After switching to EE one of my devices won't connect to the new hub

[Buggwrit]

I had to accept being booted off Plusnet onto EE to retain my home phone. The switch-over mostly went smoothly BUT - sod's law - my principal desktop workstation won't connect.

8 devices (two android phones, two android tablets, two Windows 10 laptops, a smart tv and a pvr) all connected without issue but my Windows 7 main pc won't. It doesn't pick up the EE network name in the list of available networks. If I select 'Other network' and enter this manually followed by the passcode it eventually reports it's unable to connect. Doesn't say why, of course. If I hotspot my phone it sees that and connects straight away.

The Windows troubleshooter can't resolve the problem. It just suggests rebooting the hub. This, predictably, doesn't help.

The hub is an EE Smart Hub Plus SH31B. The wireless card in the PC is an Asus PCE-N15 11n. The PC is running Windows 7 Professional SP1 with 8GB RAM.

On the advice of some knowledgeable members of the Plusnet community forum I've tried turning on the 2.4GHz compatible wi-fi and even turned off the standard 2.4GHz but that hasn't helped. I've tried going into 'Manage wireless networks' in the Network and Sharing Centre and manually adding both the standard and -Comp network names to the list, with the -Comp at the top which Windows should try first.

Still nothing. When I open 'Connect to a network' neither of them appear in the list, just neighbouring networks. Very frustrating.

Any thoughts gratefully received.

[jak26]

A wireless N card is pretty old - for a main PC a WiFI AC card / USB stick would be a starting point - or ideally wired - although Win 7 - in fact anything other than W11 - isnt ideal either. When my current PC stopped seeing SSIDs I used the common solution of uplugging from the mains socket for a while which fully powers down any devices running off the standby rail. If you have another router (e.g. the hub 2) that used to work then try it as an access point - turn off DCHP an connect to the ISP router by LAN.

[JimM11]

@Buggwrit The Asus info linked,PCE-N15｜Wireless Adapters｜ASUS Global

Try changing the name off the comp network ssid and not have the - dashes in the name, it is WPA2-PSK and 5Ghz operation as it does goto 300Mb/s as a speed. So use the comp 5Ghz, and turn off the 2.4Ghz for connection within the web manager looking at the EE Hub.

[XRaySpeX]

That'll be a old deprecated device. Older or weaker devices may not be compatible with the default WiFi settings of EE Smart Hubs. Try setting up Compatible WiFi on the router under Advanced > Wireless Settings > Config > Compatible WiFi (it defaults to 2.4 GHz & WPA2) & connect your problematic 2.4 GHz devices to that.

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@Buggwrit wrote:

I've tried going into 'Manage wireless networks' in the Network and Sharing Centre and manually adding both the standard and -Comp network names to the list, with the -Comp at the top which Windows should try first.

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It's not a matter of Win trying anything. You have to explicitly choose to connect to the Compatible WiFi SSID.

[Buggwrit]

Try setting up Compatible WiFi on the router under Advanced > Wireless Settings > Config > Compatible WiFi (it defaults to 2.4 GHz & WPA2) & connect your problematic 2.4 GHz devices to that.

@XRaySpeX  If you read my initial post you'll see I've already tried that. I even tried turning off the standard 2.4GHz in case of a conflict.

One of the Plusnet community members stated that my Asus card is only a 2.4GHz device so that implies there would be no point in trying to use the compatible 5GHz as suggested by @JimM11 .

[JimM11]

@Buggwrit Really don't care what you were told by the PN person, wireless N at 300Mb/s requires 5Ghz operation. It's all up to you.

[XRaySpeX]

Yes, but you seem to assume that Win will choose which SSID to connect to, but it won't. It's you that needs to get the PC to connect to the Compatible WiFi.

[Buggwrit]

@JimM11 "Really don't care what you were told by the PN person, wireless N at 300Mb/s requires 5Ghz operation. It's all up to you."

Well you'll have to bear with me. I can only go by what people tell me.

@XRaySpeX  I don't assume anything of thesort. I realise perfectly well that I have to select the network to connect to. It's difficult if the required network doesn't show in the list. I've been looking at USB dongles and found this. It claims to be dual-band and compliant with IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n/ac. Would this be suitable?

I must ask you all for your forbearance. In addition to the connectivity problem I'm also faced with a problem with email that first occurred following Plusnet moving my account to Greenby. After a lot of hassle and assistance from the Plusnet Community this appeared to have been resolved and had been working smoothly for several months but since the switch-over it's reappeared and the previously applied fixes no longer work. I can receive mail but can't send it.

I'm 82 years old ond finding all these problems are causing a lot of stess. 

[JimM11]

@Buggwrit Good for you stand your ground, the old wifi card in the old pc running a really old software, you are right to say what you have ""Respect to that"" please do accept my apologies, main trouble is getting old drivers to work, if i was you would think about getting hold off and old Tp-Link RE like the TL-WA854RE | 300Mbps Wi-Fi Range Extender | TP-Link United Kingdom, good chance that it will connect to both the EE Hub and your PC, it's another option. Not sure if the one you mentioned would work on a PC as may be designed for telephony only.

Your windows 10 laptops that connected fine, did you try setting the name on the comp of the EE hub with all the dashes etc removed, old cards not sure of limits on character size and specifics etc to see if it even shows up, and yes just start with the 2.4Ghz band on only and WPA2-PSK as the wifi securities...

Once you set the name on the Comp side, do a 5 minute off on the hub, when it restart's you should see it change an be available, use one off the other devices like the win10 laptop to see what is available and transmitting from the hub! There is a lot going on with those hubs, 2.4/5Ghz Main band and there Hidden ssid's that you cannot see, ee wifi and it's hidden etc etc

[Buggwrit]

@JimM11 I haven't tried removing the dash from the -Comp name so will try that. Also I haven't rebooted the hub since making the changes to will try that also.

I did wonder about thecompatibility of the USB dongle amd I would feel more comfortable installing a newer PCI-e card so if all else fails I'm ready to throw a bit of cash at that.