topic Re: Wi-Fi issues with Smart Hub Plus in Broadband & Landline

Wi-Fi issues with Smart Hub Plus

TuckerUK — Mon, 13 Nov 2023 18:20:35 GMT

So I've recently joined EE from BT on 30th October on the FF 900 all-rounder package. Long story short, I've added Smart Wi-Fi Plus was sent one disc and then got a second. Then added Wi-Fi enhancer. I was with BT for years but had FF installed in February this year. Old setup with BT smart hub 2 and 2 Wi-Fi discs and 900/110 package. Apart from the odd time, my kids moaned about the Wi-Fi upstairs while gaming etc. The experience with EE now is absolutely terrible on a daily basis. I thought the upgrade to Wi-Fi 6 and compatible smart Wi-Fi discs would be an upgrade from BT. The EE app is completely broken at times the Wi-Fi is shocking in the evening compared to the time with BT. I'm slowly losing the will to live with the kids moaning so much. Like I said compared to BT the first couple of weeks with EE has been a complete nightmare. If anyone can help on here as to what to try on my end I'll be very appreciative. I appreciate that upstairs is all over Wi-Fi and not using Ethernet is an issue. But sadly we rent our house so that's out of the question.

Setup: downstairs my gaming PC, i7 12700k RTX 4070 32 GB RAM 2.5Gbps Ethernet port. My son's PS4 Pro on Ethernet is both hardwired. No issues before EE.

Upstairs 2 smart Wi-Fi discs one in mine and the wife's bedroom and the other in our boy's bedroom. PS5 in our room and my 16-year-old’s gaming PC in the boys. PC specs. i5 12400F RTX 3060 16GB RAM 2.5Gbps Ethernet port. I've tried Wi-Fi and ethernet to my son's gaming PC from the disc. But I'm pulling my hair out.

Someone please help me 😩

PS Just to add I’m getting issues now with lag (Fortnite) (Rocket League) that my kids play, and speeds in the evening. 900 before the kids get home from school to 150/200 in the evening on the 900 package. Never had this issue with BT yes I would lose some speed because multiple people are using the BB. But to only get 150/200 is terrible

Re: Wi-Fi issues with Smart Hub Plus

Moose_UK — Tue, 14 Nov 2023 04:13:50 GMT

I've found some good powerline adapters can help get a stable ethernet connection around rented properties! Using some 2gbps passthrough ones at the moment so that I don't lose the plug sockets that they're inserted in to.

I'm also finding the WiFi not reaching as far as the old Smart Hub 2 - I'm loving the WiFi 6 speeds though which make up for it!

Have you reported the slow speeds by calling in to EE? Surely your speed guarantee is higher than 200, so they should investigate the problem for you?

I'm still running on my BT connection with the new EE kit due to an Openreach **bleep**-up, so hoping mine stays at these speeds once they eventually manage to switch!

Re: Wi-Fi issues with Smart Hub Plus

bobpullen — Tue, 14 Nov 2023 11:08:10 GMT

@TuckerUK - difficult to interpret from your post but are you saying you're seeing performance difficulties over both wired *and* wireless connections?

Regarding the positioning of your extenders, do you know how they are connected back to the hub? If you navigate to the Advanced Wi-Fi settings in the Hub Manager/GUI, and highlight each extender, then it should tell you if the connection is over 2.4GHz or 5GHz backhaul. You need it on 5GHz ideally.

I think the newer EE Wi-Fi extenders may have an antenna deficit versus earlier offerings, but I'd expect Wi-Fi6, combined with the support for higher power channels, to result in a marginal increase in 5GHz range if anything 🤔

Edit: on the Powerline suggestion, I'd be very surprised if you got north of 200mbps through a Powerline link.

Re: Wi-Fi issues with Smart Hub Plus

TuckerUK — Tue, 14 Nov 2023 11:51:35 GMT

@bobpullenin the evening yes over Wi-Fi and Ethernet. Both disc’s are connected to the smart hub over Wi-Fi backhaul. I understand once more ppl use the internet in the evening the bandwidth is shared between us all etc. With BT on their equipment we didn’t have these problems as much. The kids moaned from time to time but it’s been almost every single night since joining EE they are complaining and nothing has changed in our setup apart from the EE equipment.

Speedtest NOW as I’m the only one home currently over Wi-Fi on my iPhone 15 pro max

Last night over Wi-Fi on the same device

Again I understand that the bandwidth is shared out over multiple users on the home network. But the main issues are my boys PS5 and gaming PC upstairs. They complain so much about lagging and poor Wi-Fi when gaming. Like I said we had the BT discs and Home Hub 2 and it was never this bad on Wi-Fi. I thought coming over to EE on Wi-Fi 6 would be better but we are having nothing but issues. I use Ethernet downstairs to my gaming PC and even I was getting packet loss and issues last night when gaming which I’ve never seen before since being on full fibre since January. Hopefully I’ve commented something useful if you need anymore information I will try my best to screenshot what I can etc.

PS forgot to add that I looked in the Home Hub UI and it says to use the app for the Wi-Fi extenders doesn’t give any information about them at all.

Re: Wi-Fi issues with Smart Hub Plus

bobpullen — Tue, 14 Nov 2023 11:59:05 GMT

I can't see your images for some reason.

@TuckerUK wrote:
If you navigate to the Advanced Wi-Fi settings in the Hub Manager/GUI, and highlight each extender, then it should tell you if the connection is over 2.4GHz or 5GHz backhaul. You need it on 5GHz ideally.

This would be helpful to see during a time you're having Wi-Fi problems upstairs.

It's the info below that's of interest for each extender: -

Re: Wi-Fi issues with Smart Hub Plus

TuckerUK — Tue, 14 Nov 2023 12:24:34 GMT

@bobpullen

I was logged out on here and couldn’t see your image you posted. Logged in and now I see it I can confirm that I don’t see that page in the Hub UI that you’ve posted.

Re: Wi-Fi issues with Smart Hub Plus

bobpullen — Tue, 14 Nov 2023 12:31:38 GMT

If you tap the name of the extender in the app then it will probably show you similar info. I think to view the page in a web browser you need to be using a desktop machine/or desktop mode on a mobile device.

Re: Wi-Fi issues with Smart Hub Plus

TuckerUK — Tue, 14 Nov 2023 12:37:13 GMT

That’s all the information you get with the app

Re: Wi-Fi issues with Smart Hub Plus

Eddy2760 — Tue, 14 Nov 2023 12:39:07 GMT

When sending pictures they need to be modified to take out any personal information as the pictures will be blocked by admin for your protection 👌

Re: Wi-Fi issues with Smart Hub Plus

Eddy2760 — Tue, 14 Nov 2023 12:50:44 GMT

With the WiFi extenders and system, to get mine to show up in the hub manager part I reset them and turned them off for a min or two… then turned them back on, waited before pressing the wps button and then pressed it on my hub. Once all connected, test speeds in and around the hub and extenders, then through the hub manger setting reboot the main hub and await for it to all re-sink back up and all your connected devices sync back up and then again go around to see if the speeds have improved 👌

also if you have any of the old system WiFi extenders attached to the system I would take these offline and disconnect them as this may affect your coverage due to difference in software etc

Re: Wi-Fi issues with Smart Hub Plus

TuckerUK — Tue, 14 Nov 2023 12:59:28 GMT

I haven’t got any old equipment anymore as sent back all the BT equipment in the post. I’ve factory reset the Smart Hub Plus and Wi-Fi extenders so many times over the past 2 weeks I’m losing my mind tbh doing it. It’s never showed up for me in the Hub UI. All in all my experience so far with EE has been very frustrating compared to BT. I’m gonna give CS a ring a see what they say over the phone again god help me 🤪

Re: Wi-Fi issues with Smart Hub Plus

Eddy2760 — Tue, 14 Nov 2023 13:24:53 GMT

Cool cool,

instead of factory resetting the main hub just reboot the device from the main hub menu, just acts as a little refresh 👌

with the hub and extenders, are they away from any sort of interface, like other electronically items etc, I know you may have already tried all these I’m just fishing lol.

Is the speeds good from your extenders or are they dropping out but maintaining it’s a full signal, if so again move the extenders closer to the main hub, rest the both extenders and turn them off, take out the power and then plug and turn them on, wps button all of them till they connect and they go aqua, check though the hub manager again to see if they are shown👌
If yes turn them off and move them to desired location turn on and see if they auto connect to the main hub

Re: Wi-Fi issues with Smart Hub Plus

XRaySpeX — Tue, 14 Nov 2023 14:05:08 GMT

Don't worry, your images were awaiting approval. I have now done so & they should appear soon.

Re: Wi-Fi issues with Smart Hub Plus

XRaySpeX — Tue, 14 Nov 2023 14:24:18 GMT

I have paired a WiFi Extender with the SH+ & placed it by a Smart TV. The TV is connected to the SH+'s SSID (the name of the WiFi Extender never appears) but would assume it's going thro' the WiFi Extender. The TV is running catch-up & so it is using WiFi.

Yet the no. of connected devices on the WiFi Extender is always 0:

Shouldn't it be 1 or could the TV be bypassing the nearby WiFi Extender? If so, how would I force it to use the WiFi Extender?

Re: Wi-Fi issues with Smart Hub Plus

Eddy2760 — Tue, 14 Nov 2023 14:40:07 GMT

It could be that your TV may find the WiFi signal from SH+ is stronger and therefore connecting to that directly bypassing the extender, 🤷‍♂️

Re: Wi-Fi issues with Smart Hub Plus

XRaySpeX — Tue, 14 Nov 2023 14:49:02 GMT

@Eddy2760 : It could be but is it likely with the WiFi Extender 1 ft. away while the SH+ is about 25 ft. away? Anyway is it possible to force it to use the WiFi Extender?

Re: Wi-Fi issues with Smart Hub Plus

Eddy2760 — Tue, 14 Nov 2023 14:55:52 GMT

What’s the signal like without the extender ?

Re: Wi-Fi issues with Smart Hub Plus

XRaySpeX — Tue, 14 Nov 2023 16:46:13 GMT

For your 2nd image, Advanced Wireless > WiFi Extenders, zoom OUT until you'll see what @bobpullen is getting at.

Re: Wi-Fi issues with Smart Hub Plus

YouAreNumber6 — Wed, 15 Nov 2023 13:18:44 GMT

Not really much help but I’m having similar issues with Smart Hub Plus.
I moved from BT - was on a 150Mbps connection with them, now on 900 with EE. The new Wi-Fi is terrible. Wired speed test confirms 900 to the router, but testing from around 10 feet away , with line of sight to the router and with a (WiFi 6) iPhone 14 shows it dropping to around 300! As for my office Mac on the first floor, it’s even less.

At the moment I can feel no discernible difference with the new setup so am seriously considering using the 14 day cooling off period to go back to the BT setup, wait for the contract to expire and then see what’s around. One option I might suggest for you is powerline, but you’d need to check speeds etc

Oh and as for the EE app it’s atrocious. Randomly hangs, and parts of it don’t even work. BT app was much better.

Re: Wi-Fi issues with Smart Hub Plus

TuckerUK — Wed, 15 Nov 2023 13:42:46 GMT

@YouAreNumber6 Yep I feel you 100%. I had a EE engineer out today time slot between 10am and 12pm was here all 20 minutes. Was a nice enough bloke but sadly all he was concerned about was, I was getting 950Mbps/1Gbps what I’m paying for to the ONT/Router. Wasn’t really interested in helping to solve the issue over Wi-Fi and Ethernet in the evening with the Smart discs etc and came across as wanted to get out as soon as possible. Phoned up EE right afterwards he left and got an apology from the advisor saying that wasn’t the normal practice as they have 2 hours to try and fix the issues within the home. Another EE engineer booked for this Monday coming hopefully they can help with the atrocious EE Wi-Fi mesh system.