topic Re: Smart Wifi Plus Discs not connecting as extenders in Broadband & Landline

Smart Wifi Plus Discs not connecting as extenders

pst99 — Mon, 30 Sep 2024 13:02:49 GMT

Hi, I've recently migrated to EE from BT and got all new Kit...Smart Hub Plus, 3 Smart Wifi Plus discs and Hybrid Connect.

No matter which way I add the Smart Wifi Plus discs I cannot get them to show up as extenders which means I can't manage them (i.e. turn the lights off as they are too bright at night in my bedroom) and I can't see through any interface which devices are connecting through them...

I've tried adding using a Cat5 cable, using WPS button on hub and adding through EE app. I always end up with the solid aqua light and they do appear to be working (I see the additional BSSIDs being broadcast against my SSID) but they stubbornly refuse to show up as extenders in the router admin interface or in the EE app.

Has anyone else experienced this and found a solution...or are there EE bods here that can help?

Re: Smart Wifi Plus Discs not connecting as extenders

JimM11 — Mon, 30 Sep 2024 13:39:22 GMT

@pst99 Your not the first to complain for not showing up in the hub manager or the app, or which devices are connecting to them, and some have reported that after a couple of day's once they all work together figure out what is supposed to be going on in the mesh, then somethings start to filter through. So it's either going to be patience or hands up in the air. Do keep the forum advised to how its going. Not many report back so can be very hard to figure what's happening. Not sure if a call to EE CS Technical support will help but you could try that!

In the Advanced section, wireless and extenders, is the operation completely non functional.

Re: Smart Wifi Plus Discs not connecting as extenders

Ewan15 — Mon, 30 Sep 2024 13:35:28 GMT

Try adding just one extender and follow the wizard in the EE App, to see if that gets it to appear.

If it does add the next one and follow the same process.

Re: Smart Wifi Plus Discs not connecting as extenders

pst99 — Mon, 30 Sep 2024 13:42:09 GMT

@JimM11 , thanks...had them connected a few days this time...so far no cigar...will post on here if anything changes.

I've actually already mentioned this to customer support as I've had numerous problems as part of my migration from BT to EE. Apparently 'from their end' they can't see them at all...which seems a bit odd to me - as I say from a bit of tinkering my end (netsh wlan networks show mode=bssid) I can see all the additional BSSIDs broadcast by the Discs against my SSID. Equally if I look at the BSSID that various computers say they are connected to I can see they are passing through them (and they have internet...so they appear to be working). I can't do this on non-computer type devices...so what they are connected to is a mystery...and the TV box in the kitchen still drops out periodically so that would be useful to know...

It's just really frustrating to not be able to turn the lights off on them as they are very bright at night...i've taken to facing them downwards which probably isn't great for signal strength!

Also the 'at a glance' view in the router interface to see how everything is connected is useful and helps me tweak where things are put.

Re: Smart Wifi Plus Discs not connecting as extenders

JimM11 — Mon, 30 Sep 2024 13:58:23 GMT

@pst99 That's why i was wondering if in the advanced section of the web manager were you are supposed to be able to add assign extenders etc if its completely non functional. Not an app fan, never will be, and its as much use as a chocolate fireguard as far as i am concerned. Black tape round the EE Logo should block the suckers out. Try the main light off, 1st page you may be lucky and it turns them all off. Good your work around is working ok, i use wifi analyzer on the laptop or mobile when i wish to see were the device is connected to, just need to know what the mac's are, bit of a pain.

Asus and AI mesh user, just works don't care, shows what were how long sleeping awake jumping around etc. Mesh can be the biggest pain especially when trying to bed it in...

Re: Smart Wifi Plus Discs not connecting as extenders

pst99 — Mon, 30 Sep 2024 13:50:28 GMT

@Ewan15 . Alas I've tried that to no avail.

When adding via the app (or the Wifi Extenders page of the router admin interface) the 'add' times out and gives an error - even though the light on the disc goes solid aqua (which suggests it added)

something clearly isn't quite 'finishing' but what that is I have no idea.

I reset the disc between attempts to add, and have tried all 3 separately (and left just one connected for a period of time).

All attempts end the same way...the disk is 'connected' as it has the solid aqua light, it broadcasts additional BSSIDs (1 for 2.4GHz and 1 for 5GHz) but it never makes it into any app/admin interface as an extender so isn't manageable.

It does show up as a network client like all my other devices.

Re: Smart Wifi Plus Discs not connecting as extenders

pst99 — Mon, 30 Sep 2024 13:57:33 GMT

@JimM11 Yeah, I'm not an app fan myself. I prefer to use the admin interface.

I have to say both app and admin interface are much slower than the equivalents for the BT equipment...and anecdotally both the openreach engineer EE sent out first to investigate and the EE engineer they sent later both commented that the EE equipment is 'worse' than the old BT kit based on the experience so far

I've tried the turning off the main light...and alas it only affects the router, not the discs...interesting that the option to schedule the light status is missing on the EE router...that was quite handy on the BT one

I may end up sticking a bit of electrical tape over the lights on the discs in the short term 😉

Re: Smart Wifi Plus Discs not connecting as extenders

bobpullen — Mon, 30 Sep 2024 14:06:32 GMT

@pst99 - is there anything non-standard about your hub setup? i.e. have you changed any of the settings away from default values? Thinking things like DHCP, IP address allocations etc?

Re: Smart Wifi Plus Discs not connecting as extenders

pst99 — Mon, 30 Sep 2024 14:13:43 GMT

@bobpullen Yes, I have DHCP turned off on the router as I use a Raspberry Pi for DHCP so I have control over DNS (again, just like I used to on my BT setup).

That being said...I have tried the discs before and after changing the DHCP away from the router - the results were the same.

Re: Smart Wifi Plus Discs not connecting as extenders

JimM11 — Mon, 30 Sep 2024 14:43:21 GMT

@pst99 Web user, for everything apart from when you have to use the app, Can see the extender layout page but as i say not using EE smart wireless, so obviously cannot add, set up or see what's happening, and the web interface gets slower and slower every day, got to 30 days without reset, pages taking 10-15 seconds to open, reset router back 3-5 seconds.

Re: Smart Wifi Plus Discs not connecting as extenders

bobpullen — Mon, 30 Sep 2024 15:07:22 GMT

@pst99 wrote:
@bobpullen Yes, I have DHCP turned off on the router as I use a Raspberry Pi for DHCP so I have control over DNS (again, just like I used to on my BT setup).

Aha! Wouldn't explain the observation when trying with DHCP enabled, but worth you having a read of this thread .

Re: Smart Wifi Plus Discs not connecting as extenders

pst99 — Mon, 30 Sep 2024 15:22:41 GMT

@bobpullen Thanks, that looks like a sensible thing for me to do anyway...so as the extenders are using EE default DNS rather than that provided by my Pi (I use Adguard Home rather than Pi Hole...but similar idea).

As I say, I did try the discs before changing the DHCP stuff...but no harm in making them use EE DNS as I expect by the way EE are removing functionality from the router interface they very rarely test anything against non-vanilla configs...so may help for future updates 😉

Re: Smart Wifi Plus Discs not connecting as extenders

bobpullen — Mon, 30 Sep 2024 15:30:16 GMT

@pst99 - let us know how you get on.

Re: Smart Wifi Plus Discs not connecting as extenders

pst99 — Mon, 30 Sep 2024 15:34:47 GMT

@bobpullen So my plan is as follows...

I have 3 discs all exhibiting the same behaviour...i.e. they appear to work but don't show up as extenders.

1 I'll leave alone...so standard DHCP client going through my Pi & Adguard (Cloudflare DNS)

2 Pi DHCP pointing it to the router for DNS. reboot but leave as is - ie already joined to the router

3 Pi DHCP pointing it to the router for DNS. Reset the disc and rejoin to the router

I'll feed back if I see anything different to what I'm seeing now..

Re: Smart Wifi Plus Discs not connecting as extenders

pst99 — Mon, 30 Sep 2024 17:01:57 GMT

So...they all now show up as Wifi Extenders...although the router is misbehaving a bit at the moment (gui hanging etc) so have rebooted everything and waiting for things to settle down

Just marking the mac addresses of the 3 extenders as except from adguard and telling the pi dhcp to point them at the router for DNS rather than at cloudflare appears to have done the trick...although this does not explain why they were not connecting properly before I'd disabled the router dhcp and connected the Pi...

Equally, one of the discs I'd reset (after exempting from adguard etc) and was still playing up until I'd rebooted it after having rejoined it to the network...

So...a few things at play here I think...but I think it's fair to say...extenders will not work if you have custom DNS/ad blockers... So whatever you use for DNS must point any extenders back at the smart hub plus (Thanks @bobpullen ) even if pointing your other clients at different DNS servers

Re: Smart Wifi Plus Discs not connecting as extenders

pst99 — Tue, 08 Oct 2024 12:37:37 GMT

I have the same issue. I have 3 extenders (as I had three discs when I migrated from BT).

The Smart Hub Plus UI shows no devices connected on any of the extenders, the EE app (when it eventually shows the extenders) shows what looks accurate as far as I can check.

Additionally, the 'positioning/connection' info appears different between the SH+ UI and the EE app... i.e. The UI (Under Wireless | Wifi Extenders) shows them all as 'Good connection' where as the EE app show one as being 'Too Close'

I have to say, since moving from BT to EE I have lots of teething issues, and the 'management' of my (and I do consider everything connected inside my house as MY) network is hopeless. I get that as a supplier they might be trying to dumb things down so we can't break things...but make it work first (and ideally have an advanced mode for people that want it to use the full functionality of the routers).

Historically (before digital voice) I used my own routers where I had full control of everything, but that isn't an option now...I would have to at least have the EE router plugged in for the digital voice. I'm not going to invest in an up to date mesh setup unless I could get rid of the EE equipment entirely...i.e. If we could use 3rd party routers (that have DECT and support VOIP) with the digital voice service.

Re: Smart Wifi Plus Discs not connecting as extenders

j0hnhartley1 — Sat, 16 Nov 2024 08:22:32 GMT

I have exactly the same problem with the WiFi Plus extenders, but with additional problems.
When the extender is connected to the router by WiFi it shows up, but is greyed out. Devices connected through it show a low Link Speed.
When connected back to the router by ethernet the extender is invisible, and devices connected through it are also invisible, BUT they do connect and have a gigabit Link Speed, as reported by the device.
If I connect a second extender using ethernet the extender shows the blue connection light, but the router screws up, allocating invalid IP addresses, eg 2 devices with the same IP, or an address that is not in the subnet at all.
I surmise that the router allocates an address of 192.168.168.100 to any extender connected by ethernet, hence the clash.
It also allocates this out-of-range address to devices connected through it, Even if that extender is removed, DHCP treats the invalid IP as 'Static' so the only escape is to change the IP to genuinely Static at the device, and put in all the correct addresses.
Final insult: The router is supposed to show down and upload volumes for each device. It does not.

Conclusion: A major software update is urgently needed. The current "Smart Plus" router is much worse than the BT one it replaces.

Re: Smart Wifi Plus Discs not connecting as extenders

JimM11 — Sat, 16 Nov 2024 14:00:12 GMT

@j0hnhartley1 Just a user on EE like yourself, but thank you for the very concise update to what is going on with the mesh, not many look to give as much detail in the operation, and i do not use EE smart wireless, purely Asus AI mesh in operation, The app and the web interface for extenders do not appear to be making it easy in determining anything of relevance, just cannot think why the operation is so fruitless.

Is your EE kit all just new, or have you had it for a while now?

Re: Smart Wifi Plus Discs not connecting as extenders

j0hnhartley1 — Sun, 17 Nov 2024 14:53:55 GMT

All new, EE Smarthub + 3 extenders . Have booked an engineer visit for 25th Nov, so will update IDC.

John

Re: Smart Wifi Plus Discs not connecting as extenders

pst99 — Wed, 21 May 2025 17:02:07 GMT

So, it's been a while....but somewhere along the line, one of the recent EE firmwares appears to have messed up my extenders again...

I still have adguard with all rules excluded for the smart wifi discs and with the ee router configured as the upstream dns server for them, but they no longer show up in the router gui/ee app as extenders...
In fact they don't even show up as online even though they are and I can ping them and they still appear to work as extenders...I reset one and re-added it...and it still joins and works (but obviously I can't manage it and turn the light off etc)

As a random aside it seems in the recent ee firmware - the ability to configure a custom dns server on dhcp has appeared...so I tried going back to ee dhcp and specifying my adguard box as dns...but annoyingly the ee router sets the dns you specify AND the EE router, which rather defeats the object....so I've gone back to adguard DHCP...

Grr...EE why are you messing with this stuff...it was working...and now it's not....
(And you still haven't put export contacts into the UI for Digital Phone!!)

Phil