2 week review of EE 1.6gbs

[Bluenose_Dave]

Having been on the new 1.6gb/s service now for 2 weeks, and here are my views,

i have the EE new smart router plus and 3 extenders, first off i know the EE smart hub plus only has 1gb LAN ports, speeds have been ok and stable WIFI rangers from about 650-820  what is not bad, i m running with them hardwired with a lan to them, i know WiFi 6 max speeds are 1200 but rarely get them in the real world 

this package feels like it been rushed out, my reason for saying this are,  openreach engineers laptops have 1gb Ethernet ports so they are unable to check speeds from ONT or any other Speedtest at your home if you are on the 1.6gbs package

the EE router having only 1gb LAN, also it comes with a cat 5e cable, this cat of cable does up to 1gb, so if you are on 1.6gb/s you will need to get a new Ethernet lead to connected the smart hub plus to the ONT

all the WiFi features like work and game mode and WiFi controls dont work, it say page not found, i have heard that the WiFi enhanced feature has been turn off so the team can look at it and fix it as it affecting a lot of users and should be back after a month, i am unable to check speed via the router page this time it asking for me to make an EE account

speeds and connection has been stable and good, but i did have a lot of issues getting the service

i know of people who have bought a 3rd party router so they can get full access to the raw 1.6gbs speeds, and they are having no issues on speeds as router has 2.5gb LAN on them unlike the EE smart hub plus

i have bought a usbc to 2.5gb Ethernet adapter so i can test the raw speeds at the ONT, plus if openreach do need to test speeds at my home they will be able too

so in short i hope you can see why i think this package has been rushed out from the fact openreach dont have the kit to test speeds at the customer home, to all the issues with the new smart hub plus

[JimM11]

@TonsOfFun Not sure i remember but if you are a 1.8Gb/s package user, then you are entitled to it all, i would certainly consider getting the Extender out of the children's bedroom, absolutely no need for it to be in there in the first place.

[cliffy37]

@TonsOfFun  I have had a feeling there was no MLO in these devices and windows does not show a aggregated link speed but i had not found any proof that it was not supported in teh Pro routers. If this is true then EE have a problem as i have foind that Multi-link operation (MLO) is the main feature in the Wi-Fi 7 (802.11be) specification. MLO is a mandatory feature for multi-link devices (MLD) running in Wi-Fi 7, whether concurrently or nonconcurrently

If this is true then EE should not be selling the Pro as a WiFi 7 device, or am i missing something?

[JimM11]

@cliffy37 All depends on how the Device implements the control structure!

[cliffy37]

Hi @JimM11 can you eplain what you mena by this please? I am not sure i undewrstand what you are saying but i would stuill expect but W11 PC to show multiple channels connected if MLO was present on teh EE router and TonsofFun also seems to of found something that says teh EE router does not support MLO and that is a requirement of WiFi 7 standard

[JimM11]

@cliffy37 

Recommendation:

Create a separate SSID for MLO rather than enabling MLO on an existing SSID

Reasons include:

1. The current WPA3 settings on Nebula are with transition mode enabled for better compatibility. However, WiFi 7 MLO requires strict WPA3 (pure WPA3, without transition mode). This means that certain devices, such as Apple iOS devices, may recognize the MLO SSID as a separate profile, requiring users to establish a new SSID profile. This could lead to unpredictable roaming behavior.

2. Additionally Many legacy Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac) and Wi-Fi 4 (802.11n) clients still exist, and a number of them are unable to connect to WPA3-only SSIDs. To support these devices, we recommend maintaining WPA3 with transition mode on the existing SSIDs.

3. For consistent coverage, we recommend providing Wi-Fi 7 MLO coverage throughout the entire desired area. This avoids potential issues when devices attempt to roam between the MLO SSID and the previous non-MLO SSID. Some clients may not recognize these as the same SSID and will therefore stay connected to the existing SSID until the signal is too weak, only then switching to the MLO SSID.

4. Since MLO is still in the early stages of development, we suggest that users with Wi-Fi 7-capable devices who want to experience MLO enable auto-join (on Wi-Fi 7 end device) for the MLO SSID and disable auto-join for the other SSIDs in the same coverage area (e.g., in an office setting). This approach ensures that the client always connects to the MLO SSID instead of spotty coverage of MLO SSID, and then disconnect, and then connect to other SSID, which further emphasizes the importance of providing comprehensive WiFi 7 MLO coverage where possible.

[cliffy37]

@JimM11 Already have the WPA3 mode in personal without transition, system still only connects to one channel, when using my ASUS Router system always connected to multiple channels, unless there is another toggle somewhere that i am missing i really do not belive these devices have MLO as i am certain my PC would show multiple connected channels if it did (as it did with my Asus router)

[cliffy37]

@JimM11 After doing some searching on Google i found the below which does indicate my system is not connected using MLO and also supports my theory that the pro routers do not have MLO abilities

To check if your PC is connected using Multi-Link Operation (MLO), you can check the network band in your Windows settings:

1. Select Settings
2. Select Network & internet
3. Select Wi-Fi
4. Select (your network) properties
5. Check the value next to Network band (channel) 

If the value shows more than one band, then MLO is supported. For example, if it shows 5 GHz and 6 GHz, or 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz, then MLO is supported. 

MLO is a Wi-Fi 7 technology that allows devices to transmit or receive data across multiple frequency bands and channels at the same time. This can improve data throughput, reduce latency, and make the overall connection more reliable

[JimM11]

@cliffy37 Do not know why you think that MLO is a new concept just because it is coming to home wi-fi now it has been used for years, the EE Pro router may not have it implemented correctly at present, not everything oob works 100%. You cannot compare an Asus router to an ISP supplied, that just does not equate.

[cliffy37]

@jimjim Which point in the conversation did i say MLO was new?  What i did say was that MLO must be present for a router to be considered WiFi 7 as it is part of thed standard and for EE to be selling this as WiFi 7 without MLO present is wrong because it is quite simply not a WiFi 7 product without it. While it may not be fair to compare EE hardware to Asus it is fair to compare a WiFi 7 product with a WiFi 7 poroduct. Remember i am not comparing extra features i am comparing basic feature sets that make up the WiFi 7 standard. 

It is quite simple, if MLO is not present then from what i can gather this product is being mis-sold

[TonsOfFun]

I probably didn't word my findings very well...

It will more then likely have MLO but only setup for the hub to nodes which is why you can still get good speeds from the nodes it seems to be locked from a user end so cannot broadcast to external devices. 

There is a hand full of mesh systems that can be listed as wifi 7 and only MLO backhaul and they don't even have 6ghz channels just the 2.4 and 5 ones. So it can be a bit misleading and this is exactly what ee are doing with their system.