topic Re: Smart hub plus and wifi extender in Broadband & Landline

Smart hub plus and wifi extender

Trick971 — Fri, 30 Aug 2024 16:35:58 GMT

I was recently forced to change hub from the smart hub 2 to an EE Smart hub plus.

with the previous hub I had one black wifi disc that was placed in my garage and gave me complete coverage across my property.

now with the new setup of the smart hub plus and smart wifi plus (sw30a), the coverage is much worse.

same location for both hub and extender and now it’s a poor signal to hub from wifi extender.
I thought this was supposed to be an upgrade or at least like for like.

anyone else experience this?

Re: Smart hub plus and wifi extender

JimM11 — Fri, 30 Aug 2024 18:00:01 GMT

@Trick971 Have you tried moving the extender closer to the router?

Re: Smart hub plus and wifi extender

Trick971 — Fri, 30 Aug 2024 18:19:26 GMT

Not physically possible given it would then be outside.

Re: Smart hub plus and wifi extender

JimM11 — Fri, 30 Aug 2024 18:32:07 GMT

@Trick971 Got it, your garage is detached from your home! Is the smart wifi showing you a weak signal by colour indication?

Re: Smart hub plus and wifi extender

Trick971 — Fri, 30 Aug 2024 18:30:30 GMT

Says poor signal on hub, and I think it’s an orange light on the smart wifi.

Re: Smart hub plus and wifi extender

JimM11 — Fri, 30 Aug 2024 18:35:10 GMT

@Trick971 If you dont mind, how far from the EE Router to the EE Smartwifi approx distance, and roughly through how many walls. Looking like your BT Equipment had a lot better penetration than the EE.

Re: Smart hub plus and wifi extender

Trick971 — Fri, 30 Aug 2024 19:19:57 GMT

It’s going through two internal walls (new house so made of paper) and then two brick outer walls.
it’s not that far, as garage is directly next to the house.
approx 16m.

I can try a few locations, just surprised it was showing as poor with same like for like setup.

Re: Smart hub plus and wifi extender

JimM11 — Fri, 30 Aug 2024 19:34:14 GMT

@Trick971 Unfortunately no two routers or extenders are alike, only quick suggestion is try extender inside, then see if you get signal in your garage, quick test, then call EE CS and get them to send you a second extender. If you still have the BT you can put it all back, works fine on the EE service.

Re: Smart hub plus and wifi extender

Trick971 — Thu, 12 Sep 2024 14:33:59 GMT

This is exactly the same problem with my network.

I have lights and cameras around my property that rely on wifi connections, now some of my lights refuse to auto switch on as the wifi signal is weak. I placed a wifi extender in between hub and outside but made no difference. I cant physically place it anywhere else to help. I have a modern house, so its made of paper and walls are thinner that an old house but BT managed perfectly with just 1 black disc.

I have since since sent all my equipment back. Wish i hadnt now as have too many issues.

So someone is saying that the white discs work? maybe I can try that? is that 100% they do work? But not sure if its a hub thing or the extender and if a white disc or two will solve it.

The smart wifi extender doesnt even connect when i place it in my detached garage, again worked fine with a disc in there.

Re: Smart hub plus and wifi extender

XRaySpeX — Thu, 12 Sep 2024 18:31:26 GMT

@Trick971 : If you have the EE Smart Hub Plus ( SH31B) (SH+) router, the white "High St." Whole Home discs do work with the SH+. It's the black BT Complete WiFi discs that doesn't!

Re: Smart hub plus and wifi extender

Trick971 — Sat, 21 Sep 2024 14:39:35 GMT

I think I’m at the end of my tether now.

Given all the above i decided to get the whole home wifi.

i want to use the existing wifi network ssid since i didnt want to set up all the wifi devices again, anyway i cant do this because i need to switch the hub wifi off but cant do this because i cant connect to the hub via the app (wifi controls) and nor can I get into the hub via 192.168.1.254. Just times out.

so after all time and money spent I’m better off going back to the smart hub 2. That worked fine, I didn’t need more than one extra disc. And never had issues. This is shocking.

Re: Smart hub plus and wifi extender

Trick971 — Mon, 23 Sep 2024 08:06:42 GMT

after a couple of days of trying, rebooting etc i finally connected to hub via app. couldnt see a way of turning off the wifi without adding everything to a group which it wouldnt let me do.

So connected to hub via browser which now also works, and did it that way.

now running wholehome wifi..

however speed of that is 35mbps.. compared to EE router wifi of 800+

Jeez. i think its better for me sell the stuff i got, and asked for the router to be swapped back so i can go back to using one black disc that covered my entire property.

Re: Smart hub plus and wifi extender

JimM11 — Mon, 23 Sep 2024 08:44:29 GMT

@Trick971 One of the main problem's with new builds is the plaster board walls, and with the new materials used they are more than likely foil lined, but it does not excuse the performance of the BT Smarthub2 and you complete wifi black disk. Wifi testing speed wise, would be good to know values as you step across each wall testing as you go along, to your final brick before the outside. Wifi analyzer app on your mobile would also give you an idea what's going on and how badly the wi-fi signal is tapering off through the walls.

Re: Smart hub plus and wifi extender

Wraith1273 — Mon, 23 Sep 2024 09:01:34 GMT

It sounds to me like you're connecting to the 2.4 GHZ channel, because 5 Ghz is not as good at penetrating walls. This would also explain the slow speed you recorded.

Have you tried changing the wireless channel? If you have a lot of neighbours it can cause mayhem with speed and dropouts etc.

Most systems are set to channel 1 on 2.54 and 36 on 5. Try changing the channels through the router admin.

https://youtu.be/IGMAAptTm0E

To see the channels in use and get free, uncongested ones, use something like this - https://www.metageek.com/inssider/?utm_source=announcing-inssider-5&utm_medium=blog&utm_campaign=nbsoct19

it's helped me achieve the ultimate settings more times then I can remember.

Interesting that you can't change the 5 Ghz channel setting. There must be advanced settings that allow this, odd.

Re: Smart hub plus and wifi extender

JimM11 — Mon, 23 Sep 2024 09:05:39 GMT

@Wraith1273 And you cannot change it by more advanced settings (5Ghz), so you know.

Re: Smart hub plus and wifi extender

Wraith1273 — Mon, 23 Sep 2024 09:09:44 GMT

@JimM11 Not allowing the 5 Ghz channel to be changed is ridiculous. How annoying.

Thanks!

Re: Smart hub plus and wifi extender

JimM11 — Mon, 23 Sep 2024 09:13:17 GMT

@Wraith1273 It is what it is, ISP router well locked down to stop tinkering! New AX control philosophy applied so ISP is well in control!

Re: Smart hub plus and wifi extender

Trick971 — Mon, 23 Sep 2024 09:44:19 GMT

Sounds like im better off getting them to switch me back to old setup.

1. wifi will work

2. less locked down and more control over my bands and channels

any cons of smart hub 2 vs smart hub plus?

wifi 6 or something?

Re: Smart hub plus and wifi extender

JimM11 — Mon, 23 Sep 2024 12:31:32 GMT

@Trick971 WiFi6 that's one of the benefit's, little faster due to the modern processor, smartwifi appears to be little problematic wireless mode, but reported ok cabled, do not use so cannot compare, BT OP's rate the old way better but never used so they are not the same devices. Each has to make there own mind up...