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 6Ghz is not a requirement! And you need to be virtually on top of the router to maximise speeds and operation. By the reading of your posting, and not sure were you need all the Ethernet ports, i would consider swapping the positions all around. 

[Bluenose_Dave]

Update on my son getting connected high level complains have informed him that the ground work is booked in for Monday, and Openreach out weds to connect him so it should be done before Xmas what is a great result for him

[TonsOfFun]

I never said 6ghz was a requirement lol. 

My responses are to cliffy who seem to think that wifi 7 must have all 3 bands and have MLO sent to external devices to be certified as wifi 7

I was making him aware of what is needed for requirements to be classed as wifi 7 

I've got rid of the extender in the girls room and it's playing better now like I said in the intial post that I've probably oversaturated the wifi in such a condensed area which will do more harm then good. But with having 4 kids and everything else to do after work and Xmas it was just a quick setup of everything and seeing how it performs out the box. I'll optimise everything over the next week.

As said though there isn't really many user setting to get it fully optimised  like a 3rd party which I understand from a isp point of view not everyone has net working knowledge. 

[TonsOfFun]

Wow that's really dave. That's a good win for ee on that issue then 👏 

Now let's hope they OR turn up to do their bit!!

[Bluenose_Dave]

That is from openreach. Once done EE hopfully should be on the ball on weds and get him online, expect it to go ok as civil team will do duct work and getting fibre to the outside of the house, and weds for internal work and moving account to the new ONT, it make worse as mobile signal is not great there, so will be a massive help getting on line. Internal concrete walls so expect to backhaul his extenders etc once he up and running

[cliffy37]

@TonsOfFun  I never said all 3 bands were required for WiFi7 but I believe MLO is. Not that it matters, I find EEs router to be total pants and only worth having as a spare. Will be buying a third party device and using that, unsure which yet, my Asus router was considerably faster and used MLO so I may go back to Asus or possibly use a Ubiquity solution

[Bluenose_Dave]

Update on my son and getting on line. Civil team was out to him Monday and Tuesday. There was talk of a 9 meter pole and not new ducting to his house. But after them calling boss was told to do ducting that was completed yesterday

and at 8 this morning openreach was out and fitted a 2.5gb ONT even if he is only on the 500 package and all is up and running. Only thing was his block driveway has been cemented down so they had to run it on his fence to the house not ideal but at least he is on line before Xmas. I did not think it would be done this side of Xmas

[Bluenose_Dave]

Hi all we all know it would not be long before I had to post in my thread,

speeds drops out on 6ghz band on the extenders

i noticed the speed drop so I got the app WiFiman what shows physical speeds, so when all is good physical speed shows as 2268 remember this is max physical speeds and when I speed test like this speeds are what they should be, but then every day or so, speeds drops WiFi man app showing physical connect speeds down to 816

if I disable 6ghz band on my iPhone speeds all good, but not on the 6ghz band, to resolve it I have to reboot the pro extender

as the ee app not worked for over 2 months I called next gen team to ask about the app not working for me, and said about the speed issues, and I was surprised by the next gen person saying the not designed to be wired connection!!,!

and the Ethernet port is there for setting it up, now I never seen the app saying use a Ethernet lead to set it up

to me it sound a tad strange, and he advised to run the wireless and not backhauled,

what do we think, am I right it my thinking?  Should not be an issue at all running they wired as even on hub web page it says Ethernet 2.5gb what again makes me think them being backhaul is not the cause

advised to remove Ethernet leads and see how speeds are but obviously not going to be full speed if only using them as a mesh system 

[JimM11]

@Bluenose_Dave 6 months nearly, if there is no wired backhaul then you may as well have a chocolate teapot for a smart wireless device, the Tech may be correct but such a statement i would have jumped all over him for sure, hold on while i record this conversation with you. And pretty sure your testing was as sound as a pound when you did so. Will look back this long long post. My tuppence on this stupid statement....

[Bluenose_Dave]

Damm I forgot I can record a call, yes my feeling was he did not know, you know me I asked him are you one of the original next gen team? And no he was not , no surprise there lol

i did ask a few why question but he batted them off with the same line they not designed to work permanently wired 

so once again I finding out if I did not know how clueless some of the cue card readers are

crazy one I stuck in login loop on the app for last 2 months, where as friends apps work fine done the usual remove and get the app again, same on iPhone or iPad but I know calling EE up is going to be a mission as it always seems to be

even Apple intelligence says it works backhaul 

I have to try the silliness of what they said to do and it be back on to the case again with them

why do I think is will be another email sent to get answers, roll on December and my contract is up being one of the original ones on 1.6 and all the issues we charged more than if you take it now,

beside that I am happy one as Birmingham city have smashed some records