topic Re: Smart Hub 7 Plus does not retain wifi settings in Broadband & Landline

Smart Hub 7 Plus does not retain wifi settings

DigiVIV — Fri, 22 May 2026 19:26:35 GMT

The Smart Hub 7 Plus is annoying in various ways, but the most annoying seems to be that it doesn't do what I tell it!

I have turned off the 2.4Ghz band for the "Main" wifi and also turned off the 5Ghz band for the "Compatible" wifi (so that there are separate SSIDs for the 2.4 and 5 GHz bands).

But whenever the hub restarts it reactivates 2.4Ghz for the "Main" wifi.

It keeps the 5Ghz off for the "Compatible" wifi, so clearly is half listening to me!

Am I missing something, or is this just a bug that needs fixing? (And if the latter, could EE fix it please, pronto?!...)

Re: Smart Hub 7 Plus does not retain wifi settings

JimM11 — Fri, 22 May 2026 20:46:07 GMT

@DigiVIV Why are you trying to do that to the main wifi, the mlo needs them both on for the operation, the unit is NOT separate SSID capable so that may just be the reason it turns it's self back on, what channels are the 2.4Ghz bands using if you know or can check. The unit also has hidden ssid and ee wifi operating in the same band ranges also.

Re: Smart Hub 7 Plus does not retain wifi settings

DigiVIV — Fri, 22 May 2026 21:07:55 GMT

Well, you've hit upon another annoyance there, because it's not possible choose channels! 🤷‍♂️

But either way, the reason why I want a setting isn't at issue: only that the setting, although available, doesn't set!! 🤦‍♂️

(Which is worse than it not being an option.)

Re: Smart Hub 7 Plus does not retain wifi settings

bobpullen — Fri, 22 May 2026 21:18:38 GMT

@DigiVIV - odd behaviour indeed and sounds like a bug. Is it critical that the devices connected to the main SSID do not use 2.4GHz?

It should be possible to fix the 2.4GHz channel. What problems are you having in that regard?

Re: Smart Hub 7 Plus does not retain wifi settings

JimM11 — Fri, 22 May 2026 21:24:10 GMT

@bobpullen If you get a chance take a look at the link from posting, Re: Wifi issues - Page 3 - The EE Community

Did not get the full picture off all the channels and associated macs, did ask and a lot going on with the Plus/Smart wireless ssid/channels.

Re: Smart Hub 7 Plus does not retain wifi settings

bobpullen — Fri, 22 May 2026 21:34:16 GMT

@JimM11 - just taken a look but can't see the relevance. The signal strengths etc. look fine in that thread.

For @DigiVIV's problem, it should be pretty easy to replicate. I'll just need to find a gap where I'm not going to annoy the rest of my household with my fiddling 😂

Re: Smart Hub 7 Plus does not retain wifi settings

DigiVIV — Fri, 22 May 2026 22:08:03 GMT

Hi @bobpullen ! Thanks for taking an interest. I mean, it's home broadband, so even with WFH I'd hesitate to describe it as critical 😉 I have a Ubiquiti AP I can use to work around the problem if necessary, I suppose. But yes, the main reason for wanting the control is an older Mac. And one way or another I need to achieve my aim of keeping it on 5Ghz. There's no way to force it to connect to 5Ghz without a separate SSID. It tends to slip back to 2.4Ghz having initially connected at 5Ghz otherwise, despite getting a perfectly good signal. It was a particular problem with the PlusNet Hub 2 (have recently transferred to EE). I suspect in that case that the hub itself was especially sensitive to signal thresholds and booted devices off the 5Ghz band too readily.

You are right that the 2.4Ghz channel can be fixed on the Smart Hub 7 Plus, but it seems weird that that's the only one that can be, and it doesn't really help me!

Hopefully you can replicate the issue when convenient. I don't really have any other problems except that the OFF setting doesn't stick on restart. Everything works fine until restart...

Re: Smart Hub 7 Plus does not retain wifi settings

bobpullen — Fri, 22 May 2026 22:17:03 GMT

@DigiVIV - not being able to fix a 5GHz channel kind of makes sense. The newer EE hubs use higher power DFS channels in the 5GHz spectrum and they are regulated. What this means is that your router will be forced away from the higher channels if it detects something like weather or air/radar traffic in the vicinity. You have no control over this so the concept of fixing a channel that your router might decide not to use regardless could well lead to confusion.

The Mac will almost certainly be making decisions itself as I'm fairly confident that the Plusnet hub doesn't do any proactive 'steering' itself.

I'll do my best to see if I can replicate things when I next get the chance. If it is a bug then the more noise the better 😉

Re: Smart Hub 7 Plus does not retain wifi settings

DigiVIV — Sat, 23 May 2026 08:23:26 GMT

@bobpullen Yes, clearly what I mean is: this bug is a threat to national infrastructure and a potential risk to life. It must be rectified as a matter of urgency, otherwise EE could be liable. Seriously, though, it is a real problem because the hub can end up being turned off / restarted in an unplanned way for a number of reasons, including power cut, (it has been when the firmware was updated and the backup battery installed: hence discovery of bug) and if I'm not here to fix it, or don't realise or forget, then the setup I have chosen to put in place for good reasons stops working correctly. You have to be able to rely on available configurations being maintained.

What you're saying about DFS makes perfect sense; but in the same spirit of certainty and reliability, given my particular location and purposes, I would opt not to use those channels if the Smart Hub 7 Plus offered the choice. (Maybe it does in the "Compatible" wifi, but then I wouldn't get the two separate SSIDs.)

Anyway, I'm pretty sure this is a bug and would be most grateful for anything you can do to get it squashed in a firmware update 🙂🙏

I have to use the EE hub because of Digital Voice, but other minor annoyances I've been able to work around (eg. there's something going on with the DHCP and/or DNS services that that Mac also doesn't like so it loses internet connectivity occasionally unless TCP/IP is configured manually, Android devices tend to disconnect unless Transition mode is used for authentication, a Roku box on the 2.4Ghz network isn't happy unless IPv6 is off...) and everything is basically hunky dory... provided the router isn't restarted! 💣

Re: Smart Hub 7 Plus does not retain wifi settings

DigiVIV — Wed, 27 May 2026 21:11:38 GMT

I must say, the obligatory DFS and "smart" channel selection are proving to be very irritating, so if there is any possibility of controls being provided to disable those features in a future update, that would also be most welcome. All they deliver for us is regular periods of lost connectivity. I may have to switch off the EE wifi altogether and use Ubiquiti instead.

The extra SSIDs that @JimM11 flagged are equally unwelcome. I also get the point about MLO; but do not need to use it.

All in all, the Smart Hub 7 Plus is perhaps trying to be a bit too "smart" -- and making a pain of itself in the process!

Re: Smart Hub 7 Plus does not retain wifi settings

JimM11 — Wed, 27 May 2026 21:41:25 GMT

@DigiVIV That is the case, you cannot channel fix the EE Plus 7 smart hub down or up, nor wither it's going to be 80/160Mhz, that's the nature of the hub, Pro may be better with 6Ghz free and clear of DFS, but that has it's own issue. You may want to drop back to wifi 5 and get a AP close to your mac, that will help the 5Ghz probably be more stable. Are you close to an airport or radar station, glasgow airport / prestwick airport both 20 miles either way, and no issues with DFS, but do have my Asus set for channel's selected, 36 (42) on 80Mhz, and 100 (114) on 160Mhz, no issues at all for the two separate 5Ghz bands. 2.4Ghz currently all sitting on CH11... My old Asus wifi 4 but with 5Ghz support hated the EE Smarthub 6 Plus, and flipped between the 2.4/5Ghz also, AP close to it fixed that out and it stuck hard 5Ghz all the time, even on combined or separate ssid's just like you are trying to do!

Re: Smart Hub 7 Plus does not retain wifi settings

DigiVIV — Wed, 27 May 2026 22:18:41 GMT

Thanks @JimM11 If only EE would provide a little more control over the wifi settings (as well as ensuring that available settings are retained!) that would solve a lot of problems. But otherwise, yes, looks like alternative APs, proffering older standards may be required. Am quite near an airport and approach path.

Just really annoying, because better firmware / UX would save so much hassle. There's no technical reason why the Smart Hub 7 Plus can't be a perfectly good wifi router for the whole range of technologies actually in use today.

Re: Smart Hub 7 Plus does not retain wifi settings

JimM11 — Wed, 27 May 2026 22:35:02 GMT

@DigiVIV You may just have to hold off until @bobpullen get's a little time to play and see what is going on with the Plus for you with it not holding the channels and switching back on with the Main wifi one, 2.4Ghz/5Ghz that is a feature on/off power to channel test and jump away from nearby signals with neighbours etc. Approach path for me is directly overhead both in/out but does not seem to affect the Asus in the slightest.

Re: Smart Hub 7 Plus does not retain wifi settings

DigiVIV — Tue, 28 Jul 2026 10:34:33 GMT

I'd really appreciate it if EE could fix this bug before pushing out any more updates and thereby unilaterally restarting the router. Is that looking at all possible @bobpullen ?

It has happened twice in the last month or two, and each time the wifi configuration is reset: which messes things up, without warning or any indication until the problems are noticed. The latest time, 2GB of mobile data used because a phone didn't reconnect to the suddenly dual band SSID. I chose the settings for a reason. They are valid choices and I want them to stay that way. Seems a reasonable expectation to me...

The previous time, the IPv6 settings were changed as well. I presume because that update included IPv6 fixes. But the same principle applies. I do not expect the ISP to be randomly changing the configuration I have consciously chosen to set up locally. That never, ever happened on PlusNet, over many years.

I would ditch the Smart Hub 7 Plus altogether, but it's required for Digital Voice.

In which case, I would suggest that EE really needs to ditch this dodgy way of doing things.

Re: Smart Hub 7 Plus does not retain wifi settings

JimM11 — Tue, 28 Jul 2026 11:29:20 GMT

@DigiVIV Down grade you equipment, go get a second hand BT Smarthub2 and if using extenders currently look to pick up also a complete wifi disc or disc's. You still will not be able to separate the bands on it as NOT a hub feature, but your older mac may hang in the 5Ghz possibly better if not start looking for Mac help advice how to get it done. There was also a new round of FW pushed out to the 7 Plus range, is the re-boot issue with that version still current? Below is the latest and greatest from EE.

FW: r4.27.1-R-1862254-PROD-84001 and the gui is at App version 3.14.5 13/07/2026

BT Smart Hub 2 | Devices | BT Help

Re: Smart Hub 7 Plus does not retain wifi settings

jak26 — Tue, 28 Jul 2026 11:46:23 GMT

As I mentioned last month in https://community.ee.co.uk/t5/Broadband-Landline/Hub-7-WiFi-turns-itself-back-on/td-p/1622655 the Hub 7+ does indeed default Main WIFI to On after a restart (both 2.4 and 5 get turned back on). I haven't seen any other settings get changed on restart. It's either a bug where the settings for Main WIFI aren't respected at startup and get set back to default or someone thought it a good idea to re-enable Main in case it had been turned off in error.

It doesn't take too long to turn Main back off after a restart - and so far there's only been one restart on f/w update - but don't change too many WIFI Settings too quickly - wait for each change to take effect at a time

A setup of using wired LAN ports and 2.4 compatible on the hub 7+ plus a new Asus access point for 5 and 6GHz WiFi sited nearer to devices is working well across all devices with good wired and WIFI speeds and stability.

Re: Smart Hub 7 Plus does not retain wifi settings

JimM11 — Tue, 28 Jul 2026 12:07:17 GMT

@jak26 Is the 7+ you have also running the latest FW and still with the auto re-enable Main wifi still on power off/on?

The vodafone Power Hub for sure was the worst i had seen, setup prior to even joining them, had it all tickety boo, first FW push from them NOT one single setting was maintained, so had to go reset every single aspect again. Just got my Ladline fixed after 3 months VF mess up, had to do the Factory reset (could not get past VF stupid request so impasse was in surmountable) then to find out after 3 months talking to the clowns, oops we made the mistake and you are stuffed now. Just about to check there stupid Hub again now but pretty sure it did some FW updates again as took one long time to get back on the connection. Phone to be fixed and enabled 31st last chance for them if not i'm off.

Re: Smart Hub 7 Plus does not retain wifi settings

DigiVIV — Tue, 28 Jul 2026 16:03:16 GMT

We do indeed now have the "latest and greatest," @JimM11 !

I can set up the Ubiquiti AP when I have some time, but if the Smart Hub main wifi turns itself back on anyway, I'll still be going in to force it off again, albeit with less disruption because the SSID will be irrelevant.

I guess if, as @jak26 suggests, it is a deliberate choice to minimise consumer mistakes, the problem won't ever be fixed. Would be good to know that, if so.

It just occurred to me to try adding a firewall rule to forward port 7547 to a non-existent internal IP address. Wonder if that will prevent EE meddling, so at least I can determine when restarts happen?

Mind you, port forwarding is also flakey with these things, isn't it?...

And, in fact, an online port checker is still showing it as open, rather than timed out as I would expect...

Quite a security risk, leaving the CWMP/TR-069 port open to the Internet at large, I'd have thought. But nothing surprises me about how poorly implemented this router is.

Re: Smart Hub 7 Plus does not retain wifi settings

JimM11 — Tue, 28 Jul 2026 16:05:01 GMT

@DigiVIV Got it, let's see if @bobpullen has managed time to do the look see, but you are correct EE FW updates do recycle and reboot the Hub final part to activate everything. PF is way oopsey with that particular hub for sure, as also most off them appear to be heading the same way especially if uPnP gets a hold quickly.

Re: Smart Hub 7 Plus does not retain wifi settings

DigiVIV — Tue, 28 Jul 2026 16:28:18 GMT

Well, he seems to have confirmed @jak26 's issue in the other thread, so I guess it's the same thing.

Question is when/whether it is going to be fixed.

(Do PlusNet hubs have the management port open to the Internet, I wonder? Can't check any more. It should surely be restricted to access from ISP systems.)