmware v0.06.01.08190-EE (Wed Aug 19 18:20:33 2020)
12:19:59, 30 May. System start Button press (PowerButton)
12:19:59, 30 May.
but where does it come from; no-one is physically pressing the power button
30-05-2022 12:38 PM
@PetrusMaximus from post 2:
2. What does BT Wholesale Broadband Availability Checker estimate for your phone number? Post just the whole table and the line above it, blanking out your phone number. If it doesn't recognise your phone number or you don't have one, use the Address Checker, not the Postcode Checker.