EE Smart Hub Plus and Wirelesss Extenders

[DavidF9]

I currently have BT Broadband 70MB delivered over copper. The circuit is delivered from a telegraph pole into my loft extension eaves, where the router and a switch is placed. I then distribute hard wired ethernet connections via a patch panel to data points throughout the house for optimum performance as I live in an old house spread over 3 floors and which has solid brick walls.

I am having EE Full Fibre installed this week and I have a few questions that I would appreciate some help with. The fibre is due to be delivered from the pole and I am hoping we can get it to the same position where the current router is, to use the distribution system. 

The wifi is currently delivered using 3 White Disc BT Whole Home Wifi units (one on each floor). Each one has a static IP address, and same SSID and connects back via an ethernet connection to the router. Wifi is turned OFF on the router itself. I have read that the black discs do not work with the EE Smart Hub Plus but that the white discs may work. 

Could someone please inform me if I can use the white discs. If so is the setup the same or does wifi need to be turned on, on the router itself and are there any other changes that need to be made.

I have also been sent 1 Smart Wifi Plus wireless extender. This has an ethernet port in the back. Can it be used in a similar way to the White Disc Whole Home Wifi where it connects back to the router via ethernet.  Can it be given a static IP address. Does it have a web interface to configure it?  I know if I have to use these boxes I will need more than one but I am also worried that if they are only making wifi mesh connections back to the router then performance may be worse. 

Thank you for your help

[DavidF9]

Wow, this is really helpful. Looks exactly like what I need.

What type of connection is the white cable from the Grey Box to the ONT with the green connector at the end.

[JimM11]

That is the Fibre to the ONT and Fusion spliced to the Fibre cable from the Pole inside the grey box. Power connection and an Ethernet all complete the ONT. Left is the power, middle is the Ethernet and right is the Fibre in that order.

The ONT and Fibre can go Anywhere you wish it to go only power required within the cable length off the adapter, Router up in your loft and an Ethernet between both is all you require to complete the connection.

My area is dormer at room level off a bedroom, no ladders etc to climb and OR where more than happy to do the cable from the pole, through my pre-drilled hole i did, straight up the roof truss pinned with clips, minimum bend at the top, down the back off the board and into there box at the bottom left also with a minimal bend. Fusion spliced and back out to the ONT.

Done and dusted within 45 mins, tested and off they went done for the day, happy as larry!!!

[DavidF9]

Thank you. I am totally clear now. I just wanted to make sure I had understood correctly.

I can now have an informed discussion with the OR engineer when he arrives. I could place the "grey box" and ONT on the opposite side of the loft to the router, but I would have to cable in some power. I would also have to get an ethernet cable to the opposite side under the floor (not sure how easy that would be) but I would not have to worry about the degree of bend in a fibre.

So I think I now have options for the actual incoming cables and how to get the phones working using DV adapters. I am still not 100% on the wifi extenders. I was told you configure them on the EE app, but they wont let me login as I am not a live customer. Arrgghh. 

At the moment I am trying to get back onto my white disc BT Whole Home wifi setup which is refusing a browser connection My Whole Home App is also no longer connected to the discs. It knows nothing about them. 

[JimM11]

@DavidF9 Your DV adapter is all wrong, so you want to re think that, the whole home wi-fi you need to search the forum for customers who have serious issues using it, you need to check/analyse the power of the whole home disk's, compare to the EE smart wireless disk's and make a decision which or what way you wish to go.

Just keep all the BT until you have a full and working system, there is 60 day's before it needs to be returned, if they ask for it back.

[DavidF9]

Hi Jim

I have now moved the primary phone unit to the middle floor so the DECT signal just has to pass through the floor. So hopefully a DV adapter will sort that, and negate the need to use the patching system.  I need to source a digital bell as we have a standalone loud analog bell when the phone rings The 3 other handsets are wirelessly connected to the base unit.

I am still unclear how the EE extenders work. I cannot find any detailed documentation as to how to set them up. My EE App is not live. I was particularly interested in using the backhaul ethernet connection option as I do with the white disc whole home wifi..

I am sorry I am not up to speed on the wireless issues and dont fully understand your comment. Is there an article you can point me to?

[JimM11]

@DavidF9 There is NO app control for the EE extenders like you have for the BT Whole home system, and similar on the EE Smart wireless you cannot define the mesh, the backhaul, actually you can do nothing but attach to the system and pray that you get the same distribution as your whole home. There is a whole section on the DV as you posted on it before, so you need to go read all about the DV adapters issues and also hope you have none off them. Similar with the Whole Home wi-fi ethernet Lan issues, you can test that as probably not too many out there working. last report was about a week ago. Will find and link that post below this.

BT Smart Hub 2 & 5 WiFi Extenders on EE Broadband - The EE Community

The others were over a year ago so not going to go find those for you. The issue with the Ethernet ports has not been fixed yet so be aware off the 20-30 second delay on connection, and attached switches takes that out off the equation.

[DavidF9]

The more I read the more I think I should not have placed this order.

Not good news about the wifi extenders being unconfigurable. Its just hit and hope. Also I see there are several reports of people having problems with the white discs not working properly when connected to the EE Smarthub Plus

I don't really know what to do. I have a stable BT setup with working wifi and phones and I don't want to introduce a load of problems unnecessarily.

Is my best bet to just liven up Full Fibre (FTTP) Mode on port 4 of my current BT Smarthub 2 router? There was a suggestion that it will connect automatically as they use the same names and passwords. This way I will only have to deal with fibre issues and getting the DV to work.All of the internal network setup and wireless should stay the same.

Could you please advise me how  I set up Personal Messaging to contact you. I looked in my Profile but this isn't clear either. Many thanks for all your help and advice.

[XRaySpeX]

Private Messages - The EE Community

[DavidF9]

Hi

This doesn't work for me.

I just get the following error

"You do not have sufficient privileges for this resource or its parent to perform this action"

[XRaySpeX]

You haven't yet posted enough to be allowed PMs.

Anyway the whole idea of using PMs to discuss technical matters on a forum is hare-brained 😞 !