14-06-2022 03:10 PM
The EE Smart Hub 2-Hourly Reboot Problem & Solution
The Problem
The BLACK EE Smart Hub (also called a “router”) loses Internet connectivity for a few minutes several times a day.
What’s actually happening is a software update on 24th May 2022 caused an issue that triggers this particular model of router to reboot every 2 hours. The result is Internet connectivity is lost for roughly 2 minutes while the router reboots.
You can verify if this is the cause of your current problem by logging into your router’s admin interface. Using a web browser on a device on the same network (LAN) as your router, go to http://192.168.1.254 or whatever IP address you may have changed it to. Log in using the password printed on the back of the router. Look for the “Admin password for Hub Manager”. This is not the same as your Wi-Fi password.
Go to Advanced Settings, then Technical Log. Click on the Event Log tab. You will see lots of entries listed. Filter it by clicking on Categories, scroll down the list and select BOOT. If you see dozens of entries starting with “Booting firmware…” and the time between each entry is exactly 2 hours (plus an extra 80 or so seconds) then your router is affected by this very issue. Your log may not go back as far as 24th May which is the fateful date EE customers in this forum agree the issue started.
How To Fix it
A fix can only come from EE, but at the time of writing (3 weeks into the problem) there’s no sign of any fix on the horizon. But don’t despair because using a completely different model of router is the quickest solution, but it could take a few days. If you’re lucky, the EE agent you speak to will recognise your issue and be willing to send you the latest WHITE EE Smart Router for free immediately. However, at the time of writing this is not the case and you will first need to go through several tedious hoops. The experience from most customers in this forum is as follows:
It’s important that you call EE’s broadband support to report the fault. Tell them the router reboots every 2 hours and you’ve read about it in the Community Forum. The agent you speak to should be aware of the problem as it’s been estimated that 20,000 customers have this issue.
EE’s standard process for dealing with issues is to send out one of their support guys who will have a poke around with your router and phone socket. When they realise they can’t fix it he might offer to give you a new router or get one posted out to you (they may not carry spare stock). If he does that then tell him you’ll only accept the latest WHITE EE Smart Router. Unless he can guarantee you a white one, you should refuse to save you the trouble of posting a black router back to them because it will have exactly the same issue.
The support guy will advise he needs to arrange for an Openreach engineer to visit you. (I advise you to call EE back to arrange your first Openreach visit in case the support guy doesn’t make this arrangement for you.) The Openreach engineer will check your master socket and replace it if it’s old or not looking good. He’ll check your extension wires too if you have any. He might change your port and/or line from the local street cabinet. This might appear at first to fix the problem, but about 6 hours later your router will start rebooting again.
Call EE back and they’ll send out another Openreach engineer who will either check everything all over again or roll his eyes and say a few choice words about EE knowing exactly what the problem is and wasting everybody’s time by sending engineers out for no good reason.
Once you’ve gone through these hoops, call EE and update them. At the time of writing this is the only point where an EE agent will be open to suggestions from you. (Try making the following suggestion the very first time you call EE as they may have updated their policy in light of this epic issue going on for so long.)
The Solution
Depending on your own preference, ask the EE agent to either…
If you want to buy your own router then choose one that you know will work easily with EE broadband. It must support VDSL. Two models that customers in this forum have bought and confirmed to work perfectly are:
Before you unplug your black EE router for the last time, be sure to write down your broadband username. Go to Advanced Settings > Broadband. Look for your “Broadband Username” and password. You’ll need this and your password for setting up your new router.
It won’t let you see your password, but you can work it out from the Broadband Username. If your username looks like PRODUCTIONHQNUN123456@fs, your password will look like HQNPASS123456. Simply replace the numbers in the password, with the ones found in your username. For very old legacy users whose username doesn't look like this & you've forgotten what you choose way back, give EE a call and ask them nicely for it.
Lastly, when your new white EE router or 3rd party router arrives and you’ve set it up, you may notice it’s not giving you your full expected Internet speed. This is because your maximum speed was lowered by the Dynamic Line Management (DLM) at your local cabinet when it detected your previous EE router was frequently dropping the line.
Check your current speed by Googling “speed test” and then click on Run Speed Test. If it’s notably slower than what you used to get you’ll need to call EE and ask if they can get Openreach to do a DLM reset. The engineer will visit you but if you ask him at the door for a DLM reset they probably won’t even bother coming in and will get the job done for you within the hour.
I hope this guide has been useful.
04-06-2022 10:56 PM
Wait. EE said there are 20K customers with similar issues? Really? So why are only 4 people hitting this forum looking for answers?
Today I had my master socket replaced - it was 20 years old. An Openreach engineer did some other stuff (didn't catch all of the technical jargon) and the reboots stopped... for 6 hours and then restarted again! Noooo!
Interestingly the engineer told me that the local cabinet supports G.Fast and I'm in range to get 300mbps if I wanted to upgrade. I contacted EE and all other broadband suppliers and they said no, G.Fast isn't in my area. Given that it would be the same engineer activating it from the cabinet if I upgraded, you'd think EE, BT, Sky and Zen would know about it.
04-06-2022 11:02 PM
Thanks @min1300 . Please let us know if you're still without any issues after 24 hours.
I don't know why the white router would fix a problem when the black routers have all been fine for years up until last week. Did BT Openreach or EE change something within their network that caused a problem for the black routers?
04-06-2022 11:03 PM
@GazzF : What does BT Wholesale Broadband Availability Checker estimate for your phone number? Post just the whole table and the line above it, blanking out your phone number. If it doesn't recognise your phone number or you don't have one, use the Address Checker.
04-06-2022 11:21 PM
Hope you gets sorted soon Gary, since the line move mine has been back to normal but at a slower speed but working fine at least
04-06-2022 11:31 PM
Hi @XRaySpeX . You asked me that on 31st May and I replied here:
It sounds like I need to demand the new white hub to fix the problem, but I desperately want to know the source of the 2 hour reboots that I could set my watch to and why every EE CS person I've spoken to is unaware of the issue.
04-06-2022 11:44 PM - edited 04-06-2022 11:47 PM
Oh, I forgot 😞 . Can't keep up with all of you sharing across threads.
No, G.Fast is not being sold there yet but the eng might v. well be right that there is a physical G.Fast capability there but it isn't yet being wholesaled by BTw.
04-06-2022 11:47 PM
Would you like me to start my own thread? @XRaySpeX
04-06-2022 11:52 PM - edited 04-06-2022 11:56 PM
The first person I spoke to just went through the “ I dunno try a replacement router”. The second person I spent spoke to when I phoned to say the replacement was no different was spot on. He had seen this issue over the last few days and was adamant it was the “black” routers that were the issue and got permission to send me the new type. There’s something going on that they must be investigating.
UPDATE: Still no downtime at 23:52. That’s nearly 14 hours uptime now 🙂
04-06-2022 11:53 PM - edited 05-06-2022 12:16 AM
@min1300 : I think it's too late for that now. There are now at least 4 threads on this subject with many of you cross-fertilising across them.
@PetrusMaximus , @GazzF , @Bastiochaos ; @Nickl4 , @Lloydi200182 , @Cupster337 , @min1300 :
In fact I do wonder whether they would all be better all merged together. If you are all agreeable, or at least the 4 OPs, I could do that for you.
04-06-2022 11:57 PM
It would be helpful for me or put this thread as a sticky if that’s possible. It’s the active one for me.